Current Students and Postdocs

  • Reyyan Bulut

    Reyyan Bulut

    Graduate Student
    Program in Molecular Medicine

    reyyan.bulut@umassmed.edu
    508-856-5723

  • Roger (Kae-Jia) Chang

    Roger (Kae-Jia) Chang

    Postdoctoral Fellow
    Program in Molecular Medicine

    Kae-Jia.Chang@umassmed.edu
    (508) 856-5723

    I did my PhD training at Karolinska Institutet, Sweden. My long-term research goal is to uncover the dark matter of our genome. The untranslated regions at the 3’ end of mRNAs contain important sequences that influences protein expression.  I am studying evolutionary conserved elements in worms and humans that control the fate of the mRNA and thus protein synthesis.

  • Sungwook Choi

    Sungwook Choi

    Postdoctoral Fellow
    Program in Molecular Medicine

    sungwook.choi@umassmed.edu
    (508) 856-5723

    I got my Bachelors degree at POSTECH and Masters Degree at SNU, Korea. I joined the Ambros lab as a graduate student in the year of 2011.  In August 2018, I received my PhD.  Currently I am interested in diverse functions of LIN-28 in C. elegans.

  • Ye (Oscar) Duan

    Ye (Oscar) Duan

    Graduate Student
    Program in Molecular Medicine

    ye.duan@umassmed.edu
    (508) 856-5723

    I received my Bachelor’s degrees in Chemistry and Biology and my Master’s degree in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from Jilin University, China. I am interested in the functional specificity of let-7 family microRNAs.

  • Dona Hirosha Geekiyanage, PhD

    Dona Hirosha Geekiyanage, PhD

    Postdoctoral Fellow 
    Program in Molecular Medicine

    hirosha.geekiyanage@umassmed.edu
    (508) 856-5723

    I received my PhD in Genetics from Michigan State University. I have previously studied miRNA regulation in Alzheimer’s disease and measles virus in respect to glioblastoma. I am currently studying circulating miRNAs in blood plasma and CSF. 

  • Orkan Ilbay

    Orkan Ilbay

    Graduate Student
    Program in Molecular Medicine

    orkan.ilbay@umassmed.edu
    (508) 856-5723

    I received my Bachelor's degree from Middle East Technical University in Turkey.  I am interested in genes that control temporal patterns of development in C. elegans.

  • Zeynep Mirza

    Zeynep Mirza

    Graduate Student
    Program in Molecular Medicine

     Zeynep.Mirza@umassmed.edu
    (508) 856-5723

  • Charles Nelson, PhD

    Charles Nelson, PhD

    Postdoctoral Fellow
    Program in Molecular Medicine

    charles.nelson@umassmed.edu
    (508) 856-5723

    I received my Ph.D. in Biomedical Sciences from The University of Massachusetts Medical School in the laboratory of Eric H. Baehrecke. I am currently interested in how microRNAs help confer biological robustness during animal development.

  • Alejandro Vasquez Rifo, PhD

    Alejandro Vasquez Rifo, PhD

    Postdoctoral Fellow
    Program in Molecular Medicine

    alejandro.vasquezrifo@umassmed.edu
    (508) 856-5723

    I received my Ph.D. in Molecular and Cellular Biology from Laval University.