Current Students and Postdocs

Graduate Student
Program in Molecular Medicine

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

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.

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.

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. 

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.

Graduate Student
Program in Molecular Medicine

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

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.

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.