Lab Members

Gavin is from Southbury, CT. He attended the University of Connecticut, where he graduated with a degree in Physiology and Neurobiology, with a minor in Math. Prior to graduate school, he worked in the LoTurco Lab, where he studied tumor heterogeneity in a mouse model of supratentorial ependymoma, a rare glial tumor. He joined the lab in 2022 and is using functional genomic strategies to understand different ways in which dysregulated gene expression causes cell death. When he’s not in the lab, Gavin might be found gaming, playing the guitar or piano, tending to his many plants, or woodworking. In fact, he made most of his furniture himself!

Zintis is originally from Minneapolis, MN. He was an undergraduate at Brown and a PhD student at Stanford. For his PhD studies, Zintis trained with Scott Dixon studying cell death heterogeneity. Prior to joining our lab, he was a postdoctoral fellow with Kris Sarosiek at the Harvard School of Public Health, where he shifted his focus to exploring how cell death contributes to neurodegeneration and aging. Zintis joined our lab in the Fall of 2025, and his work is focused on characterizing BCL2L12, a poorly understood member of the BCL2 family that is required for a death regulatory pathway called PDAR. Outside of the lab, Zintis enjoys staying active and has completed two Olympic-distance triathons! Random trivia about Zintis: he has officiated multiple weddings (but you’ll have to ask him to find out exactly how many)!

Tiana hails from Littleton, MA. As an undergraduate at UMass Amherst, she studied Biomedical Engineering and Computer Science. She also worked in Prabhani Atukorale’s lab, where she contributed to the development of nanoparticle-based therapies for treatment of pancreatic cancer. Tiana joined our lab in 2025. Her work aims to understand the mechanism of action of a commonly used (but poorly understood) class of chemotherapeutics, with the goal of using this information to design better therapies. Outside of the lab, Tiana enjoys reading, gaming, traveling, and hanging with her friends and family. Fun fact about Tiana:  she comes from a large family and has 6 siblings!

Kelly is from Reading, MA. She attended Northeastern University, where she studied Biochemistry and Data Science. While at Northeastern, she completed two internships at Dragonfly Therapeutics, where her studies were focused on immuno-oncology. For her graduate studies, Kelly is interested in exploring an under-appreciated feature of drug dose-dependency, and how it shapes mechanism of drug-induced lethality. When she's not in the lab (or at Dunkin), Kelly loves baking, spending time with friends and family, and going to concerts (a 2019 Fleetwood Mac concert at the TD Garden stands out as her favorite!). Fun fact: Kelly was a dancer and has trained in ballet, tap, and jazz since she was three!

Mika is a native of Media, PA. She attended the University of Pittsburgh, where she studied Molecular Biology and Gender Studies. Mika did her undergraduate research in Sarah Hainer’s lab, where she studied epigenetics and chromatin regulation, and developed an interest in studying gene regulation in disease contexts. Mika joined the Lee Lab in the spring of 2025 and is exploring the evolution and therapeutic utility of PDAR, a signaling pathway that activates cell death upon loss of gene expression. When she’s not in the lab, Mika might be found hiking, paddle boarding, reading, or spending time with her cat, Chocolate.