ALUMNI
POST-DOCTORAL FELLOWS
Sanya Arshad, PhD
Health Sciences Research Fellow
arshads@pitt.edu | 412-383-1270
I joined the Chan lab at a Post-Doctoral Associate in 2020. I am a PhD from King George’s Medical University, Lucknow, India. During my PhD, I worked on assessing the prevalence of FVIII inhibitors in congenital hemophilia A and correlating its presence with mutations and cytokine profiles of these patients. I worked as a Research Assistant at Mass General Cancer Center, Boston for a year and gained experience in Next Generation Sequencing on Illumina platform. Currently, I am working on understanding the role of endothelial frataxin deficiency in Friedreich’s ataxia by utilizing in-vitro and in-vivo models.
Vinny Negi, PhD
Postdoctoral Associate
Vinny recently graduated from Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology (IGIB), Delhi, India with a doctorate degree.
Jimin Yang, PhD
Postdoctoral Associate
Qiujun Yu, MD, PhD
2015-2018 | Current position: Intern in Internal Medicine at University of Iowa
Qiujun graduated from the Fourth Military Medical University in China with MD and PhD degrees, and completed residency in internal medicine and fellowship training in Cardiology in Xijing hospital, Xi’an, China. Her previous research interests were metabolic and redox regulations of myocardium and cardiac microvasculature in ischemic heart disease. She joined Chan lab in 2015 as a postdoc associate working on novel roles of long-noncoding RNA in pulmonary hypertension and molecular mechanics of mitochondrial metabolism in pulmonary vascular biology.
Kevin White, PhD
Post-doctoral fellow: 2011-2013
Current Position: Investigator II (Novartis)
Thomas Bertero, PhD
Post-doctoral fellow: 2013-2015
Current position: Principal Investigator, University of Nice, France
Pil-Ki Min, MD, PhD
Post-doctoral fellow: 2013-2015
Current position: Principal Investigator and Cardiologist, Yonsei University, Seoul, Korea
Yu Lu, PhD
Post-doctoral fellow: 2012-2015
Current position: Scientist, Harvard Medical School
GRADUATE STUDENTS
Miranda Culley
Graduate Student
Miranda is a dual-degree student in the Medical Scientist Training Program at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. She is currently a Ph.D. candidate in the Angiopathy Training Program with a particular interest in pulmonary hypertension and heart failure.
Lloyd Harvey
Graduate Student
Lloyd is an M.D. and Ph.D. candidate at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Scientist Training Program. Having completed the preclinical medical school curriculum, he is now working on his graduate studies in the Molecular Pharmacology Training Program.
Anna Ramos
Medical Student
Anna is a first year medical student at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. She is interested in the response of circulating miRNAs to aerobic exercise.
STUDENTS
Julia Kooser
Undergraduate Researcher
Julia Kooser is a freshman at the University of Pittsburgh who plans on majoring in molecule biology and psychology. After college, Julia plans on attending Medical School.
Dror Perk
Undergraduate Researcher
Dror Perk is a Junior at the University of Pittsburgh, majoring in Chemistry with a focus in biology. After college, he plans on attending Medical School.
Joseph Chen
Undergraduate researcher: 2016-2017
Current position: Undergraduate Student
Katherine (Alex) Cottrill
Student/Computational specialist: 2010-2016
Current position: Creative writer
Andrew Hale
Student/Technician: 2010-2014
Current position: PhD student (University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill)
Joseph Park
Student: 2012-2015
Current position: MSTP (MD, PhD) student, University of Pennsylvania
Will Girard
High School Student
Will Girard is a junior at Hampton High School who is interested in pursuing a course of study in biomedical sciences. In his free time, Will enjoys playing snare drum in the marching band, ultimate frisbee, parliamentary debate, and the Marvel Cinematic Universe.He is excited to contribute to and be a part of Dr. Chan’s lab at the University of Pittsburgh.
Karshana Kalyanaraman
Undergraduate Researcher
TECHNICIANS
Leonard Estephan
Research Technician
Leonard recently graduated with a B.S. in Biology from the University of Pittsburgh. He is continuing his undergraduate work with the Chan Lab by working as a technician, and plans on attending medical school and becoming a physician.
Jingsi Zhao, MS
Laboratory Technician
Jingsi graduated from Nanjing University in China with a B.S. degree in Biological Sciences, and then gained the M.S. degree in Biomedical Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University. As a research lab technician, Jingsi is working to be responsible for maintaining the laboratory animal colony and performing multiple rodent manipulation experiments which are involved in several projects in the lab. She is excited to work here because she wants to apply her biological knowledge and laboratory skills to studying the function and regulation of microRNA in pulmonary hypertension, and also gain more research experience.
Sofia Annis
Technician: 2012-2015
Current position: Graduate student (PhD), Northeastern University
Sarah Hwang
Technician: 2013-2014
Current position: Technician