LAB MEMBERS

LAB MEMBERS

Left to Right: Jongbeom Park, Ella Kaage, Matt Johnson, Sha Li, Ben Brack, Sarah Mereby, Ricardo Mallarino, Harsha Sen, Aaron Griffing, Fiona Logan-Sankey, Megan Rothstein, Forrest Rogers, and Jorge Moreno

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Ricardo Mallarino - rmallarino(at)princeton.edu

LAB MANAGER/RESEARCH SPECIALIST

Sarah Mereby - smereby(at)princeton.edu

Sarah is a Research Specialist in the Molecular Biology department. She received her M.S. in Genetics and Molecular Biology from Emory University where she studied non-primate lentiviruses. She also received her B.S. in Biology from The College of New Jersey. Sarah has always been fascinated by genetics and the regulation of gene expression.

POSTDOCS

Aaron Griffing - ag3200(at)princeton.edu
PRFB Fellowship (NSF)

Aaron’s research aims to uncover how development is altered on evolutionary scales to produce morphological diversity in reptiles. He completed his PhD in 2022 from Marquette University, under the advisement of Dr. Tony Gamble, where he studied evo-devo of convergent gecko morphologies. Currently, Aaron is studying the genomic basis of lung diversity in tetrapods and lizard gliding structures. He is currently co-advised by Dr. Celeste Nelson in the Princeton Dept. of Chemical & Biological Engineering.

GRADUATE STUDENTS

UNDERGRADUATES

FACULTY ASSISTANT

Matthew Johnson - matthewjohnson(at)princeton.edu
NRSA F32 Fellowship (NIH)

Matts’ research aims to uncover the molecular basis underlying pigment pattern formation in mammals. He completed his PhD at the University of Rochester where he worked on elucidating the mechanism by which lipid droplets regulate histone levels during early embryogenesis in Drosophila melanogaster. Currently, Matt is studying the formation of pigment patterns in the African striped mouse (Rhabdomys pumilio) as a model for understanding how positional information is regulated in tissues. Using a variety of genomic and molecular approaches, he will investigate how stripe patterning is both established and implemented during embryogenesis

Sha Li - shal(at)princeton.edu
Princeton Presidential Postdoc Fellowship (Princeton University)

Sha is a Princeton Presidential Postdoctoral Fellow and is interested in elucidating the cellular events and molecular mechanisms underlying embryonic tissue organization and morphogenesis in mammals. She completed her PhD at Cornell University where she studied gene regulatory mechanisms supporting the development and functions of human placental cells. She then worked as a postdoc at Weill Cornell Medical College where she investigated cellular and molecular processes involved in pancreatic and breast cancer metastasis. Currently, Sha is developing genome editing tools in African striped mice and exploring the spatial and temporal mechanisms underlying pigment pattern formation.

Forrest Rogers - fr1510(at)princeton.edu

Forrest received his PhD in 2020 from the University of California, Davis. His doctoral work, completed under the advisement of Dr. Karen Bales, investigated how compositional variation in early life parenting structures alters biobehavioral development in socially monogamous and biparental prairie voles (Microtus ochrogaster). As a trainee in the NIMH-sponsored (T32) Bay Area Affective Science Training Program, he completed additional training in human psychophysiology under the advisement of Dr. Wendy Berry Mendes at the University of California, San Francisco. Forrest completed his B.S. in Biological Science (College & Departmental Honors) and his B.A. in French from Oklahoma State University. Forrest is principally interested in elucidating the neurobiological causes and biobehavioral consequences of parental care. He is co-advised by Dr. Catherine Peña at Princeton Neuroscience Institute.

Megan Rothstein - mr6463(at)princeton.edu
F99/K00 Fellowship (NIH)

Megan's research interests lie in understanding the developmental basis underlying phenotypic novelties observed across the animal kingdom. She received her PhD from Cornell University, where she studied gene regulatory networks controlling neural crest formation under the direction of Dr. Marcos Simoes-Costa. Currently, she seeks to combine experimental embryology and comparative genomics approaches to uncover the molecular mechanisms governing variation in avian bill morphology.

Ben Brack - bbrack(at)princeton.edu

Ben is a graduate student in the Department of Molecular Biology. He received his B.A in Biology from Cornell University studying the genetic basis of red pigmentation in butterfly wings and later returned to Cornell as a technician working on the evolution of facial recognition in paper wasps. Ben is generally interested in how developmental mechanisms shape and constrain the emergence of novel traits, and how these can influence convergent evolution. He is using genomic and molecular approaches to explore how stripe patterns are established in the African Striped Mouse (Rhabdomys pumilio) and the Thirteen Lined Ground Squirrel (Ictidomys tridecemlineatus).

Jorge Moreno - jorgeam(at)princeton.edu

Jorge is a graduate student in the Department of Molecular Biology. He received a degree in Ecology & Evolutionary Biology at The University of Iowa where he initially began research on transposable elements in Potamopyrgus antipodarum a New Zealand fresh water snail, later working on genome evolutions in organisms that transitioned from sexual to clonal reproduction. Jorge is broadly interested in genome evolution and mores specifically in how large-scale changes in a genome can facilitate the evolution of organisms with either unique phenotypes or those who live in harsh environments. For his dissertation, Jorge is using computational approaches coupled to high-throughput functional genomics to understand the evolution of gliding membranes in mammals.

Jongbeom Park - jongbeom(at)princeton.edu

Jongbeom is a graduate student in the Molecular Biology department. He received a B.A. from Grinnell College where he studied fungal reproduction and the ecological basis of sex-limited color dimorphism in hawaiian damselfly. He also worked on color polymorphism in African killifish at the Max Planck Institute for Biology of Ageing. With his broad interest in evolutionary and developmental biology, Jongbeom is currently using multi-omics approach to investigate the development of marsupial immunity.

Harsha Sen - hs2508(at)princeton.edu

Harsha is a graduate student in the Department of Molecular Biology. He received his B.A. in Biology and Economics from Swarthmore College where he worked on modeling speciation dynamics during the Cambrian explosion, and on investigating the conservation of pericentric satellite repeats in great apes. He also studied paralogy in the dual genomes of the ciliate Oxytricha trifallax. After graduation, he worked in Steve McCarroll’s lab on developing single-cell, single-virion approaches for high-throughput inference of synaptic connectivity. Harsha is broadly interested in understanding biological systems from evolutionary and genomic perspectives by developing and using computational and molecular tools. Harsha plans to investigate the functional evolution of gliding and flying membranes in mammals using computational and high-throughput molecular approaches.

Aellah Kaage - akaage(at)princeton.edu

Ella is an undergraduate in the Molecular Biology department. For her senior thesis, she is working with Jongbeom on functional evolution of antimicrobial peptides.

Luke Soucy - lsoucy(at)princeton.edu

Office: SCH 419
Tel: 609-258-2933

Past members
- Yafei Mao (Visiting PhD student)
- Lisset Durán (Rotation student)
- Debra Ouyang (Rotation student)
- Irving Miramontes (Rotation student)
- Victoria Crans (Rotation student)
- Chris Catalano (Rotation student)
- Lydia Zhong (Undergraduate student)
- Ares Alivisatos (Undergraduate student)
- Charles Feigin (Postdoc)