Lab Manager
Karin McCarthy (Lab Manager)
Post-Doctoral Fellows
Alexandra Veloso
Alexandra is a post-doctoral fellow from Portugal, with a Masters in Biochemistry and Cellular and Molecular Biology with Distinction and a PhD from the University of Liege in Belgium, studying the functions of three members of the SoHo involved in zebrafish angiogenesis. In the Langenau Lab, Alexandra works to generate novel B cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (B-ALL) models in zebrafish and characterize their clonal evolution and cell of origin. Outside of lab, Alexandra enjoys the Marvel Cinematic Universe, running, and is hopelessly addicted to coffee.
Abhinav Adhikari
Originally from Nepal, Abhinav finished his Bachelor of Technology in Biotechnology from Purbanchal University, Nepal in 2011. He worked at a molecular diagnostic lab for a year before moving half-way across the globe to the United States to pursue graduate studies. He completed his Ph.D. from the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Southern Illinois University Carbondale in 2019. In Judy Davie's lab, he worked on unraveling the gene regulation during skeletal muscle proliferation and differentiation and characterized the novel function of JARID2 and the polycomb repressive complex-2 (PRC2) during skeletal muscle differentiation. Abhinav joined the Langenau lab in 2020 as a postdoctoral research fellow. As part of the rhabdomyosarcoma group, he is interested in characterizing the genes and pathways responsible for the metastatic invasion of rhabdomyosarcoma using zebrafish and mice models. Abhinav is a caffeineaholic and a cinephile who likes hiking, keeping up with world affairs, and occasionally play outdoor sports like soccer, cricket etc.
Chuan Yan
Yan was born in China but moved to Singapore with his parents at the age of 7. He graduated with a PhD from the National University of Singapore in 2016, focusing on using zebrafish to model human liver cancer. In the Langenau lab, Yan works on developing immune compromised zebrafish models that are capable of engrafting various human and mice cells, and establishing various protocols that help in the engraftment of these foreign tissues. Outside of lab, Yan spends most of his time online shopping as a coping mechanism for lab-induced stress.
Qiqi Yang
Qian (Alvin) Qin
Alvin is from Shanghai, China, and he graduated from Tongji University in 2017 with a Ph.D. in Bioinformatics, especially for epigenomics study. He is now a postdoc research fellow co-mentored by Professor David Langenau and Professor Luca Pinello. Before he joined the lab, he was an assistant researcher at Children’s Hospital of Fudan University, where he integrated multi-modal MRI datasets for neonatal encephalopathy diagnosis with deep learning. His current interest lies in single-cell data integration across species and samples to construct the gene regulatory network and detect functional cis-elements underlying the mechanisms of oncogenesis and development, and potentially single cell microscopy images analysis for quantifying cell phenotype. Outside of lab, Alvin enjoys reading, swimming, and working out with his colleagues.
Research Technicians
Eric Alpert
Eric was born and raised in Massachusetts, only taking a quick break to get a B.S. in Biology from the College of William and Mary in 2018. When not in class or studying, whenever he could find space, Eric enjoyed the finer things in life such as cooking, reading, and teaching his friends how to stab each other for fun in the competitive sport of fencing (chosen weapon: saber). Now in the Langenau lab, Eric assists Chuan and Qiqi with their work and maintaining the zebrafish lines.
Lauren Whelton
Lauren is from Tewksbury, Massachusetts and has lived in MA her whole life. She got her B.S. in Biology from Stonehill College, minoring in mathematics. During her time at Stonehill, she conducted research on guppy behavior as well as darkling beetles’ response to light pollution in her thesis work. Lauren enjoys spending her free time taking dance classes, reading mystery novels, and hiking. Now, in the Langenau lab, she helps Yan and Qiqi with their work and maintaining the zebrafish lines.
Visiting Scholars
Miriam Fernandez Lajarin