Principal Investigator
Dave Langenau (PI)
David received his B.S. and M.S. from the University of Notre Dame and his Ph.D. in Biology and Biomedical Sciences from Harvard Medical School in 2004. He next completed his fellowship training at Children’s Hospital Boston in 2008. Along with Dr. A. Thomas Look, he is credited with developing the first transgenic zebrafish model of cancer. In his own group, he has made seminal discoveries underlying the pathogenesis of pediatric acute lymphoblastic leukemia and rhabdomyosarcoma. He enjoys swimming, fishing, golfing, and bicycling with his two boys and wife.
Post-Doctoral Fellows
Yun (Claudia) Wei
Claudia is a research fellow especially interested in rhabdomyosarcoma, utilizing the patient-derived xenograft mouse model along with the developmental STAR zebrafish. She got her Bachelor's degree in Wuhan University back in China, and then moved to another warm city, Atlanta, to pursue a PhD in Cancer Biology at Emory University. For her dissertation, she worked with her mentor Anna Marie Kenney to investigate the aberrant cell signaling in pediatric brain tumors medulloblastoma. She likes to play badminton, bike, or jog during her free time. She is also a big fan of board games; no gambling though!
Tiffany Eng
Tiffany hails from the faraway lands of Middle Earth (a.k.a. New Zealand). In 2018, she graduated with a PhD from the University of Auckland, where she spent most of her time in a dark room imaging zebrafish embryos to elucidate the molecular mechanisms guiding lymphatic development. Now as a postdoc in the Langenau lab, she also spends hours in a dark room imaging zebrafish, but this time to uncover pathways that drive rhabdomyosarcoma progression and relapse. When she’s not holed up in the dark, Tiffany likes to occasionally spend her free time hiking up mountains or playing board games with friends, but more likely than not you’ll find her wrapped up in blankets at home watching TV, reading books or playing video games.
James Allen
Yueyang Wang
Yueyang Wang is a postdoctoral researcher in the Langenau Lab, where her work focuses on developing immunocompromised zebrafish models and investigating mechanisms of drug resistance in rhabdomyosarcoma. She earned her Ph.D. from Purdue University, where she also utilized zebrafish models to study cell migration.
Outside the lab, Yueyang enjoys reading, writing, and watching movies. However, much of her free time is happily occupied by her super energetic five-year-old daughter, who keeps her on her toes and leaves little time for those hobbies.
Jihee Lee
Jihee completed her bachelor's degree in Canada and earned her Ph.D. in South Korea, where her research focused on carcinoma biology. She later became interested in childhood cancers and was excited to join the rhabdomyosarcoma field, where she is now studying the mechanisms that drive cancer progression and metastasis. When she's not studying cancer biology, you can often find her at the piano, enjoying family adventures, or trying to balance the art of science with the art of music.
Mohamed Bakr
Priyanshu Sharma
Saby Mathavarajah
Research Technicians
Alex Weissman
Stephanie Strom
Lab Manager
Mike Marconi