People

Current Lab Members

Vivian Irish, Ph.D.

Vivian obtained her B.A. from Wesleyan University, and her Ph.D. in Cell and Developmental Biology from Harvard University. Pursuing her interests in developmental genetics, she carried out postdoctoral work as a Jane Coffin Childs Fellow, working on Drosophila pattern formation with Michael Akam at the University of Cambridge.  Long interested in plant development, Vivian decided to then carry out postdoctoral work as a National Science Foundation Fellow under the guidance of Ian Sussex at Yale University. Now the Daniel C. Eaton Professor of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology at Yale, Vivian continues to delve into questions of plant development, plant genetics, and the evolution of developmental mechanisms.

Jie Ren, Postdoctoral Associate

Jie Ren is from China, and is fascinated by citrus development - especially the formation of thorns and oil glands. He enjoys fishing, growing various plants, and loves watching nature documentaries. 

Benoit Mermaz, Postdoctoral Associate

Benoit, originally from France, obtained his Master’s degree from Universit´e de Montpellier, and his Ph.D. from Imperial College London, studying the effect of an epigenetic modification on plant development. He is now working on citrus and joined our team to combat huanglongbing disease using genome editing, specifically using the Crispr-Cas9 system.

Megan Tachev, Postgraduate Associate

Megan is a Bulgarian-American who received her B.S. from the University of Florida in Plant Science, where she worked with C. elegans, Scutellaria, Mitragyna, and most of all Camelina sativa. As a longtime Floridian, she is very excited to now be working in citrus research. Outside of science she loves all things involving the arts, her dear friends, and walking her cat Meep.

Ivy Lin, Graduate Student

Ivy is from Taiwan where she obtained a Masters degree in forestry. Now, Ivy is embarking on a study of hormone action in regulating patterning in Citrus, and getting used to New England winters.

Anastasiya Andriyash, Graduate Student

Anaa is fascinated by how plant percieve and respond to signals and is working on a thesis project to examine the roles of cell to cell signaling interactions in plant growth and development. When not in the lab, Anaa enjoys hiking, collecting tropical houseplants, and baking too many desserts.

Daniel Mendoza, Yale class of ‘25

Daniel originally hails from the San Fransisco Bay area, but currently resides in the Pacific Northwest. He is majoring in Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology with an interest in computer science and is excited to be involved in citrus research. In his free time, he enjoys nature documentaries (especially those concerning fish and aquatic invertebrates), RPGs, poetry, and recently, dancing.

 

 

Former Lab Members and Current Affiliations

Former Research Scientists

  • Ning Wei, retired

Former Postdoctoral Fellows and Postdoctoral Associates

  • Archana Khadgi, Postdoctoral Associate, Texas Tech Univ.
  • Adam Saffer, Research Scientist, CTC Genomics
  • Cintia Sagawa, Analyst, Prescouter, Inc.
  • Fei Zhang, Assistant Professor, Huazhong Agricultural University
  • Jie Dong, Assistant Professor, Zhejiang University
  • Tengbo Huang, Assistant Professor, Shenzhen University
  • Pascale Rossignol, Research Associate, J. Craig Venter Institute
  • Mary Abraham, Sub-Editor, Nature
  • Koen Geuten, Professor, Leuven University
  • Hae-Lim Lee, Postdoctoral Associate, Yale University
  • Sinead Drea, Lecturer, University of Leicester
  • Lena Hileman, Associate Professor, University of Kansas
  • Jens Sundstrom, Senior Lecturer, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
  • Moriah Zik, Assistant Professor, Ben Gurion University
  • Amy Litt, Professor, UC Riverside
  • Rebecca Lamb, Associate Professor, Ohio State University
  • Cristina Juarez, Lecturer, Bristnall Hall Technology College
  • Brian McGonigle, Senior Research Scientist, Dupont
  • Christopher Day, Lecturer, University of California, San Diego
  • Karim Bouhidel, Lecturer, Universite de Bourgogne, Dijon
  • Yuri Yamamoto, Musician, Raleigh, NC

Former Graduate Students

  • Ruirui Huang, Postdoctoral Associate, UCSF
  • Irvin Pan, Associate Professor, Stonehill College
  • Chloe Mara, Postdoctoral, University of Maryland
  • Elizabeth Wojcik, Manager, Tesaro, Inc.
  • Gemma DeMartino, Research Associate, McGill University
  • Eunyoung Chae, Assistant Professor, National University of Singapore
  • Naomi Nakayama, Research Fellow, University of Edinburgh
  • Queenie Tan, Physician
  • Pablo Jenik, Professor, Franklin and Marshall College
  • Theresa Hill, Senior Research Associate, UC Davis
  • Elena Kramer, Professor, Harvard University
  • Susan Zondlo, Associate Director, QPS
  • Roberta Miller, Physician

Former Undergraduates, PostGrad Associates & Summer Students

  • Joanna Wypasek
  • Kaiden Brown
  • Victor Nguyen
  • Gemma Yoo
  • Crystal Liu
  • Corina Vernon
  • Alan May
  • Zihao Lin
  • Andy Ma
  • Gillian Page
  • Calvin Lu
  • Victoria Mevs
  • Ellie Czepiel
  • Brandon Araki
  • Kantiya Jindachomthong
  • Chayma Boussayoud
  • Alejandro Jiminez
  • Alexia Zagouras
  • Anne Shue
  • Tom Viaene
  • Kristina Gremski
  • Takudzwa Shumba
  • Chanateep Methreetrairut
  • Tin Ngo
  • Ramon Herrera
  • Martin Skipper
  • Eva Maria Sehr
  • Ana Maria Pardo
  • Elizabeth Ryan
  • Roshani Anandappa