The Institute for Systems Genetics comprises faculty and staff across multiple departments.

Administration

Our administrators lead a team of faculty, students, and investigators that collaborates with other research and clinical programs at NYU Langone Health and around the world.

Jef Boeke, PhD, Founding Director

Dr. Boeke is best known for his fundamental genetic and biochemical work on mechanisms of transposition in higher cells. He coined the term “retrotransposon.” He is a professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Pharmacology and a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Learn more about Dr. Boeke.

Debbie Bemis, PhD, Executive Director

Dr. Bemis works with our director to set and operationalize the strategic plan for the institute, as well as oversees its administration. She has more than 20 years of experience in basic and translational research, scientific communications, and research administration.

Nakisha Davis, MPA, Administrative Coordinator

Ms. Davis oversees administrative procedures, the faculty recruitment program, and special events for the institute. She holds a master's degree in public administration and joined us in November 2013.

Jessica Lorenzo, MPH, Director of Finance

Ms. Lorenzo oversees grants, contracts, funds, and endowment accounts. She previously directed research administration for NYU Langone's Department of Population Health. She earned an undergraduate degree from Cornell University and an MPH with a concentration in community health from NYU.

Julie Oaks, Administrative Manager

Ms. Oaks supports administrative procedures including human resources and compliance. She also oversees the grant application process and serves as a liaison between the institute and Sponsored Program Administration.

Meghan O’Keefe, MS, Executive Assistant

Ms. O’Keefe primarily supports Dr. Boeke in his role as director of the institute and works closely with our administrative leadership on daily operations and special initiatives. She earned her MS in nonprofit management from the New School and an undergraduate degree from Muhlenberg College.

Teddy Shin, Senior Financial Analyst

Mr. Shin manages our financial ledgers, procurement, and reporting. Prior to joining the institute, he monitored and reported on postaward grant activities for the NYU Langone research finance department. He is a lifelong New Yorker and business professional who earned his bachelor’s degree in finance from Baruch College.

Core Faculty

Jef Boeke, PhD
Institute Founder and Director
Professor, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Pharmacology
Research interests: mechanism of retrotransposition in eukaryotes and redesigning and synthesizing entire eukaryotic chromosomes

Aravinda Chakravarti, PhD
Director, Center for Human Genetics and Genomics
Professor, Departments of Medicine and Neuroscience and Physiology
Research interests: molecular basis of human disease, gene regulatory networks, and human population genomics

Teresa Davoli, PhD
Assistant Professor, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Pharmacology
Research interests: understanding the causes and consequences of genomic instability (with a focus on aneuploidy) in cancer and cell physiology

Gilad Evrony, MD, PhD
Assistant Professor, Department of Pediatrics, Department of Neuroscience and Physiology, and the Center for Human Genetics and Genomics
Research interests: genetics of brain development, function, and disease; technology development for neuroscience; precision medicine

David Fenyö, PhD
Professor, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Pharmacology
Research interests: proteomic data analysis and developing methods and databases for protein identification, characterization, and quantitation using mass spectrometry–based technologies

Liam Holt, PhD
Assistant Professor, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Pharmacology
Research interests: how cell cycle control networks rewire during evolution and disease

Timothee Lionnet, PhD
Assistant Professor, Department of Cell biology
Research interests: understanding how gene expression works, focusing mainly on its first step, transcription—the synthesis of mRNA from a gene encoded in DNA

Matthew Maurano, PhD
Assistant Professor, Department of Pathology
Research interests: genomics of gene expression and genetics of human disease

Marcus Noyes, PhD
Assistant Professor, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Pharmacology
Research interests: characterization and manipulation of protein–ligand interactions

Affiliated Faculty

Thales Papagiannakopoulos, PhD
Assistant Professor, Department of Pathology

Kelly V. Ruggles, PhD
Assistant Professor, Department of Medicine

Neville Sanjana, PhD
Assistant Professor, NYU Department of Biology

Rahul Satija, DPhil
Assistant Professor, NYU Department of Biology

Beatrix Ueberheide, PhD
Assistant Professor, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Pharmacology

Christine Vogel, PhD
Professor, NYU Department of Biology

Postdoctoral Fellows

Neta Agmon, PhD
Research interests: yeast and human genetics and engineering neochromosomes using budding yeast as a model system for human disease
neta.agmon@nyulangone.org

Gregory Goldberg, PhD
Research interests: engineering CRISPR-Cas systems to facilitate the remodeling of genomes and gene regulatory circuits
gregory.goldberg@nyulangone.org

Stepan Grinek, PhD
Research interests: deep learning, multivariate analysis, genome-wide association studies, epigenome-wide associations studies
stepan.grinek@nyulangone.org

Hala Iqbal, PhD
Research interests: biosynthetic engineering of antibiotics in yeast
hala.iqbal@nyulangone.org

Benjamin King, PhD
Research interests: 3D transcriptional heterogeneity and cancer resistance
benjamin.king@nyulangone.org

Jon Laurent, PhD
Research interests: building and engineering genomes
jon.laurent@nyulangone.org

Luciana Lazar Stefanita, PhD
Research interests: structural plasticity of eukaryotic genomes
luciana.lazarstefanita@nyulangone.org

Zhi Li, PhD
Research interests: improving the quality of peptide identification using bioinformatics tools and modeling
zhi.li@nyulangone.org

Jingchuan Luo, PhD
Research interests: exploring the stability of synthetic genomes by karyotype engineering
jingchuan.luo@nyulangone.org

Wilson McKerrow, PhD
Research interests: bioinformatic analysis of transposable elements broadly and LINE-1 specifically
wilson.mckerrow@nyulangone.org

Paolo Mita, PhD
Research interests: decoding the transregulation of and the interactions between the LINE-1 retrotransposon and the host cell
paolo.mita@nyulangone.org

Leslie Mitchell, PhD
Research interests: eukaryotic chromosome and genome engineering
leslie.mitchell@nyulangone.org

Dipankar Mondal, PhD
Research Interest: improving fluorescence microscope spatiotemporal resolution to elucidate gene expression
dipankar.mondal@nyulangone.org

Dajun Sang, PhD
Research interests: using ancestral resurrection to understand kinase regulation and decode cancer mutations
dajun.sang@nyulangone.org

Jeffrey Spencer, PhD
Research interests: transcription regulation and protein engineering
jeffrey.spencer@nyulangone.org

Tamas Szoradi, PhD
Research Interest: characterizing the biophysical properties of the nucleus with a particular emphasis on molecular crowding
tamas.szoradi@nyulangone.org

David Truong, PhD
Research interests: humanization of yeast chromatin and the development of technologies for chromatin macromolecular structure determination
david.truong@nyulangone.org

Weimin Zhang, PhD
Research interests: stabilizing and engineering the genome in haploid mouse embryonic stem cells
weimin.zhang@nyulangone.org

Scientific Staff

Vandana Apte
Assistant Research Technician
vandana.apte@nyulangone.org

Henri Berger
Assistant Research Technician
henri.berger@nyulangone.org

Nazario Bosco
Senior Research Scientist
nazario.bosco@nyulangone.org

Ran Brosh
Senior Research Scientist
ran.brosh@nyulangone.org

John Cadley
Bioinformatics Programmer
john.cadley@nyulangone.org

Sergei German
Senior Architect, Solution Development
sergei.german@nyulangone.org

David Giganti
Senior Research Scientist
david.giganti@nyulangone.org

Mark Grivainis
Scientific Programmer
mark.grivainis@nyulangone.org

Megan Hogan
Senior Research Scientist
megan.hogan@nyulangone.org

Emily Huang
Assistant Research Technician
emily.huang@nyulangone.org

Sarah Keegan
Scientific Programmer
sarah.keegan@nyulangone.org

Wenke Liu
Research Scientist
wenke.liu@nyulangone.org

Andrew Martin
Scientific Technologist
andrew.martin@nyulangone.org

April Mueller
Research Associate
april.mueller@nyulangone.org

Brianna Naizir
Research Associate
brianna.naizir@nyulangone.org

Hadi Omar Saleh
Research Associate
hadiomar.saleh@nyulangone.org

Jasmine Temple
Assistant Research Technician
jasmine.temple@nyulangone.org

Nicholas Vulpescu
Scientific Programmer
nicholas.vulpescu@nyulangone.org

Shuoshuo Wang
Associate Research Scientist
shuoshuo.wang@nyulangone.org

Aleksandra Wudzinska
Lab Supervisor
aleksandra.wudzinska@nyulangone.org