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. Contact Dr. Bemis at debra.bemis@nyulangone.org.

Nakisha Davis, MPA, Senior Program Coordinator

Ms. Davis oversees and coordinates administrative procedures, including special events, communications, the wellness initiative, and the faculty recruitment program. She holds a master's degree in public administration and joined us in November 2013. Contact Ms. Davis at nakisha.davis@nyulangone.org.

Kate Katsnelson, MBA, Assistant Director of Finance

Kate oversees the pre- and post-award activity for the institute. She started at NYU Langone in 2010 and worked in the central finance department for three years as well as Perlmutter Cancer Center for six years prior to joining us. She earned her bachelor’s degree from Ural State University in Russia and her MBA from Baruch College. Contact Ms. Katsnelson at kate.katsnelson@nyulangone.org.

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. Contact Ms. Oaks at julie.oaks@nyulangone.org.

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. Contact Ms. O’Keefe at meghan.o'keefe@nyulangone.org.

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. Contact Mr. Shin at teddy.shin@nyulangone.org.

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

Kelly V. Ruggles, PhD
Assistant Professor, Division of Translational Medicine, Department of Medicine
Research interests: multi-omic data integration, data visualization, application and development of computational and statistical methods to analyze genomic, transcriptomic, translatomic, proteomic, metabolomic, and microbiome data to inform cancer, inflammation, and cardiovascular disease

Affiliated Faculty

Thales Papagiannakopoulos, PhD
Assistant Professor, Department of Pathology

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

Joy Bianchi, PhD—Davoli Lab
Research interests: understanding the control of genome stability in health and disease and the impact of copy number alterations on cancer immune evasion
joy.bianchi@nyulangone.org

Makiha Fukuda, PhD—Boeke Lab
Research interests: synthesizing RNA-based chromosomes in yeast
makiha.fukuda@nyulangone.org

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

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

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

Stephanie Lauer, PhD—Boeke Lab
Research interests: using synthetic genomes to understand evolutionary processes
stephanie.lauer@nyulangone.org

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

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

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

Susan Liao, PhD—Boeke Lab
Research interests: post-transcriptional regulation of gene expression in development
susan.liao@nyulangone.org

Feiyue Lu, PhD—Lionnet Lab
Research interests: in vivo live imaging of transcription regulation
feiyue.lu@nyulangone.org

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

Paolo Mita, PhD—Boeke Lab
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—Boeke Lab
Research interests: eukaryotic chromosome and genome engineering
leslie.mitchell@nyulangone.org

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

Raquel Ordonez Ciriza, PhD—Maurano Lab
Research interests: deciphering genetic and epigenetic mechanisms that generate cellular identities and pathological phenotypes
raquel.ordonezciriza@nyulangone.org

André M Ribeiro dos Santos, PhD—Maurano Lab
Research interests: understanding the genomics of gene expression and human diseases through the development of bioinformatics tools and statistical analysis
andre.ribeirodossantos@nyulangone.org

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

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

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

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

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

Xin Zhao, PhD
Research interests: somatic mutation and copy number alterations in cancer genomics
xin.zhao@nyulangone.org

Scientific Staff

Vandana Apte—Boeke Lab
Assistant Research Technician
vandana.apte@nyulangone.org

Nazario Bosco, PhD—Davoli Lab
Senior Research Scientist
nazario.bosco@nyulangone.org

Ran Brosh, PhD—Maurano Lab
Senior Research Scientist
ran.brosh@nyulangone.org

John Cadley, MS, MBA—Maurano Lab
Bioinformatics Programmer
john.cadley@nyulangone.org

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

David Giganti, PhD—Noyes Lab
Senior Research Scientist
david.giganti@nyulangone.org

Mark Grivainis, MS—Fenyö Lab
Scientific Programmer
mark.grivainis@nyulangone.org

Angela Hitchcock—Maurano Lab
Research Technician
angela.hitchcock@nyulangone.org

Megan Hogan, PhD—Maurano Lab
Senior Research Scientist
megan.hogan@nyulangone.org

Emily Huang—Maurano Lab
Assistant Research Technician
emily.huang@nyulangone.org

Sarah Keegan—Fenyö Lab
Scientific Programmer
sarah.keegan@nyulangone.org

Wenke Liu, PhD—Fenyö Lab
Research Scientist
wenke.liu@nyulangone.org

Andrew Martin
Scientific Technologist
andrew.martin@nyulangone.org

Nicolette Somogyi, MS—Boeke Lab
Assistant Research Technician
nicolette.somogyi@nyulangone.org

Sarah Tsao, PhD—Holt Lab
Senior Research Scientist
sarah.tsao@nyulangone.org

Nicholas Vulpescu, MS—Maurano Lab
Scientific Programmer
nicholas.vulpescu@nyulangone.org

Aleksandra Wudzinska, MPhil—Boeke Lab
Lab Supervisor
aleksandra.wudzinska@nyulangone.org