Current members

Erick Salvador Rocha

Graduate Student (Microbiology)

Erick is interested in the role of cell-to-cell variability in modulating combinatorial innate immune responses. Specifically, he is interested in the role of cell-to-cell communication in establishing adequate macrophage inflammatory responses during bacterial infections. Outside of lab Erick enjoys exploring the local coffee shops and the food scene of New Haven. Erick received his B.S. in Biological Sciences from Cornell University.

Gaby Pizzurro

Postdoctoral Associate

Gaby studies macrophage heterogeneity in the melanoma tumor microenvironment. She developed in vitro 3D co-cultures to explore how fibroblasts and tumor cells shape the functional phenotypes of macrophages in the early stages of tumor development. She is also exploring how the timing of treatment with agonistic CD40 in the preclinical melanoma model alters myeloid cell states and their interactions with other cell types and myeloid subsets in the TME. Gaby received her PhD in Biological Chemistry from the University of Buenos Aires.

Isaiah Yim

Graduate Student (Biomedical Engineering)

Isaiah is using synthetic molecular approach to study the role of TNF paracrine signaling cytokine in propagating the pro-inflammatory signal as well as triggering the anti-inflammatory response via IL-10 signaling. He is interested in how these extracellular networks generate spatial patterns of inflammation that might be important in tissue microenvironments requiring local control, such as the brain. Isaiah received his B.S. in Chemistry from the University of Michigan.

Iyad Sayed Issa

Graduate Student (Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology)

Iyad is studying the transcriptional networks that regulate macrophage heterogeneity. Iyad received his B.S. in Biology from the University of Rochester. Outside of lab, Iyad enjoys, cooking, watching and playing soccer, and trying different cuisines.

Janani Baskaran

Graduate Student (Biomedical Engineering)

Janani is studying interactions between melanoma tumor cells, macrophages, and fibroblasts using a tumor spheroid model to recapitulate the physical properties of the tumor, including direct cell-cell interactions and spatial orientation of cells. She aims to spatially map different macrophage subpopulations and their functionality within the spheroid in order to understand the evolution of the immunosuppressive macrophage phenotype in early melanoma. Janani received her B.S. in and her M.S. in Biomedical Engineering from Tufts University.

Kate Bridges

Graduate Student (Biomedical Engineering)

Kate is studying immune cell heterogeneity in the tumor microenvironment through computational analysis of single-cell data sets. Kate is a member of the Integrated Graduate Program in Physical and Engineering Biology. She received her B.S. in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Virginia.

Alumni

Amanda Alexander

Research Scientist (Bio-Techne)

Amanda received her PhD in Biomedical Engineering in 2020. Her thesis was titled “Investigating the Regulation and Consequences of Cell-to-Cell Heterogeneity in the TLR4-Induced Macrophage Secretion Response”.

Andrés Muñoz Rojas

Postdoctoral Associate (Harvard Medical School)

Andrés received his PhD in Biomedical Engineering in 2018. His thesis was titled “Analysis of macrophage polarization: single-cell responses in controlled and tumor microenvironments”.

Arvind Chavali

Postdoctoral Associate

Arvind is investigating the role of cell-to-cell heterogeneity in the activation of latent HIV proviruses. His interests lie in computational modeling and systems analysis. Arvind received his PhD in biomedical engineering from the University of Virginia.

Elise Bullock

Graduate Student (Biomedical Engineering)

Elise received her PhD in Biomedical Engineering in 2022. Her thesis was titled “Exploring Chromatin-mediated Regulation of Transcriptional Noise with Stochastic Models of HIV Gene Expression”. She is now a postdoc at Columbia University.

Endah Sulistijo

Postdoctoral Associate (joint with Prof. Rong Fan)

Endah got her Ph.D. in Biochemistry from Rice University. She is currently involved to two research projects: (1) Characterization of protein phosphorylation signatures in latent HIV-infected cells and non-infected cells, and (2) Optimization of microfluidic techniques for detection of cell signaling proteins at single-cell level.

Ilana Kelsey

Postdoctoral Associate

Ilana was a postdoctoral associate who studied how individual macrophages activate and regulate their polarization responses when they encounter complex or conflicting cues from the environment. She is now a Technical Specialist at Finnegan LLP.

Laura Kellman

Graduate Student (Stanford University)

Laura was a post-baccalaurate research in the lab prior to going to graduate school. Laura received her Bachelor’s degree in Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology from Yale University.

Linda Fong

Research Scientist (Calico Labs)

Linda received her PhD in Biomedical Engineering in 2017. Her thesis was titled “Data-drivein analysis of phospho-signaling network responses enables latent HIV-infected T cell targeting”.

Markus Eisele

Visiting Master’s Student


Markus is studying the different behavior of single cells under LPS stress compared to cells in a population. He is using computational modeling and systems analysis to explore TLR4 signaling. Markus is a Master’s student in Stuttgart, Germany and is visiting Yale University for one year.

Qiong Xue

Postdoctoral Associate

Qiong joined the Miller-Jensen lab from Texas A&M with a background in inflammation and infectious diseases. She is investigating cytokine/chemokine secretion signatures of both a cell population and single cells and excited to apply systems analysis to single cell inflammatory responses.

Ramesh Ramji

Postdoctoral Associate

Ramesh likes to invent novel integrated micro analytical devices for biological applications. With a PhD in bioengineering (microfluidic cell based assays) from the National University of Singapore (NUS), he dwells into areas including nanobiotechnology, bioimaging, analytical chemistry and instrumentation. He is currently developing a high throughput multiplexed microfluidic device to quantify signaling dynamics and endpoint protein secretion at the “single cell” level.

Victor Bass

Postdoctoral associate (NIH/NEI)

Victor received his PhD in Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology in 2020. His thesis was titled “Analysis of the regulation of transcriptional noise in NF-κB-induced transcription”.

Victor Wong

Postdoctoral associate (Janelia Research Campus)

Victor received his PhD in Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology in 2016. His thesis was titled “Discovering mechanisms of gene activation through single-cell analysis of HIV expression”.