Laurie Boyer
Principle Investigator
Professor of Biology and Biological Engineering

Laurie A. Boyer earned her doctorate in biochemistry from the University of Massachusetts Medical School. She then joined the Whitehead Institute as a postdoctoral fellow in both the Jaenisch and Young labs where she pioneered the development of high-throughput platforms for genome wide analysis of transcription factors and chromatin regulators in stem cells, opening the field of stem cell genomics. In 2007, Boyer joined the Biology Department and in 2015, she was also appointed as an Associate Professor of Biological Engineering.

“I started my lab in the Biology Department to study gene regulatory mechanisms in lineage commitment in 2007. I also joined the Department of Biological Engineering in 2014 to connect our developmental discoveries to advance cardiac tissue engineering. I am passionate about training the next generation of scientists including working with our wonderful students and in community building efforts.”

Victoria Tholkes
Biology PhD Student
B.S. University of Wisconsin-Madison
tholkes@mit.edu

Research Interests: Nuclear Pore Complex, Protein biochemistry, Cardiomyocyte development

Dandan Yang
Research Scientist
Ph.D.
danda887@mit.edu

Research Interests: Gene regulatory networks, Cardiomyocyte proliferation and maturation, Cardiac aging in Down syndrome

Leah Borden
Postdoctoral Fellow
Ph.D. University of Maryland
lkborden@mit.edu

Research Interests: Extracellular matrix, Cell fate regulation, Tissue engineering and biomaterials

Nicole Lindsay-Mosher
Postdoctoral Fellow
Ph.D. University of Toronto
mosherni@mit.edu

Research Interests: Cardiomyocyte maturation, Reactive oxygen species and metabolism, Tissue maintenance and repair

Corrina Robertson
Postdoctoral Associate
Ph.D. Duke University
cgr915@mit.edu

Research Interests: Gigantic introns, Gene regulation and evolution, Transcriptional mechanisms

Mehdi Hamouda
Postdoctoral Fellow
Ph.D. Oxford-Cambridge (NIH)
mehdiham@mit.edu

Research Interests: Nuclear architecture, Mechanotransduction, Cardiac development in trisomy 21

Tina Chen
Masters Student
B.S. MIT
tinachen@mit.edu

Research Interests: Single-cell RNA-seq, Transcriptional Variability, Computational Statistics

Alan Hung
Research Technician
B.S. University of Wisconsin-Madison
ahung5@mit.edu

Research Interests: Nuclear architecture, Morphometrics, Imaging and Computational Methods

Julia Tolstova
Course 20 UROP
juliatol@mit.edu

Research Interests: Human disease modeling, Cancer biology, Developmental genetics

Sarah Soroca
Course 20 UROP
sasoroca@mit.edu

Research Interests: Cardiomyocyte maturation, Hydrogen peroxide signaling, Oxidative metabolism

Caroline Brown
Course 20 UROP
cgbrown@mit.edu

Research Interests: Advanced imaging techniques, Organoid-based disease models, Regenerative medicine

Prathysha Kothare
Course 9 -7 UROP
pkothare@mit.edu

Research Interests: Cardiomyocyte migration and mechanotransduction, Nuclear organization, Live imaging and molecular techniques

Valerie Corapi
Administrative Assistant II
vcorapi@mit.edu