People

	Rajiv McCoy is an assistant professor in the Department of Biology whose research is focused on human genetics and evolution. He received his Ph.D. from Stanford University and completed his postdoctoral work at Princeton University and the University of Washington. Download CV
	Daniel Ariad is a postdoc in the McCoy lab. He is a physicist by training, with research experience in condensed matter and astrophysics. He is interested in adapting theory and analytical approaches from these fields to the study of human genomics and evolution. Daniel received his Ph.D. from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and subsequently worked as postdoctoral fellow at Indiana University Bloomington. Personal website
	Michael Tassia is a postdoc in the McCoy lab. He is broadly interested in the evolution of animal genomes and how their structure, utilization, and content has changed over time. Michael received his Ph.D. at Auburn University where he worked on the evolution of immune systems.
	Stephanie Yan is a PhD student from the Cell, Molecular, Developmental Biology & Biophysics Program. Prior to joining the Ph.D. program at Hopkins, she received her B.A. in Biological Sciences from Cornell University and was a summer research student at the Moffitt Cancer Center. Stephanie’s thesis research investigates the role of structural variation in human divergence and adaptation. Personal website
	Kate Weaver is a PhD student from the Cell, Molecular, Developmental Biology & Biophysics Program. Prior to joining the PhD program at Hopkins, she received her B.S. in Biochemistry & Molecular Biology and her B.S in Mathematics from Bethel University. She was a summer research student at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and the University of Notre Dame. Kate’s current project, developed in the Taylor Lab, uses machine learning approaches to predict gene expression across cell types.
	Dylan Taylor is a PhD student from the Cell, Molecular, Developmental Biology & Biophysics Program. He received his B.S. in Biological Sciences from the University of Maryland. Prior to joining the Ph.D. program, he conducted post-baccalaureate research at the University of Maryland Center for Bioinformatics and Computational Biology. Dylan’s current research involves developing robust methods for mapping genotype-phenotype associations in diverse human populations. Personal website
	Sara Carioscia is a PhD student from the Cell, Molecular, Developmental Biology & Biophysics Program. Prior to joining the Ph.D. program, she was a Fellow at the IDA Science and Technology Policy Institute. She received her B.S. in Biology and Classics from Georgetown University. Sara’s current research investigates the phenomenon of segregation distortion, whereby inheritance deviates from Mendelian expectations. Personal website
	Andrew Bortvin is a PhD student from the Cell, Molecular, Developmental Biology & Biophysics PhD Program. He received his B.A. in Biology from the University of Pennsylvania and has since worked as a research technician at Princeton University and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Andrew’s rotation project focused on the application of k-mer counting methods to structural variation.
	Divya Nair is an undergraduate majoring in Molecular and Cellular Biology. She has previously investigated differential gene expression in mice retinas sent into spaceflight at the NASA Ames Research Center, and she is passionate about the intersection between bioinformatics and healthcare. Divya’s current research focuses on quantifying the effects of structural variation on gene expression using eQTL mapping.

Lab Alumni

	Josh Schultz is a rotation student from the Cell, Molecular, Developmental Biology & Biophysics PhD program. He received his B.S. in Biology and B.A. in Philosophy from Syracuse University. He also attended the 2019 Sherwin B. Nuland Summer Institute in Bioethics at Yale University. Undergraduate research focused on the regulation pectin and hemicellulose biosynthesis in poplar. His rotation project investigates the relationship between maternal age and aneuploidy in pre-implantation embryos.
	Brad Olinger is a rotation student in the McCoy lab, and a PhD student in the Graduate Partnership Program at the NIH and the Cellular, Molecular, Developmental Biology & Biophysics program at JHU. He received a master of health science in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, where he also completed their Humane Sciences program, and his B.S. in Computer Information Systems from DeVry University. Prior to joining the GPP, he was a post-bac research fellow at the NIH/NIDCR. His rotation project investigates correlations between maternal age and aneuploidy rates among preimplantation embryos.
	Rylee Genner is a rotation student from the Cellular, Molecular, Developmental Biology & Biophysics (CMDB) PhD program and NIH Graduate Partnership Program (GPP). She received her B.S. from UCLA and her M.S. in Biotechnology from Georgetown University. Prior to joining the CMDB-GPP program, she was a research technician in a neuroendocrinology lab at UCLA and an NIH post-baccalaureate research fellow at NHGRI. Her rotation project uses machine learning approaches to infer variation in recombination rates across the human genome.
	Catherine Henderson is a rotation student from the Cell, Molecular, Developmental Biology & Biophysics PhD Program. She received a B.S. in Molecular and Cell Biology and a B. A. in Applied Statistics from Sonoma State University. Previous research focused on protein persulfides at Sonoma State, and cell biology of RasGRP1 in colorectal cancer at the University of California, San Francisco.
	Radhika Jangi is a rotation student from the Cell, Molecular, Developmental Biology & Biophysics Program. She received her B.S. in Biochemistry from Brandeis University. She was a research technician and lab manager at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.
	Robyn Stix is a member of the Cell, Molecular, Developmental Biology & Biophysics program and NIH Graduate Partnership program. She received her B.A. in Biochemistry from from Skidmore College. She then participated in post-baccalaureate research at the National Institute of Heart, Lung and Blood at NIH in Theoretical Molecular Biophysics. She is joined by her service dog Agnes, who enjoys taking long naps under Robyn’s desk.
	Sadhana Chidambaran is a rotation student from the Cell, Molecular, Developmental Biology, & Biophysics PhD Program. She received her B.A. in Genetics and her B.S. in Computer Science from Rutgers University. She was also a summer research student at the University of Tennessee and the Jackson Laboratory.
	Joel Espinoza is an undergraduate student double-majoring in Public Health and Molecular and Cell Biology. He is the recipient of the Michael S. Applestein Scholarship and serves in leadership roles of multiple cultural and student services organizations. Joel’s research focuses on interpreting signatures of positive selection in human genomes.
	Peter Huang is an undergraduate majoring in Biology and minoring in Computer Science. His previous research experience includes four summers split between two labs at the University of California, San Francisco, one focusing on telomeres and the other on pediatric lung function. Peter’s current research focuses on disentangling causal functional mutations from genome-wide association data.
	Nicholas Parente is an undergraduate double-majoring in Applied Mathematics and Computer Science. He is interested in practical approaches to analyzing large genomic datasets. Nick’s research examines the relationship between gene copy number and expression.
	Jingliang Simon Zhang is a rotation student from the Cell, Molecular, Developmental Biology & Biophysics Program. He received his B.S. in Biological Sciences from Peking University, China. He was also a summer research student at University of Toronto and Duke University.
	Sara Debić is a rotation student from the Cell, Molecular, Developmental Biology & Biophysics PhD Program. She received her B.S. from the University of Zagreb, Croatia in Molecular Biology. While obtaining her B.S., she conducted summer research at the Ruđer Bošković Institute, Zagreb, as well as the California Academy of Sciences and NASA Ames Research Center.
	Arta Seyedian is a research technologist and Master’s student in the Bioinformatics program. Prior to his work at Hopkins, Arta obtained a B.S. in Neuroscience from George Mason University and was an Intramural Research Training Award Postbaccalaureate with the National Institute on Drug Abuse.
	Natalie Murphy is a rotation student from the Cell, Molecular, Developmental Biology & Biophysics Program. Prior to joining the Ph.D. program, she received her B.S. in Molecular & Cellular Biology from Johns Hopkins University and was an NIH postbaccalaureate IRTA fellow at the National Institute on Aging.
	Margaret Starostik is a rotation student from the Cell, Molecular, Developmental Biology & Biophysics Program. She received her B.S. in Biological Sciences from the State University of New York-Buffalo and her M.S. in Biochemistry & Molecular Biology from Georgetown University. She was a NIH postbaccalaureate IRTA fellow at the National Eye Institute before joining the Ph.D. program at Johns Hopkins University.
	Katie Farney was the first Ph.D. rotation student in the lab. She is a member of the Cell, Molecular, Developmental Biology & Biophysics program and NIH Graduate Partnership program. She received her bachelors degree from the University of Central Florida and then participated in postbaccalaureate research at the National Eye Institute as well as the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, both at the NIH.