lab members

Vijay Ramani, PhD
Principal Investigator
vijay.ramani (at) gladstone.ucsf.edu
Scholar Citations
@vram142

I finished my B.S.E. in Chemical Engineering at Princeton University, with minors in Quantitative & Computational Biology, and Engineering Biology. While at Princeton, I studied in David Botstein’s Integrated Science Curriculum; this course sequence motivated me to pursue research in quantitative molecular biology. After finishing my undergraduate degree in 2012, I spent a year as a Research Intern / Computational Biologist working in the Bay Area at Sangamo BioSciences (now Sangamo Therapeutics). There, I worked closely with Jeff Miller and Ed Rebar to develop high-throughput sequencing assays to map potential off-target genomic sites for de novo engineered zinc finger and TALE nucleases. I then moved to Seattle, where I completed my Ph.D. in Genome Sciences in Jay Shendure’s lab at the University of Washington. In Jay’s lab, I developed several molecular technologies to study biomolecular phenomena at scale. I then began my own independent research group as a Sandler Faculty Fellow in the Fall of 2018, and transitioned to an Assistant Professor position at the Gladstone Institute for Data Science & Biotechnology / UCSF Department of Biochemistry & Biophysics in 2021.

Camille Moore, BA
Graduate Student joint w/ Narlikar Lab (Tetrad)
camille.moore (at) ucsf.edu

I graduated from UC Berkeley in 2020 with a B.A in Molecular and Cell Biology and a minor in English. At Berkeley, I studied chromatin remodelers via Cryo-EM under Dr. Eva Nogales. My thesis project focused on the architecture of RSC and its mechanism of nucleosome remodeling. As a 2018 Amgen scholar, I investigated the mammalian heat stress response at Kyoto University with Dr. Fuyuki Ishikawa.

I’m currently a first year student in the Tetrad program, jointly advised by the Ramani and Narlikar labs. I look forward to developing minimal molecular systems in order to study chromatin structure and genome organization.

Sean Wang, BS
Research Associate
sean.wang (at) gladstone.ucsf.edu

I graduated from Carnegie Mellon University in 2022 with a B.S. in Biology and Psychology and a minor in Human-Computer Interaction. While at CMU, I worked in Dr. Rule’s lab characterizing the Ca-loop of C. albicans thymidylate kinase. I’m excited to join the Ramani Lab to expand and develop my skills in both experimental and computational approaches towards studying gene and transcriptional regulation through novel methodologies. In the future, I hope to continue on to grad school and study genome and transcription in biomedical contexts.

Marty Yang, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow
marty.yang (at) gladstone.ucsf.edu
@MartyYang

I graduated from Duke University in 2015 with a B.S. in Neuroscience and minors in Chemistry and Romance Studies. At Duke, I conducted my senior thesis in Anne West’s lab combining CRISPR/Cas9 technology with single-cell readouts of gene expression to study the function of neuronal activity-dependent enhancers. After graduation, I moved to Boston and worked as a tech in Mike Greenberg’s lab at Harvard Medical School. There, I studied how sequence changes at transcription factor binding motifs contribute to species-specific patterns of gene transcription in the human retina and developing brain. I joined the Program in Neuroscience (PiN) in 2017 and I continued as a Ph.D. student in Mike’s lab. My graduate work focused on using a genetic approach to explore the determinants of enhancer function, focusing on the role of Ras/MAPK signaling and AP-1 TFs in establishing cell type-specific gene regulatory landscapes. More specifically, I leveraged naturally occurring genetic variation between inbred mouse strains to perform a large-scale mutagenesis screen of enhancer sequences in their native chromatin state. I started as a postdoc in the Ramani lab in 2022, where I am interested in employing single-molecule methods to study the interplay between transcription factors and chromatin remodelers in defining genome organization. In particular, I am looking to study how nucleosome structure is established in endoderm development, with an emphasis on understanding how these processes go awry in disease

Hannah J Richter, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow
hannah.richter (at) gladstone.ucsf.edu
@MdmPalindrome

I graduated in 2015 with a B.S. in Biochemistry and Philosophy from Beloit College, a small liberal arts college in southern Wisconsin. My undergraduate research experience focused on the physiological underpinnings of memory and Alzheimer’s disease in mouse model systems. From there, I joined the Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics graduate group at the University of Pennsylvania and began my PhD in the lab of Dr. Mitch Lazar. My work there interrogated the interplay between transcription and physiology by studying the role of the histone deacetylase corepressors NCoR1/2 in brown adipose tissue thermogenesis. I uncovered a surprising function for these corepressors in mediating inflammation using genetic mouse models, RNA-sequencing, and ChIP-sequencing methods. I joined the Ramani lab in 2022 and aim to combine my knowledge of physiology and nuclear receptor biology with cutting-edge methods of sequencing and chromatin mapping to understand the basic molecular biology behind tissue development and function. I’m looking forward to expanding my skills in computational biology and biochemistry to complement this work. I’m also passionate about teaching and mentoring and am excited to continue to develop those interests during my time at Gladstone.

Siva Kasinathan, MD, PhD
Clinical Fellow
skas (at) stanford.edu
Scholar Citations
@SivaKasinathan

After studying Pharmaceutical Sciences, Molecular Biology, and Mathematics at Drake University in Iowa, I headed west to join the Medical Scientist Training Program at the University of Washington in 2010. I did my PhD in Molecular and Cell Biology with Steve Henikoff at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, where I contributed to the development of a number of molecular tools for high-resolution chromatin profiling including techniques for purifying cell type-specific nuclei from whole animals (INTACT), mapping transcription factor binding sites on native chromatin (ORGANIC), and mapping genomic binding of DNA-binding proteins using targeted endogenous cleavage (ChEC-seq). We applied these approaches to better characterize transcription factor binding and understand targeting of Polycomb-mediated repression (with Guillaume Orsi and Kami Ahmad). I also worked with Jeetu Thakur and Paul Talbert to define recently evolved functional alpha satellite dimers at human centromeres and investigate short repeats at Drosophila centromeres. Our analysis of centromeric satellites from a variety of species also suggested a role for non-B-form DNA structures in templating centromere identity.

In 2019, I joined the Pediatrics Residency Program at Stanford University / Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital. As a physician and basic scientist, I hope to work with the Ramani lab to dissect gene dysregulation in human disease through novel molecular technologies.

Iryna Irkliyenko, MS
Research Associate
iryna.irkliyenko (at) gladstone.ucsf.edu

I completed my B.S and M.S degrees in Biotechnology at the University of Wroclaw. During my master’s, I was granted a scholarship form European Science Council to perform the research in Dr. Lionel Pintard’s lab at the University of Paris were I studied the role of ubiquitin modification in the regulation of MBK-2 kinase, which is essential for the oocyte-to-embryo transition in C. elegans. As a scholar of the BioLAB program administrated by Polish-U.S. Fulbright Commission, I did 2 years research in Chuan He’s lab at the University of Chicago focused on the development of new sequencing methods for RNA and DNA modifications. I developed a new bisulfite-seq method for m5C in RNA which has very low false positive level and significantly less RNA damage, and further improved it for very low input. In the Ramani lab, I’m interested in working on the development of high-throughput sequencing technologies for low input samples and its application in studies of the role of epigenetic marks and chromatin remodeling in gene regulation.

Aaron Corin, BS
Graduate Student joint w/ Narlikar Lab (Tetrad)
aaron.corin (at) ucsf.edu

In 2020, I completed my undergraduate studies at Brandeis University, earning a B.S. in Biochemistry and Biology with a minor in Chemistry. During my time at Brandeis, I gained practical experience through internships at AstraZeneca and Celgene, where I worked in the translational oncology and target validation departments, respectively. Following my graduation, I joined the lab of Dr. Cigall Kadoch at Harvard Medical School / Dana Farber Cancer Institute as a research associate for two years. During this period, I investigated mechanisms driving the targeting and activity of ATP-dependent chromatin remodeling complexes belonging to the mSWI/SNF family in the context of cancer. I am currently a student in the Tetrad program at UCSF, co-mentored by the Ramani and Narlikar labs. I am looking forward to improving my skills in the fields of genomics and biochemistry and am particularly excited about employing in vitro reconstitution methodologies to explore chromatin-based regulatory processes.

Kaite Zhang, BS
Graduate Student (Tetrad)
kaite.zhang (at) ucsf.edu

I graduated from Tufts University in 2016 with a B.S. in Biology and Clinical Psychology. I was an undergraduate researcher in Dr. Benjamin Wolfe’s lab, studying bacterial-fungal interactions using cheese rind microbiomes as model ecosystems. I found that motile bacteria like Serratia proteamaculans can utilize fungal hyphae to increase dispersal range, imbuing a growth advantage in the greater microbial community. After graduating, I worked at the Broad Institute in the lab of Dr. Eric Lander, working closely with Drs. Vidya Subramanian and Jesse Engreitz to develop HyPR-seq (hybridization of probes to RNA for sequencing), a method for targeted single-cell sequencing of low expression RNAs. I also worked on developing a high-throughput, combined, single-cell RNA- and DNA-sequencing method using microfluidics. Discovering my interests in technology development and gene regulation, I joined the Ramani Lab in 2023. Here, I aim to develop molecular and computational methods to investigate the mechanisms that underlie chromatin dynamics and genome architecture.

Keerthi Renduchintala, BS
Research Associate
keerthi.redunchintala (at) gladstone.ucsf.edu

I graduated from the University of Washington-Seattle in 2023 with a B.S. in Biochemistry and a minor in Data Science. At UW, I was a student researcher at the Institute for Protein Design under Dr. Cameron Glasscock. As a student researcher, I worked with a cohort of students on a project to computationally design DNA-binding proteins and experimentally validate them. I am excited to be joining the Ramani Lab to grow my computational and laboratory skill sets while studying genomics and transcriptional regulation using novel high-throughput sequencing technologies. I hope to continue to grad school to study computational approaches to understanding diseases.

Bertie Woof, PhD
Lab Mascot / Resident Treat Eater
just give me treats plz.

woof woof woof! =)

We are hiring!
Research Technician / Graduate Student / Postdoctoral Fellow
your.e-mail (at) ucsf.edu

Interested postdoctoral fellows should e-mail me at vijay.ramani (at) ucsf.edu with a summary of their research thus far, a brief description of the types of projects they would like to work on, and 2-3 references. We are also always looking for motivated undergraduates and graduate students!