Our lab is made up of a diverse group of people who embody the spirit of team work and inclusiveness! 


ACTIVE LUCASITES


Principal Investigator


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Carrie L. Lucas, Ph.D. 

Dr. Lucas received her PhD from Harvard Medical School and her postdoctoral training from the National Institutes of Health, NIAID. The Lucas laboratory is devoted to discovering new and translationally relevant principles of immunology by defining and studying severe pediatric immune disorders. Combining human genomics, in vitro studies using primary patient cells, and in vivo mouse modeling approaches, her team seeks to gain incisive basic and translational insights starting with patients.


Staff


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Debra Gilhuly

Ms. Gilhuly is a Research and Administrative Assistant. She provides the lab with behind the science support including scheduling meetings, assisting with grant submissions, helping to onboard the fantastic researchers to the lab safely and swiftly, in addition to countless other tasks that help us all keep our sanity!


Peiying Shan, MD

Dr. Shan is a Research Associate and Lab Manager. With over 25 years of experience in lab work, she efficiently and expertly manages resources of the lab, performs experiments, and trains and guides lab members!


Arati Khanna-Gupta, PhD

Associate Research Scientist

Arati received her PhD in Molecular Biology from Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and completed a post-doctoral fellowship at the Yale University School of Medicine (Hematology). She has over 25 years of research experience in the areas of myeloid biology, bone marrow failure syndromes and rare genetic diseases. As a Lucas-ite, she is invested in identifying and studying novel monogenic in-born errors of immunity. In parallel, she serves as a clinical coordinator managing patient sample collection, processing and record maintenance.

Outside the lab, she enjoys reading, traveling, playing golf, gardening and backyard bird watching.


Postdoctoral Associates


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Nina N. Brodsky, MD

Dr. Brodsky is an Instructor of Pediatrics at Yale University. Her research interests include developmental, genetic, and environmental etiologies of immunodeficiency and pathologic inflammation, as well as the signaling and mechanisms of disease in patients with these conditions. A specific focus of her work is on CD8 T cell development and function in health and disease.

Nina speaks 4 languages and loves to travel.

Google Scholar


Zhihong Qi, Ph.D.

Dr. Qi earned his Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at, the College of Biological Sciences, in China. In the Lucas lab, he explores the intersections between the DNA damage response and T-cell responses and their implications for anti-tumor immunotherapy. In addition, he is dissecting a novel gene mutation in pediatric patients with defective lymphocyte responses resulting in primary immunodeficiencies.

Google Scholar


Dinesh Babu Uthaya Kumar, MS, Ph.D.

Dr. Uthaya Kumar completed his graduate school research at The Keck School of Medicine-University of Southern California (Masters) and The Jackson Laboratory for Genomic Medicine-Uconn Health (pre-doctoral). As a lucasite, he investigates the inflammatory role of innate immune cells in monogenic disorders (DEX).

Outside of the lab, he enjoys lifting things that are heavy (which keeps him sane) and doing activities with his wife such as painting, traveling, and hiking.

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Marat Kribis, MD

Dr. Kribis received his MD from Northern State Medical University in Arkhangelsk, Russia, and completed the Internal Medicine residency at Bridgeport Hospital/Yale University program. He is currently a Rheumatology fellow at Yale University. In the Lucas Lab, he investigates ELF4’s role in autoinflammation and aims to extend his skills to identify and probe similar monogenic disorders that cause autoinflammatory/autoimmune diseases.

Outside of the lab, he enjoys reading and playing guitar.


Bradly M. Bauman, Ph.D.

Dr. Bauman received his Ph.D. in Molecular and Cell Biology from the Uniformed Services University in Bethesda, MD. In the Lucas lab, he is interested in exploring how alterations in the T cell co-receptor landscape can alter the fate of newly activated CD4 and CD8 T cells. He is also interested in the characterization of novel monogenic causes of primary immune disorders, seeking to learn more about basic immunobiology from patient-inspired research questions.

Linkedin profile.


PhD Students


Mackenzie Bender, BS

Ms. Bender is a Ph.D. Candidate. She is interested in fundamental T-cell biology, focusing on the role of ELF4 in T cells.

Outside of the lab, she spends her time dancing tango, volunteering on Yale Immunobiology’s outreach committee, and going to orange theory!

Twitter profile


Anis Barmada, MPhil

Mr. Barmada is an M.D./Ph.D. student. He completed his B.S. in Biology, Chemistry, and Math at the University of Illinois Chicago, and his M.Phil. in Genomic Medicine at the University of Cambridge and Wellcome Sanger Institute in the UK, where he worked in the Vento-Tormo group on single-cell approaches. Conducting his doctorate research in the Lucas and Tsang labs, he is currently leveraging experimental/computational techniques to investigate sex immune differences in health and disease.

Yale School of Medicine profile


Jaspreet Kohli, BA

Mr. Kohli is an MD/Ph.D. student. He received his Bachelor of Arts in Biology from Cornell University, where he studied the fundamental B cell mechanisms underlying equine CVID. Subsequently he worked at Caltech, where he studied molecular circuits as a member of the Elowitz group. At the Lucas Lab, he aims to discover the roles ETS transcription factors play in regulatory T cells and innate lymphocytes.

Outside of the lab, he is an avid tennis player, a jazz trombonist, and enjoys spending time with his dog, Veer.


Postgraduate Associates


Monisha Chakder, BS

Ms. Chakder's research involves studying the role of neonatal cytotoxic CD8 T cells for anti-viral immune response and immunopathology.

In my free time, I love to draw portraits, knit, work on writing a novel, and watch black-and-white movies.

Linkedin Profile


Undergraduate Associates


Sindhura Siddapureddy

Ms. Siddapureddy is working with mentor, Sam Olyha, to understand the role of ELF4 in CD4+ T cell differentiation in the context of DEX and inflammatory disorders.

Outside the lab, she loves mountaineering!


Angela Morka
Ms. Morka is working with her mentor Dinesh to decipher the roles of ELF4 in inflammation using LysM-Cre mice to study innate immune cell-specific effects.

In her free time, she loves to cook, make music, and play volleyball!


Bipul Soti
Mr. Soti is an undergraduate studying Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry. He is working with his mentor, Mackenzie Bender, to investigate ELF4 and its role in T-cell biology.

Outside the lab, he enjoys hiking, promoting civic engagement, and writing and performing comedy.


Last update: January, 2025


Alumni

Aanchal (Annie) Wats, MD, MPH

Clinical Research Postdoctoral Fellow


Sam Olyha, PhD

Pre-doc: 2021-2024


Lucas Yang, BS

Postgrad


Julia Wang, BS

Undergrad


Sindhura Siddapureddy, BS

Undergrad


Danielys Batista, BS

Undergrad


Stephen Lanahan, PhD

Pre-doc: 2018-2023


Anjali Ramaswamy, PhD

Pre-doc: 2019-2023


Dana Kalina, BA

Research and Administrative Assistant


Lan Xu, MS

Research Associate 2022-2023


Kate Jones, BS
Postgraduate Associate 2021-2023


Hassan Skeikha, MD

Clinical Research Postdoctoral Fellow 2021-2023


Faiad Alam BS

Undergrad 2021-2023


Katie Simic BS

Undergrad 2021-2023


Molly Bucklin, PhD

Pre-doc: 2019-2022


Andrew Rice, MS

Lab Manager 2017-2022


Mengting Zhao, PhD

Postdoctoral Associate: 2020-2022


Jean Marie Carpier, PhD

Postdoctoral Associate: 2017-2021


Paul Tyler, PhD

Pre-doc: 2017-2021


Julian Starks

BioMed Amgen Scholar : Summer 2021


Daniel Murdock, BS

Postgraduate Associate:  July 2019-June 2021


Saba Tegegne, BS

Postgraduate Associate: January 2019-April 2021


Tim Maher, BS

Postgraduate Associate: June 2018-May 2020


Shakira Crespo-Arocho

BioMed Amgen Scholar: Summer 2019


Matthew Marino

Visiting Undergraduate Student: Summer 2019


Leah Li

Visiting Undergraduate from Abroad: Summer 2018


Mithun Kumaran

Visiting Undergraduate from Abroad: Summer 2018


Joel Brooks, DO

Clinical Fellow: August 2017-July 2018


Andrew Takeda, BS

Postgraduate Associate: July 2016-July 2018


Jude Raj, BS

Postgraduate Associate: July 2016-July 2018

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 Alec Schrager 

Visiting Undergraduate Student, Summer 2017


Lewis Timimi

Visiting Undergraduate Student From Abroad, Summer 2017


Eesha Desai

Research Associate, July 2016-December 2016


Haowei Wang

Interim Laboratory Manager, Research Associate July 2016-December 2016