Our lab is made up of a diverse group of people who embody the spirit of team work and inclusiveness!
ACTIVE LUCASITES
Principal Investigator
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
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
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
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