Current members of the Ehrt and Schnappinger labs
Arwa Alharbi
Arwa obtained her bachelor’s degree in Microbiology from King Abdulaziz University in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia and her master’s degree in Microbiology and Immunology from New York Medical College in Valhalla, NY. Her thesis was to discuss the “Role of alkyl-hydroperoxide reductase subunit C (AhpC) of Francisella tularensis in resistance to oxidative stress and virulence in mice.” She joined Dr. Dirk Schnappinger’s laboratory in October 2018.
Arka Banerjee
Arka is originally from Kolkata, India. After completing his MSc from the Department of Biotechnology, University of Calcutta, Kolkata, Arka obtained his PhD from the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore, under the guidance of Prof Sandhya S. Visweswariah. He joined the laboratory of Prof Dirk Schnappinger as a Postdoctoral Associate in 2018. His current research interests focus on developing directed regulatory switches in mycobacteria and use them to better understand their cellular physiology. In his free time, Arka enjoys cooking and reading about popular science and current affairs.
Harmanjit Singh Bansal
Harman grew up in Punjab, India. He did his Bachelor of Technology in Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur in 2014, in the program of Biological Sciences and Bioengineering where he worked with essential ribosomal assembly protein in mycobacteria, EngA. After that, worked as a Graduate Trainee in National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS), Bengaluru, working with and developing statistical methods to analyze fluorescent imaging data from high throughput cell-based phenotypic screens. He joined Ehrt Lab in Fall 2018 and started working with the stringent response in mycobacteria. Outside of the lab, he likes running, painting, gaming, and reading classic fiction.
Anthony Castro
Anthony received his bachelor’s degree in Cell, Molecular and Developmental Biology from the University of California Riverside. After graduation he joined a team that studied the fungal microbiome and managed the laboratory’s Gnotobiotic facility. In his spare time, he enjoys running and throwing ceramics on his pottery wheel.
Luming Chan
Luming graduated from the Macaulay Honors College at Hunter College in 2021, where he earned his bachelors degrees in biology and music. Previously Luming has volunteered and worked in the Ehrt lab as a summer student starting in 2015 and is now working as a technician. Outside of the lab he enjoys cooking, playing the cello, and admiring the plants and animals of New York.
Curtis Engelhart
Curtis Engelhart completed his Bachelor of Science in Chemistry at North Dakota State University in Fargo in 2009, and completed a Master of Science in Medicinal Chemistry at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis in 2012. He spent one year working on a project at GlaxoSmithKline in Tres Cantos, Spain, to develop a targeted whole-cell screen for inhibitors of biotin protein ligase from Mtb. In February 2014 he joined Dirk Schnappinger’s lab. His current work focuses on early drug discovery and target validation of drug candidates in development from various academic and industrial collaborative partners via chemical susceptibility profiling of Mtb conditional knock-down mutants (in single strain and mixed strain formats) and isolation/characterization of resistant Mtb mutants. In his free time Curtis enjoys hiking, cycling, video gaming, and hanging out with his cat Charlie.
Alexandre Gouzy
Alexandre Gouzy obtained his Ph.D. in Microbiology from the University of Toulouse, France. During his PhD, he studied the mechanisms by which Mycobacterium tuberculosis exploits nitrogen during infection in Dr. Olivier Neyrolle’s laboratory at the Institute of Pharmacology and Structural Biology (IPBS). Since 2014, he is a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Sabine Ehrt at Weill Cornell Medicine where he investigates the contribution of bacterial nutrition and metabolism in the resistance against immunity and anti-tuberculosis drugs.
Shipra Grover
Shipra obtained her PhD in Biosciences from the University of Birmingham, UK under the supervision of Prof. Gurdyal S. Besra. Her doctoral research was focused on uncovering the mode of action of new antituberculars and the transcriptional regulation of genes involved in cell wall biosynthesis. As part of a collaborative effort between the Schnappinger Lab at Weill Cornell and Tres Cantos Open Lab foundation, Glaxo Smith Kline, Spain, Shipra is focusing on developing and employing high throughput methods for screening of anti-mycobacterial compounds against the essential genes of mycobacteria and evaluating their potential as drug targets.
Moritz Kayser
Moritz grew up in Wiesbaden, Germany and studied medicine at the Hannover Medical School in Hannover, Germany. He completed his M.D. thesis in the lab of Prof. Ulrich Kalinke at Twincore Center for Clinical and Experimental Infection Research, Hannover, investigating the efficacy of a novel, liposome-based targeted therapy of M.bovis BCG-infected alveolar macrophages and dendritic cells in a murine TB model. After graduating, Moritz joined the residency program at the Department of Respiratory Medicine and Infectious Disease of Hannover Medical School, where he worked on clinical research projects on immunological therapy for severe asthma and infectious disease in lung transplant recipients while training as a physician. He joined the Ehrt lab in 2024 as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow, exploring the role of the mycobacterial proteasome in acid adaptation. In his free time, Moritz enjoys reading, running, bouldering and exploring the playgrounds of New York with his wife and young daughter.
Heather Kim
Heather joined the Ehrt-Schnappinger Labs in July of 2019. She received her B.S. in biology at SUNY New Paltz, and her M.A in biology concentrating in biotechnology at Hunter College. Previously, she worked in the clinical genetic diagnostic department at the University of Pennsylvania analyzing blood and tissue samples to identify hereditary disease markers; and in the mucosal immunology department at SUNY-University at Albany examining the interactions of fungi and beta-glucan particles with murine Peyer’s Patches.
Thaís Klevorn
Thaís is from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. She completed her Bachelors in Biomedical Science at Bahiana School of Medicine and Public Health in Brazil with one year at Barnard College of Columbia University in NY as part of the Science Without Borders program. In Brazil, she did research on the immune response against Leishmania spp. at Oswaldo Cruz Foundation and Federal University of Sergipe. Before starting graduate school at Weill Cornell, she worked as a research technician at New York University, studying mechanisms of T cell evasion by Mycobacterium tuberculosis. She joined the Ehrt lab in June 2019 because she loves infectious disease research and could not think of a better lab in the world to carry out her PhD. Thaís also loves cycling, hiking and camping, but if the weather is bad, there is nothing like a cooperative-strategy board game session.
Ha-Na Lee
Ha-Na received her Ph.D degree with the major of microbiology from Pusan National University in South Korea in Feb 2018. During her Ph. D, she studied the regulation of peroxide stress responses in Mycobacterium smegmatis. She joined the laboratory of Dr. Dirk Schnappinger in Apr 2018 and now is working on a project for identification and characterization of genes involved in the utilization of biotin in Mycobacterium tuberculosis.
Ruoyao Ma
Ruoyao Ma obtained her PhD in Infection Biology from the University College Dublin, Ireland under the mentoring of Professor Stephen Gordon. In her PhD research, she worked with M. bovis and explored the function of two DNA regions, TbD1 and RD900. She joined Ehrt Lab in September 2022 as a postdoctoral associate to continue pursuing her interests in TB research.
Frances Marks
Frances Marks is a graduate student in Weill Cornell’s Biochemistry, Cellular & Molecular Biology program. She joined the Ehrt lab in 2019.
Sae-Woong Park
Assistant Professor
Sae Woong Park is from Seoul, Korea. He received his M.S. and Ph.D. degree in Microbiology from Yonsei University and has been working at Weill Cornell Medicine since 2008. His research focus is biotin biosynthesis in Mycobacterium tuberculosis and the interaction of Mtb with microbiota.
Kaushik Raman
Kaushik, originally from Chennai, India. I obtained my bachelor's in biotechnology from Anna University, Chennai, during which I worked at IISc, studying the causal effect of STRs in dementia. I received my master's in Biology with a specialization in Bioinformatics from New York University. For my master's research, I created an R package that takes annotation data for orthologous species and creates a database to better understand organisms and their genes. In my free time, I enjoy cooking, playing badminton and going on walks across the city.
Di Qu
Di Qu obtained her Ph.D. at the Institut Pasteur of Shanghai, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai. During her Ph.D., she mainly focused on the molecular mechanisms of HIV-1 replication and latency in Dr. Jianhua Wang’s laboratory. She joined Dr. Dirk Schnappinger’s laboratory at Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Weill Cornell Medicine in November 2017. At present, she is working on the metabolism of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, specifically biotin synthesis, in attempt to validate new drug targets for tuberculosis treatment.
Miroslav Skular
Miroslav is originally from Novi Sad, Serbia. After graduating from Bard College with a degree in biology in 2018 he worked in the neighboring Glickman Lab at the Sloan Kettering Institute. In late 2021 he joined the Schnappinger Lab as a staff associate where his main focus is being a member of the CRISPR drug profiling team. Outside of work some of his interests include volleyball, rugby, and rooting for the best team in the NHL, the New York Rangers.
Miljan Stupar
Miljan Stupar obtained his bachelor’s degree and doctorate in Microbiology and Immunology from The University of Queensland, Australia. His doctoral research focused on understanding the adaptive mechanisms of Mycobacterium tuberculosis during acid stress. In late 2023 he joined the Ehrt lab as a postdoctoral associate, where he studies the genetic foundations of paucibacillary infection and the mechanisms underpinning effective multi-drug regimens for tuberculosis. In his free time, he enjoys cycling, running and reading.
Prajna Tripathi
Prajna is originally from India. She pursued her Masters in Biotechnology from the School of Biotechnology, BHU (Banaras Hindu University) and later obtained her PhD from National Institute of Immunology, New Delhi, India in the year 2019. In her PhD, Prajna investigated the mechanisms by which ClpB - a refoldase chaperones of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, aids in its stress management. She joined the Ehrt-Schnappinger labs as a Postdoctoral Associate in January 2021. In her free time, Prajna enjoys cooking, walking in parks, reading, and talking to family and friends.
Carolina Trujillo Trujillo
Carolina grew up in Medellín, Colombia and received her Ph.D. in Microbiology from Boston University in 2009. She joined Dr. Sabine Ehrt’s Lab as a Postdoctoral Associate initially exploring the nutritional requirements of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) essential for establishing and maintaining a chronic infection. Since then, she has been contributing to multiple projects in the lab, including efforts to characterize mechanisms important for Mtb virulence, validation of new drug targets for tuberculosis, and identifying molecular processes that Mtb requires for paucibacillary persistence. Besides her research, she likes to keep the lab running and organized.
Valerie Vinette
Valerie obtained her bachelor’s in Microbiology and Immunology from McGill University, her master’s in Anatomy and Cell Biology from Sherbrooke University and her Ph.D. in Biochemistry from McGill University, Canada. During her Ph.D., she studied the role of protein tyrosine phosphatases in regulating the metabolism of colorectal cancer cells as well as their involvement in modulating macrophage immune responses. Having been very interested and intrigued by Mycobacterium tuberculosis ever since working in a TB lab during her undergrad, she decided to go back to her roots and thus joined the Ehrt lab as a postdoctoral associate in November 2020, where she plans on studying the immunometabolism of Mycobacterium tuberculosis. In her free time, she enjoys baking, playing board games, chilling with her cat Abigail and being outdoors.
Josh Wallach
Josh graduated from the University School of Milwaukee and New York University. He came to Weill Cornell in 2006. Josh is one of the original members of the Schnappinger lab. *Webmaster note: Josh is incredibly helpful when you need to troubleshoot cloning, and has been on every winning trivia team our lab has had.
Jessica Willdigg
Jessica was born and raised on Long Island, New York. She earned her bachelor’s degree in developmental genetics from Stony Brook University. Following her undergraduate education, she pursued a Fulbright fellowship at the University of Copenhagen where she studied stringent response in the laboratory of Dr. Kenn Gerdes. She then earned her PhD in molecular biology at Cornell University where she studied cell envelope stress responses in Bacillus subtilis in the laboratory of Dr. John Helmann. She joined the laboratory of Dr. Dirk Schnappinger as a postdoctoral associate in September 2023
Yuanyuan Xu
Yuanyuan Xu received her Ph.D. degree in Microbiology from China Agricultural university in 2016 and then she joined Prof. Guoping Zhao’s lab at Fudan University as a postdoctoral researcher, where she studied the mechanism of mycobacterial drug tolerance and pathogenesis. After that, she joined Global Health Drug Development Institute as a scientist, where she was responsible to develop and implement assays to study the mode of action of compound hits that target M. tuberculosis. Yuanyuan joined Prof. Sabine Ehrt’s lab in April 2021. As a postdoctoral associate, her work focuses on identification and characterization of new components of the energy metabolism in M. tuberculosis and evaluating their potential as drug targets.
Alumni
Former Members of the lab - Where did they go?
Kaj M. Kreutzfeldt - Research Associate in The Jill Roberts Institute, Weill Cornell Medicine
Natalie Thornton -
Daniel Sullivan - Data Application Engineer, Bowhead Specialty
Alexandra Haley Miller - Continuing her MD. Ph.D at Weill Cornell Medicine
Tiago Alfredo Rodrigues Beites - Assistant Researcher at i3S - U. Porto
Rodrigo Aguilera Olvera - Arizona State University, AZ
Yao Liu - PTC Therapeutics, NJ
Gina Kovalik - MD Ph.D. program at University of Pennsylvania, PA
Sara Lamcaj - Graduate school at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, NY
Ruojun Wang - Postdoctoral Research Associate at Princeton University, NJ
Sophie Lavalette-Levi - France
Anisha Zaveri - INSIGHT Data Science Fellow
Hongwei Su - Hengrui Medicine Co. Ltd, Jiangsu Province, China
Claire Healy - Trinity College Dublin, Ireland
Meredith Whitaker - Medical Writer, Alphabet Health, New York
Jia Kim - Fulgent Genetics, California
Yogesh Chawla, PhD - Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota
Tiffany Yu - Sidney Kimmel Medical College at Thomas Jefferson University, Pennsylvania
Jennifer McConnell - Food Lab Supervisor at NYC Department of Health & Mental Hygiene, New York
Helene Botella, PhD - Imperial College London, UK
Laure Botella, PhD - Senior Laboratory Research Scientist, The Francis Crick Institute, UK
Nadine Rucker, PhD - Freelance data analyst, Georgia
Paula Pino Tamayo - Research Associate at Texas Biomedical Research Institute, Texas
Jaclynn Andres - Rutgers University PhD Program, New Jersey
Israel Da Silva - Northwestern University PhD Program, Illinois
Kan Lin, PhD - Hengrui Medicine Co. Ltd, Jiangsu Province, China
Yonatan Akivis - SUNY Downstate College of Medicine, New York
Linnan Zhu, PhD - Institute of Precision Oncology, BGI, Shenzhen, China
Weizhen Xu, PhD - Postdoctoral Fellow at National Centre for Infectious Disease, Singapore
Shuang Song - University of Pennsylvania Nursing Program, Pennsylvania
Ritu Sharma, PhD - AveXis, Inc., New York
Jennifer Farrell - Georgia Tech PhD Program, Georgia
Natalia Betancourt - Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, New York
Uday Ganapathy, PhD - Senior Research Associate, Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine, New Jersey
Susan Puckett, PhD - University Medical Center, Utrecht, Netherlands
Divya Tiwari, PhD - The Wellcome Trust/DBT India Alliance, Delhi, India
Kathryn O’Brien, PhD - Senior Medical Director, The Scienomics Group, Massachusetts
Joeli Marrero, PhD - Freelance Science Writer, New York
Mercedes Monteleone, PhD - University of Queensland, Australia
Shaun Walters, PhD - University of Queensland, Australia
German Rehren, PhD - Director of Development & Innovation, Universidad Austral de Chile, Valdivia, Chile
Xiaoxiao Pan, PhD - Reviewer at Food and Drug Administration, Rockville, Maryland
Uday Tak - Graduate Student, Graduate Biomedical Sciences, University of Alabama
Sheetal Gandotra, PhD - Scientist at CSRI, Institute of Genomics & Integrative Biology, Delhi, India
Antje Blumenthal, PhD - Associate Professor, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia
Jee Hyun Kim, PhD - Clinical Project Manager, Silla-Jen Biotherapeutics, North Carolina
Toshi Odaira, PT - Physical Therapist/Resident, Body Gears Physical Therapy, Chicago area
Jen Small-Saunders, MD/PhD - Infectious Diseases Fellow, Columbia Uni. Medical Center, New York
Xinzheng Guo, PhD - Manager, Humane Immune Monitoring, Columbia Uni. Medical Center
Marcus Klotzsche, PhD - Max Rubner Institut, Germany
Nichole Goodsmith, MD/PhD - National Clinician Scholars Program, UCLA
Julian A. Ferreras, PhD - Director, Institute of Subtropical Biology (UNaM-CONICET), Argentina
Omar Vandal, PhD - Senior Program Officer, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Seattle
Maria B. Lebron - Principal Research Associate, Cancer Immunobiology at Eli Lilly and Company, NY
Anne Marie - Director at Guidehouse (formerly Navigant Consulting), New York
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