Current members of the Ehrt and Schnappinger labs
Xiaoxian An (Sally)
Research Associate
Sally grew up in Dalian, China, and completed her PhD studies at the University of Cincinnati in Pharmaceutical Sciences. Sally’s previous research experience was mainly in neuroscience, including developing biomaterials for peripheral nerve repair and discovering rapid-acting antidepressants. She was introduced to immunology when working as a research associate on B cell lymphoma at Weill Cornell before joining the Schnappinger lab in April 2024. Even though from a different background, Sally is still fascinated by the intricate disease mechanisms and the challenges in developing new therapies. Sally also really enjoys working on a project on the molecular and genetic levels, besides her familiarity with animal behaviors. Outside the lab, she likes to walk dogs in the park, explore new coffee shops, practice yoga, and rock climb.
Arka Banerjee
Instructor
Arka is originally from Kolkata, India. After completing his MSc from the Department of Biotechnology, University of Calcutta, Kolkata, Arka obtained his Ph.D from the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore, under the guidance of Professor Sandhya S. Visweswariah. He joined the Schnappinger laboratory 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.
Lauren Carpenter
Administrative Coordinator
After completing a Bachelor of Biomedical Science (2018), Lauren developed an interest in science education, earning a Bachelor of Science (Hons I) (2020) and a Ph.D. in Science Education (2025) from The University of Queensland, Australia. Her research focused on how universities can better support science graduates in pursuing and succeeding in diverse career pathways beyond research and medicine.
Lauren joined the lab in 2025 as an Administrative Coordinator, supporting Dr. Ehrt in her role as Chair, and contributing to the broader administrative operations of the Department of Microbiology & Immunology. Passionate about problem-solving, building relationships and supporting academic research, Lauren enjoys helping her colleagues navigate challenges to achieve their goals. Outside of work, she enjoys reading, attending concerts, and spending time with her husband and friends.
Anthony Castro
Research Scientist
Anthony received his Bachelors 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.
Kathryn Eckartt
Postdoctoral Associate
Kathryn grew up on Long Island, New York and earned her undergraduate degree in biochemistry from Stony Brook University. She then joined the lab of Jeremy Rock at The Rockefeller University for her PhD. There she studied mechanisms causing and compensating for the growth defect of Mycobacterium tuberculosis resistant to the front-line antibiotic Rifampicin. She joined the Schnappinger lab in February 2025, where she is exploring host-pathogen interactions and strengthening her computational skills. In her free time, she enjoys running, knitting, and horror movies.
Alexandre Gouzy
Assistant Professor
Alexandre Gouzy obtained his Ph.D. in Microbiology from the University of Toulouse, France. During his Ph.D., 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). Alex first joined the Ehrt laboratory in 2014 as a postdoctoral associate, where he investigates the contribution of bacterial nutrition and metabolism in the resistance against immunity and anti-tuberculosis drugs.
Moritz Kayser
Postdoctoral Associate
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
Research Coordinator
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.
Stephanie Kim
Scientific Administrator
Steph grew up in Queens, New York, and has an interdisciplinary background in public health, epidemiology, and toxicogenomics. She earned her Ph.D. in Environmental Health and has experience working in both academic and government institutions. Steph joined the Ehrt & Schnappinger Labs in 2026 as a scientific administrator. Outside of the lab, she enjoys reading, listening to an eclectic mix of music, learning languages, spending time with family, and traveling with her husband.
Eonmin Ko
Postdoctoral Associate
Eonmin Ko grew up in Busan, South Korea. She received her Ph.D. in Microbiology from Pusan National University. Before joining the Ehrt-Schnappinger Lab as a Postdoctoral Associate in 2024, she was a postdoctoral fellow at the Korea National Institute of Health, where she studied bacterial persistence in Staphylococcus aureus and Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Her current research focuses on the genetics, metabolism, and pathogenesis of Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Outside the lab, she enjoys knitting and caring for houseplants.
Hana Lee
Research Associate
Hana 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 April 2018 and now is working on a project for identification and characterization of genes involved in the utilization of biotin in Mycobacterium tuberculosis.
Hannah Liu
Graduate Student
Hannah grew up in the Bay Area in California, where she completed her bachelor's degree at UC Berkeley in Molecular and Cell Biology with a minor in Global Public Health. In undergrad, she delved into regulatory signaling pathways in Arabidopsis stem cells. After graduating, she worked in Dr. Kyu Rhee's lab as a research technician where she investigated the genetic and metabolic adaptations of M. tuberculosis to aerosolization. In 2025, she joined Sabine Ehrt’s lab as a PhD student, where she will explore how transcriptional networks facilitate antibiotic resilience in TB. Outside of the lab, she enjoys baking bread, birdwatching and traveling the world.
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.
Di Qu
Research Associate
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.
Kaushik Raman
Bioinformatics Analyst
Kaushik, originally from Chennai, India. Kaushik obtained my bachelor's in biotechnology from Anna University, Chennai, during which he worked at IISc, studying the causal effect of STRs in dementia. Kaushik received his master's in Biology with a specialization in Bioinformatics from New York University. For his master's research, Kaushik created an R package that takes annotation data for orthologous species and creates a database to better understand organisms and their genes. In his free time, Kaushik enjoys cooking, playing badminton and going on walks across the city.
Akshay Sabnis
Postdoctoral Associate
Akshay grew up in London, and rather originally, spent a large part of his scientific life at Imperial College London. His research there centred on antibiotic resistance, focussing on antimicrobial peptides during his PhD, and then on the evolution of AMR through mobile genetic elements and bacteriophages during a short post-doc. Having overcome his attachment issues, he joined the Ehrt lab in 2026 with a growing interest in host immunity and how this shapes tuberculosis drug treatment. In addition to his lab work, Akshay enjoys supervising students (if you can’t do, teach?) and outreach activities. Outside the lab, Akshay spends most of his time chatting. He has also, apparently quite seriously, been training for many years to play squash in the Olympics – a goal made considerably more realistic by the sport’s recent inclusion in the 2028 LA Olympic Games.
Sai Seshabhattaru
Research Technician
Sai Lakshmi Prasanna S. earned her M.S. in Biotechnology and Bioinformatics from California State University Channel Islands. Her previous research focused on kidney disease and immunology, where she developed expertise in molecular biology, cell culture, and imaging techniques. She is currently a Research Technician in the Ehrt and Schnappinger lab at Weill Cornell Medicine, studying the biology and pathogenesis of Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Outside the lab, she enjoys discovering new coffee shops, taking long walks, and getting lost in a good book.
Miljan Stupar
Postdoctoral Associate
Miljan Stupar obtained his bachelors 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
Postdoctoral Associate
Prajna is originally from India. She pursued her Masters in Biotechnology from the School of Biotechnology, BHU (Banaras Hindu University) and later obtained her Ph.D. from National Institute of Immunology, New Delhi, India in 2019. In her Ph.D., 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.
Yuanyuan Xu
Postdoctoral Associate
Yuanyuan Xu received her Ph.D. 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 (Mtb). Yuanyuan joined the Ehrt lab in April 2021 as a postdoctoral associate. Her work focuses on identification and characterization of new components of the energy metabolism in Mtb and evaluating their potential as drug targets.
Carolina Trujillo
Senior Research Associate
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.
Josh Wallach
Senior Research Scientist
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.
Alumni
Former Members of the lab - Where did they go?
Harman Singh Bansal, Ph.D. -
Jessica Willdigg, Ph.D. - Editor, Scientific Reports
Valerie Vinette, Ph.D. -
Luming Chan - M.D. Ph.D. Program at Albert Einstein College of Medicine
Ruoyao Ma, Ph.D. -
Arwa Alharbi -
Thais Klevorn, Ph.D. -
Frances Marks, Ph.D. - Grant Strategist, Columbia University Irving Medical Center
Kaj M. Kreutzfeldt - Research Associate in The Jill Roberts Institute, Weill Cornell Medicine
Natalie Thornton - Bioinformatician at Neochromosome, Inc.
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, Ph.D. - Assistant Professor of Microbiology, University of Virginia
Sheetal Gandotra, PhD - Scientist at CSRI, Institute of Genomics & Integrative Biology, Delhi, India
Antje Blumenthal, PhD - Professor, Centre Director of Australian Infectious Diseases Research Centre, The University of Queensland, Australia
Jee Hyun Kim, PhD - Consultant, Clinical Science, CG Oncology, MN
Toshi Odaira, PT - Women’s Health Physical Therapist, Northwestern Medicine, Chicago
Jen Small-Saunders, MD/PhD - Assistant Professor of Medicine, Columbia University Irving Medical Center, New York
Xinzheng Guo, PhD - Senior Principal Scientist, Genentech, San Fransisco, CA
Marcus Klotzsche, PhD - Max Rubner Institut, Germany
Nichole Goodsmith, MD/PhD - Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, UCLA
Julian A. Ferreras, Ph.D. - Scientist, Institute of Subtropical Biology (UNaM-CONICET), Argentina
Omar Vandal, Ph.D. - Principal Technologist, Accelerator, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Seattle
Maria B. Lebron - Senior Principal Scientist, Mechanistic Biology, Loxo Oncology at Lilly, NY
Anne Marie - Director at Guidehouse (formerly Navigant Consulting), New York