Peshkin is a co-investigator with Prof. Marc Kirschner on two projects funded by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development: "Systems Analysis of cell type differentiation in Xenopus development" and "Proteomics of Cell Signaling in Embryogenesis". Peshkin's research interests include embryology, evolution and aging. He is particularly excited about informing experimental design by the Bayesian analysis framework.

Peshkin's research in systems biology was covered in press releases from HMS [1][2][3]. Leon's research on applications of Artificial Intelligence to biology of aging has been highlighted in an interview with the Life Extension Advocacy Foundation [4].

Education: Peshkin received his M.S. in Applied Mathematics from the Weizmann Institute of Science. He moved to the US to study at the Brown University towards PhD in Artificial Intelligence. He followed his PhD advisor Prof. Leslie Kaelbling to MIT AI lab where he worked on his dissertation “Reinforcement Learning via Policy Search”. 

Michael Gage, PhD | Lab Manager

I am currently in charge of lab safety and organization. I also help people with various projects, such as cell culture, cloning, and assay development. I also do small mechanical and electronics repairs for the lab on various instruments. I also handle ordering and plasmid or antibody requests for the lab.

Bai Luan, PhD

As a biochemist and structural biologist, I possess a deep understanding and extensive experience in the field of ubiquitin-proteasome mediated protein degradation. Currently, my research focuses on elucidating the regulatory mechanisms of essential proteins in the Wnt signaling pathway. In addition, I employ an integrative approach involving systems biology (multi-omics techniques, etc.) to identify novel downstream target genes of the Wnt signaling pathway. Furthermore, by combining protein biochemistry and classical structural biology methods (crystallography and cryo-EM) plus the cutting-edge AI tools in predicting 3D-protein structure, my teammates and I aim to unravel the molecular mechanisms underlying these novel genes. Some of these genes could be targeted for therapeutic intervention in diseases where Wnt signaling is dysregulated, like the colorectal cancer.

Xili Liu, PhD

My research focuses on cell growth regulation in mammalian cells. Cell growth plays an indispensable role in physiological and developmental functions of life, such as size homeostasis and embryonic development. Inappropriate growth regulation is observed in the overwhelming majority of human cancers. Understanding the mechanism of growth regulation may provide us insights to a variety of cell behaviors and suggest novel therapeutic strategies for diseases involving growth disorder. Since most cell mass attributes to protein, I am trying to understand how cell size and growth rate feedback to each other through protein synthesis and degradation by using quantitative optical methods such as stimulated Raman spectroscopy and quantitative phase microscopy.

Ahmed Rattani, PhD

Bio Coming Soon!

Bio Coming Soon!

Meghan Van Orden

Meghan is the Executive Assistant to the Chair. She is a graduate of University of Massachusetts at Amherst.