Kelly Brock, Associate Research Director

Kelly spent her PhD studying the evolution of protein stress response in the England group at MIT. As a joint postdoc between the Marks and Sander groups, she applies evolutionary couplings analysis both to predict protein structures de novo and to enable better fold and alternate conformation analysis from NMR and X-ray crystallography. Additionally, she works on Pathway Commons biological applications and analysis tools. When not trying to bend computers to do her bidding, she enjoys playing pub trivia and coaching cheerleading.
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Postdocs

Jonathan Frazer

Jonny's background is in theoretical physics. His previous work included developing computational tools for testing theories of the very early universe, as well as pioneering the use of information theory and probabilistic modelling for studying cosmic inflation in string theory. His love of high-dimensional probability and information theory has now brought him to the data-rich world of genomics.
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Mafalda Dias

Mafalda is a theoretical physicist who recently became interested in computational biology. Before joining Debbie’s lab she worked at the border between cosmology and string theory. She now develops new probabilistic models of sequence data to understand the map from sequence to function and the effect of genetic variation.
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Nikki Thadani

Nikki spent her PhD applying synthetic biology principles to the task of engineering viruses for gene therapy. Years of synthesizing and testing capsid mutants inspired her interest in data-driven prtoein engineering and synthetic evolution. Outside of lab, she enjoys taking her mini-schnauzer on pup adventures around Boston.
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Noor Youssef

Noor's background is in math and biology and she has been working at the interface of these two disciplines since her undergrad. Her PhD work was on understanding how epistasis shapes protein evolution and how it might bias our inference of evolutionary parameters. She's looking forward to joining the Marks' lab in the Fall and decoding more of nature's hidden messages.
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Graduate Students

Aaron Kollasch, Biological and Biomedical Sciences

Aaron is a PhD student in the BBS program. He is interested in learning from observed sequences to design new biomolecules.
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Tessa D. Green, Biophysics

Tessa studied Physics as an undergraduate at MIT, where she spent far too much time in dark rooms trapping ions. After a brief flirtation with molecular biology and some quality time spent pipetting, she decided to reture to her mathematical roots. She is now a Biophysics graduate student interested in how cells and scientists interpret noisy data.
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Ada Shaw, Applied Math

Ada is a graduate student in the School of Applied Science and Engineering. She comes from UC Berkeley where she worked on raising Ammonia-Oxidizing Bacteria. After spending her first year in graduate school with atmospheric chemistry models she decided to apply her modeling experience to her original interest in biology.
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Alan Amin, Systems, Synthetic, and Quantitative Biology

Alan is a second year PhD student in the Systems Biology program in the Marks lab with a background in mathematics and biochemistry.
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Rose Orenbuch, Systems, Synthetic, and Quantitative Biology

Coming from a background in computer science and biology, Rose is a second year Systems Biology graduate student in the Marks lab.
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Sam Berry, Biophysics

Sam is a Biophysics PhD student interested in relating protein structure and evolution. When not daydreaming about proteins, he likes to write, escape to the mountains, and spend quality time with his cat, Linus Pawling.
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Sarah Gurev, MIT EECS

Sarah Gurev is a PhD student at MIT in EECS. She studied computer science as an undergraduate at Stanford, where she focused on projects in structural biology and healthcare. She enjoys reading in her free time.
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Han Spinner, Biological and Biomedical Sciences

Han is a PhD student in BBS in the Marks Lab. Previously, Han studied Genetics and Plant Biology at UC Berkeley and did CRISPR protein + RNA engineering. They’re excited about the intersection of machine learning and big biological molecules. They are thrilled to join the Marks Lab for their PhD! Beyond the impactful biologically-driven machine learning research, they believe this lab fosters an environment of love and inclusivity that is quite special!!
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Steffan Paul, Bioinformatics and Integrative Genomics

Steffan studied Molecular and Cellular Biology in their undergraduate at Harvard College. After a brief time in Biotech, they crossed the river to start their PhD in the Bioinformatics and Integrative Genomics program at HMS. When away from their computer, they enjoy sipping hot coffee over a book in a local cafe.
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Daniel Kassler, Bioinformatics and Integrative Genomics

Daniel used to be a theoretical mathematician, but after a brief stint in public policy research and a bite from a radioactive geneticist he has now fully embraced the life sciences. He’s interested in using statistics and synthetic biology to tackle the most important environmental, health, and climate issues facing the planet. Outside of lab, Daniel is an avid bird lover, board gamer, and nature enthusiast.
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Courtney Shearer, Systems, Synthetic, and Quantitative Biology

Courtney explored computer science and genomics at Clemson University, Zymergen, and CRISPRtx before joining the Systems Biology Program at Harvard. She is excited to continue research on machine learning for genomics and improve approaches for experimental design for high throughput assays.
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Staff

Lood van Niekerk, Associate Researcher

Lood is working as a research associate with the Marks Lab for a year. He previously collaborated with the Marks Lab while studying Masters in Computer Science at Oxford. In his spare time, he enjoys playing the piano and drums.
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Srihari Ganesh, Undergraduate Researcher

Srihari is an undergraduate studying Chemical and Physical Biology & Statistics at Harvard College. He's interested in computational approaches to macromolecular structure. Outside (and inside) of lab, you can find him watching an endless stream of YouTube videos and snacking on anything within walking distance.
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