Valentina Greco d+email*
Valentina was born in Palermo, Italy. Valentina was an undergraduate at the University of Palermo, Italy, got her PhD at the EMBL / MPI-CBG (Germany) (1998-2002) and did her post-doc at the Rockefeller University (2003-2009). Valentina is currently a Professor in the Genetics, Cell Biology and Dermatology Departments, and a member of the Yale Stem Cell Center and Yale Cancer Center at the Yale School of Medicine (2009-present). Valentina has been the recipient of many awards, most recently the 2021 International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR) Momentum Award, the 2019 NIH Director’s Pioneer Award, the 2019 Yale Postdoctoral Mentoring Award, the 2018 Yale Graduate Mentor Award in the Natural Sciences, and in 2018 was named the Inaugural Holder of the Carolyn Slayman Endowed Professorship. Other awards can be found listed in the lab Honors Page.
Staff
d+email* Catherine Martone
Lab Manager
Catherine received her BS in biology from McGill University in 2001. She began her research in Dr. Warren Shlomchik’s lab at Yale immediately after graduation by studying the shared mechanisms of T cell killing in GVL against different models of chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) and comparing their stem cells with the goal of understanding why some leukemias are GVL-sensitive and others GVL-resistant. She remained in Dr. Shlomchik’s lab until joining the Greco Lab in July 2015 as their lab manager.
David Gonzalez d+email*
Lab Manager
Dave started working at Yale in 2004 as a Veterinary Technologist. After receiving his MHS from Quinnipiac University in 2008, he took over management of the In Vivo Imaging Facility here at Yale. There he specialized in developing and implementing novel surgical approaches utilizing two-photon microscopy to conduct 4D imaging studies in various model systems and tissues. Simultaneously, he also conducted his own research under Dr. Ann Haberman studying B cell differentiation during the early germinal center response. He joined the Greco lab in November 2015 after many years of successful collaborations.
d+email* David Monedero-Alonso
Research Development Fellow
David was born in Segovia, Spain. He got his BSc and MSc degrees in Biotechnology at the European University of Madrid and the Autonomous University of Madrid. He did his PhD at Sorbonne University in France, where he delved into ion channels on human red cells in the lab of Stéphane Égée. He started his postdoctoral studies at Yale in late 2020, working on sensory physiology in Bagriantsev lab. David joined the Greco Lab in January 2024. He is excited to help drive science and support the labs’ projects with quill and ink!
Students
d+email* Anush Swaminathan
MD/PhD Student
Anush grew up in India and did his high schooling in New Jersey. He graduated from Boston University in 2018 with a double major in Philosophy and Biology, joining the Yale MD-PhD program in the Fall of 2019. During undergrad, he studied cellular core clock complexes in mammalian cells in the lab of Chuck Weitz at Harvard Medical School. Anush joined the Greco lab in October of 2021 and is interested in understanding more about cell-cell communication in the dermis; especially in regards to calcium signaling between endothelial cells and fibroblasts.
Post-graduate Student
Deandra received her B.S in Biology and minor in Spanish in 2022 from Fayetteville State University in North Carolina. There she worked in a biochemistry lab where she studied reproductive proteins of bovines and hamsters. She initially joined the Greco lab as an AMGEN scholar in the summer of 2021 where she worked on a project focused on delineating the interactions between fibroblasts, the basement membrane, and basal cells in the skin. She has now returned to the lab as a post-graduate trainee where she will continue to investigate the relationship between these different structural components.
PhD Student
Ingrid received her B.S. in Cell Biology and her B.A. in Humanities from the University of California, San Diego (UCSD). Following graduation, she worked at the Sanford Consortium for Regenerative Medicine at UCSD as a research associate and contributed to studies on how cellular stressors affect progression of epithelial cancers. Ingrid started her PhD studies at Yale in Fall 2022 and joined the Greco Lab in March 2023. She is interested in understanding how oncogenic mutations affect stem cell dynamics and broader tissue architecture within the skin epithelium.
PhD Student
Jason is an international student from China. He received his B.S. in Biological Sciences from UC Irvine, where he initially started interfacing with epidermal and hair follicle stem cell in the lab of Bogi Andersen. After he obtained his M.Eng. degree in Biomedical Engineering from Cornell University, he worked in the lab of Calvin Kuo at Stanford, where he helped develop a novel organoid model and examined intestinal stem cell and niche interactions. In May 2023, Jason joined the Greco lab as a Ph.D. student to explore the role of transcriptomic dynamics in shaping the identity and decision-making of stem cells in the skin.
PhD Student
Han received her B.S. in Biology from Haverford College, where her senior thesis examined how a bacterial-signaling molecule mediates the interactions between marine phytoplankton and virus. She then joined the lab of Shirin Bahmanyar at Yale as a postgraduate researcher to investigate the mechanisms of nuclear envelope reformation and sealing in C. elegans. Curious to bridge the gap between intracellular molecular events and tissue level cell behavior, Han joined the Greco lab in May 2024 as a PhD student. Her project aims to couple transcript dynamics with protein localization to better understand how the decision-making and synchronization of cells are regulated, using the skin as model system.
Hilldana Tibebu
Undergraduate
Hilldana was born in Memphis, TN. She graduated high school from the Mississippi School for Mathematics and Science in Columbus, MS and is pursuing her B.S. in Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology at Yale (‘27). She joined the Greco lab in May 2024 as a Science, Technology and Research Scholar to help investigate the manner and mechanisms of collagen deposition in the skin under the mentorship of Dr. Isabella Gaeta.
Postdocs
Research Scientist
Tianchi is from China. He received his B.S. degree in biology from Nanjing Normal University in 2006. Then he did research in stem cell and developmental biology in Shanghai Jiao Tong University and received his Ph.D. degree in 2014. Tianchi joined the Greco Lab in May 2014. He is interested in studying the signaling mechanisms underlying hair follicle regeneration and stem cell regulation by molecular and genetic methods.
Associate Research Scientist
Anupama received her B.S. in Zoology from Kerala, India and M.S. in Molecular and Human Genetics from BHU, India. During her PhD, at the interface of cell and developmental biology at NCBS, Bangalore, India, Anupama discovered the involvement of a novel endocytic pathway in Wingless (Wnt) internalization and signaling. While deciphering the cellular events that modulate Wnt signaling, she was fascinated by the convergence of cell fate signals with pathways involved in anabolic growth. Anupama joined the Greco lab in August 2017 and plans to explore the principles of growth and homeostasis underlying tolerance to mutations in normal tissue.
d+email* Chen Kam
Associate Research Scientist
Chen is from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and received his B.S. in Biochemistry from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He carried out his doctoral work in the lab of Kathleen Green at Northwestern University where he studied the role of desmosomes in the regulation of gap junctions in cardiocutaneous models. Chen joined the Greco lab in August 2018, and he is interested in studying the dermal vasculature in the context of hair follicle regeneration.
Postdoctoral Associate
Bella received her B.S in Cell and Molecular Biology from the University of Michigan and her Ph.D. from Vanderbilt University in the department of Cell and Developmental Biology. During her graduate work she characterized how epithelial cells assemble microvilli on their apical surface using direct visualization by live cell microscopy. She joined the Greco lab in March 2023 to further understand how individual cell dynamic behaviors are coordinated at the tissue level, and plans to study the molecular regulation of dermal fibroblasts.
d+email* Grace Tartaglia
Postdoctoral Associate
Grace earned her undergraduate degree in Chemistry from New York University, her master's degree in Biomedical Science from Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, and her PhD from Thomas Jefferson University in the Department of Dermatology and Cutaneous Biology. She carried out her master's work in the lab of Dr. Chi-Wei Lu studying induced pluripotent stem cells in the etiology of autism, and conducted her doctoral work in the lab of Dr. Andrew South investigating fibrosis prevention in recessive dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa through therapeutic repurposing in primary patient fibroblasts and murine models of epidermolysis bullosa. Grace joined the Greco lab in May 2024 to study the interplay between the basement membrane and vasculature in the context of homeostasis and development of the skin.
Administrative Support
Vanessa Gonzalez-Rivera d+email*
Senior Administrative Assistant
Vanessa Gonzalez was born in Puerto Rico and moved to United states in 2003. Since then, she has been working as an administrative assistant for both Universities and the k-12 system. Vanessa has a passion for social justice and believes in the words of Mandela, "Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world". She joined the Yale community and the Genetics department in July of 2023. She is happy and excited to support the day-to-day operations of the Greco Lab so they can focus on changing the world while she takes care of everything else!