ALUMNI
Sara Gallini
Assistant Professor, EPFL, Switzerland
Sara was a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Greco Lab from 2016 to 2024. While she was initially interested in elucidating the cellular behaviors that promote skin cancer initiation during the wound repair process, her work instead identified key cellular and molecular mechanisms that suppress skin cancer initiation during the wound repair process.
Parmesh Thakoordial
Undergraduate, University of Albany, USA
Parmesh spent the summer of 2024 in the Greco lab as a Yale Amgen Scholar. For his research project he worked in collaboration with Tianchi Xin to investigate the role of immune cells during oncogenic initiation.
Ishani Singh
Post-graduate Adventures
Ishani was an undergraduate student in the Greco lab from 2020 to 2024. In collaboration with Chen Kam, she studied capillary network development and maintenance in the paw of neonatal and adult mice. Their work illuminated some of the fundamental mechanisms that underlie both vascular maturation and adult homeostasis in vivo.
Shuangshuang Du
Scientific Programs Manager, International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR)
Shuangshuang was a PhD student in the Greco lab from 2019 to 2024. In collaboration with Isabella Gaeta, she discovered that fibroblasts inhibit basal stem cell proliferation at neonatal stages but promote basal stem cell proliferation in adult mice. These findings highlight the complex and dynamic nature of fibroblast-epithelial cell interactions, suggesting that functional relationships between stem cells and their niche can change over time.
Isaiah Diggs
Undergraduate, Pennsylvania State University, USA
Isaiah spent the summer of 2023 in the Greco lab as part of the Yale BioMed SURF program. For his research project he worked in collaboration with Anush Swaminathan to better understand the mechanisms of endothelial vessel regression, vasculature maturation, and anti-angiogenic action.
Alice Matthews
** Retired **
Alice was an administrative assistant in the Greco Lab from 2017 to 2023 where she helped out with the day to day operations. Now retired, she’s looking forward to traveling and enjoying some well deserved relaxation!
Lauren Gonzalez
Assistant Director or Scientific Communications, Yale University, USA
Lauren was a research development fellow in the Greco Lab from 2021 to 2023. While her efforts were primarily focused on enhancing the labs research communications through grant development and manuscript construction, she also helped orchestrate the labs exploration into incorporating inclusive studies into our daily practices and study.
Haoyang Wei
Postdoctoral Associate, Yale, USA
Haoyang was a PhD student in the Greco lab from 2018 to 2023. During his tenure he focused his research on the dermal papillae during hair follicle cycling. In this context he discovered that the niche architecture plays a roll in optimizing both the organs efficiency and function during cycling.
Jessica Moore
Postdoctoral Associate, Duke, USA
Jess was a PhD student in the Greco lab from 2017 to 2023. In her research she explored patterns of calcium signaling in the basal stem cell layer of murine skin. In doing so she developed an unsupervised machine learning method called Geometric Scattering Trajectory Homology (GSTH), to capture and utilize spatial and temporal calcium signaling patterns for comparison between cells.
Smirthy Ganesan
Administrative fellow at UCLA Health, USA
Smirthy was a student intern in the Greco lab from 2019 to 2023. During her time in the lab she collaborated on a number of projects, primarily with Jessica Moore, Katie Cockburn and Anupama Hemalatha, each resulting in a publication. Her efforts extended beyond this as well as she provided addition support to other lab staff, post-docs and students.
Dennis May
Field Applications Scientist, IsoPlex, USA
Denny was a PhD student in the Greco lab from 2018 to 2023. Together with Sangwon Yun he established a novel quantitative pipeline that revealed how stem cell chromatin compaction changes through differentiation along with a cells transcriptional state. He also developed novel fluorescent reporter mice that allow for tracking of Keratin 10 and Keratin 14 transcription in live animals over time.
Sangwon Yun
MD Candidate, Yale, USA
Sangwon was a PhD student in the Greco Lab from 2019 to 2023. Initially he studied the interplay between b-catenin mutant stem cells and their wild type neighbors in the epidermis before switching directions to work with Dennis May. Together they explored a novel quantitative pipeline that revealed how stem cell chromatin compaction changes through differentiation along with a cells transcriptional state.
Katherine Cockburn
Assistant Professor, McGill, Canada
Katie was a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Greco Lab from 2015 to 2022. She utilized frequent revisits in her imaging to follow individual stem cell fates over days in murine skin. In combination with complex mathematically modeling she expanded our understanding of how epidermal stem cells orchestrate and balance self-renewal and differentiation to maintain homeostasis in adult murine skin.
Elizabeth Lathrop
MD/PhD Candidate, University of Buffalo, USA
Elizabeth was a research technician in the Greco lab from 2018 to 2022 and contributed to multiple projects by providing support both in wet lab applications and in downstream image based analysis.
Karen Tai
MS Candidate, Oxford University, England
Karen was an undergraduate/graduate student at Yale while in the Greco lab from 2018 to 2021. She worked primarily on better understanding the relationship between homeostasis and cancer, contributing to projects by Cristiana Pineda, Sara Gallini and Anupama Hemalatha throughout her tenure. She is now continuing her studies at Oxford University pursuing a Master’s Degree in Global Health Science & Epidemiology.
Sangbum Park
Assistant Professor, MSU, USA
Sangbum was a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Greco Lab from 2013 to 2019 and established our experimental approach to study epidermal stem cells in the skin during wound healing through intravital imaging. He discovered that highly proliferative stem cells directionally divide towards the wound while migrating with differentiated cells, both of which functionally participate in the wound repair process.
Edward Marsh
Postdoctoral Associate, Yale, USA
Edward was a PhD student in the Greco Lab from 2015 to 2019 and was the first to apply our techniques of intravital imaging of epithelial cells to the dermal fibroblast population. He discovered that mammalian fibroblasts remain in a stable position over the lifetime of the individual and, when lost, are not replaced during aging. Instead, dynamic fibroblast membrane projections extend to fill spaces created from lost neighboring fibroblasts.
Jonathan Boucher
PhD Candidate, Northwestern University, USA
Jonathan was a research assistant in the Greco Lab from 2014 to 2018 and while his primary efforts were to ensure the lab constantly functioned smoothly, he also simultaneously contributed to multiple projects throughout his tenure.
Cristiana Pineda
MD Candidate, Georgetown University, USA
Cristiana was a PhD student in the Greco Lab from 2014 to 2018 and focused her efforts on studying mutant clones within the adult murine epidermis. Expanding on her work studying beta-catenin mutants with Samara Brown, she discovered that Hras mutant cells in the hair follicle drive enhanced homeostatic mechanisms that act to suppress oncogenic growth by integrating the mutant cells into the tissue.
Donna Karpel
Senior Administrative Assistant, Yale, USA
Donna was an administrative assistant in the Greco Lab from 2010 to 2017 where she helped out with the day to day operations.
Samara Brown
Lab Manager, Rockefeller University, USA
Samara was a PhD student in the Greco Lab from 2014 to 2017 who focused her efforts on studying beta-catenin mutants within adult murine epidermis. Along with Cristiana Pineda, she helped reveal how the skin epithelium is capable of eliminating aberrant structures, irrespective of their size, to re-establish normal tissue architecture and function through normal homeostatic processes.
Kailin Mesa
Postdoctoral Associate, NYU, USA
Kai was a PhD student in the Greco Lab from 2013 to 2017 and focused his efforts on understanding the interplay between the hair follicle and surrounding tissues during tissue growth and regression and the spatiotemporal coordination of stem cell commitment during epidermal homeostasis.
Kathleen Suozzi
Assistant Professor, Yale, USA
Katie was a Dermatology Fellow in the Greco Lab from 2015 to 2016 and was interested in cutaneous oncology and identifying novel therapeutic targets for squamous cell carcinoma while working closely with Samara Brown and Cristiana Pineda. She continues to attend Greco Lab meetings and provides medical perspective to ongoing projects in the lab as her schedule permits.
Peggy Myung
Assistant Professor, Yale, USA
Peggy was a Dermatopath Fellow in the Greco Lab from 2012 to 2016 and interrogated how Wnt/b-catenin regulates stem cells and the growth process in the hair follicle. She discovered, in collaboration with Elizabeth Deschene, that beta-catenin acts non-cell-autonomously to fuel tissue growth.
Thomas Sun
MD Residency Internal Medicine, Stanford, USA
Thomas was a MD student at Yale while in the Greco Lab from 2013 to 2016 and worked with Peggy to interrogated how Wnt/b-catenin regulates stem cells and the growth process in the hair follicle, as well as, explored the tumor environment in basal cell carcinomas.
Pantelis Rompolas
Assistant Professor, UPenn, USA
Pantelis was a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Greco Lab from 2011 to 2015 and established our current approach to utilize intravital microscopy to study the behavior of stem cells in vivo. He discovered how spatial organization within a niche can act as a determinant of stem cell fate and demonstrated, in collaboration with Kai Mesa, that epidermal stem cells have equal potential to either divide or directly differentiate.
Enrico Ferro
MD Candidate 2018, Harvard, USA
Enrico was an undergraduate student at Yale while in the Greco Lab from 2013 to 2014 and worked with Gianni to investigate how skin tumors can regress and what role stem cells and their signaling play in this process. In 2018 Enrico began training in internal medicine at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.
Giovanni Zito
Researcher, ISMETT , Palermo, Italy
Gianni was a Postdoctoral Associate in the Greco Lab from 2010 to 2014 and investigated how skin tumors can regress and what role stem cells and their signaling play in this process. He discovered, how spontaneous tumor regression in keratoacanthomas is driven by Wnt /Retinoic Acid signaling cross-talk.
Markus Wolfel
Research Engineer, MAG and More, Germany
Markus worked as a Postdoctoral Associate in the Greco Lab from 2013 to 2014 as an engineer and technology expert who helped to develop new technologies based on multiphoton microscopy.
Elizabeth Deschene Jacox
Postdoctoral Associate, Yale, USA
Elizabeth was a PhD student in the Greco Lab from 2010 to 2014 and focused her efforts on understanding stem cell activation within the hair follicle. She discovered, in collaboration with Peggy Myung, that beta-catenin acts non-cell-autonomously to fuel tissue growth.
Ichiko Saotome
Lab Manager, UC San Diego, USA
Ichiko was a lab manager in the Greco Lab from 2010 to 2014 and was responsible for ensuring that things ran smoothly while supporting the numerous projects ongoing in the lab as it grew.
Craig Cromer
Undergraduate, Virginia Tech, USA
Craig was a summer intern in the Greco Lab in 2011 and worked with Pantelis Rompolas exploring the principles of homeostatic hair follicle regeneration. Afterwards he returned to Virginia Tech to finish pursuing his bachelor's degree.
Sarah Selem
Undergraduate, Yale, USA
Sarah was a summer intern in the Greco Lab in 2010 and worked with Elizabeth Deschene Jacox to better understand stem cell activation in the hair follicle. Afterwards she continued to pursue her bachelor’s degree at Yale.