Members – The Gresham Lab

Principal Investigator

David Gresham
Professor of Biology

dgresham@nyu.edu

Professor David Gresham is a biologist interested in adaptive evolution, cell growth and quiescence, and gene expression regulation. David began as an Assistant Professor in the Center for Genomics and Systems Biology in the Department of Biology at NYU in 2009. From 2004 – 2009, David was a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of David Botstein at Princeton University. From 2001 – 2004 David was a Research Editor at Nature Genetics. In 2001, David completed a PhD in human genetics at Edith Cowan University in Perth, Australia under the mentorship of Luba Kalaydjieva. David’s doctoral thesis on medical and population genetics of the Romani people is available here. David obtained a BSc from McGill University in Montreal, Canada with a major in Biochemistry and a minor in Prehistoric Archaeology. At NYU, David teaches classes in human genetics, statistics, and computational biology, is the faculty director of bioinformatics and the co-director of the NIH-supported QBIST PhD training program. In 2022 Professor Gresham was appointed Vice Dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.

Lab Manager

Ina Suresh

ixs201@nyu.edu

Ina is the Lab Manager for the Gresham Lab and a research technician working on yeast and synthetic biology projects. Ina obtained a BSc in Biology from NYU and was a student in the Build A Genome course.

Post-Doctoral Fellows

Pieter Spealman

ps163@nyu.edu

Pieter’s research is focused on the evolution of post-transcriptional regulation of gene expression and the role these dynamic regulatory pathways play in adaptation.

Ying Xie

yx2550@nyu.edu

Ying is interested in cellular crowding and proteomic remodeling when cells enter quiescent state in response of nutrient starvation. Ying is co-mentored by Liam Holt at NYU medical school,

Saaz Sakrikar

saaz@nyu.edu

Saaz is interested in defining quiescence, cell memory of starvation, and implications of copy number variants.

Ernesto Segredo Otero

es6393@nyu.edu

Ernesto is interested in viral evolution and host response.

Doctoral Students

Julie Chuong

jc10007@nyu.edu

I’m interested in the evolution of complex traits, natural variation, and quantitative genetics and genomics. Julie is supported by an NSF GRFP.

Ozan Imir

obi203@nyu.edu

I am interested in understanding quiescence mechanisms in pathogenic yeast species.

Titir De

td2101@nyu.edu

I am interested in adaptive evolution through copy number variation, the effect of environmental variations on phenotypic changes, and quantitative genetics through statistical methods.

Akriti Agrawal

aa9679@nyu.edu

I am interested in genetic and non-genetic mechanisms of antifungal drug resistance

Masters Students

Jiyue Yan

jy4294@nyu.edu

Jiyue recently completed his Masters degree at NYU and is studying the functional consequences of CNVs.

Undergraduate Students

Aniya Chojar

Aniya is an undergraduate student at NYU

Alia Wang

Alia is a summer undergraduate research student in the lab who is visiting us from Pitzer College

Tyler Gonzalez

Tyler is a summer undergraduate research student in the lab

Alumni

Lab Managers

Lauren Lashua

Lauren Lashua (2021 – 2022)

Prior to being our lab manager Lauren managed the Ghedin lab. She also obtained a BSc from NYU and a MBA. Lauren left the lab in 2022 to work at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC).

Nathan Brandt (2010-2019)

Nathan was instrumental in helping to found and run the lab from the begging. In 2019 Nathan relocated to North Carolina where he became the lab manager of the Heil Lab at NCSU.

Angela Hickey (2019-2021)

Prior to joining our lab Angela worked in the Dunham lab at UW. Angela was awarded a NSF GRFP and left our lab to undertake a PhD at Stanford University in the Bhatt lab.

Julia Matthews

Julia was the Project Manager for CIVIR HRP and a research technician working on influenza and yeast projects in the lab.

Post-Doctoral Fellows

Chris Jackson

Chris studied gene regulatory networks using single cell RNAseq in yeast and was co-mentored by Rich Bonneau. Chris is now a staff scientist at NYGC

Sam Diaz-Munoz (2015-2016)

After underdertaking postdoctoral training Sam was appointed Assistant Professor of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics at UC Davis

Rodoniki Athanasiadou (2011-2015)

Currently Senior Researcher at RiskEcon® Lab for Decision Metrics, NYU Courant Institute

Emily Adney (2019-2021)

Currently a Field application specialist at IDT.

Megan Hockman

Meg studied host response to influenza vaccine and infection. Meg was co-mentored by Elodie Ghedin (NIAID) and moved to a staff scientist position at NIAID in 2023.

Doctoral Students

Marissa Knoll

Marissa studied the evolution of rapidly-mutating viruses and their consequences on human health using next generation sequencing to characterize the effect of host obesity on the response to influenza infections, as well as the diversity and evolutionary dynamics of the viral populations within and between hosts.

Katherine Johnson

Kate used next-generation sequencing data and computational methods to better understand viral dynamics within the host and how these dynamics impact viral diversity, evolution, and transmission.

Grace Avecilla (2017-2022)

Grace studied the generation, maintenance, and loss of genetic and phenotypic variation during evolution. She investigated copy number variation and the fitness consequences of different types of CNVs in different environments and genetic backgrounds. Grace was supported by an NSF GRFP. Upon completion of her PhD Grace took a position at the NYC scientific outreach organization, Biobus.

Farah Abdul-Rahman (2015 – 2021)

Farah studied the dynamics of selections in fluctuating environments. You can read Farah’s thesis here. Following her PhD, Farah went to the Xavier lab at MSKCC to undertake postdoctoral training.

Siyu Sun (2015-2020)

Siyu studied the conserved mechanisms that regulating cellular quiescence in eukaryotes. She defined the role of each gene in quiescence initiated by carbon, nitrogen or phosphate starvation with high-throughput sequencing (BAR-Seq), and translational regulation in different quiescent states using mass spec proteomics. Read Siyu’s PhD thesis. After obtaining her PhD, Siyu undertook postdoctoral training at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in the lab of Ben Greenbaum.

Stephanie Lauer (2014-2018)

Steff studied the dynamics of copy number variation in evolving populations. In the lab, she pioneered the use of a fluorescent reporter to detect CNVs. Read Steff’s PhD thesis. After obtaining her PhD Steff became a Post Doctoral Fellow in the Boeke Lab at NYU Langone Health

Darach Miller (2013-2018)

Darachs doctoral research in the lab investigated dynamic changes in mRNA decay rates and identified genetic factors that underlie the regulated changes in degradation. Read Darach’s PhD thesis. After completing his PhD, Darach was a Post Doctoral Fellow in the Levy Lab at Stanford

Jungeui Hong (2010-2015)

Jungeui’s doctoral research focused in experimental evolution in chemostats. Jungeui developed methods for performing whole population DNA sequencing and the evolution of transcription networks. Read Jungeui’s PhD thesis. After graduating, Jungeui joined the the of Christine Iacobuzio-Donahue at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center as a Postdoctoral Fellow.

Naomi Ziv (2010-2015)

Naomi studied the genetic basis of growth rate variation using QTL mapping and high throughput microscopy. Naomi was co-advised by Mark Siegal. Read Naomi’s PhD thesis. After graduating, Naomi was a Post Doctoral Fellow in the lab of Sandy Johnson at UCSF.

Benjamin Samuel Neymotin (2010-2015)

Benjy’s doctoral research entailed the development of methods to measure genome-wide mRNA degradation rates using metabolic labeling (RATE-seq) and identification of factors that underlie those differences. Read Benjy’s PhD thesis. After graduating with his PhD, Benjy took a position as Assistant Director, Office of Biotechnology at Albert Einstein College of Medicine.

Visiting Doctoral Students

Carolina Oliveira de Santana

I am interested in learning more about analysis of genomic data generated from massive sequencing to interpret environmental samples and correlate the structure of the microbial sediment community with their performance in the kinetics of nitrogen transformation.

Simone Zaghen (2023 – 2024)

Simone joined us from Sweden for six months where he is a PhD student in the Kerkhoven Lab in the Division of Systems and Synthetic Biology at Chalmers University of Technology .