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Cornell University

KwakLab

Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Cornell University

People

Hojoong Kwak, M.D., Ph.D.
M.D.(2002): Seoul National University (Seoul, Korea)
Ph.D.(2013): Cornell University (John Lis lab)

Current project: running the lab at the Biotech Building in Ray Wu‘s old lab space.

Teaching:
BIOMG4390 Molecular Basis of Human Disease,
BIOG1250 Common Core Processes in Human Disease,
BIOMG8310 Advanced Biochemical Methods I,
BIOMG7800/7940 Current Topics in Genetics and Development

Email: hk572@cornell.edu


Tyler Roonprapunt (Undergraduate research student, 2022-)


Soodong Kim (Undergraduate research student, 2022-)


Karen Vo (Undergraduate research student, 2022-)


Yoonsoon Kang, Ph.D. (Research Associate, 2022-)
Ph.D. (2014): San Diego State University


Samantha Chu (Technician, 2022-)
B.S (2022): Cornell University


Emily Uh (Undergraduate research student, 2022-)


Karen Sohn (Undergraduate research student, 2021-2022)
B.S (2022): Cornell University


Eric Jeong (Undergraduate research student, 2021-2022)
B.S (2022): Cornell University


Tony Yu (Undergraduate research student, 2021-2022)
B.S (2022): Cornell University


Ruth Hernika (Technician, 2021)


Aileen Kimm (Undergraduate research student, 2020-)


Alexis Dziubek (Graduate student, GGD, 2019-2020)
B.S (2018): University of Connecticut

Alexis worked on enhancer architecture using nascent RNA sequencing. This worked is recently accepted by Nature Communication, on which she is a co-1’st author, titled “Population-scale study of eRNA transcription reveals bipartite functional enhancer architecture”.

Email: ad986@cornell.edu


Alaa Farghli (Graduate student, GGD, 2018-2020)
B.S (2017): SUNY Portdam (N.Y.)

Alaa worked on determining the transcriptional landscape in the phase-separated transcriptional compartments in the nucleus

Email: af547@cornell.edu


Samantha Kim (Technician, 2017-2020)
B.S (2019): Cornell University
Current position: NYU dental school

Samantha worked on improving the throughput in large scale RNA-seq library generation procedures. She is the 1’st author of our preprint titled “Nascent RNA sequencing of peripheral blood leukocytes reveal gene expression diversity”.

Email: ssk237@cornell.edu


Jawaher worked on the functional dissection of the role of enhancer transcription in heat-shock enhancers

Email: jaa373@cornell.edu


Yeonui Kwak, Ph.D. (Graduate student, GGD, 2017-2022)
B.S (2013): Korea University (Seoul, Korea)
M.S.(2015): Korea University (Seoul, Korea)
Ph.D. (2022): Cornell University

Yeonui’s project is to dissect the post-transcriptional regulation in immune cell activation, post-transcriptional heterogeneity using single cell analysis. Yeonui is a co-author of our paper titled “TED-Seq Identifies the Dynamics of Poly(A) Length during ER Stress” published in Cell Reports.

Email: yk724@cornell.edu


Lakshmi Mahajan (Undergraduate research student, 2017-2020)
B.S (2020): Cornell University
Current position: Albert Einstein medical school

Lakshmi worked on developing reporter assays to test mutations at enhancer RNA start sites, and successfully completed the honor thesis titled “Elucidating the role of transcription factor binding sites and eRNA transcription start sites in the NR4A1 enhancer by generating enhancer activity assays using episomal reporter systems”. Lakshmi is also the 1’st author of the preprint titled “Mapping RNA dependent RNA polymerase activity and immune gene expression using PRO-seq”.

Email: lsm99@cornell.edu


Eunyoo KimEunyoo (Grace) Kim (Undergraduate research student, 2018-2020)
B.S (2020): Cornell University
Current position: NIH IRTA postbac

Grace worked on CRISPR genome editing to test the effect of human disease associated SNPs, in particular associated with Age-related Macular Degeneration. She also worked on PRO-seq in human patient blood, and is a co-author of the preprint titled “Mapping RNA dependent RNA polymerase activity and immune gene expression using PRO-seq”.

Email: ek586@cornell.edu


Michael Zelko (Undergraduate research student, 2017-2019)
B.S (2019): Cornell University
Current position: University of Chicago

Michael worked on transcriptional bodies in the nucleus, and role of YY1 in the process. He successfully completed his honor thesis titled “A procedure for the physical isolation of liquid-liquid phase separated transcriptional bodies from the nucleus, and YY1 protein knock down in HeLa cells”.

Email: mz399@cornell.edu


Jessica SchembriM.S. (Technician, 2017-2019)
B.S (2013): University of Iceland (Toronto, Canada)
M.S (2015): Cornell University (Toronto, Canada)

Email: js2567@cornell.edu


Katla Kristjánsdóttir, Ph.D. (Postdoctoral Associate, 2017-2019)
B.S (2010): University of Iceland (Reykjavik, Iceland)
Ph.D (2016): Cornell University (Andrew Grimson lab)
Current Position: DECODE genomics

Katla worked on the role of enhancer RNA through studying the human population. Her 1’st authored paper titled “Population-scale study of eRNA transcription reveals bipartite functional enhancer architecture” is recently accepted by Nature Communications.

Email: kk649@cornell.edu


Anna ChunB.S. (Technician, 2016)
B.S. (2012): Cornell University
Current position: Santa Clara Valley Water District

Email: annachun0826@gmail.com


Destini Gibbs (Undergraduate research student, 2016-2017)
B.S. (2017): Cornell University
Current position: Research assistant at Weill Cornell Medical School

Email: dg552@cornell.edu


Seungha Alisa Lee (Undergraduate research student/Technician, 2016-2018, 2022-)
B.S. (2018): Cornell University
M.S. (2021): Cornell University

Seungha (Alisa) worked on the comprehensive annotation of human transcriptome. She wrote the manuscript titled “Stereoscopic Transcriptome Analysis Depicts Transcriptional and Post-transcriptional RNA Regulation”.

Email: sl2665@cornell.edu


Yumi Woo, Ph.D. (Postdoctoral Associate, 2016-2019)
Ph.D (2013): Sookmyung Women’s University (Seoul, Korea)

Yumi worked on transcriptome-wide profiling of RNA polyadenylation in cell stress. She published a 1’st authored paper in Cell Reports titled “TED-Seq Identifies the Dynamics of Poly(A) Length during ER Stress”, and is a co-author of two other papers in Nature and Molecular Cell.

Email: yw768@cornell.edu