Postdoctoral Fellows

Jonathan earned his combined MD/PhD from Washington University in St. Louis. His doctoral research in the lab of Rajendra Apte, MD, PhD, focused on elucidating how impaired metabolism and the aging innate immune system contribute to retinal neurodegeneration. He subsequently completed his clinical residency training in the Harvard Ophthalmology Residency Training Program, followed by a surgical vitreoretinal fellowship at Stanford University. He is currently a vitreoretinal surgeon at Massachusetts Eye and Ear and an Instructor in Ophthalmology at Harvard Medical School.

Originally from New Jersey, Eriene has lived in Boston since moving here for college at Tufts where she majored in Biochemistry and Applied Mathematics. She then came to Harvard to complete her MD/PhD in Anna Greka's lab studying the mechanism of a rare kidney disease caused by mutations in CoQ biosynthesis pathway and using kidney organoids for disease modeling. She completed her residency in internal medicine at MGH and is now a nephrology fellow at MGH/BWH.

Originally from Ireland, Eleanor completed her undergraduate degree at Trinity College Dublin, where she first developed an interest in immunometabolism. She then earned a Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge under the mentorship of Dr. Randall Johnson, focusing on the impact of hypoxia-induced metabolites on CD8+ T cell fate and function. Eleanor's current work in the Haigis lab focuses on unraveling the role of T cell metabolism in anti-tumor immunity.

Hobbies: Traveling, hiking, rowing, and trying to convince immunologists that oxygen is cool.

Shelly is a co-mentored postdoctoral fellow in the laboratories of Drs. Marcia Haigis and Steve Gygi. She completed her MSc at the Technion - Israel of Technology, under the supervision of Dr. Arie Admon, where she focused on immunopepetidomics, a method to identify antigens presented by the Human Leukocyte Antigen (HLA) complex using Mass Spectrometry. She then pursued her PhD at the Weizmann Institute of Science under the supervision of Dr. Yardena Samuels, studying antigens presented by melanoma tumors and the associated immune response.

Lydia completed her PhD at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland OH under the mentorship of Dr. Stanley Huang. There she studied how stress responses regulate immunosuppressive polarization of macrophages through metabolic and epigenetic means. For her Postdoc, Lydia is interested in understanding how tumor-immune cell communication influences immune evasion and pro-tumoral function through maniuplation of tumor or immune cell metabolism. 

Fun fact: I once accidentally headbutted a shark 

Erique completed his PhD at the University of São Paulo (USP) in Brazil, where he studied the role of mTORC2 in adipose tissue biology. Currently, he is exploring the communication of Erk-mTOR signaling pathways and metabolism within the tumor microenvironment of hepatocellular carcinoma.

Fun Fact: Erique is addicted to coffee (dark roast, without sugar and cream), discovering music, and Carnaval. He is also an AMC A-List member!!

Zongyu was born in Tianjin, China, and he believes that Tianjin has the best breakfast in the world. He completed his undergraduate degree at Tsinghua University in Beijing and his Ph.D. at Yale University as the first student in Dr. Rachel Perry’s Lab. He joined Haigis Lab because he is interested in LC/MS-based metabolomics, and he wants to apply this technique to various types of lymphocytes. 

Fun Fact: Zongyu is a black belt holder in Taekwondo, but now he totally forgets how to use this martial art.

Jamie grew up in the Bay Area, Northern CA, where her high school biology teacher got her to read Loren Eiseley ("The Snout") and set her on the biology research path. Jamie went to Stanford for her undergraduate, where she worked in Anne Brunet’s lab on neural stem cell aging. She stayed at Stanford for her MD/PhD, and in Tom Rando’s lab she investigated skeletal muscle stem cell quiescence, aging, and rejuvenation by exercise. Jamie then traveled to Boston for residency at MGH and Heme/Onc fellowship at MGH/BWH/DFCI. She is interested in sarcomas and metabolism.

Born and raised in South Korea, Jun majored pharmacy in Chungbuk National University. Having decided to make a drug, rather than to dispense, he went to Germany to study mitochondria and obtained PhD degree at Max Planck Institute for Biology of Ageing in Cologne. After tasting all the beer from Cologne, he joined the Haigis lab to study nucleotide metabolism in cancer to understand how it could promote oncogenesis. 

Fun fact: Jun’s favorites are football, beer, and classical music but he didn’t fit in Germany.

Ji Seul completed his Ph.D at Seoul National University in the lab of Jae Bum Kim. In his doctoral research, he investigated roles of HIF in the regulation of lipid catabolism and thermogenesis in adipocytes. Ji Seul is interested in studying how adipocytes sense and control metabolites upon metabolic diseases.

Hobbies: Cooking, traveling