Check us out on Instagram where we have stories for each of our amazing scientists.
Bottom left to right: Anya (alumni), Katie, Utsav, Erin, Maddy.
Andrew D. Stephens – PI – Assistant Professor Biology Department
Postdoc. Northwestern University 2013-2019
Ph. D. University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill 2013
B.S. University of Missouri – Kansas City 2006
Kelsey Prince
MCB Masters’ Graduate Student, B.S. Biology UMass Amherst 2024
Kelsey is currently investigating how transcriptional activity affects nuclear mechanics, shape, and rupture through changes in chromatin motion.
Erin Walsh
Current Lab Manager, Graduated Dec 2024, Research track
Erin is currently investigating how CTCF is essential to proper mitosis.
Nick Borowski
Undergraduate Researcher, Class 2025 Biology, Pre-med track
Nick is currently investigating how transcriptional activity affects nuclear mechanics, shape, and rupture.
Mindy Zheng
Undergraduate Researcher, Class 2025 Biology, Research track planning to continue into our Masters’ Program
Mindy is currently investigating nuclear blebbing formation, longevity, ruptures, and plasticity.
Catherine Chu
Undergraduate Researcher, Class 2025 Biology, Research track
Catherine is currently investigating the composition of nuclear blebs relative to their history.
Nick Lang
Undergraduate Researcher, Class 2025 Biology, Research track
Nick is currently investigating the composition of nuclear blebs relative to their history.
Schuyler Figueroa
Undergraduate Researcher, Class 2025 Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Pre-med track
Sky is currently investigating how cell cycle and cell confluency affect nuclear mechanics, shape, and rupture.
Madeleine Clark
Undergraduate Researcher, Class 2026 Biology, Research track
Maddy is currently investigating how cell confluency affects nuclear mechanics, shape, and rupture.
Antonela Losada
Undergraduate Researcher, Class 2026 Biology, Research track
Antonela is currently investigating how transcriptional activity affects nuclear mechanics, shape, and rupture.
Andy Li
Undergraduate Researcher, Class 2026 Biology, Pre-dental track
Andy is currently using micromanipulation force measurements to determine how chromatin and lamins contribute to nuclear mechanical strength relevant to changes in histone methylation, chromatin topology, and transcription.
Katie Lin
Undergraduate Researcher, Class 2027 Biology, Pre-dental track
Katie is currently using micromanipulation force measurements to determine how chromatin and lamins contribute to nuclear mechanical strength relevant to DNA damage and transcription.
Utsav Sethi
Undergraduate Researcher, Class 2027 Biology, Research track
Utsav is currently investigating how mitotic failure affects nuclear mechanics, shape, and rupture.
Thien-An Pho
Undergraduate Researcher, Class 2028 Biology, Research track
Thien-An is currently investigating how transcription affects nuclear mechanics, shape, and rupture.
UMass Alumni
Generation 3 : Gianna Manning
Generation 2 (above): Yasmin Berrada, Nebiyat Eskndir, Samantha Bunner, Mai Pho, Manseeb Hosssain, Katie Huang, Anish Shah
Generation 1 : Marilena Currey (currently at Tufts University Dentistry), Anya Lavallee (currently at UMass Medical), Aachal Gunda (currently at Medical School in Australia), Katherine Chiu (currently at Abbvie), Varun Kandula (currently an undergraduate at UC – Berkley) and Arimita Padam.
Northwestern University Alumni Undergraduates mentored as a Postdoctoral Fellow
Jimena Collado – Jimena is currently lead author analyzing the dynamics of nuclear blebbing and rupture. Jimena is currently Northwestern University Fineberg School of Medicine class 2026.
Cameron Herman – Cameron is a middle author on multiple papers from postdoc days and into the start of the lab.
Viswajit (Vis) Kandula – one middle author paper and built the Micromanipulation Microscope 1.5, currently still a consultant on software for the lab and in medical school at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine
Patrick Z. Liu Ph.D. – co-first author and two middle author papers as an undergraduate and research technician, currently a Marshall Fellow doing a Ph.D. at Oxford in Neurobiology
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Alumni Undergraduates mentored as a Graduate Student
Laura Fulbright – currently Research Assistant II at Vanderbilt University Medical Center
Raymond A. Haggerty Ph.D. – middle author on three papers as an undergraduate researcher, currently a graduate student at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Chloe E. Snider Ph.D. – first author on one paper and middle author on four papers as an undergraduate researcher, currently a PostDoc at UPenn
Binny Chang M.D. – second author on one paper as an undergraduate researcher, currently at the University of South Dakota Internal Medicine Residency. M.D. from St. George’s University School of Medicine, Grenada