{"id":24,"date":"2018-01-08T16:11:20","date_gmt":"2018-01-08T21:11:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/carvunislab.csb.pitt.edu\/?page_id=24"},"modified":"2026-06-26T20:01:20","modified_gmt":"2026-06-27T00:01:20","slug":"people","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/carvunislab.csb.pitt.edu\/?page_id=24","title":{"rendered":"People"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

<\/p>\n\n\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The Carvunis Lab members (April 29, 2025)<\/p>\n

\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/td>\nAnne-Ruxandra Carvunis, Ph.D<\/strong>., studies the molecular mechanisms of change and innovation in evolution using systems biology approaches. Born and raised in Paris, France, she earned a BS in Biology\/Biochemistry and a master’s degree in Molecular Neurosciences from Universit\u00e9 Paris VI<\/a> and the Ecole Normale Sup\u00e9rieure of Paris<\/a>, and a second master’s in Interdisciplinary Approaches to Life Sciences from Universit\u00e9 Paris VII.

She graduated with a Ph.D. in Bioinformatics from Universit\u00e9 de Grenoble<\/a> in 2011, having done most of her graduate research work on the mechanisms and dynamics of protein interaction network evolution in the Center for Cancer Systems Biology at Dana Farber Cancer Institute<\/a> and Harvard Medical School<\/a>. After a brief postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard Medical School, Dr. Carvunis went on to study the evolution of transcriptional networks at the University of California, San Diego<\/a>.

In 2017, she established an independent research group at the University of Pittsburgh Medical School, Department of Computational and Systems Biology<\/a>. There, she co-founded and later directed the Center for Evolutionary Biology and Medicine<\/a> to advance research and education at the interface.

In 2025, Dr Carvunis was named Full Professor of Genome Evolution at the Institute for Molecular Systems Biology at ETH Zurich, Switzerland<\/a>. Dr. Carvunis has received a number of distinctions including a Medal of honorable doctoral work, the national L\u2019Oreal-Unesco Award for Women in Science, the NIH Pathway to Independence Award, the Searle Scholars award, the Trailblazer award from the Ladies Hospital Aid Society, the NIH Director\u2019s New Innovator Award, a Sloan Research Fellowship, the NSF CAREER award, the University of Pittsburgh Chancelor\u2019s Distinguished Award for Research, the NIH Transformative Research Award, and the Human Frontier Science Program (HFSP) award.
carvunis[at]imsb[dot]biol[dot]ethz[dot]ch <\/strong>| CV<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\"\"<\/td>\n\n

Nelson Castilho Coelho<\/strong> is the Senior Laboratory Manager in The Carvunis Lab. Born in Portugal, Nelson has an undergraduate degree in Biochemistry, and a Master of Biotechnology both from University of Algarve<\/a>. He first worked as research technician at the Institute for Molecular and Cell Biology (IBMC) and then as lab manager\/research technician at the Centre of Marine Sciences (CCMAR) in Portugal<\/a> and at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee,<\/a> USA. Before joining the Carvunis Lab worked as research assistant at the Institute of Genetics and Development of Rennes (IGDR) in France<\/a>. Nelson likes to dedicate his free time to photography, running, and baking.\u00a0
castilho[at]imsb[dot]biol[dot]ethz[dot]ch<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

\"\"<\/td>\nLin Chou <\/strong> is a Ph.D. student in the Integrative Systems Biology program of the University of Pittsburgh Medical School.<\/a> Lin has a broad interest in genomics and evolutionary biology. Lin earned an undergraduate degree in Horticulture and Landscape Architecture from National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan<\/a>. He worked as an undergraduate researcher, developing a high-throughput genotyping toolkit for crop breeders. After completing his undergraduate degree, he spent two and a half years at the Institute of Plant and Microbial Biology, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan,<\/a> where he used next and third-generation sequencing data to study the genome evolution of symbiotic and pathogenic bacteria. He joined the Carvunis Lab in March 2021. Lin’s research is focused on understanding the phenotypic impact of proto-genes and the underlying principles.\u00a0
lic130[at]pitt[dot]edu<\/strong><\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\"\"<\/td>\nCatherine Douds, Ph. D.,<\/strong> is a postdoctoral fellow in the Carvunis Lab. She earned her BS in Biochemistry from Juniata College<\/a> and went on to complete her Ph. D. in Biochemistry, Microbiology, and Molecular Biology from Pennsylvania State University<\/a>. There she worked on developing experimental and computational methods for improving measurement and prediction of RNA structure in vivo. Since joining the Carvunis Lab in September 2024, her research has similarly focused on method development of RNA techniques, this time developing a long-read ribosome profiling approach. Outside of lab, Catherine enjoys sewing, quilting, woodworking, and spending time with her dog, Betty.\u00a0
cad400[at]pitt[dot]edu<\/strong><\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\"\"<\/td>\nCarly Houghton<\/strong> is a PhD student in the CMU-Pitt Joint Computational Biology program<\/a>. She earned her BS in Biology from George Washington University<\/a> and then trained as post-baccalaureate research fellow at the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, MD<\/a>. She completed her Master of Biology from Johns Hopkins University<\/a>, and conducted her graduate research at the NIH; this work focused on the regulation of aerobic respiration in a bacterial relative of mammalian mitochondria. Following completion of her master’s degree, she completed a short research fellowship at the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK)<\/a> concentrating on computational modeling of neural circuit activity in the human visual cortex. She joined the Carvunis Lab in December, 2018 and obtained funding for her PhD research through a competitive T32 award from the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB).<\/a> She has broad scientific interests and a passion for studying evolution and systems biology. In her free time, she enjoys reading, cooking, traveling, and being outdoors.\u00a0
cah244[at]pitt[dot]edu<\/strong><\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\"\"<\/td>\nJiwon Lee<\/strong> is a Ph.D. student in the CMU-Pitt Joint Computational Biology PhD program (CPCB).<\/a> She earned a BS in Biological Sciences with a minor in Science and Technology Policy from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), and an Master of Public Health in Epidemiology from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.<\/a> After completing her master’ degree, she worked for three years at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, where she primarily researched whole genome sequence association studies of sleep phenotypes in the Trans-Omics for Precision Medicine (TOPMed) program,<\/a> and harmonized Cleveland Family Study (CFS) data for various TOPMed studies.\u00a0
jil303[at]pitt[dot]edu<\/strong><\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\"\"<\/td>\n\n

April Rich<\/strong> is a PhD student in the CMU-Pitt Joint Computational Biology PhD program (CPCB).<\/a> She earned a BS in Biology from Fordham University.<\/a> Her research interests include transcriptional regulation and long read sequencing. Outside of research, April is committed to educational outreach. She has won a number of awards including the NSF GRFP, \u00a0the 2022 CPCB Commitment to Outreach Award, and the 2024 CPCB Outstanding Research award.
Check out her YouTube channel<\/a>
aar75[at]pitt[dot]edu
<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

\"\"<\/td>\n\n

Selin Sevgi, Ph.D.,<\/strong> is a postdoc in the Carvunis Lab. Selin holds an undergraduate degree in Molecular Biology and Genetics from Koc University<\/a> and a MSc in Human Molecular Genetics from Imperial College London.<\/a> She completed her MSc research project at the Francis Crick Institute,<\/a> where she worked on the analysis of single-cell RNA sequencing data to explore the immune-modulatory roles of enteric glial cells. Selin then went on to earn her Ph.D. from the Institute of Cancer Research (ICR)<\/a> where her research focused on functionally characterizing genetic variants associated with breast cancer risk.
sevgi[at]imsb[dot]biol[dot]ethz[dot]ch<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

\"\"<\/td>\n\n

Nozomu Saeki, Ph.D.,<\/strong> is a postdoc in the Carvunis Lab. Nozomu obtained his Ph.D. from Okayama University, Japan.<\/a> Nozomu majored in Chemistry and conducted theoretical and computational studies on vibronic coupling at Kobe City College of Technology.<\/a> During his undergraduate studies, Nozomu discovered a passion for systems biology. This led him to the Moriya Lab at Okayama University,<\/a> where he studied yeast systems biology. He joined the Carvunis Lab in May 2023. Nozomu has an interest in horticulture and enjoys spending time in natural surroundings.\u00a0
saeki[at]imsb[dot]biol[dot]ethz[dot]ch<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

\"\"<\/td>\nAaron Wacholder, Ph.D.,<\/strong> is a postdoctoral fellow in The Carvunis Lab. Born in Maryland, he has an undergraduate degree in Biology from Stanford University.<\/a> He earned his Ph.D. in Evolutionary Biology from University of Colorado Boulder,<\/a> developing computational methods for evolutionary analysis of transposable elements in the laboratory of Dr. David Pollock at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. Aaron joined the Carvunis Lab in February 2018.\u00a0
wacholder[at]imsb[dot]biol[dot]ethz[dot]ch
<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\u00a0<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Former Carvunis Lab Group Members<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
FORMER POSTDOCTORAL RESEARCHERS<\/strong>
Branden Van Oss, Ph.D.<\/strong>, Ruth L.\u00a0Kirschstein NRSA postdoctoral fellow, 2018 – 2022<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\n

FORMER GRADUATE STUDENTS<\/strong>
Emma Lipinski<\/strong>, master’s student, \u00a0MS in Genome Bioinformatics <\/a>, May 2023 – April 2024.
Saurin Parikh, Ph.D.<\/strong>, PhD student, \u00a0Interdisciplinary Biomedical Graduate Program<\/a>, August 2017 – December 2023. website<\/a>
Alistair Turcan<\/strong>, PhD student, Joint CMU-Pitt program in Computational Biology<\/a>, December 2022 – November 2023.
Omer Acar, Ph.D.<\/strong>, PhD student, Joint CMU-Pitt program in Computational Biology<\/a>, December 2017 – June 2023.
Sneha Mittal<\/strong>, master’s thesis, Computational Biomedicine and Biotechnology<\/a>, September – December 2022.
Jiazhen Xu<\/strong>, rotation student, Interdisciplinary Biomedical Graduate Program<\/a>, March 2021.
Manuel Michaca<\/strong>, rotation student, Interdisciplinary Biomedical Graduate Program<\/a>, March 2020.
Marissa Di<\/strong>, rotation student, Joint CMU-Pitt program in Computational Biology<\/a>, November 2019.
Tyler Lovelace<\/strong>, rotation student, Joint CMU-Pitt program in Computational Biology<\/a>, October 2018.
BaDoi Phan<\/strong>, rotation student, Joint MD\/PhD program at the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University<\/a>, summer 2018 – now pursuing medical school.
Trevor Frisby<\/strong>, rotation student, Joint CMU-Pitt program in Computational Biology<\/a>, November 2018 – now pursuing a PhD with Dr Langmead<\/a>.
Feng (Ryan) Shan<\/strong>, rotation student, University of Pittsburgh program in Integrative Systems Biology<\/a>, August 2017.<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

\n

FORMER UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS<\/strong>
Breanna Sproul<\/strong>, \u00a0Ohio Northern University, summer 2024.
Will Telesz<\/strong>, \u00a0Ohio Wesleyan University, summer 2024.
Katie Bowden<\/strong>, \u00a0Trinity College Dublin, summer 2024.
Scott Chang<\/strong>, \u00a0University of Wisconsin-Madison, Bachelor\u2019s of Science in Biology and Spanish, summer 2023.
Matthew Joyson<\/strong>, University of Pittsburgh, Computational Biology, Research Training Program for Student in Health Science, summer 2023.
Lucas K. Tang<\/strong>, California Northstate University, Health science major on pre-medical track, summer 2023.
Alexis Berger<\/strong>, University of Pittsburgh, Molecular Biology major on pre-medical track, 2021 – 22.
Aaron Zhang<\/strong>, University of Pittsburgh, Biology major on pre-medical track, The Adopt a Proto-gene Initiative, summer 2022.
Brandon Garcia<\/strong>, Rollins College, Marine Biology major, The Adopt a Proto-gene Initiative, summer 2022.
Sasha Manus<\/strong>, Brandeis University, Biology major, TECBio REU <\/a>, summer 2022.
Kate McCourt<\/strong>, University of Pittsburgh, Molecular Biology major on pre-medical track, 2019 – 22.
Vijay Kiran Cherupally<\/strong>, University of Pittsburgh, Computational Biology major, TECBio REU <\/a>, summer 2021.
John Iannota<\/strong>, University of Pittsburgh, Molecular Biology major, \u00a02017 – 19. Now Research Specialist in Dr. Susana da Silva<\/a>‘s lab.
Tanvi Yende<\/strong>, Yale University, Statistics and Data Science major on pre-medical track, summer 2019.
Jake McKee<\/strong>,\u00a0Robert Morris University, Biology major on pre-medical track, summer 2019.
Dominique Cantave<\/strong>, Harvard University, Applied Mathematics with a focus in Biology, TECBio REU <\/a>, summer 2018.
Tom Dougherty<\/strong>, Harvey Mudd College, Math-Computer Science, TECBio REU <\/a>, summer 2018.
Selin Sevgi<\/strong>, Koc University (Istanbul, Turkey), Molecular Biology and Genetics, Research Training Program for Student in the Health Sciences<\/a>, summers 2017 and 2018.
Kate Karlovich<\/strong>, Ohio University, Chemistry, Research Training Program for Student in the Health Sciences<\/a>, summer 2017.
Neha Sodhi<\/strong>, University of California San Diego, Bioengineering – Biotechnology, March – September 2017.<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

\n

FORMER STAFF<\/strong>
John Iannotta<\/strong>, Research Specialist
Anna Jane Kelly<\/strong>, Laboratory Technician
Andy MacWilliams<\/strong>, Laboratory Automation \/ Research Specialist
Anthony Newbrough<\/strong>, Research Assistant<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Carvunis Lab members (April 29, 2025) Anne-Ruxandra Carvunis, Ph.D., studies the molecular mechanisms of change and innovation in evolution using systems biology \n [...]<\/a>","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"layouts\/fullwidth.php","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"class_list":["post-24","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carvunislab.csb.pitt.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/24","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carvunislab.csb.pitt.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carvunislab.csb.pitt.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carvunislab.csb.pitt.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carvunislab.csb.pitt.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24"}],"version-history":[{"count":187,"href":"https:\/\/carvunislab.csb.pitt.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/24\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2618,"href":"https:\/\/carvunislab.csb.pitt.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/24\/revisions\/2618"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carvunislab.csb.pitt.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}