Interventional Genomics
in Rare Diseases
Principal Investigator
A rare Indonesian with a Dutch directness,
a Canadian heart &
an American love of fried chicken
Dwi U. Kemaladewi
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Assistant Professor of Pediatrics
Div. of Genetic and Genomic Medicine, Dept. of Pediatrics
University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine
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Postdoctoral Fellow/Research Associate (2012-2019)
Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Canada
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Ph.D. in Human Genetics (2007-2012)
Leiden University Medical Center, Netherlands
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BSc in Life Sciences (2003-2007)
Hogeschool van Arnhem en Nijmegen, Netherlands​
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Pitt Pediatrics | PubMed | X
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Research Staff
Marie Johnson
Lab Manager (2020 - now)
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B.S, Biology
Penn State University
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Marie works on:
Every project Dwi came up with (and fixing every problem Dwi created)
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Marie collects:
Fun, colorful glasses (and leaves them everywhere!)
Ruvi Ranatunga
Research Technician (2023 - now)
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B.S, Neuroscience
Univ. of Pittsburgh
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Ruvi works on:
Functional assays in disease mouse models
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Ruvi is:
A big Steelers fan, period
Xuejun (XJ) Zhao
Research Scientist (2023 - now)
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XJ works on:
Therapeutic window of intervention in LAMA2-CMD
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XJ is:
The only cat person in the team (why oh why?!)
Postgraduate researchers
Oluwaseun (Seun) Akinyele
Postdoctoral Fellow (2021 - now)​
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PhD, Pharmacology
University of Aberdeen
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Seun works on:
Therapeutic genetics and disease modeling in Snyder-Robinson Syndrome
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Things Seun would say:
Serie A is "nae bad", but Premier League is way better!
Yonne Menezes
Postdoctoral Fellow (2022 - now)
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PhD, Immunology and Biotechnology
Univ. Federal de Santa Catarina, Brazil
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Yonne works on:
Immunophenotyping assessments in disease mouse models
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Yonne's secret to success:
Sending good vibes #GV
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John Wang
Genetics Fellow (2021, 2022, 2024 -now)​
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MD, PhD. New York University Grossman School of Medicine
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John works on:
Patient-specific myelination model
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John may or may not:
Silently "diagnose" what's wrong with his lab mates!
Graduate students
Annie Infancia Arockiaraj
PhD student (2019 - now)
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MS, Human Genetics
University of Pittsburgh
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Annie works on:
Compensatory mechanism of human LAMA1 in LAMA2-CMD
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Annie was voluntold to:
Drink powdered coffee (and admittedly liked it!)
Previous Lab Members:
JiaQi Cheng Zhang
PhD student (2020 - now)
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MSc, Molecular Life Sciences
Radboud University, Netherlands
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JiaQi works on:
Development of a mini-and-mighty system for therapeutic gene modulation
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Things JiaQi would do:
Be in Pittsburgh, Hawaii, and Los Angeles within a week! YOLO!
Anushe Munir
Research Technician (2020 - 2021)​
PhD student (2022 - now)
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MS, Human Genetics
University of Pittsburgh
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Anushe works on:
Genetic diversity in congenital muscular dystrophy
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Anushe's unpopular opinion:
The brain is way cooler than the skeletal muscles!
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Summer students:
Salah Daghlas (2019)
Regan Brodine (2021, 2022)
Mallika Khati (2023)
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Undergraduate students:
Caleb Kim (2019-2020)
Veronica Alday (2019-2021)
Alexander Azar (2021-2022)
Research technicians:
Cynthia Francis (2019-2020)
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Rotation students:
Alayna Holderman (2020)
Megan Perez (2022)