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
Assistant Professor of Pediatrics
Div. of Genetic and Genomic Medicine, Dept. of Pediatrics
University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine
Postdoctoral Fellow/Research Associate (2012-2019)
Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Canada
Ph.D. in Human Genetics (2007-2012)
Leiden University Medical Center, Netherlands
PIs: Prof. Peter 't Hoen, Prof. Gert-Jan van Ommen, Prof. Peter ten Dijke
BSc in Life Sciences (2003-2007)
Hogeschool van Arnhem en Nijmegen, Netherlands
Pitt Pediatrics | PubMed | Twitter
Research Staff
Marie Johnson
Lab Manager (2020 - now)
B.S, Biology
Pennsylvania State University
Marie works on:
Every project Dwi came up with (and fixing every problem Dwi created)
Marie collects:
Fun, colorful glasses (and leaves them everywhere!)
Christopher Darfoor
Research Technician (2022 - now)
BSc, Biological Sciences
University of Pittsburgh
Christopher works on:
Functional and molecular analyses of disease mouse models
Christopher's 1st task in the lab:
Being a judge in the Lab Karaoke
Postgraduate researchers
Oluwaseun (Seun) Akinyele
Postdoctoral Fellow (2021 - now)
PhD, Pharmacology
University of Aberdeen
Seun works on:
Therapeutic genetics and disease modeling in Snyder-Robinson Syndrome
Things Seun would say:
Serie A is "nae bad", but Premier League is way better!
John Wang
Resident, Pediatric Scientist Development Program (2022 - now)
MD/PhD, New York University
John works on:
Modeling peripheral neuropathy in pediatric diseases
John runs around with:
Stethoscope and anything that resembles a ruler
Yonne Menezes
Postdoctoral Fellow (2022 - now)
PhD, Immunology and Biotechnology
Univ. Federal de Santa Catarina, Brazil
Yonne works on:
Immunophenotyping assessments in disease mouse models
Yonne's secret to success:
Sending good vibes #GV
Graduate students
Annie Infancia Arockiaraj
PhD student (2019 - now)
MS, Human Genetics
University of Pittsburgh
Annie works on:
Compensatory mechanism of human LAMA1 in LAMA2-CMD
Annie was voluntold to:
Drink powdered coffee (and admittedly liked it!)
JiaQi Cheng Zhang
PhD student (2020 - now)
MSc, Molecular Life Sciences
Radboud University, Netherlands
JiaQi works on:
Development of a mini-and-mighty system for therapeutic gene modulation
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)
MS, Human Genetics
University of Pittsburgh
Anushe works on:
Genetic diversity in congenital muscular dystrophy
Anushe's unpopular opinion:
The brain is way cooler than the skeletal muscles!
Megan Perez
PhD student (2022 - now)
BSc, Biology
LeTourneau University
Megan works on:
Neurodevelopmental deficits in polyamine-deficient disorders
Megan's tagline:
Perez for Perez-ident!
Previous Lab Members:
Summer students:
Salah Daghlas (2019)
Regan Brodine (2021)
Undergraduate students:
Caleb Kim (2019-2020)
Veronica Alday (2019-2021)
Alexander Azar (2021-2022)
Research technicians:
Alaina Turocy (2019)
Cynthia Francis (2019-2020)
Rotation student:
Alayna Holderman (2020)