Interventional Genomics
in Rare Diseases
We have moved to the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research at U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA). Please address any question to dwi.kemaladewi@fda.hhs.gov.
A rare Indonesian with a Dutch directness,
a Canadian heart &
an American love of fried chicken
Marie Johnson
Lab Manager (2020 - now)
B.S, Biology
Penn 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!)
Principal Investigator
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
BSc in Life Sciences (2003-2007)
Hogeschool van Arnhem en Nijmegen, Netherlands
Pitt Pediatrics | PubMed | X
Research Staff
Ruvi Ranatunga
Research Technician (2023 - now)
B.S, Neuroscience
Univ. of Pittsburgh
Ruvi works on:
Functional assays in disease mouse models
Ruvi is:
A big Steelers fan, period
Xuejun (XJ) Zhao
Research Scientist (2023 - now)
XJ works on:
Therapeutic window of intervention in LAMA2-CMD
XJ is:
The only cat person in the team (why oh why?!)
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!
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
John Wang
Genetics Fellow (2021, 2022, 2024 -now)
MD, PhD. New York University Grossman School of Medicine
John works on:
Patient-specific myelination model
John may or may not:
Silently "diagnose" what's wrong with his lab mates!
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!)
Previous Lab Members:
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!
Summer students:
Salah Daghlas (2019)
Regan Brodine (2021, 2022)
Mallika Khati (2023)
Undergraduate students:
Caleb Kim (2019-2020)
Veronica Alday (2019-2021)
Alexander Azar (2021-2022)
Research technicians:
Cynthia Francis (2019-2020)
Rotation students:
Alayna Holderman (2020)
Megan Perez (2022)