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Principal Investigator

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A rare Indonesian with a Dutch directness,

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

BSc in Life Sciences (2003-2007)

Hogeschool van Arnhem en Nijmegen, Netherlands​

Pitt Pediatrics | PubMed | X

Research Staff

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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!)

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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

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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

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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!

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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

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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

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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:

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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)

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