Benjamin D. Medoff, MD
Associate Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School
Dr. Medoff received his B.S. from Yale College and his M.D. from Harvard Medical School. He completed his residency in Internal Medicine at MGH where he also served as Chief Resident, and then completed his training in Pulmonary and Critical Care in the Harvard Combined Fellowship Program. Dr. Medoff has run his lab for the last 15 years. In addition, to his research program, Dr. Medoff co-directs a T32 focused on pulmonary immunology and allergy research and remains active clinically.
Jehan W. Alladina, MD
Jehan was born and bred in Texas and completed her medical school training at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. She moved up to Boston for Internal Medicine residency at MGH and completed her Pulmonary and Critical Care Fellowship training at the Harvard combined fellowship program.
She joined the Medoff lab in 2017 during her fellowship and is now on faculty at MGH where she sees patients in pulmonary clinic, attends in the ICU and on the pulmonary consult service, and pursues translational research in asthma immunology. In particular, she is interested in the role of dendritic cells in shaping the local response to allergen and her work directly compares the airway immune landscape of allergic asthmatics to individuals who have allergies without pulmonary disease. She enjoys exploring New England (recently on the back of a tandem bicycle) and eating plenty of seafood.
Michelle Chen
Michelle grew up in Nanjing, China, and she attended Smith College, where she earned a BA in Biochemistry and a Five College Certificate in Reproductive Health, Rights, and Justice. In her role as a research technician, Michelle will assist with a study that focuses on the interactions between epithelial cells and the immune system in relation to asthma. She will also help out in other projects wherever she is needed. Outside of work, Michelle enjoys playing the clarinet, watching musicals, and playing Overcooked and Stardew Valley with her friends. In the future, she plans to pursue a career in medicine and is considering either an MD or MD/PhD program.
Roxene Clarke
Educated in Jamaica, Roxene is now the colony manager for the Medoff lab. Outside of work, you can find her taking pictures of nature and her cats. Did we mention cats? She loves cats!
Ingo Ganzleben, MD
Ingo is a physician-scientist from Germany. He graduated medical school and earned his medical doctoral degree from the University of Heidelberg in Germany. After graduation, he joined the Department of Medicine 1, University Hospital Erlangen, Germany, for his specialization training in Internal Medicine and scientifically focused on regulated cell death and mitochondrial homeostasis in pulmonary diseases. He developed a deep interest in studying biological processes using imaging techniques, such as 2-photon microscopy and photoacoustic imaging, in preclinical and clinical studies.
Ingo joined MGH supported by the Walter Benjamin-Fellowship (DFG) as a postdoctoral fellow in 2021 to investigate cell positioning and migration in pulmonary fibrosis. Outside of the lab he enjoys architecture and learning about the American way of life.
Tristan G. Kooistra, MD
Tristan grew up playing soccer in South Carolina before attending MIT where he obtained an undergraduate degree in Biology studying innate immune signaling using genetic modeling in C. elegans. During medical school at the joint Harvard-MIT HST program, he studied the production of small non-coding RNAs from enhancers. He completed his medical training in Internal Medicine residency and Pulmonary/Critical Care fellowship at BIDMC/MGH. He joined the Medoff lab in 2018 to investigate epithelial-immune interactions involved in asthma and became faculty as a physician/scientist in 2020. Outside of the lab, he enjoys running, hiking, biking, and spending time with his family.
Alnardo Lora, MD
Alnardo is originally from New Jersey and completed his medical school training in Dominican Republic at Universidad Iberoamericana in Santo Domingo. He then moved to Brooklyn, NY for Internal Medicine Residency at SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University, where he also served as chief resident. During his residency, his researched focused on the innate immune response to cigarette smoke in murine and cell models. Currently, he is a T32 Research Fellow in the Pulmonary/Critical Care Fellowship program at MGH/BIDMC and has joined the Medoff Lab to pursue clinical and translational research in asthma and COPD. Outside the lab, he enjoys playing basketball, swimming, biking, and spending time with his family both in the U.S. and the Dominican Republic.
Tanvi Narvekar
Tanvi is originally from the Bay Area, California and graduated from Johns Hopkins University with a BS in Neuroscience and a BA in Psychology. She is working with Dr. Jehan Alladina on investigating inflammatory pathways in Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS) and other projects in the lab. Outside of work, she enjoys singing and songwriting, visiting new cafes, and cooking. Tanvi plans to pursue a PhD and work in the biotechnology/pharmaceutical industry.
Trong Nguyen
Trong is a native Vietnamese who completed his undergraduate at University of Massachusetts Boston. He joined the pulmonary division in 2016 as a research technician and has since taken on the role of a research technician in the Medoff lab. Currently, Trong is focused on assisting Dr. Knipe on her quest of studying the mechanisms of pulmonary fibrosis. In his free time, Trong enjoys playing tennis, basketball, computer games and spending time with his family.
Tresa Rani Sarraf, PhD
Tresa's educational journey began in Rajasthan, India, where she completed her schooling. She then pursued her passion for science and earned her M.Sc. in Zoology from Kalyani University in West Bengal, India. Her academic pursuits led her to delve into the intricate world of Wnt signaling in antigen processing and presentation at the Indian Institute of Chemical Biology where she completed her Ph.D.
Throughout her doctoral studies, crosstalk of innate and adaptive immune systems held a special fascination for her. She joined the Medoff lab to investigate the intricacies of immune cell function in asthma.
Outside the realm of research, Tresa finds solace in the melodious tunes of Bollywood songs, which provide a delightful counterpoint to her rigorous scientific pursuits.
Alyce Segal
Alyce is originally from Los Angeles, California and attended Trinity College, graduating with a BS in Biology, a concentration in Biomedical Sciences, and a minor in Applied Mathematics. Her role as a research technician will involve assisting on the Fibroblast Project and wherever else she is needed. Outside of work, she enjoys knitting, reading, and spending time with friends and family. Alyce plans to pursue an MD in the future.
Alumni
Rachel S Knipe, MD – Assistant Professor of Medicine, MGH/Harvard Medical School
Patricia Brazee, PhD – Instructor, MGH
Shatruhan Singh Rajput, PhD – Research Fellow, MGH
Boni Xiong, MSc
Frank Urena, PhD – Medical student, St. George's University
Katharine Black, MD – Instructor in Medicine, MGH
Josalyn L Cho, MD – Assistant Professor of Medicine, University of Iowa
Ravi Ramadas, DVM – Principal and Scientist at Jounce Therapeutics, Inc.
Marly Roche, PhD – Research Scientist at Blueprint Medicines
Benjamin Causton, PhD – Research Scientist at Bristol-Meyers Squibb
Daniela Moutinho Dos Santos, PhD – Research Scientist at Boehringer-Ingelheim
Yang Yang, PhD - Scientist at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute