The Team
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Samantha Riesenfeld
Sam is an Assistant Professor in the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering, with affiliations in the Department of Medicine - Section of Genetic Medicine, Institute for Biophysical Dynamics, Comprehensive Cancer Center, Committee on Data Science, and Committee on Immunology, for which she co-chairs the Computational and Systems Immunology Subcommittee. She has a PhD in Computer Science from UC Berkeley and a B.A. in Mathematics and Computer Science from Harvard University.
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Joseph (Joy) Sifakis
Joseph is a postdoc co-advised with Claire Donnat. He graduated from the Chemistry PhD program at the University of Chicago and has a B.S. in Chemistry from McGill University. Joseph explores and analyzes high-throughput genomic data to study inter- and intracellular molecular circuits regulating immune process, particularly in the context of gut immunity. In addition, he works on developing new statistical frameworks for genomics analysis.
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Hope Anderson
Hope is in the Biophysical Sciences PhD program and co-advised by Bana Jabri. Hope has a B.A. in Physics from Wellesley College. She use transcriptomics to understand how genetic factors influence T cell differentiation and polarization.
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Joey Federico
Joey is in the Molecular Engineering PhD program and co-advised by Bana Jabri. He has a B.S. in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering from Johns Hopkins University. Joey studies the mechanistic nature of how immunological cytokines facilitate the pathogenesis of autoimmune diseases.
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Ruxandra Tonea
Ruxandra is in the Molecular Engineering PhD program and co-advised by Tom Gajewski. She has a B.S. in Biomedical Engineering from Columbia University. Ruxandra investigates the behavior of immune cells in cold tumors using both in vitro and in vivo models, and spatial and single-cell transcriptomics. She is particularly interested in how macrophage phenotypes affect the infiltration of other immune cells in cold tumors and in ways to engineer macrophages to enhance pro-inflammatory responses.
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Akansha Gupta
Akansha is in the Molecular Engineering PhD program and is co-advised by Luis Barreiro. She has a B.S. in Biochemistry and Computer Sciences from University of Wisconsin-Madison, and she then worked at the Broad Institute doing computational cancer genomics research. Akansha studies how genetic, regulatory, and environmental factors contribute to human immune variation.
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Ryan (Raihan) Febryanto
Ryan is in the Molecular Engineering PhD program and co-advised by Allison Squires. He has a B.S. in Applied Marine Biology from Tohoku University. Ryan develops novel single-molecule fluorescence spectroscopy tools and methods that allow for ultrasensitive and highly multiplexed sensing of biological molecules to study input-scarce immune signaling systems.
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Sophia Madejski
Description goes here
Alumni
Ryan Robinett, PhD in Computer Science (2025). Next step: Postdoc in Alex Pearson’s lab at UChicago
Cheng (Frank) Gao, PhD in Chemistry (2025). Next step: Research Associate at Dimension Capital
Hanna Hieromnimon, PhD in Biophysical Sciences (2025). Next step: Postdoc in labs of Brett Beaulieu-Jones and Will Parker at UChicago
Kyle Ruark, B.S. in Molecular Engineering (2022). Next step: Bioengineering PhD program at Harvard University
Alexis Vitiello, B.S. in Biology (2022). Next step: Industry position
Morgan Parker, postdoc (2023). Next step: Postdoc at Duke University