Previous Members
Jiayi Xue
Visiting Undergraduate Researcher
jiayi.xue@uga.edu
Jiayi joined the lab in the Fall of 2022. She is a senior year student from Wuhan university, majoring in Biological Sciences. Her academic interests lie in quantitative genomics, and she plans to pursue graduate study in biostatistics in the near future. In her free time, she enjoys playing the flute, hanging out with friends and trying new food.
Julia Cazabon
Undergraduate Researcher
Post-Ye-Lab: LSU Health New Orleans School of Medicine
julia.cazabon@uga.edu
Julia joined the lab in the Fall of 2021 as a third year Genetics major. After her undergraduate studies, she hopes to attend medical school and become a physician. Her interests include volunteering in the Athens and New Orleans communities, cooking, and travelling.
Abigail Baur
Undergraduate Researcher
Post-Ye-Lab: Physician Assistant Program at University of Colorado Anschutz School of Medicine
abigail.baur@uga.edu
Abigail joined the lab in the Fall of 2021 as a third year Genetics major, and she aspires to attend PA school in the near future. At UGA, she likes to get involved with her organization, UGA Doctors Without Borders, that she is Vice President of and the Pre-PA Association. In her free time she likes to workout, play sports, bake desserts, and foster dogs.
Isabelle Bowman
Undergraduate Researcher
bowmanisabelle@uga.edu
Isabelle joined the lab in the Spring of 2021 as a second year Biology major. She plans to attend medical school and become a physician after her undergraduate studies. She loves getting involved in the Athens community through tutoring elementary students and volunteering with a local health clinic and hospice. Isabelle enjoys dancing, getting outdoors, and participating in Relay for Life.
Anagha Anil
Undergraduate Researcher
Post-Ye-Lab: M.S. program in Quantitative Biology and Bioinformatics at Carnegie Mellon University
anagha.anil@uga.edu
Anagha joined the lab in Fall 2022 as a fourth-year majoring in Genetics and minoring in Computer Science. She is planning on pursuing a career in Bioinformatics after attending grad school. In her free time, she enjoys reading, hanging out with friends, and dancing.
Michael received a M.S. in Nutrition from UGA, where his thesis focused on human zinc-activated transcription factors. Prior to that, he earned a B.S. in Chemistry in Syracuse, NY. Michael is interested in nutrigenomics research and the disease-treating potential of precision nutrition. His work in the Ye Lab is focused on GWAS and identifying polymorphisms in enzyme-encoding genes that may interact with dietary intake to produce disease phenotypes. Michael’s hobbies include hiking, playing guitar, and travel.
Aaron Geanas
Undergraduate Researcher
aaron.geanas@uga.edu
Aaron joined the group in the Spring of 2021 as a second-year undergrad student. He majors in Genetics and minors in Applied Biotechnology. His special interests include sci-fi movies, stocks, and any other forms of investments. Other than that, he is looking forward to contributing to some great research in the Ye lab.
Radhika Chatterjee
Undergraduate Researcher
radhika.chatterjee@uga.edu
Radhika joined the lab in August 2019. She is a second-year student with a double major in Cellular Biology and Economics, interested to pursue a healthcare career to address clinical and financial issues in medicine. She has prior research experience at the Morehouse School of Medicine. In her free time, she enjoys volunteering and writing poems. She currently works for the Alzheimer's Association and Women in Economics chapters at UGA.
Akash Ronanki
Undergraduate Researcher
arr14160@uga.edu
Akash joined the lab in October 2018 as a first year Genetics major. He is also minoring in Spanish. He is currently on the premed track and aspires to become a medical professional in practice, research, or both. He also hopes to never lose his passion for singing, and has joined Kalakaar (an a capella group on campus) to help him in that effort.
Ayushi Vashishtha
Undergraduate Researcher
ayushi@uga.edu
Ayushi joined the lab in Fall 2019 as a second-year Cellular Biology major and Global Health minor. She plans on attending medical school and is interested in pursuing a career as a radiologist. Ayushi’s focus in the Ye Lab is primarily on experimental projects. In her free time, she enjoys hanging out with friends, watching movies, and traveling.
Aditya Prabhakar
High-school Researcher
adityasp0304@gmail.com
Aditya joined the lab in Summer 2021 as a rising senior at Lambert High School through the Young Dawgs program. He plans on majoring in Biomedical Engineering and plans to pursue a career in medicine. Outside of the lab, Aditya enjoys running track for RSS Athletics and Lambert's Varsity team, fishing with his friends, and making trades within the stock market.
Ayana Holland
REU Undergrad Researcher
ayanaholland207@gmail.com
Ayana joined the lab through the NSF REU program as a senior undergrad student. She majors in Biology at Trinity Washington University. She is currently employed at Harris Teeter pharmacy as a licensed pharmacy technician. She enjoys making natural hair videos and traveling.
Stephanie joined the lab in Fall 2020 as a third year genetics student. Stephanie’s focus in the lab is on experimental research, which she also plans to pursue a career in after attending graduate school. Outside of the lab, she enjoys volunteering with Relay for Life and spending time with her foster pets.
Megan joined the lab in Fall 2020 as a first-year Cellular Biology major. She is interested in exploring the intersection of medicine, law, and ethics as an aspiring physician and advocate for equity in health care. Megan’s focus in the lab is experimental research. In her free time, she enjoys playing soccer, admiring Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and singing various Broadway tunes.
Will Fang
High-school Researcher (08/2020-05/2021)
Post-Ye-Lab: Undergrad student at Stanford University
williamfang@uga.edu
William joined the lab in Fall 2020 as a high school senior dual-enrolled at UGA. He plans on majoring in computer science and plans to pursue a career in data science. Outside of the lab, Will enjoys operating The Finch Podcast, playing the French horn, and kicking for the Cedar Shoals football team.
Christina S Thomas
Undergraduate Researcher (01/2020-05/2021)
cthomas8462@uga.edu
Christina joined the Ye lab in Spring 2020 as a third year genetics student. She is from Kennesaw, GA and aspires to go to medical school and become a neonatologist. In the lab, she studies the role of genetic variation and gene-diet interactions in human diseases. Outside of the lab, she is a team leader for a non profit organization that provides quality of life care for kids affected by or infected by HIV/AIDS. In her free time, she models, cooks, works out, and travels.
Jingqi Zhou
Postdoctoral Fellow (05/2019-11/2020)
Post-Ye-Lab: Faculty member at Shanghai Jiao Tong University
jingqi.zhou@uga.edu
Jingqi received her Ph.D. degree in Bioinformatics from Fudan University in 2017. Her research interest is computational evolutionary genomics, with a focus on characterizing and understanding gene-environment interaction, gene expression evolution, pleiotropy, adaptation, and other important genetic and evolutionary phenomena.
Yan Long
Visiting Scholar (12/2019-11/2020)
yl24265@uga.edu
Dr. Long received her Ph.D. degree in Microbiology from Wuhan University in 2017. She joined the Ye lab as a visiting scholar since December 2019. She has great interests in gene evolution in the pathway about synthesis of iron carrier from Pseudonomas. She is working to understand the trajectory of gene evolution through comparative genomics and phylogenetic analysis.
Riya Gohil
Research Technician (07/2019-07/2020)
Post-Ye-Lab: PhD student at UNC Chapel Hill
rg02708@uga.edu
Riya graduated from the University of Georgia with a B.S. in Genetics. Her work in the Ye lab consisted of identifying causal regulatory SNPs for the FADS2 gene along with managing lab inventories, developing safety protocols, and developing scRNA-seq capacity in the lab. When not in the lab, Riya enjoyed painting, hiking, and volunteering at the animal shelter.
Nuno Carvalho
High-school Researcher (Summer 2020)
Post-Ye-Lab: Undergrad at Georgia Tech
Nuno.Carvalho@uga.edu
Nuno joined the lab in 2020 as a high-school research assistant. He was looking to major in Genetics or Biomedical Engineering in the future and hopes to be able to use computers to learn more about evolution. When he's not busy with homework, he likes watching and playing soccer as well as playing video games.
Kris Porter
Visiting
Undergraduate Researcher (Summer 2020)
Undergraduate Researcher (Summer 2020)
kristen.porter@uga.edu
Kris was a third year Biochemistry undergraduate student at Mississippi State University. She joined the Ye lab in the Summer of 2020 as an REU researcher. Her work in the Ye Lab was focused on finding potential genes that code for COVID-19 susceptibility. During her free time, she likes to read horror and suspense novels, bake, and spend time with her family.
Ake Liu
Visiting Scholar (09/2019-07/2020)
ake.liu1@uga.edu
Ake received his Ph.D. degree in Bioinformatics from Fudan University in 2018. He joined the Ye lab as a visiting scholar since September 2019. He has great interests in convergent evolution in electric fishes and marine mammals. He is working to understand the molecular genetic mechanism of convergent evolution through comparative genomics and transcriptomics analysis.
Lingshu Liu
Visiting
Undergraduate Researcher (09/2019-04/2020)
Undergraduate Researcher (09/2019-04/2020)
lingshu.liu@uga.edu
Lingshu was a fourth year Biology major from Wuhan University and she joined the Ye lab in Fall 2019 as a visiting student. Her work in the Ye lab focused on the evolutionary differences of FADS genes between marine and terrestrial animals. In her free time, she enjoyed traveling, reading and watching movies.
Chang Liu
Visiting
Undergraduate Researcher (09/2019-04/2020)
Undergraduate Researcher (09/2019-04/2020)
Post-Ye-Lab: PhD student at Tsinghua University
chang.liu1@uga.edu
Chang was a visiting student from Wuhan University. He joined the lab in the Fall of 2019. He was interested in population genetics and bioinformatics. He wanted to understand the role of genes and gene-environment interactions in shaping phenotypes.
Haley Chishom
Undergraduate Researcher (01/2019-05/2020)
haley.chishom25@uga.edu
Haley joined the lab in Spring 2019 as a third year Biology major. She is from Alpharetta, Georgia. Her main aspiration was to go to medical school with the hopes of becoming a pediatrician. In her free time, she enjoyed traveling, running, and leading a first grade small group at her church.
Briana Sellers
Undergraduate Researcher (01/2019-05/2020)
Post-Ye-Lab: Genetics Coordinator
bks35801@uga.edu
Briana joined the lab in Spring 2019 as a third year Genetics major with a minor in Public Health. Briana is from Columbus, Georgia. She was striving to attend graduate school for genetic counseling. When not in the lab or studying, Briana enjoyed traveling to new places, painting, and spending time with her friends (as long as iced coffee is involved).
Jamie Ropelewski
Undergraduate Researcher (Fall 2019)
jamie.ropelewski25@uga.edu
Jamie joined the lab in Fall of 2019 as a fifth year Genetics and Nutritional Sciences major. She is from Richmond, Virginia and was aspiring to go to medical school to become an anesthesiologist. Outside of the lab, Jamie was the Director of Operations for a nonprofit that works to improve the quality of life of children affected by HIV/AIDs. She also enjoyed exploring Athens with her puppy, Keats.
Emily Álvarez Toucet
Visiting Undergraduate Researcher (Summer 2019)
emily.alvarez1@upr.edu
Emily joined the Ye lab through the 2019 UGA Summer Undergraduate Fellowships in Genetics (SUNFIG). She was a fourth year Chemistry major with a minor in Visual Arts from the University of Puerto Rico at Cayey Campus. Her main goal is to pursue studies in pharmacy school with the aspiration to become a pharmacist. Besides being in the lab or studying for many tests, she enjoys her free time by painting, drawing, visiting museums and sightseeing the beautiful places in Puerto Rico.
Kyndal Goss
Undergraduate Researcher (2018-2019)
Post-Ye-Lab: NIH Postbac Research Fellow
Currently: PhD student at Emory University
Currently: PhD student at Emory University
klg11585@uga.edu
Kyndal was a Biology major at UGA and joined the Ye lab in her senior year. She learned programming and bioinformatics from scratch. She participated in bioinformatics projects related to human evolution and single-cell RNAseq data analysis.
Jingxuan Chen, rotation student 2018.
Kun-Lin Ho, rotation student 2018.
Adnan Kivanc Corut, rotation student 2018.
Bidushi (Tulip) Chandra, rotation student 2018.
Kun-Lin Ho, rotation student 2018.
Adnan Kivanc Corut, rotation student 2018.
Bidushi (Tulip) Chandra, rotation student 2018.