People
Principal Investigator
Email: marknwu (AT) jhmi.edu
Mark grew up in Texas, and then traveled around the country for his education. After going to college at Cornell University, he returned to Texas for the MD/PhD Program at Baylor College of Medicine. During his PhD, he studied the mechanisms underlying neurotransmitter release in Drosophila with Hugo Bellen. He then set off for sunny Los Angeles to do his residency in Neurology. His next move was to Philadelphia, where he completed a sleep medicine fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania. While at Penn, he performed his postdoctoral research with Amita Sehgal, studying genetic mechanisms underlying sleep in Drosophila. He finally headed down to Baltimore to Johns Hopkins to set up his own lab there. Mark is also a board-certified neurologist and sleep medicine specialist, and he sees patients in both sleep medicine clinic and on the neurology wards.
Mark Wu
Postdoctoral Fellows
Fun fact: Mark was a DJ in college and was rumored to have some skills with the "steel wheels."
Qiang Liu
Graduate Students
Matt Brown
Email: matt.brown (AT) jhmi.edu
Matt was born and raised in Maryland. He went to the University of Michigan for college, where he studied ion channel physiology. He then worked as a research technician for 2 years, studying the molecular mechanisms of retinal development. In his spare time, he is the assistant coach of the Neuroscience softball team, who he hopes to guide to a record season of >2 wins (out of 20 contests).
Email: qliu35 (AT) jhmi.edu
Qiang is from a small town near Huainan in China. He spent 9 years at Shanghai University doing his undergraduate work and his PhD work in neuroscience. During his PhD, Qiang studied hippocampal dendritic spine development and learning and memory in mice. In his spare time, Qiang enjoys swimming, watching action movies, and fly fishing.
Fun fact: In college, Qiang was among 2 out of 20 students to complete an elective class in Spanish. Because of these skills, he was able to serve as a volunteer at the Spanish Pavilion at the 2010 World Expo in Shanghai.
Mehmet Keles
Sangsoo Lee
Email: slee496 (AT) jhmi.edu
Sangsoo grew up in Busan, which is a popular beach destination in Korea. He performed his undergraduate and masters work at Sogang University in Seoul. He then moved to the US to do his PhD at UC Riverside, where he studied hormonal regulation of learning and memory in Drosophila. In his leisure time, Sangsoo enjoys cooking, wine tasting, and traveling.
Fun fact: Following his service time in the Korean military, Sangsoo spent a month hitchhiking his way through eastern Turkey. Because there were usually no hotels in these small towns, he often slept at bus stops, where he would befriend Turkish Korean War veterans.
Fun fact: Matt was a competitive power-lifter in college, which he blames for his 70 pound weight gain during that time.
Jiali Xiong
Email: jxiong4 (AT) jhmi.edu
Jiali grew up in Shenzhen, a large coastal city in southern China. She received her undergraduate degree from Zhejiang University, then took a gap year as a technician at Hopkins studying axon regeneration of direction-selective retinal ganglion cells. She enjoys watching cooking shows on the internet and trying new recipes.
Email: mkeles1 (AT) jhmi.edu
Mehmet is originally from Istanbul. For his undergraduate studies, he went to Bilkent University in Ankara, the capital of Turkey, where he studied molecular biology and genetics. He then moved to UCLA and did his PhD work on visual feature detection using in vivo calcium imaging techniques in fruit flies. Mehmet is a cinephile who enjoys hunting for old cameras on Ebay and doing film photography. Here's a link to his website.
Fun fact: Mehmet ran the LA marathon, which nearly killed him, so naturally, he did it again.
Elijah Blank
Email: eblank4 (AT) jhmi.edu
Elijah is a native of Baltimore, Maryland. He attended Baltimore City Community College and the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. He went on to spend a year as a post-bac at UC Davis, studying protein-protein interactions of K channels. When he is not in lab, Elijah spends his time drawing, playing bass guitar, and collecting local plants to populate terrariums.
Anu Mehta
Email: amehta50 (AT) jh.edu
Anu was born and raised in the City of Joy, Kolkata in India. She obtained her Bachelors and Masters degrees in Biochemistry from the University of Calcultta. She then moved to Japan to pursue her Ph.D. at Shinshu University, where she studied synaptic molecules associated with autism. When she is not in the lab, she enjoys reading Harry Potter books and watching Harry Potter movies.
Fun fact: Because she loves chatting but did not speak Japanese, Anu, when she was a PhD student, often went to a restaurant to talk to Pepper the Robot.
Zhengyu Tang
Email: ztang34 (AT) jh.edu
Zhengyu hails from Nantong, a small eastern coastal city in China. He spent 7 years in Chongqing for his undergraduate and Masters studies, where he majored in applied psychology and cognitive neuroscience. He then moved to the Netherlands to do his PhD at Donders Institute, where he studied neural coding mechanisms underlying sensorimotor control of the whisker system in mice. Zhengyu enjoys photography, traveling, and drinking coffee.
Fun fact: Zhengyu likes guinea pigs and thinks they make great pets-- except when they eat his hair!
Fun fact: Jiali has a poor sense of direction, but uses this to her advantage by wandering around in cities without a map to discover new and interesting places.
Fun fact: In Costa Rica, Elijah rode the longest zip line in Latin America, stretching across 1.6 km. He flew across mountains, through clouds, and over a picturesque rainforest (but he's never going zip-lining again).
Research Technologists
Research Assistants
Alumni
Sha Liu
Sha was the first postdoctoral fellow in the lab and made major contributions, spearheading the initial work on WIDE AWAKE and the R5 sleep circuit. He is now a PI at the VIB, where his lab studies the role of sleep in neural plasticity in Drosophila
James spent 2 years with us, studying Familial Sleep Paralysis. He is now a Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation physician.
James Ying
Maria spent 2 years with us as a technician. She worked with Qili on dopamine and arousal and with Sha on WIDE AWAKE. Maria is now a pediatrician in Virginia.
Maria Driscoll
Shahnaz studied the relationship betweensleep and amyloid. He is now a Principal Investigator at the Central University of Punjab, studying circadian rhythms and sleep in flies.
Shahnaz Lone
Lay spent 4 years with us as an undergrad and technician. After spending a year at Cambridge University, she now attends the MD/PhD program at UCSF.
Lay Kodama
Julia spent 4 years with us as an undergrad and technician. She contributed to many projects and helped keep the lab organized. She is now a GI fellow at UTMB.
Julia Zhang
Jay spent 3 years with us as an undergrad, studying dopamine circuits regulating behavior. He is currently an MD/PhD student at Northwestern University.
Jay Daniels
Brandon Yoo
Email: byoo8 (AT) jhu.edu
Brandon is from Albuquerque, New Mexico. He is currently a sophomore majoring in Neuroscience and Public Health. In his free time, Brand enjoys building and launching model rockets.
Fun fact: Brandon has gone to the Albuquerque Balloon Fiest every year to watch the hundreds of hot air balloons take off. Once, while riding in one, he nearly crash landed into the Rio Grande.
Wakako Horiuchi
Wakako spent 4 years with us as an undergrad researcher and technician, contributing to multiple projects in the lab. Wakako is now an Ob-Gyn resident in DC.
Postdoctoral Fellows &
Graduate Students
Research Technologists
Undergraduate research assistants
Daphne Boudreau
Email: dboudre3 (AT) jhmi.edu
Daphne grew up in Rhode Island. She attended the University of Rhode Island, where she studied Cell and Molecular Biology. In college, she studied neuroinflammatory processes in a rabbit model of cerebral palsy. She then moved to Hopkins to obtain a Masters in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. Interestingly, Daphne also worked as a sleep tech in Mary Carsakdon's lab. In her free time, Daphne explores cafes to find the best latte in Baltimore.
Fun fact: Daphne loves art and over the past few years has become fascinated with mold art. She hopes to visit the world's only microbe museum in the Netherlands one day.
Ting did her PhD work as a joint student between our lab and Yi Rao's lab at Beijing University. She developed new genetic tools for studying DA in flies and is now a postdoctoral fellow in Hong Kong.
Ting Xie
Casey Brody
Email: cbrody4 (AT) jhu.edu
Casey is originally from Englewood, New Jersey, just outside New York City. She is currently a junior, majoring in Neuroscience. In her free time, she enjoys crochet, cooking, and playing with her labradoodle Shmuffy.
Fun fact: Casey is named after the Grateful Dead song "Casey Jones." Coincidentally, she happened to grow up on Jones Road.
Email: mvelas11 (AT) jhu.edu
Miguel grew up in Phelan, California, which is a small desert town with tumbleweeds and Joshua Trees, 2 hrs north of LA. He is currently a sophomore, majoring in Neuroscience. In his free time, Miguel enjoys kayak fishing in Lake Roland.
Miguel Velasco
Fun fact: At one point in high school, Miguel owned 18 silkie chickens as pets.
Lucinda Chiu
Annette Wang
Habon Issa
Annette performed her masters thesis with us, characterizing the expression pattern of the mouse WAKE homolog. She is now a medical student at Harvard.
Qili was the second postdoc in the lab and conducted pioneering studies on dopamine circuits underlying arousal and protein hunger. She is now a PI at UCSF, where her lab studies protein hunger and feeding.
Qili Liu
Masashi was the third postdoc in the lab and did groundbreaking electrophysiological studies in sleep, clock, and feeding circuits. He is now a PI at Case Western, where his lab studies neural coding and behavior.
Masashi Tabuchi
Ben was the first grad student in the lab and did a tremendous job establishing all the mouse projects in the lab and revealing exciting insights into mWAKE. He is now a biotech associate at T. Rowe Price.
Ben Bell
During his postdoc, Ian provided his considerable
expertise in mouse circadian rhythms and did elegant work on the role of astrocytes in sleep need in Drosophila. He is now a business development analyst at CIHR.
Ian Blum
During his brief time with us, Nate collaborated with Mehmet on our fly sleep imaging work. He is now a medical writer with Nucleus Global.
Nate Snell
As a postdoc, Margaret made major contributions on the DA circuit tools project and the circuit mechanisms underlying sleep homeostasis. She is now a data scientist at Guidehouse.
Margaret Ho
Emily conducted her PhD work on Tob, a novel molecule regulating the timing of sleep onset in Drosophila. She is now pursuing her interest in science outreach, working as a program officer at a science museum in Australia.
Emily Han
Habon spent 2 years in the lab, working on multiple fly and mouse projects, as well as an independent project. She is now a grad student at NYU Neuroscience.
Grace Duan
Grace spent 5 years with us as an undergrad and technician. She collaborated extensively with Masashi and also studied tau and sleep in flies. She is now a medical student at the University of Chicago.
Kristen Park
Kristen worked with us for 5 years, as an undergrad and technician. She worked on the astrocyte sleep project, as well as the SCN project. She is now an MD/PhD student at
U Penn.
Isabelle Palmer
Isabelle spent 2 years with us as a technician. She worked on fly circadian/sleep projects and made major contributions to our sleepwalking study. She is now a PhD student at Northwestern.
Lucinda spent 3 years with us as an undergrad researcher, working on DA circuits regulating feeding. She is now a neurosurgery resident in Chicago.
Daniel Esquivel
Daniel spent 3 years with us as an undergrad researcher. He is now applying for graduate school.
Skylar worked with us for 3 years as an undergrad researcher, working on circuits regulating sleep. She is now a medical student at Albany Medical College.
Skylar Luu
Serena spent 3 years with us, where she studied sleep in fly models of Alzheimer's disease. She is now a medical student at Harvard.
Serena Wang
Alice was an undergraduate research assistant in the lab for 3 years, working with Emily on Tob. She is now taking a gap year and applying to medical school.
Alice Han
Shubha worked closely with Matt for 4 years, studying how the clock network patterns behaviors in fruit flies. She is now taking a gap year and applying to medical school.
Shubha Verma
Christin spent 2 years in the lab working with Mehmet. She is now working on her Masters in Public Health.