Kim Laboratory | Alumni

Rebecca Roach, DO, MPH

• Research assistant and lab supervisor of Kim Lab, 2006-09
• MD student, Western Oregon University, Monmouth, Ore.
• Examined lineage tracing of quiescent cells in lung tumors
• Completed the master’s of public health program, Boston University
• Contributed data for authorship on multiple Kim Lab publications including in Cell Stem Cell, 2010

Rebecca currently serves as a resident physician at the University of California, San Francisco in the Department of Pediatrics.

Sima Zacharek, PhD

• Postdoctoral fellow in Kim Lab, 2006-12
• staff scientist, Belfer Institute of Applied Cancer Science, Boston
• Characterized novel Bmi1 targets and stem cell regulators in BASCs and developing a mouse model for lymphangioleiomyomatosis (LAM)
• Received the Judah Folkman LAM Postdoctoral Fellowship
• Published second-author peer-reviewed paper in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2008
• Won “Best Collaborative Effort” for her poster at the Harvard Stem Cell Institute Annual Meeting, 2010
• Won Keystone Symposia “Stem Cells, Cancer and Metastasis” Travel Award
• Published first-author peer-reviewed paper in Cell Stem Cell, 2011

Sima currently works at Modern Therapeutics as a senior scientist.

David Raiser, PhD

• Postdoctoral fellow and a rotation student in the Kim Lab, 2007-10
• Developed a transplantation assay to test BASC potential
• Received the Harvard Stem Cell Institute Training Grant Predoctoral Fellowship
• Published two review articles, one in the Cold Spring Harbor Symposia on Quantitative Biology in 2008 and the other in Stem Cells in 2009

David is currently CEO of Aldatu Biosciences, which he co-founded.

Stephen Curtis, PhD

• Postdoctoral fellow and a rotation student in the Kim Lab, 2007-11
• Analyst, Bioscience Ventures, 2M Companies Inc.
• Examined the cancer stem cell hypothesis in murine lung cancer
• Received a Department of Defense NDSEG Graduate Fellowship
• Awarded a Karnovsky Fellowship, BBS/HMS, 2008
• Published first-author peer-reviewed paper in Cell Stem Cell, 2010
• Won International Society for Stem Cell Research Annual Meeting Travel Award

Stephen currently works at MPM Capital as a principal.

Kerstin Sinkevicius, PhD

• Postdoctoral fellow in Kim Lab, 2008-15
• Research scientist II, Alexion Pharmaceuticals
• Researched the characterization of human lung cancer stem cells and the relationship between cancer stem cells and metastasis
• American Cancer Society Postdoctoral Fellowship, 2009-12
• Supported by Harvard Stem Cell Institute Training Grant
• Published first-author book chapter in Lung Cancer: Principles and Practice, 2010
• Published second-author peer-reviewed paper in Cell Stem Cell, 2010
• Published first author peer-reviewed paper in PNAS, 2014
• Received the Young Investigators Award from the National Lung Cancer Partnership, 2011

Kerstin currently works at ImmunoGen Inc. as a Scientist III.

David Gludish, MS

• Research assistant in Kim Lab
• Developed murine lung stem cell transplantation in chick lung
• Contributed data for authorship on Kim Lab publication in Cell Stem Cell, 2011

David is currently a DVM-PhD student at Cornell University. 

Eva Leder, MD

• Clinical fellow in Kim Lab
• Studied the affects of fetal lung injury treatment on lung stem cells, which related to her clinical fellowship with the Boston Children’s Hospital Division of Pulmonary Medicine
• Co-authorship on publication in Am J Physiol Lung Cell Mol Physiol, 2012

Eva is currently working in Vienna, Austria, as a pediatric pulmonologist. 

Allison Lau, BS

• Postdoctoral fellow in the Kim Lab, 2009-14
• Studied the role of lung tumor-propagating cells in metastasis
• Supported by a Department of Defense NDSEG Graduate Fellowship
• Published first-author paper in EMBO, 2014
• Defended thesis, March 2014
• Postdoctoral fellowship, MIT, Matt Vander Heiden Lab
• Supported by Damon Runyon Cancer Research Postdoctoral Fellowship

Allison is currently a postdoctoral fellow in the Vander Heiden Lab at MIT.

Arven Saunders, MLA

• Master’s student at Harvard Extension School in Kim Lab, 2009-10
• Medical communications, New York
• PhD program, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York
• Examined the gene expression analysis of lung stem cells
• Contributed data for authorship on Kim Lab publication in Am J Resp Cell Molec Biology, 2013
• Completed master’s thesis from the Harvard Extension School, 2010

Arven is currently the associate director of medical and scientific affairs at Synapse Biotech Ltd.

Raffaella Zamponi, MS

• Lab supervisor of Kim Lab, 2009-10
• Staff scientist at Novartis Pharmaceuticals
• Assisted other lab members and examined lineage tracing of quiescent cells in lung tumors
• Contributed data for authorship on Kim Lab publication in Cell Stem Cell, 2010

Raffaella currently works as a biomedical research assistant at Santa Maria Hospital in Florence, Italy.

Joo-Hyeon Lee, PhD

• Postdoctoral fellow in Kim Lab, 2009-16
• Examined the microenvironmental regulation of lung stem cells and lung cancer
• Supported by the Hope Funds for Cancer Research Fellowship
• Published first author paper in American Journal of Respiratory Cell and Molecular Biology, 2012
• Won the Agarwal Award from Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, which is presented annually and targets a researcher of outstanding achievement in the field of biological sciences or biomedical sciences
• Selected for oral presentation at Keystone Lung Symposium, 2011; International Society for Stem Cell Research, 2013 and 2014
• Published first-author peer-reviewed paper in Cell in 2014

Joo-Hyeon currently works as a Principal Investigator at the University of Cambridge.

Christine Fillmore, PhD

• Postdoctoral fellow in Kim Lab, 2009-16
• Researches epigenomics and lung cancer cell differentiation
• Supported by the Ladies Auxiliary of the Veterans of Foreign Wars Cancer Research, Research Postdoctoral Fellowship, 2009-12
• Supported by American Cancer Society Postdoctoral Fellowship, 2012-15
• Published a co-first author paper in Cancer Cell, 2014
• Selected for oral presentation at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, 2014
• Published a first author paper in Nature, 2015

Christine currently works as an assistant professor at the University of Kentucky.

Kristen Tropea Leeman, MD

• Fellow and instructor in Kim Lab, 2010-16
• Studied the affects of fetal lung injury treatment on lung stem cells
• Named chief fellow of the Neonatology Program, 2011
• Published first author peer reviewed paper in Am J Physiol Lung Cell Mol Physiol, 2012
• Received the Loan Repayment Program Award
• Won the Ikaria Advancing Newborn Medicine Grant
• Awarded Pediatric Academic Society Travel Award
• Won a Pulmonary Fibrosis Foundation Junior Investigator Award, 2013

Kristen is the associate medical director of the Boston Children’s Hospital Neonatal Intensive Care Unit and an Instructor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School.

Juliana Barrios, BS

• Undergraduate and research assistant in Kim Lab, 2010-12
• Studied the role of E-cadherin in lung cancer metastasis
• Contributed data for authorship on Kim Lab publication in EMBO, 2014

Juliana is a PhD student at Boston University.

Christina Kriegel, PhD

• Laboratory supervisor in Kim Lab, 2011-12
• Assisted lab members and examined lineage tracing of quiescent cells in lung tumors
• Contributed data for authorship on Kim Lab publication in PNAS, 2014

Christina is a scientist at Roche in Switzerland.

Alexander Beede, BA

• Research assistant in Kim Lab, 2012-14
• Assisted other lab members and performed a chemical screen for regulators of lung stem cell differentiation
• Contributed data for authorship on Kim Lab publication in EMBO, 2013

Alex is an analyst for The Cadmus Group LLC in Washington.

Joanne Berry, BS

• Research assistant in Kim Lab, 2012-14
• Assisted other lab members and performed a chemical screen for regulators of lung stem cell differentiation
• Contributed data for authorship on Kim Lab publication in EMBO, 2013

John (Jed) Mahoney, PhD

• Postdoctoral fellow in Kim Lab, 2014-15
• Studied the heterogeneity of lung progenitor cell populations using single cell RNA-Seq
• Received an NIH/NHLBI Jumpstart Award

Jed is a senior scientist II for Cystic Fibrosis Foundation Therapeutics.

Hongmei (Lisa) Li, PhD

• Postdoctoral fellow in Kim Lab, 2015-18
• Studied the role of modifier genes in cystic fibrosis patients using differentiation of iPS cells and CRISPR
• Received the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation Therapeutics Fellowship Award, 2015-17

Lisa is a principal scientist at Takeda Pharmaceutical Co.

Bryan Marsh, BS

• Research assistant in Kim Lab, 2015-16
• Studied role of G9a in lung adenocarcinoma progression and metastasis

Bryan is a doctoral student at the University of California, San Francisco, in the Developmental and Stem Cell Biology Department.

Nicole Feaster, BS

• Administrative associate of Kim Lab, 2019-20

Sharon Louie, PhD

• Sharon received her B.S. in molecular toxicology in 2012 and PhD in metabolic biology in 2017 from the University of California, Berkeley, where she studied breast cancer metabolism using chemical biology and mass spectrometry-based platforms. She joined the lab in July 2017 and studied the metabolic regulation of lung stem cells and lung tumor-propagating cells.

Sharon is a scientist at CohBar Inc. in Menlo Park, Calif.

Patrizia Pessina, PhD

• Staff scientist in the Kim Lab, 2018-20
• Lab manager in Kim Lab, 2016-18
• Studied lung stem cell function in tissue repair and aging

Patrizia currently works at Baylor College of Medicine.

Manav Gupta

• Graduate student in the Kim Lab, 2015-20

Manav currently works at Ideaya Biosciences as a research scientist.

Caroline Fahey

• PhD candidate, Harvard University
• Studied the susceptibility of lung cancer to targeting of epigenetic regulators while she was in the lab

Emery Lu, BA

• Research assistant in the Kim Lab, 2019-21
• Studied the development of a transplantation assay for lung organoid cells.

Emery is currently an MD candidate at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine.

Andrea Shehaj, BS

• Research assistant in the Kim Lab, 2021-22
• Studied lung progenitor cells and their impact on lung repair following injury

Andrea is a graduate student at Penn State College of Medicine.

Jingyun Li, PhD

• Postdoctoral fellow in the Kim Lab, 2019-22
• Studied how chromatin accessibility affects the control of early stage lung cancer

Julio Sainz de Aja, PhD

• Postdoctoral fellow in the Kim and Daley Labs, 2018-22
• Studied the derivation of lung epithelial cells from induced pluripotent stem cells from specific types of patients with cystic fibrosis and determining the role of ion channel protein mutations that may modulate the severity of lung disease

Julio is a research advisor at Eli Lilly Inc.

Jillian Stark

• Undergraduate intern in the Kim Lab, 2022-23
• Studied the effects of chemical and genetic airway injury on cell population in the lung that are not known to contribute to airway injury repair.

Jillian is currently a graduate student.

Yvonne Nguyen

• Undergraduate Intern in the Kim Lab 2018-20, Research Assistant in the Kim Lab, 2021-23
• Developed multiple projects relating to lung cancer, aging, and epigenetics.

Yvonne is currently a MD candidate at UMass Chan Medical School.

Paul Schurmann

• Graduate Student in the Kim Lab 2022-23.
• Studied vulnerabilities of genotype-specific lung cancer organoids.

Paul is currently a MS candidate at Utrecht University.

Monica Liu  MD, PhD

• Clinical Fellow in the Kim Lab 2021-23
• Studied the development of patient-derived organoid models of lung diseases, especially inflammatory lung injury.

Monica is currently a Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine Instructor at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health.

Aaron Moye

• Postdoctoral Fellow in the Kim Lab 2017-24
• Studied the role of cell-to-cell signaling during lung cancer initiation and progression using single-cell RNA-seq, mouse models, and organoid cultures.

Aaron is the founder and CEO of Cellforma in Cambridge, MA.