Kamberov Lab
Yana Kamberov Ph.D.
Principal Investigator
Yana joined the Department of Genetics at the Perelman School of Medicine in 2016 where her lab's research focuses on the genetic mechanisms governing the development and evolution of the skin and its appendages.
Yana is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania from which she received her Bachelor's degree in Biology and Anthropology. She received her Ph.D. in Cell and Developmental Biology from Harvard University. Upon completing her doctorate Yana became a post-doc in the lab of Cliff Tabin in the Genetics Department of Harvard Medical School, and under the co-mentorship of Pardis Sabeti, Dan Lieberman, and Bruce Morgan.
Contact:
Blerina Kokalari V.M.D.
Research Specialist
Blerina is a graduate of the University of Tirana and holds a degree in veterinary sciences. Her project focuses on the physical and genetic cues governing the morphogenesis of ectodermal appendages.
Contact:
bldu at pennmedicine.upenn.edu
Daniel Aldea Ph.D.
Post-doctoral fellow
Daniel is a graduate of the University of Concepcion in Chile from which he received a Bachelor's degree in Biochemistry with Honors. He continued his studies at the University of Concepcion to complete his M.Sc. in the laboratory of Sylvain Marcellini where he studied the genetic changes leading to the evolution of the vertebrate bone matrix. Daniel was awarded a CONICYT Becas Chile Scholarship to undertake his doctoral studies in France under the mentorship of Hector Escriva at the University Pierre and Marie Curie at the Observatoire Océanologique de Banyuls-sur-Mer. Here Daniel's research focused uncovering the origin of the vertebrate head through studies in the chordate amphioxus. Reflecting his long-held interest in evolutionary biology, Daniel's post-doctoral research focuses on the role of non-coding elements in the development and evolution of derived human skin traits.
Contact:
daldea at pennmedicine.upenn.edu
Heather Dingwall Ph.D.
Post-doctoral fellow
Heather received a B.S. with honors in Biological Anthropology from The George Washington University. She completed her Ph.D. in Human Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University under the guidance of Terence Capellini and Jenna Galloway. For her dissertation, Heather focused on identifying the molecular mechanisms that control tendon growth, and how evolution may have shaped the growth process to yield the highly variable tendon morphology observed among primates. As a postdoc in the Kamberov lab, Heather is investigating the molecular pathways that underlie the development and evolution of ectodermal appendages.
Contact:
Heather.Dingwall at pennmedicine.upenn.edu
Reiko Tomizawa
Ph.D. Candidate
Developmental Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology Graduate Group
Reiko is a graduate of College of the Holy Cross from which she received a B. A. in Biology with a minor in Studio Art. She subsequently joined the Tabin lab at Harvard Medical School as a Research Associate where she studied genetic factors contributing to the regulation of mammary gland epithelial growth, and investigated how changes to membrane potential regulate the morphogenesis of the vertebrate limb bud. In 2022, Reiko joined the Kamberov lab for her doctoral training. Reflecting her keen interest in developmental biology, Reiko's research leverages single transcriptomics and genetics to define the developmental circuits that control the specification and differentiation of sweat glands and hair follicles, and the implications of manipulating these circuits to understand human evolutionary traits and clinical regeneration of skin appendages.
Contact:
Reiko.Tomizawa at pennmedicine.upenn.edu
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Joan Donahue
Ph.D. Candidate
Developmental Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology Graduate Group
Joan is a graduate of Boston College where she received a B.S. in Biology and a minor in Studio Art. During this time, she joined the McMenamin Lab where she studied zebrafish skeletal patterning, looking at whole body proportioning in the context of thyroid hormone, and then later investigating the mechanisms behind caudal fin ray patterning in her post graduate career. She also conducted an internship in the lab of Vincent Laudet at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology, studying the mechanisms of anemonefish pigmentation. She joined the Kamberov lab in 2023 for her doctoral training. Her research focuses on the cellular interactions that provide extrinsic control of sweat gland formation and patterning during development and evolution.
Contact:
Joan.Donahue at pennmedicine.upenn.edu
Alumni
Bailey Warder
Rotation student - Fall 2018
Genetics and Epigenetics graduate group
Dan Ju
Rotation student -Spring 2018
Genetics and Epigenetics graduate group
Jessica Chotiner
Rotation student - Winter 2018
Cell Physiology and Metabolism graduate group
Adam Aharoni
Undergraduate student - 2016 - 2019
Isabel Breier
Undergraduate student - Spring/Summer 2018