Thom grew up in a rural part of New York’s Capital Region and attended SUNY Buffalo, where they graduated with a B.S. in Pharmacology and Toxicology.

In 2015, an opportunity led them to Boston - first at Massachusetts General Hospital as a Clinical Research Coordinator, then to the Broad Institute in 2017 as a Research Associate. Over the years, Thom took on responsibilities in project and lab management and made the choice to pursue lab management full-time in the summer of 2021. They joined the Broad’s Type 2 Diabetes Systems Genomics Initiative (T2DSGI) as Lab Manager in 2022, supporting both the Neal and Claussnitzer Labs.

In their spare time, Thom takes circus classes and trains an array of disciplines, including static trapeze, corde lisse, handbalancing, juggling, and unicycling. They’re also a four-seasons bicycle commuter, someone that enjoys spending time in wooded forests, and are trying to make the practice of meditation a habit.

Gunjan is from Basking Ridge, New Jersey where she attended Rutgers University and received her B.S. in Biomedical Engineering along with a minor in Psychology. During her undergraduate journey Gunjan worked on several research projects including investigating stem cell therapies for Parkinson’s disease using peptide-based scaffolds, and internships at Celularity and Colgate. Her senior thesis involved designing a perfusion based bioreactor system for effective drug testing, and using that to study effects of chemotherapeutic drugs for Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. Her thesis was awarded first place in the annual BME symposium in 2022, which motivated her to expand her foundation in cancer research at the Broad. Gunjan joined the Neal Lab in 2022 where she hopes to contribute her research to make an impact in the field of modern medicine.

Outside of the lab Gunjan likes to dance, bake and paint in her free time. She also enjoys traveling and trying out new food places each week.

Eddy hails from Verona, Italy, and moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma, to attend Oral Roberts University. He graduated in the spring of 2021 with high honors, Magna Cum Laude, and a Bachelor of Science in Biomedical Chemistry with a Biology minor. At ORU, Eddy was an NCAA scholar recipient and captain of the NCAA Division I varsity tennis team, as well as a researcher studying the airborne pheromone released by the V. polistes wasp. His senior project in computational biology focused on the annotation of the genome of Listeria monocytogenes.

Eddy’s passion for cancer research began in the Ranahan Lab at ORU, studying breast cancer and helping set up the new Cancer Biology summer course. He joined the Neal Lab in the Cancer Program in 2021 after working in the Broad Genomics Platform as part of the COVID-19 Diagnostic Team.

In his free time, Eddy enjoys teaching tennis and playing sports, going for runs, reading, traveling, and exploring new places.

Jason grew up in South Korea before moving to Puyallup, Washington to attend middle and high school. He graduated from the University of Washington with high honors, Magna Cum Laude, and a B.S. in Neuroscience and a minor in Chemistry. At UW, he studied how HSV influences neurodegenerative disease pathogenesis and the genetic pathways of the hypoxic rescue of frataxin deficiency at the Kaeberlein lab. He also studied the molecular pathophysiology of intracranial aneurysm development at the SANS Center. Jason joined the Neal lab in 2021 to tackle cancer using functional genomics.

Maria grew up in Lebanon and Colombia before attending the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Florida, where she graduated with a B.S. in Biomedical Engineering and a B.A. in Chemistry. Maria completed her senior thesis at the University of Miami on the development of ELISA microfluidic devices designed for antibody testing in point of care settings. During her undergraduate studies, Maria interned in Doudna Lab at the University of California Berkeley, where she worked in the discovery of Anti-CRISPR proteins and The Wang Lab at Stanford University, where she worked in the computational analysis of behavioral responses during brain regeneration in planarians. Maria joined the Neal lab in 2020.

Outside the lab, Maria is an avid reader who spends her time devouring mystery books and narrative non-fiction. She also enjoys swimming, combining chemistry and food to create new recipes, and using physics or mathematics to create music.

Sofia was born in Colombia and moved to Miami, Florida, during her high school years. She graduated from Tufts University with a B.S. in Biotechnology and Biopsychology. At Tufts, she investigated REV1-mediated DNA damage tolerance mechanisms using Drosophila in the McVey lab, and also participated in the Broad Summer Research Program (BSRP) in the the Greka lab, studying the accumulation of structurally-diverse free fatty acids in type 2 diabetes, and differentially-expressed genes associated with Alzheimer's disease in a TREM-2 gene background using the CCLE. This experience introduced her to the Cancer Program, where she dreamt of working at since she stepped foot into the Broad. Sofia joined the Neal lab in the summer of 2021.

Outside of the lab, Sofia is passionate about making higher education more accessible to low-income, first-generation, and undocumented students through mentorship. She co-founded South Florida Scholars, a non-profit that supports students from underrepresented backgrounds through the college application process. Sofia loves dancing salsa, eating sushi, and doing puzzles in her free time.

Shanna is from the beautiful city of Cambridge. She received an associates degree in Health Sciences from Bristol and followed that up with a B.S in Biology from the University of Massachusetts. After undergrad she went on to work in the Dental field, as she considered pursuing a degree in dentistry. There she found a passion for working behind the scenes, coordinating and managing the day-to-day office operations. She brought that enthusiasm to the Broad in September of 2022.

Outside of the Broad, Shā loves to read, play video games, host board game nights, and cuddle with her cat. After work she is either competing in a flag football league, swimming, playing basketball, skateboarding or at a crossfit gym.

Arno grew up in Somerville, Massachusetts and joined the Neal lab in the fall of 2021 to learn more about the computational techniques and strategies that are used to study cancer biology.

Outside of the lab, he is an EMT and coordinates volunteers at Tufts Medical Center. In his free time, Arno enjoys martial arts, graphic design, and caring for houseplants.

Jenlu Pagnotta grew up in Westchester, New York and then attended Johns Hopkins University, where she graduated with a B.S. in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. While at Johns Hopkins, she worked in a nano engineering lab and contributed to developing point-of-care devices for faster and easier disease detection. During undergrad, Jenlu enjoyed exploring computational and wet-lab research opportunities. Looking to further develop her research interests and abilities, she joined the Neal lab in 2022.

Outside of the lab, Jenlu enjoys baking fancy desserts, hiking, and exploring Boston with friends. Now that her time is not taken up by lengthy engineering problem sets, she hopes to get back to playing the flute and cooking more often.

Alex is from Jacksonville, Florida and received his BS in Chemistry from the University of Florida. There, he got a taste for research using ancient DNA to study the peopling of the Caribbean. He received his PhD from Cornell University in 2017, where he studied transcriptional regulation of hair follicle stem cells with Doina Tumbar. He then came to Boston as a postdoctoral fellow in Bruce Spiegelman’s lab at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute where he studied the role of phosphocreatine in protein kinase phosphorylation before joining the Neal lab in 2019.

Outside of the lab, Alex is learning to play the violin, bakes, and tries very hard (but often fails) to wake up early enough to make it to masters swimming workouts. His favorite foods are dumplings, ice cream, and grilled cheese sandwiches with strawberry jam.

Meraj is from the historic city of Esfahan in Iran and received in B.Sc. in chemistry from Sharif University of Technology followed by a Masters in Organic Chemistry. He received his PhD from Cornell University in 2020 in Biophysics, where he utilized molecular biology, imaging and data science tools to study alpha-synuclein, a central protein in Parkinson’s Disease. Meraj joined the Neal lab in 2021.

Outside the lab, Meraj is an avid reader and a podcast fan. He is a big basketball fan, enjoys competing in puzzle hunts and outdoors activities such as hiking and grilling.

Emily attended Williams College, where she received a BA with highest honors in Biology. Following graduation in 2016, she joined the Broad Institute Cancer Program as a research associate. She left the Broad in 2018 to enroll in the MD/PhD program at the University of Pennsylvania.

Christian graduated with a Bachelor of Science from Haverford College in Biology in 2016, completed a Master’s degree in Bioengineering, and joined the Neal Lab in 2018. He is currently pursing a PhD at Yale.

Julia graduated magna cum laude from the University of Washington with a B.S. in neurobiology, and joined the Neal lab in 2018. She is currently pursuing a PhD in Genetics at Stanford University.

Sanam graduated in 2019 from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a BSPH in environmental health sciences, and joined the Neal lab in 2019. She is currently pursuing an MD/PhD at the University of Pennsylvania.

Varsha graduated from UC Berkeley with a B.A. in Molecular & Cell Biology, and joined the Neal lab in 2019. She is currently pursuing an MD at the University of California San Diego.

Celeste graduated Summa Cum Laude from California State University with a B.S. in Molecular and Microbial Biology and joined the Neal lab in 2018. She is currently pursuing a PhD in Cancer Biology at Stanford University.

Yossef Baidi graduated from Johns Hopkins University with a BA in Chemistry and joined the Neal lab in 2019. He is currently pursuing a PhD in Chemical Biology at Harvard University.

Allie received her PhD in Cellular & Molecular Physiology from Yale in 2020, and joined the Neal lab as a postdoc in 2021 where she focused on the progression of NASH to cancer in the liver.

Mariam graduated from Ain Shams university with a Bachelor of Science majoring in Microbiology and joined the Neal lab in 2019. She is currently pursuing a PhD in Cancer Biology at the MD Anderson Cancer Center UTHealth Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences.