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Iwasaki Lab
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INFORMATION FOR

Lab Members

Principal Investigator

  • Akiko Iwasaki, PhD

    Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute

    Sterling Professor of Immunobiology and Professor of Dermatology and of Epidemiology (Microbial Diseases); Director, Yale Center for Infection and Immunity; Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, (HHMI)

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Research Assistants & Associates

  • Bornali Bhattacharjee

    Associate Research Scientist

    Dr. Bornali Bhattacharjee, MS, PhD is a Research Associate Scientist at the Department of Immunobiology and the Associate Director at the Center for Infection & Immunity. Her role is to lead, coordinate and manage biomedical research projects that are geared towards understanding the immune trajectories of post-acute infection syndromes. Her training and research interests lie at the interface of pathogen genomics, evolutionary biology and host-pathogen interaction. She earned her PhD in Molecular Epidemiology & Virology from Indian Statistical Institute & University of Calcutta. Her post-doctoral training was in Viral Genomics & Evolution at University of Massachusetts Medical School.
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  • Simone Blaser, MD
    Simone Blaser is a physician-scientist and faculty Instructor in the Section of Infectious Diseases at Yale School of Medicine. Her research, performed in the Iwasaki laboratory, explores oral host-microbe interactions in Long COVID. She completed residency in Internal Medicine at New York University, fellowship in Infectious Diseases at Yale University, and postdoctoral research training in the Department of Immunbiology under the mentorship of Dr. Akiko Iwasaki. She is ABIM Board Certified in Internal Medicine and Infectious Diseases. In 2026, she was named a Wit Family Distinguished Scholar in Inflammation Science and was a recipient of the Yale Physician Scientist Development Award. Her academic work has been published in JAMA, Mbio, and Diagnosis. Her narrative medicine writings and opinion pieces have appeared in Clinical Infectious Diseases, USA Today, Intima: A Journal of Narrative Medicine, and The Opinion Pages, and she was selected to contribute an essay to the narrative medicine anthology, Where It Hurts: Dispatches from the Emotional Frontlines of Medicine (2026). Prior to becoming a physician, she worked in book publishing, where she was involved in developing what would become the #1 New York Times bestseller When Breath Becomes Air with the late Dr. Paul Kalanithi. Her poetry was included in a collection on New York City haiku published by The New York Times.
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  • Jeff Gehlhausen, MD, PhD

    Instructor (Clinical)

    Research Interests
    • Autoimmune Diseases
    • Connective Tissue Diseases
    • Dermatology
    • Dermatomyositis
    • Lupus Erythematosus, Cutaneous
    • Lupus Erythematosus, Discoid
    • Pathology
    • Raynaud Disease
    • Vasculitis
    • Panniculitis, Lupus Erythematosus
    • Skin and Connective Tissue Diseases
    • Informatics
    Dr. Gehlhausen is a dermatologist and physician-scientist in Dr. Iwasaki's lab working on autoimmune connective tissue diseases affecting the skin, including lupus erythematosus. His focus is on how type I interferons, which are essential innate antiviral pathways, mediate the pathophysiology of lupus disease. Though the association of type I interferons and lupus has been well established, the precise mechanism of how and which cell types mediate pathologic changes remains incompletely understood. Dr. Gehlhausen has a connective tissue disease clinic where he sees complex autoimmune cases and utilizes high dimensional techniques like single cell rna sequencing to profile the skin manifestations of these patients. Additionally, he makes heavy use of genetic mouse models of try to better understand the cellular and molecular effectors driving type I interferon-mediated disease.
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  • Kevin B. Givechian, PhD

    MD/PhD Student

    I grew up in Southern California and graduated from USC. I spent a few years doing computational cancer genomics research which eventually led me to the interface of genomics and tumor immunology. I am currently interested in the intersection of cancer biology, immunology, and machine learning to improve and/or develop novel therapies for cancer patients. Outside of research and medicine, I spend my time playing soccer on the club team here at Yale, playing pick-up basketball with classmates, and eating (probably too many) chocolate chip cookies.
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  • Kerrie Greene

    MD/PhD Student

    I graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) with a double major in Biological Engineering and Brain & Cognitive Sciences. In the past, I studied infant social cognition using functional near-infrared spectroscopy in the Saxe Lab at MIT. At the Mayo Clinic, I led a protein engineering project working with tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinases-1 (TIMP-1) to alter the inhibitory profile toward cancer biomarkers, matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs). Moving forward, I will continue to pursue cancer research, specifically tumor immunology, immunotherapy, and neuro-immunology. Fun fact: I was invited to train at the United States Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, CO for volleyball!
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Former Lab Members

Former Postdocs

Philipp Alberts

Susan Fink, MD, PhD
Postdoctoral fellow 2012-2016
sfink@uw.edu

Ellen Foxman
Postdoctoral Fellow 2010–2017
Ellen.foxman@yale.edu

Benjamin Goldman-Israelow, MD/PhD
benjamin.goldman-israelow@yale.edu

Smita Gopinath

Takeshi Ichinohe, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral fellow 2007-2010
ichinohe@ims.u-tokyo.ac.jp

Norifumi Iijima

Xiaodong Jiang

Kellie Jurado

Myoungjoo Kim

Eriko Kudo

Yosuke Kumamoto

Alex Lipovsky

Carolina Lucas
carolina.lucas@yale.edu

Yusuke Nakanishi, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral fellow 2006-2009
y-naka.bre@mri.tmd.ac.jp

Jieun Oh

Balaji Ramanathan, Ph.D.
Postdoc 2006
balaji@upei.ca

Kayo Sagawa, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Associate 2006-2009
kayo.sagawa@yale.edu

Miwa Sasai
Postdoctoral fellow 2007-2012
m-sasai@biken.osaka-u.ac.jp

Ayuko Sato, Ph.D.
Postdoc 2002-2006
ayukosato@hotmail.com

Hong Shen, Ph.D.
Postdoc 2005-2006
hs24@u.washington.edu

Haina Shin

Weily Soong

Kenichi Takano

Manabu Taura

Jody Thompson

Joseph M. Thompson, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Associate 2007-2009
joseph.thompson@yale.edu

Maria Tokuyama

Shumpei Yamauchi

Xinyan Zhao, Ph.D.
Postdoc 2000-2003
xinyan_zhao@yahoo.com

Former Students

Rachel Bian

Audry Chan
M.P.H. student 2000-2002
audrey.chan@yale.edu

Andrew Daniels
MD/PhD Student

Vincenzo DiNatale

Asu Erden
Graduate Student 2012-2017
asuerden@gmail.com

Kachiko Hayashi
Graduate Student 2011–2017
Kachiko.yahashi@yale.edu

Annie Hoang

Ulyssess Isidro

Teshika Jayewickreme

William Khoury-Hanold
Graduate Student 2011-2016
william.khoury-hanold@yale.edu

Jon Klein
MD/PhD Student

Daniel Kim

Gloria Lee

Heung Kyu Lee
Immunology Ph.D. Candidate 2005-2009
heungkyu.lee@kaist.ac.kr

Alice Lu-Culligan

Jennifer Lund, Ph.D.
Graduate Student 2002-2006
jmlund@u.washington.edu

Renata McKay

Lisa Mattei
Graduate Student 2007-2012
Lisa.mattei@yale.edu

Leila Mendonca

Pietro Miozzo

Ryan Molony
Graduate Student 2015–2018
ryan.molony@yale.edu

Gladys Ng
M.P.H. student 2001-2003
ngg@mail.amc.edu

Iris Pang
Graduate Student 2009-2012
iris.pang@yale.edu

Annsea Park
MD/PhD Student

Padmini Pillai
Graduate Student 2011-2016
padmini@gmail.com

Tasfia Rakib

Stephanie Sellers

Kelly Soderberg, Ph.D.
Graduate Student 2001-2005
kelly_soderberg@yahoo.com

Alex Storer
Graduate Student 2012-2013
storera21@gmail.com

Michal Tal
Graduate Student 2007-2012
mikstars@gmail.com

Rebecca Treger

Arvind Venkataraman

Orr-El Weizman
PhD Student

Patrick Wong

Yexin Yang

Laura Yockey
Graduate Student 2012-2018
laura.yockey@yale.edu

Brian Yordy
Graduate Student 2007-2012
Brian.yordy@yale.edu

Xiaohui Yu
PhD Student