Our Lab

Coraline Mlynarczyk, PhD, is an Assistant Professor of Medicine in Medical Oncology and Hematology, Pathology, and a member of the Center of Molecular and Cellular Oncology (CMCO) at the Yale Cancer Center. She is affiliated with the Biological and Biomedical Sciences Graduate School and her lab studies the immunology and metabolism of germinal center-derived B cell lymphomas. Dr. Mlynarczyk obtained her PhD in Hematology and Oncology (Paris Diderot University & Saint Louis Hospital, France), where she studied how the p53 tumor suppressor pathway diversifies in response to cellular stresses and identified endoplasmic reticulum stress as a condition that can be manipulated to increase cancer cells sensitivity to chemotherapy. During her postdoctoral studies (Weill Cornell Medicine, NYC, lab of Dr. Ari Melnick), she further developed her interest in understanding malignant transformation and treatment failure in the context of B cell lymphomas. Diving into the immunology field, she discovered that aberrant competitive fitness gain in germinal center B cells represents a novel mechanism for their malignant transformation, yielding aggressive and disseminated B cell lymphomas in mice and humans. She received support from the Lymphoma Research Foundation (LRF), Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS) and American Association of Hematology (ASH) for her postdoctoral research and was promoted to Instructor of Cancer Immunology in Medicine (Weill Cornell Medicine, NY). Dr Mlynarczyk launched her lab at Yale in July 2024. Combining elegant multi-allelic mouse models, patient-derived models and primary samples with precise immunological approaches and metabolic flux analyses, her research aims to provide a better mechanistic and biological understanding of germinal center-derived B cell malignancies, to help identify previously unexplored vulnerabilities of clinically unfavorable B cell lymphomas. The lab's research is currently supported by the American Cancer Society (ACS), the Mark Foundation for Cancer Research and Follicular Lymphoma Foundation.

Dr. Yulai Zhou received his M.D./Ph.D. in Xiangya School of Medicine, Central South University, with a research focus on cancer biomarkers and the molecular mechanisms underlying tumor progression. His doctoral thesis investigated a hypoxia-driven circular RNA network that modulates mTOR/Myc signaling and contributes to rapamycin resistance in colorectal cancer. During his graduate studies, Dr. Zhou joined the laboratory of Dr. Paolo Casali at UTHSCSA as a visiting student, where he contributed to studies on T cell-independent antibody maturation, the developement of a humanized mouse model capable of mounting mature human antibody responses and the role of transcription factors in memory B cell differentiation. Dr. Zhou joined the lab of Dr. Coraline Mlynarczyk as a postdoc, where he focuses on extracellular signals providing competitive fitness to B cells and driving dissemination of malignant B cells outside of their lymphoid niche.

Divyeksha is a postgraduate associate at Yale, interested in cancer and immunology in the Mlynarczyk lab. She is from India and completed her bachelor's degree in Biotechnology at Shree M & N Virani Science College, and later pursued her master’s degree at Christ University, Bangalore. She started her journey as a researcher at InStem, Bangalore by studying the role of Angiogenin-mediated tsRNA formation during cell fate transitions in mouse embryonic stem cells. She has also worked on understanding epithelial defenses against urinary tract infections. She is keen on exploring the molecular dynamics of B cell lymphoma, particularly in the context of signaling pathways. Outside the lab, she enjoys painting, reading books, and nature walks.