Our Faculty

Zebrafish embryos in the Zon laboratory
HSCRB is distinguished by its multidisciplinary research and innovative teaching philosophy.

With faculty bringing expertise across developmental biology and organogenesis, tissue repair, and stem cell models of disease, the department facilitates the flow of new ideas and opens new opportunities for generations of explorers.

Photo of Paola Arlotta

Dr. Arlotta is interested in understanding the molecular laws that govern the birth, differentiation and assembly of the cerebral cortex, the part of the brain that controls how we sense, move and think. She integrates developmental and evolutionary knowledge to investigate therapies for brain repair and for modeling neuropsychiatric disease.

Photo of Jason Buenrostro

The Buenrostro lab is broadly dedicated to advancing our knowledge of gene regulation and the downstream consequences on cell fate decisions.

Photo of Fernando Camargo

The Camargo laboratory focuses on the study of adult stem cell biology, organ size regulation, and cancer.

Photo of Fei Chen

Fei Chen’s laboratory sets out to build a set of tools which will bridge single-cell genomics with space and time – to enable discoveries of where cell types are localized within intact tissues, when relevant transcriptional programs are active.

Photo of Mark C. Fishman

Mark C. Fishman’s group studies the heart-brain connection. They employ a range of genetic, developmental, and neurobiological tools in zebrafish to understand what the heart tells the brain, and how critical internal sensory systems adjust homeostatic and somatic behaviors, including social interactions.

Photo of Ryan Flynn

Ryan Flynn’s laboratory is focused on the exploration and discovery of how biopolymers like RNA and glycans work together to control cellular processes in the context of human disease.

Photo of Ruth Franklin

Ruth Franklin’s laboratory explores the role of the innate immune system in tissue repair and homeostasis, with a focus on the communication between macrophages and non-immune cells within tissues.

Photo of Ya-Chieh Hsu

Ya-Chieh Hsu studies the principles and molecular nature of cell-cell interactions governing development, regeneration, and injury repair in the skin.

Photo of Steven Hyman

Steven Hyman is Director of the Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research at the Broad Institute and Chair of the Schizophrenia Spectrum Biomarkers Consortium (SSBC), a consortium identifying objective biomarkers to enable better diagnosis of and treatment for schizophrenia and related illnesses.

Photo of Rich Lee

Rich Lee seeks to understand heart failure and metabolic diseases that accompany human aging, and translate that understanding into therapies. Lee is an active clinician, regularly treating patients at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

Photo of Jeffrey D. Macklis

Jeffrey Macklis investigates molecular controls and mechanisms over neuron subtype specification, development, diversity, axon guidance-circuit formation, and pathology in the cerebral cortex. His lab seeks to apply developmental controls toward brain and spinal cord regeneration and directed differentiation for in vitro mechanistic modeling using human assembloids.

Photo of Kara McKinley

Kara McKinley’s laboratory studies regeneration in the uterus and the biology of menstruation.

Photo of Doug Melton

Doug Melton is pursuing a cure for type 1 diabetes. His lab studies the developmental biology of the pancreas, using that information to grow and develop pancreatic cells (islets of Langerhans). In parallel, they investigate ways to protect beta cells from autoimmune attack.

Photo of Franziska Michor

Franziska Michor uses the tools of theoretical evolutionary biology, applied mathematics, statistics, and computational biology to address important questions in cancer research.

Photo of Sharad Ramanathan

Sharad Ramanathan investigates how multi-potent stem cells make fate decisions to give rise to complex human tissues, and how the dynamics of key neurons in the nervous system drive behavioral decisions.

Photo of Lee Rubin

Lee Rubin investigates the key molecular mediators of a variety of neurodegenerative diseases, with the ultimate goal of finding effective preclinical therapeutic candidates.

Photo of David Scadden

David Scadden’s laboratory is dedicated to discovering the principles governing blood cell production, with the ultimate goal of guiding the development of therapies for blood disorders and cancer.

Photo of Michael Segel

Michael Segel’s lab is focused on understanding the genetic forces that dictate the pacing of postnatal mammalian development.

Photo of Amy Wagers

Amy Wagers seeks to change the way we repair our tissues after an injury. Her research focuses on defining the factors and mechanisms that regulate the migration, expansion, and regenerative potential of adult blood-forming and muscle-forming stem cells.

Photo of Jessica Whited

Jessica Whited studies limb regeneration in axolotl salamanders. Her lab develops tools to manipulate gene expression during limb regeneration, and explores signaling events following wound healing that initiate the regenerative process.

Photo of Len Zon

The Zon laboratory aims to dissect how assaults to the hematopoietic system cause severe diseases such as leukemias, lymphomas, and anemias. They investigate hematopoietic development and disease using chemical screens, genetic screens, and analysis of novel transgenic lines in zebrafish.

Emeritus Faculty

Photo of Jack Strominger

Research Professor and Immunology pioneer Jack Strominger investigates self-tolerance and the immunology of pregnancy. His lab specializes in the structure and function of human histocompatibility proteins and their roles in disease.

Photo of Gregory Verdine

Gregory Verdine focuses on chemical biology, studying biological processes that underlie growth and proliferation of human cancer cells, control of gene expression, and preservation of genomic integrity.

Education Faculty

Photo of Bill Anderson

Bill Anderson is the Director of Education and Senior Lecturer.

Photo of Amie Holmes

Amie Holmes is the Assistant Director of Undergraduate Studies.

Photo of Navid Ghaffari, M.D.

Navid Ghaffari is the Assistant Director of Graduate Studies and Lecturer.

Visiting Scholar

Affiliated Faculty

Photo of Omar Abudayyeh

Omar Abudayyeh explores programmable systems in biology for the development of molecular tools that provide an unprecedented level of control over genomes, transcriptomes, and cells.

Photo of David Breault

David Breault’s research focuses on identifying mechanisms underlying tissue homeostasis in self-renewing tissues, such as intestine, adrenal gland, and bone.

Photo of April Craft

April Craft studies the development of cartilage and other synovial joint tissues, with hopes of applying this knowledge toward the development of therapeutics for disease attenuation and tissue regeneration and repair.

Photo of Wolfram Goessling

Wolfram Goessling uses the zebrafish model to study regulators of liver development and to explore endodermal progenitor cell specification, organ differentiation, and growth.

Photo of Jonathan Gootenberg

Jonathan Gootenberg focuses on new approaches that leverage programmability across biological scales, including new nucleic acid medicines, molecular tools, and machine learning methods. These tools are applied to both fundamental questions in cell fate determination and the development of new therapeutics for genetic disease, cancer, and aging.

Photo of Will Mair

Will Mair investigates the molecular pathways underpinning the aging process, with the goal of using this knowledge to develop novel therapeutic strategies to treat age-onset disorders.

Photo of Trista North

Trista North focuses on developmental hematopoiesis as a key to uncovering general principles of stem cell function, self-renewal, and tissue regeneration.

Photo of Rich Sherwood

Richard Sherwood develops computationally driven methods to predict genome function and stem cell fate determination.

Photo of Mansi Srivastava

Mansi Srivastava studies the mechanisms of regeneration and development, and their evolution, using the acoel worm Hofstenia miamia.​

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