Wagers Lab | HSCRB

Lab members

Principal Investigator

Amy Wagers, Ph.D.

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.

Administration

Nema Kheradmand

Nema is the Core Facility Director for the department’s Flow Cytometry Core Facility. He carries out fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS) and analysis for scientists using the facility, and is the contact for Core training and scheduling.

Kelly Rush

Kelly Rush is the Senior Administrative Coordinator.

Associates

Michael Florea

Michael’s research interests center on genetic engineering, aging, and the development of gene therapies.

Bryan Peacker

Bryan received an A.B. in Human Developmental and Regenerative Biology at Harvard in 2018. He was an Amgen Scholar at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and a Peer Study Leader in the Harvard Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology. Bryan’s research focuses on genome editing, viral-mediated gene therapy, and Duchenne muscular dystrophy.

Postdoctoral Fellows

Heidi Kletzien, PhD

Heidi Kletzien is a Biomedical Engineer interested in understanding the molecular underpinnings and dynamics of age-related head and neck tissue dysfunction and head and neck cancer (HNC) initiation. Heidi is a NIH Postdoctoral fellow and her research harnesses novel multi-omics and, in vivo, CRISPR-mediated genome engineering approaches.

John Lian, Ph.D.

John is a biochemist who studies TGF-Beta protein function and activation in vivo and the effects on cardiac and skeletal muscle development.

Özge Vargel Bölükbaşı, Ph.D.

Ozge is interested in understanding the molecular mechanism of hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) function. She did her Ph.D. at EMBL (Italy) and Heidelberg University on the mechanism of how first HSCs in the mouse embryo emerge. Afterward, she worked on human HSCs and patient-derived induced pluripotent stem cells to understand the underlying mechanism of hematological diseases. Currently, in Wagers lab, her postdoctoral project is on the regulation of HSC expansion, self-renewal, and differentiation in the adult mouse.

Graduate Students

David Anderson

David Anderson graduated with a B.A. in Biology from Kenyon College in 2019. David uses gene therapy to study how blood disorders affect regeneration across a variety of organs in the context of aging.

Heyuan Qin

Heyuan is a master student whose research interests lie in exploring the relationship between immunology and aging, aiming to understand how the immune system evolves over time and its implications for age-related diseases.

Research Assistants

Rebekah Kim

Rebekah Kim graduated with a B.S. in Biochemistry and Math from UCLA in 2018. She’s interested in investigating hematopoietic stem cell biology and genetic engineering for gene therapy against blood disorders.

Amy Lam

Amy obtained her Bachelor of Arts degree in Chemistry and Biology at Williams College in 2022. Her research focuses on using viral-mediated gene editing and gene therapy approaches to treat genetic muscular disorders such as Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD).

Maddie Maier

Maddie is an undergraduate studying Human Developmental and Regenerative Biology with a secondary in Psychology. She hopes to combine these two interests to be a translational psychiatrist.

Kathleen Messemer, B.S.

Kathleen joined the Wagers Lab from Genzyme Sanofi. She obtained her Bachelor of Science degree in biochemistry from Northeastern University.

Undergraduate Students

Brandon Campbell

Brandon is an undergraduate studying Molecular and Cellular Biology, conducting hematopoietic stem cell research on blood disorders and gene therapies.

Lily Liu

Lily is an undergraduate studying Chemical and Physical Biology, and her research focuses on comparing skeletal muscle physiology and regeneration between GDF11-WE and wild-type mice.

Institute Fellows

Wagers Lab Alumni

Alessandra Castiglioni, Ph.D.

After completing her postdoc in the Wagers lab, Alessandra took on a position as senior scientific researcher at Genentech.

Miook Cho, Ph.D.

After completing her postdoc in the Wagers Lab, Minook took on a position as senior scientist at Merck.

Eric Gähwiler, Ph.D.

After completing his Masters thesis in the Wagers Lab, Eric worked as a research intern at the University of Zurich, then enrolled in the Ph.D. program at Life Science Zurich Graduate School.

Jill Goldstein, Ph.D.

Jill’s research focuses on identifying therapeutically relevant ways to restore healthy function to tissues in the contexts of aging and disease.

Naftali Horwitz

Naftali Horwitz graduated with a B.S. in Molecular and Cellular Biology from Johns Hopkins University in 2016. His studies center around stem cell maintenance and tissue regeneration in the context of aging.

Kobe Joseph

Kobe is an Undergraduate concentrating in Human Developmental and Regenerative Biology with a secondary concentration in Economics.

Medha KC

Medha graduated in 2021 with a degree in Biological Sciences from University at Buffalo (SUNY) and has been working as a RA since September 2021. Medha’s research focuses on engineering whole-body gene therapy for rare genetic disorders like Wolfram syndrome II.

Joyce LaVecchio

Joyce is the Core Facility Manager for the department’s Flow Cytometry Core Facility. She carries out fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS) and analysis for scientists using the facility, and is the contact for Core training and scheduling.

Brice Laurent

Brice is an undergraduate studying Molecular & Cellular Biology and Statistics.

Jordan Lewandowski, Ph.D.

Jordan’s research uses genetic platforms and sequencing approaches to better understand how noncoding regions and RNA molecules function in regenerative contexts (hematopoietic and stem cells) and in the etiology of human disease.

Nguyen-Anh Nguyen

Nguyen-Anh obtained her B.A. in Biology from Earlham College in 2021. Her research focuses on examining the effect of GDF11 on skeletal muscle development and the mechanisms of stem cell aging that contribute to head & neck cancers.

Christopher Rios

Christopher obtained his degree in Human Developmental and Regenerative Biology in 2020. As a research assistant in the Wagers Lab, he has been working to develop therapeutic avenues for treating genetic muscular disorders, such as Duchenne muscular dystrophy, through gene therapy and gene editing modalities.

Robert Shekoyan

Robert is currently earning his A.B. in Human Developmental and Regenerative Biology from Harvard. He is interested in the mechanisms underlying age-associated chronic diseases and plans to pursue a PhD after graduation.

Sahar Tavakoli, Ph.D.

Sahar obtained her Ph.D. in Molecular and Developmental Biology from the National University of Singapore in Paul Matsudaira’s lab. Since 2015, Sahar has been working jointly as a postdoc in the Wagers Lab and the Zon Lab. She is interested in increasing the engraftment efficiency of transplanted muscle cells in the recipients. Outside of the lab, Sahar enjoys painting, swimming, and eating foods from around the world!

Join our lab

Our lab welcomes applications from postdoctoral fellows. Candidates should send their research statement, CV, and referee list to Amy Wagers. Harvard University is an equal opportunity employer and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, creed, national origin, ancestry, age, protected veteran status, disability, genetic information, military service, pregnancy and pregnancy-related conditions, or other protected status.

Email Amy Wagers