People

Fall 2020

Summer 2019

Summer 2018

Summer 2017

Current lab members

Tim Peterson

I'm an Assistant Professor in the Department of Medicine at Washington University St. Louis. I study genomics, metabolomics of aging and mental health. I've been at WashU since the summer of 2016. My WashU page is available here. [Linkedin] [CV].

Jinmei Li (2016-current)

Jinmei is the lab manager who leads the Disruptive Innovation of Blockbuster drugs project.

Sandeep Kumar, PhD (2017-current)

Sandeep is a Senior Scientist in the lab leading the 10X healthspan/lifespan and Molecular Diagnostic for Mood projects. He comes from a worm background with Kerry Kornfeld. He is doing CRISPRi screening with Jinmei.

Ariella Coler-Reilly (2019-current)

Ariella is a WashU MSTP (M.D./Ph.D) student who is doing her Ph.D. in Molecular Cell Biology (MCB). She is interested in developing interventions targeting the aging process and is currently leading our 10X Lifespan project effort. Ariella graduated from UC Berkeley with a B.A. in Molecular & Cell Biology and a minor in Japanese. Her previous research experiences include studying aging in neural stem cells at Weill Cornell and neural genome organizers at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. She also worked in a translational research lab in Japan as the only English-speaker, developing her skills in science writing and translation. In her spare time, she enjoys painting and graphic design. She has an extremely cute cat.

Nick Semenkovich (2019-current)

Nick is a PSTP fellow who working on our Disruptive Innovation of Blockbuster drugs effort. He did his undergrad at MIT in Computer Science & Biology, followed by his MD/PhD at Washington University in St. Louis, where he completed his PhD in genetics, studying the impact of the gut microbiota on host epigenetics. Prior to his fellowship, he completed his medicine residency at the Brigham & Women’s Hospital. Outside the hospital, Nick enjoys coffee, information security, and wrangling his two tiny humans.

Nicholas Bean (2019-current)

Nick is leading our animals studies and in particular is working on our TBONE project. He is a recent graduate of the University of Missouri.

Former lab members

Jasmine Zhang (2019-2020) -

Jasmine graduated in 2020 from WashU. She did her thesis working with Ariella on our 10X Lifespan project. Jasmine is planning to go medical school.

Prathamesh Chati (2019-2020) -

Pra is an undergrad at WashU. He has diverse interests in human health and worked on our 10X Lifespan project.

Kirill Myachin (2019) –

Kirill was a summer student in the BioMedRap program from Brooklyn College who majored in biochemistry. He is originally from Moldova. He worked on to characterize hits from our CRISPRi screening. He is now working at our company, BioIO, before he starts an MD/PhD program.

JiWoong Park (2016-2019) -

Ji Woong (“Ji”) Park defended his Ph.D. thesis in August 2019. He was a Molecular Cell Biology (DBBS) PhD graduate student in the Peterson Lab. He now works as a data scientist at Humana. Ji graduated from Washington & Jefferson College with B.A. in Chemistry with Honors and minor in Neuroscience. His previous research experiences span cardiovascular molecular biology (Cincinnati College of Medicine), biophysical instrumentation (W&J), and protein biochemistry in axon degeneration (Wash U Med). Ji led the MORPHEOME - Molecular ORPHan PhEnOtype MatchEr project and was involved in establishing computational pipeline combined with wet-lab validation to elucidate novel genes in osteoporosis and depression. He is passionate about coding and was involved with LaunchCode in STL. In his spare time, he is an avid foodie (with photos to prove) and has been to 5 ramen restaurants in STL (Robata, Nami, Midtown, Death in the Afternoon, and Vista).

Damon Burrow (2016-2019) -

Damon is currently a BME Ph.D student at Duke University starting in the Fall of 2019. Damon graduated from William Woods University where he majored in Biology with minors in Physics and Chemistry. His previous work includes research in clinical imaging to improve malignant tumor treatment in adaptive radiotherapy. His work specifically allows radiotherapy to be administered more accurately leading to decreased adverse effects and cancer recurrence and improved outcomes and improved quality of life for cancer patients. Damon plans to attend medical school and pursue a career in a surgical specialty and research such as orthopedic or neurosurgery. Damon works on the animal studies for the Disruptive Innovation of Blockbuster drugs project. He focused on the TBONE project.

Sarah Diemer (January-May 2019) –

Sarah is an MD and PhD student from Denmark who spent 5 months in the Peterson Lab as a part of her PhD program. In those months Sarah worked on CRISPRa screening with Jinmei and Ji. Back home Sarah works with the pathophysiology of secondary osteoporosis in patients with epilepsy in the P2 Lab.

Sydney Hart (2017-2019) –

Sydney graduated from WashU in 2019. She worked on the Molecular Diagnostic for Mood project to characterize hits from our CRISPRi screening with the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs). Specifically, she worked on the mechanism of SSRI action with Sandeep. She now works at Mount Sinai in New York and is applying to Ph.D. programs.

Chris Chow (2016-2019) –

Chris was the first undergraduate to join the lab back in 2016. He worked for three years on the MORPHEOME - Molecular ORPHan PhEnOtype MatchEr project. He graduated from WashU in 2019 and will be applying to medical school in 2020.

Tanya Pierre (2018) –

Tanya worked with us during the Summer of 2018 on an Amgen Scholarship before her Junior at Agnes Scott College. She worked on the Molecular Diagnostic for Mood and MORPHEOME projects to characterize hits from our CRISPRi screening.

Cheng Lyu (2017-2018) –

Cheng graduated from WashU with a Master’s in biostatistics in 2018. He worked on Disruptive Innovation of Blockbuster drugs. Specifically, he did statistical analysis to determine whether the genes we identify in screening with clinical drugs using CRISPRi are also variant in people with altered drug responses to the drugs. He is currently a Ph.D. student at Emory University.

Harrison Rhee (2017-2018) -

Harrison graduated from WashU in 2018 as an Anthropology major. He worked on the Disruptive Innovation of Blockbuster drugs project. Specifically, Harrison used chemical genetic approaches to assess hits from our CRISPRi screening.

India Bradley (2017) -

India worked in the Peterson lab the 2017 summer as an Amgen Scholar before her Junior year at Howard University. She worked on the Molecular Diagnostic for Mood project.

Melanie Lopez (2017-2018) -

Melanie graduated from WashU in 2018. She worked with Harrison on the Molecular Diagnostic for Mood project. She is currently a med student at UT Southwestern.

Kevin Li (2017-2018) -

Kevin is a BME major, Computer Science minor at WashU (Class of 2019) who worked in the 2017 academic year on the 10X healthspan/lifespan project.

Christina Gu (2017-2018) -

Christina graduated from WashU in 2017 with degree in Math. She worked on the 10X healthspan/lifespan project.

Jay Jiang (2017-2018) -

Jay graduated from WashU in 2017 with a degree in Biochemistry. He worked on MORPHEOME - Molecular ORPHan PhEnOtype MatchEr. He is now in medical school.

Niki Song (2016-2017) -

Niki graduated from WashU in 2016 with degree in Pyschology. She worked on CRISPRi screening. She is now in medical school at New York Medical College and will be graduating soon.