Lab Members

Blaine Bartholomew, Ph.D.
Principal Investigator
B.S in Chemistry, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT
Ph.D. in Chemistry, University of California, Davis

Jinlan He
Graduate Student

Education:
B.C.M., Bachelor of Clinical Medicine, West China Medical School, Sichuan University, China
M.Sc. Oncology, West China Medical School, Sichuan University, China

Research interest: 
Roles of CHD7 and CHD8 subunits
in the development of mouse embryonic stem cell

Solomon G. Hailu, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Fellow

Education:
B.Sc. in Biology (Graduated with Distinction), University of Asmara, Asmara, Eritrea
M.Sc. in Zoology (Population Genetics), Southern Illinois University, Carbondale
Ph.D. Southern Illinois University, Carbondale

Research interests: Molecular mechanisms governing chromatin remodeling complexes (SWI/SNF and ISWI) and how they regulate transcription invivo using biochemical, genetic, genomic and bioinformatic approaches.

Other interests: Latin music and salsa dancing, architecture and computer programming.

Yuan-Chi (Irene) Lin, M.S.
Graduate Student

Education: 
B.Sc. Biology, National Chung Hsing University
M.S. in Molecular Biology, University of Southern Mississippi

Research interests: Roles the ISW2 catalytic subunit's C-terminal domains in nucleosome remodeling in yeast.

Junwoo Lee, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Fellow

Education:
B.Sc.  Dept. of Biological Sciences, KAIST, Daejeon, South Korea.
Integrated M.Sc. and Ph.D degrees in Chromatin Biology, KAIST, Daejeon, South Korea

Research interests:
The role of chromatin remodelers during transcription elongation and termination; in cancer development; and in pluripotency and totipotency of stem cells.

Ngbuo Mzwanele
Postdoctoral Fellow

Education:
B.Sc. in Microbial Biotechnology, University of the Free State, South Africa
M.Sc. in Biotechnology, University of the Free State, South Africa
Ph.D. in Biochemistry, University of the Free State, South Africa 

Somnath Paul
Postdoctoral Fellow

Education:
B.Sc. (Hons) in Physiology from Presidency College, Calcutta
M.Sc. in Genetics from Calcutta University, Kolkata, India
Ph.D. in Life Science and Biotech, Jadavpur University via CSIR-Indian Institute of Chemical Biology, Kolkata

Research interest: To understand the regulation of higher order chromatin remodeling by principles of epigenetics.

Jim Persinger, Jr.
Research Laboratory Manager

Education:
B.A. in Biology, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale

Dhurjhoti (DJ) Saha, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Fellow

Education:
B.Sc. (Hons) in Zoology from B.K.C. College, Kolkata, India
M.Sc. in Zoology from Calcutta University, Kolkata, India
Ph.D. in Life Science, CSIR-Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology (CSIR-IGIB), New Delhi, India

Research interest: 
To understand ARID1A mediated regulation of higher order chromatin structure in both normal development and cancer.