Luciano, a native of Argentina, received his undergraduate degree from the University of Rosario in Argentina in 1998 and his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in 2007, where he studied bacterial pathogenesis in the laboratory of Olaf Schneewind. He joined the Rockefeller faculty in 2010, and is a Rita Allen Foundation Scholar, a Searle Scholar, and a recipient of the NIH Director’s New Innovator and Pioneer Awards. Since 2018, Luciano has been an investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and in 2019 was elected to the National Academy of Sciences. Outside of the lab, Luciano likes to play and watch soccer, history and cinema.
Paige Arnold
Postdoctoral Fellow
As a South Florida native, Paige spent most of her childhood dodging alligators and sunburns but also developed a deep fascination with nature. As an undergraduate at Duke University, she studied Biology and Science Policy and pretended to care about college basketball. She then pursued a PhD in Cancer Biology at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, where she studied stem cell metabolism and became a TCA cycle aficionado. Paige decided to venture across York Avenue and to a new domain of life for her postdoc and joined the Marraffini Lab to study the role of metabolism in bacterial defenses against viruses. Outside of lab, Paige enjoys traveling, finding new plant-based food around the city, and spending time with her cat, Lenny.
Naama Aviram
Postdoctoral Fellow
Naama grew up in the vibrant city of Tel Aviv, right on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea. She received her PhD from the Weizmann Institute where she studied eukaryotic cell biology. Although organelles will always stay dear to her heart, Naama followed her passion and joined the Marraffini lab for her postdoctoral training, where she now focuses on bacteria and their sophisticated immunological memory. She claims she plays the bass but no one in the lab has heard her play yet. Her other hobbies include scuba-diving, exploring the New York culinary scene, and losing balance trying to do yoga.
Christian Baca
Graduate Fellow
Christian grew up in the small-ish town of Lake Elsinore, CA. He did his undergraduate studies at UC Irvine in biochemistry and molecular biology, where he got to work with lasers, chaperones, and carnivorous plants. He then made the move out to NYC and is now getting to hang out with lots of phages and bacteria alike. Outside of CRISPRing in the Marraffini Lab, Christian enjoys trying to make gains at the gym, playing heavy riffs on guitar, and eating chocolate.
Maj Brodmann
Postdoctoral Fellow
Maj grew up in Basel, a Swiss city best known for big pharma and sports (go Fc Basel!). She received her PhD in Microbiology from the Biozentrum, University of Basel, studying type VI secretion systems in bacteria. Her passion for microbiology and her favorite bacterium Francisella led her to New York to join the Marraffini lab, where she now focuses on Francisella's defense rather than offense. Next to science, she enjoys travelling to remote islands, horseback riding and concerts.
Clare Cahir
Graduate Fellow
Clare is the fourth New Jerseyan, third TPCB student, and second Cla(i)re in the Marraffini lab but the first to start a crafting club at Weill Cornell Medicine. In undergrad at the University of Notre Dame, Clare studied Chemistry, Italian, and the Art of Tailgating. When not cheering for her favorite team, Clare could be found in lab studying tuberculosis, where she discovered Biology is pretty cool. Clare started grad school hoping to combine her love for Chemistry and Biology and soon after found her newest calling: exploring the NYC food scene for her food Instagram @FeedOurPhDs. Besides enjoying free food, Clare likes long walks, eating ice cream, and dodging cars on her used bike.
Alice Cassel
Graduate Fellow
Alice was raised on the rocky, evergreen shores of the Puget Sound in the town of Bremerton, Washington. She harbors a deep-seated love of marine life after her years of volunteering at the Seattle Aquarium; however, she landed among the wheat and mountains of north Idaho to pursue undergraduate studies at the University of Idaho. She dabbled in studying wildflower phylogenetics and soil microbiomes, but her true passion for microbiology led her to Rockefeller to join the Marraffini Lab for her PhD. When she isn’t CRISPRing and growing all manner of extremophilic archaea (the most under-appreciated domain of life!), Alice can be found hanging out with her cats, running around Central Park, dancing to 1980s synthpop, and crate-digging for vinyl records.
Calvin Herman
Graduate Fellow
Calvin is a city person at heart. He was born and raised in Jakarta, the world’s second most populous city, and later grew up in New York City, the largest in the United States. For his undergraduate studies, he stayed in NYC and attended Hunter College, where he majored in biology as a Macaulay Honors Scholar. During his free time, Calvin enjoys exploring NYC, being active, and having delicious meals at various restaurants.
Raphael Hofmann
Postdoctoral Fellow
Raphael grew up hiking in the Swiss Alps and around his quaint village in Eastern Switzerland. These days, he goes hiking on the Queensboro bridge to get to work every day. He received his PhD in Biological Chemistry at ETH Zürich, studying protein modifications. In the Marraffini lab, he is excited about combining his PhD field with CRISPR and microbiology. He patiently teaches phages some chemistry, and impatiently waits for the snack drawer to be refilled. In his spare time, Raphael loves traveling, sounding the trumpet, immersing himself in nature, and biking around NYC.
Amer Hossain
Graduate Fellow
Amer originates from Dhaka, Bangladesh, an excessively crowded and noisy yet thoroughly underrated major city. He moved to New York City for graduate school after relatively successful stints in Vassar College as an undergraduate and at Boston Children's Hospital as a research technician. While most find the noise, crowds and grime of New York City disconcerting, Amer finds these aspects comforting and reminding of home. When not hanging out with bacteria and bacteriophages, Amer's interests include soccer, eating, going to concerts and working out his back muscles in the Rockefeller gymnasium.
Hyejin Kim
MD/PhD Student
Hyejin grew up in NJ and developed her fondness for prokaryotic creatures during her undergraduate studies in Molecular Biology at Rutgers University. One fateful day, she went for a swim in the Hudson and her backstroke landed her in the East River, where the Marraffini lab – out on a hunt for CBASS – reeled her in with free CRISPR T-shirts (thanks, Mandrew!). Fueled by the buttery goodness of garlic knots, this Tri-I MD-PhD student strives to better understand CRISPR immunity in bacteria. Outside of tending to her microbes and her succulent Fred, Hyejin enjoys tennis, hikes, snowboarding, and acoustic guitar.
Vivian Li
Graduate Fellow
Vivian grew up in Vancouver mostly before moving to Montreal to complete an honors degree in biology from McGill University. After spending several years studying the cell cytoskeleton, she decided to delve into the world of systems neuroscience as an RA at Rockefeller. Now, as a graduate student, she once again has switched disciplines to study bacterial defense systems. Outside of the lab, Vivian is a fashion enthusiast, who is also passionate about ceramics and fine art. On a sunny day, you’ll find her hiking with her greyhound Jellybean or exploring the endless vintage shops in New York.
Nia Lyn
Graduate Fellow
Nia is a NYC native and very biased to the greatest city in the world. She earned her BS in Biology from Brandeis University and spent most of her time in the mouse facility. After graduating she worked as an RA at Rockefeller and loved it so much that she joined the graduate program. Nia has worked with rats, mice, mosquitoes, and now bacteria. She can safely say that mice were the smelliest. When not in lab, you can find Nia watching reality tv and emailing ABC to make her the new host of the Bachelor.
Adriana Mejia
Graduate Fellow
Adriana was born in Peru and earned her BS in Biology from Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia. She started doing research on synthetic biology, but her interests eventually shifted to the human microbiome while working as an RA at the University of Pennsylvania. In her free time, Adriana can be found at the gym, on TikTok, or blasting Bad Bunny.
Cam Roberts
Graduate Fellow
If you ask Cam where she is from, she’ll probably say Portland, Oregon, but actually she was raised in Pasadena, California, a suburb outside of Los Angeles. She received her undergraduate degree from Reed College where she learned that bacteria do amazing things! She fell in love with bacterial pathogens and the host-pathogen battle when she was a research assistant at the Oregon Health and Science University. Her quest to understand bacteria is continuing in the Marraffini Lab. Cam’s favorite thing to do is swim (or stare at) alpine lakes, for which she is willing to hike many miles to reach. If not in lab, you can probably find her biking (and risking her life!) on the Queensboro Bridge.
Amanda Shilton
Graduate Fellow
Amanda was born in the center of the Zimbabwean savanna (presented on a full moon by Rafiki himself). Her favorite childhood past-times include climbing kopjes and baking mud-pies. She completed her Bachelor's and Master's degrees at Brandeis University back when she was interested in Neuroscience. After she joined Rockefeller however, she realized that Microbiology was the superior science and was enchanted by bacterial immunity and the majestic Marraffinians. If you try to find her in the lab, you can’t - she is usually camouflaged in glitter and sparkles. But fret not because you can lure her with tequila or cats. Amanda has big plans to distil her own tequila from responsibly sourced Mezcal - blending the Amarula flavors of Southern Africa with the good vibes of Mexican Mezcal fermentation. Her cat, Louis (pronounced Loo-Wee), is currently acting in an advisory capacity for this endeavor.
Kailey Slavik
Postdoctoral Fellow
Kailey is (currently) the sole representative of the Midwest in the Marraffini lab, hailing from the mighty metropolis of Chicago. She first fell in love with viruses while completing her undergraduate studies at University of Wisconsin-Madison, and went on to complete her PhD in Virology at Harvard University. Kailey has studied all things Drosophila— their genetics, viral pathogens, and innate immunity. She now plans to leave her fruit fly days behind and is bringing her passion for virology and biochemistry to the world of phage immunity. When she’s not in lab, Kailey spends her time searching NYC for the perfect jukebox, tending to her garden in Greenpoint, and fermenting anything and everything.
Gianna Stella
Graduate Fellow
Gianna is a Jersey girl and this brings much shame to the Marraffini lab. She completed her Bachelor's degree in Bioinformatics and Master's in Computational and Medicinal Chemistry at Stevens Institute of Technology. To break free from her Jersey roots, she joined the Tri-Institutional Program in Chemical Biology in NYC and explored her interest in bacteria. When not in lab, she can be found running around Central Park flying her giant octopus kite with little success. Her hobbies include smiling, eating chocolate, and receiving money.
Lab Alumni
Asma Hatoum-Aslan (Postdoc, 2010-2014): Assistant Professor at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Dalton Banh (MD-PhD Student, 2018-2023): MD-PhD Student at Weill Cornell Medical College
David Bikard (Postdoc, 2011-2014): Head of Lab at Institut Pasteur
Rahul Bhosle (Lab Manager, 2015-2020): Lab Manager at PTC Therapeutics, Inc.
Jessica Fyodorova (Research Assistant, 2019-2020): Graduate Fellow at Albert Einstein College of Medicine.
Gregory Goldberg (Graduate Fellow, 2011-2017): Postdoctoral Fellow at New York University
Robert Heler (Graduate Fellow, 2013-2018): Software Engineer at Invitae
Wenyan Jiang (Graduate Fellow, 2010-2016): Postdoctoral Fellow at Columbia University
Claire Kenney (MD-PhD Student, 2017-2023): MD-PhD Student at Weill Cornell Medical College
Albina Kozlova (Research Assistant, 2019-2022): PhD Student at University of Washington, Seattle
Pascal Maguin (Graduate Fellow, 2015-2022): Associate Scientist at Regeneron
Inbal Maniv (Lab Manager, 2011-2014): PhD Student at Technion - Israel Institute of Technology
Jacob Mathai (Research Assistant, 2019-2022): PhD Student at Yale University
Jon McGinn (Graduate Fellow, 2013-2018): Postdoctoral Fellow at Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Alexander Meeske (Postdoc, 2016-2020): Assistant Professor at University of Washington, Seattle
Charlie Mo (Postdoc, 2016-2022): Assistant Professor at University of Wisconsin-Madison
Josh Modell (Postdoc, 2013-2018): Assistant Professor at Johns Hopkins University
Philip Nussenzweig (MD-PhD Student, 2015-2020): Resident at University of California, Los Angeles Health
Nora Pyenson (Graduate Fellow, 2014-2020): Postdoctoral Fellow at Yale University
Allison Richards (Lab Manager, 2020-2022): MBA Student at NYU Stern School of Business
Jakob Rostøl (Graduate Fellow, 2015-2020): Postdoctoral Fellow at Imperial College London
Poulami Samai (Postdoc, 2012-2016): Purification Development Scientist III at Regeneron Pharmaceuticals
Ashley Thornal (Research Assistant, 2019-2022): Research Associate at Patch Biosciences
Andrew Varble (Postdoc, 2014-2022): Assistant Professor at University of Rochester Medical Center
