Group Members

Steven Josefowicz, PhD

Principal Investigator
email: szj2001@med.cornell.edu

• Steven Josefowicz is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Division of Experimental Pathology. Steven has appointments in the Immunology and Microbial Pathogenesis (IMP) Program and the Physiology, Biophysics, and Systems Biology (PBSB) Program. After a BA from UC Berkeley and three years as a research tech working in the area of human immunology and HIV at UCSF, Steve conducted his graduate work with Alexander Rudensky at the University of Washington and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. His PhD work focused on mechanisms of immune tolerance and the differentiation and function of regulatory T cells-- how our powerful immune systems can so effectively combat pathogens while tolerating our own tissues, food, and commensal microbiota. He then joined the laboratory of C. David Allis at The Rockefeller University to study epigenetic mechanisms underlying cellular differentiation and stimulation events in the immune system. Joining Weill Cornell Medicine in May 2017, his ongoing work in his lab combines the fields of epigenetics and immunology to focus on questions of epigenetic regulation of transcription, especially as it pertains to rapid cellular responses, namely immune cell responses to stimulatory cues. The goal is to reveal fundamental epigenetic mechanisms regulating inflammation and their activity in pediatric and adult inflammatory disease.

Alexia Martinez de Paz, PhD

Postdoctorate Fellow
email: alm2806@med.cornell.edu

• Alexia joined the lab in April 2018 after completing her PhD thesis at the University of Barcelona, Spain, and a short postdoctoral training at the University of Victoria, Canada. During that time, she was studying different mechanisms of epigenetic regulation, such as DNA and histone methylation, with a special interest in chromatin and transcriptional dynamics of neurons upon receiving activation signals or circadian cues. In the Josefowicz lab, Alexia is studying epigenetic mechanisms and chromatin structural changes controlling transcription in the immune response and their dysregulation in cancer.

Reshma Ramaiah

Senior Bioinformatics Analyst
email: rer4011@med.cornell.edu

Michelle Him Li

Lab Technician
email: mvh4001@med.cornell.edu

• Michelle earned her B.S. in Biotechnology from City College of New York in 2023. During her undergraduate studies, she joined the Hubbard Lab, where she investigated oxidative stress in the prefrontal cortex of ovariectomized rodents following chemotherapy treatment. Her work also examined how oxidative gene expression is influenced by hormones such as estrogen in this context. In February 2024, Michelle transitioned to the Josefowicz Lab as a Lab Technician. This new role allows her to further explore the diverse opportunities within research and continue her journey in scientific inquiry.

Andrew Daman

IMP Graduate Student
email: awd2001@med.cornell.edu

• Andrew got his bachelors in Chemistry and Biochemistry from Seattle Pacific University. He got a job working in an cancer immunology lab, where he stayed for three years before deciding to pursue a PhD at Weill Cornell. Andrew joined the Josefowicz lab in 2018 to work on understanding the role of histone modifications in hematopoietic development.

Dughan Ahimovic

IMP Graduate Student
email: dja4001@med.cornell.edu

• Dughan grew up in the beautiful state of New Jersey and went on to receive a B.S. in Biomedical Engineering from Yale University. He then spent two years working in biotech before deciding to attend Weill Cornell’s IMP Program for graduate school. Dughan joined the Josefowicz Lab in June 2019 to study the function of histone modifications in rapid stimulation-induced gene expression and other epigenetically regulated processes in mammalian immunity.

Chenyang Jiang

BCMB Graduate Student
email: chj4004@med.cornell.edu

• Chenyang received her B.S. in biological sciences from Sichuan University and M.S. in pathobiology from University of Connecticut. After graduation, she worked as a research assistant for three years at Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT, Harvard, and Brigham and Women’s Hospital to study HIV/AIDS by developing and applying novel genetic and epigenetic tools to characterize viral reservoirs in HIV-1 elite controllers. Chenyang joined the Josefowicz Lab in July 2021 to investigate epigenetic regulation of transcription in rapid stimulation-induced immune cell responses.

Mythili Ketavarapu

Tri-I CBM Graduate Student
email: mke4001@med.cornell.edu

• Mythili received her B.S. in Biochemistry/Molecular Biology from University of California, Santa Barbara in 2023. While completing her bachelor's degree, she worked as a researcher in the Ramani Lab at UC San Francisco for three years using computational methods to study chromatin remodeling and histone modifications regulating mammalian gene expression. She then began her PhD in the Tri-Institutional Computational Biology and Medicine program as an NSF graduate fellow. Mythili joined the Josefowicz Lab in May 2024 to apply and expand upon computational approaches to study epigenetics (co-advised by Dr. Christina Leslie), with a particular focus on the mechanisms underlying development and activation of immune populations.

Michael Bale

IMP Graduate Student
email: mib4004@med.cornell.edu

• Michael received his B.A.s in Chemistry and Physics from the University of Kentucky in 2016 and a M.Sc. in Bioinformatics at Johns Hopkins University in 2020. During his masters, Michael was a post-baccalaureate research fellow at the National Cancer Institute in Frederick, Maryland in the Translational Research Unit of the HIV Dynamics and Replication program where he worked on profiling integration site distributions in children living with HIV as well as intra-participant HIV-1 genetics. Michael joined the Josefowicz lab in July of 2021 to investigate the role of epigenetic regulation in the activation and memory differentiation of T cells.

Vigneshwari “Viggy” Kumar

BCMB Graduate Student
email: vie4002@med.cornell.edu

• Viggy is a graduate student in the BCMB program at Weill Cornell. She received her Bachelors of Technology degree in Biotechnology from Anna University, India in 2017 and moved to the Unites States to pursue an MS in Biotechnology from the California State University, Channel Islands. During her masters, she joined Dr. Kit Lam's lab at UC Davis as a CIRM Bridges intern and worked on developing peptides for targeting cancer stem cells. After graduation, she joined the Marson Lab at Gladstone Institutes- UCSF as a Research Associate working on genome wide CRISPR screens for understanding HIV latency. Viggy joined the Josefowicz lab in September 2023 and is working on understanding histone mediated regulation of immune cell transcription. Besides lab research, Viggy enjoys photography, reading and exploring the city.

Victoria Lawless

Tri-I MD/PhD student
email: vrl4001@med.cornell.edu

• Tori is from the sunny and definitely-not-rainy-at-all foothills of Seattle, WA. She received her BA in Biology from The University of Chicago, where her undergraduate research utilized the Drosophila egg chamber as a model to study organ morphogenesis. Deciding she was still too close to home, she then relocated to the UK to complete her MPhil with Dr. Greg Hannon at the University of Cambridge, Cancer Research UK – Cambridge Institute. Her master’s work focused on small-RNA mediated suppression of transposable elements in the Drosophila germline. Through this research, she became interested in histone biology and its outsized role in gene regulation. She joined the Tri-Institutional MD/PhD program in 2021 and the Josefowicz Lab in 2023, where she studies the inflammatory signals and chromatin features that guide durable immune memory in hematopoietic stem cells. Outside of lab, you can find her playing lots of soccer, admiring her cat, Sappho, and hunting down the best gelato in NYC.

Muxue “Snow” Du

IMP Graduate Student
email: mud4002@med.cornell.edu

• Muxue “Snow” received her B.S. in Biochemistry and Music from Muhlenberg College in 2021. Upon graduation, she worked as a technician in the Michael Glickman Lab at MSKCC for two years, where she studied the effect of treatment for multi-drug resistant tuberculosis on the gastrointestinal microbiota. She joined IMP in 2023 and joined the Josefowicz/Niec Lab in June 2024.

Ceyda Durmaz

2017-2019
Role: Research Technician, Bioinformatician

Arjun Ravishankar

Role: Postdoctoral Associate

Lexi Robbins

Role: Research Technician, Lab Manager

Jin Gyu Cheong

Role: Former IMP Graduate Student

Lucinda Paddock

2020-2024
Role: Research Specialist

Visitors

Gayathri Shibu, Winter 2020-2021