Become an IGB Fellow

The Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign offers a number of fellowships for truly exceptional young scholars who have completed their PhD within the last several years, and are looking for a stimulating and supportive interdisciplinary environment to carry out independent and collaborative research in the field of genomic biology. IGB Fellows will typically spend two to three years conducting research in one of several research themes in the institute, and ideally this research will also overlap with two or more of these thematic areas.

We are not currently accepting applications for IGB Fellows.

View previous IGB Fellows here.

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IGB FELLOWS

Carlos Angele

Carlos Angele received the B. Sc. In Chemistry from the University of Cota Rica (San Pedro, S.J.) in 2005. He also studied Physics and Chemical Engineering. His M. Sc. Research was focused in the synthesis of Synthetic analogs of the active site of the enzyme nitric oxide reductase (NOR).

Carlos joined to Dr. Julia Brumaghim’s Group at Clemson University (2009) to research the generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and DNA damage by metal ions and nanoparticles. Also, evaluated the antioxidant activity natural antioxidants, neurotransmitters, and related molecules to prevent the oxidative stress and its deleterious consequences. He concluded and graduated the Ph. D. program in May 2016. At Yale University, Carlos worked in the Dr. Sidney Altman’s lab in the synthesis and evaluation of new antibiotics based on RNA silencing techniques (2016-2018). He also worked under the supervision of Dr. Douglas Brash (Yale Cancer Institute) in the prevention and analysis of DNA damage caused by excited species generated by chemical reactions (chemiexcitation) and in absence of UV irradiation (in the dark), as a strategy to prevent skin cancer and neurodegeneration (208-2023).

In August 2023, Carlos joined the Anticancer Discovery from Pets to People (ACPP) research theme, directed by Prof. Paul J. Hergenrother at the Institute for Genomic Biology at the University of Illinois, where he is interested in the discovery and translation of novel anticancer compounds.
Onur Aydin

Onur received his B.S. and M.S. degrees in Mechanical Engineering from Koc University in Istanbul, Turkey. He completed his PhD in Mechanical Engineering in Dr. Taher Saif’s lab at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in 2021. His PhD research focused on biohybrid soft robotics, integrating biological cells and materials with engineered compliant scaffolds to build functional machines capable of locomotion and pumping. His work produced the first example of a biohybrid machine driven by tissue-engineered neuromuscular units.

After receiving his PhD, Onur joined the Multi-Cellular Engineered Living Systems (M-CELS) theme at IGB as a postdoctoral fellow. He has been working with theme members and collaborators to build novel platforms for the development of neural networks and neuromuscular units. One key aim of his research is to integrate neural networks in biohybrid actuator design, to build systems capable of sensing, information processing, and generating complex motor outputs. His work also aims to develop physiologically relevant tissue culture platforms to serve as in vitro models for muscular and neurodegenerative diseases.
Tina Barbasch

Tina Barbasch received her B.S. in Biology from Cornell University in 2009. She completed her PhD in Marine Ecology and Animal Behavior at Boston University in 2020. Her PhD research used the clownfish (Amphiprion percula), an emerging model system for the study of parental care, to uncover the causes and consequences of individual variation in parental care. She was awarded a Belamarich Award for Outstanding Thesis in Biology due to the novelty, impact, and interdisciplinary nature of her work. Following her PhD, she received an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship to work with Dr. Alison Bell and Dr. Eva Fischer at the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign. She applies neurogenomic methods to investigate how the brain manages multiple, competing demands using the threespined stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus). Her postdoctoral research has identified distinct neural and molecular substrates that are recruited in the brain of male sticklebacks when faced with competing demands, reflecting the unique challenges associated with balancing two things at once.

As an IGB fellow in the Gene Networks in Neural & Developmental Plasticity (GNDP) theme, Tina plans to expand on her postdoctoral research to investigate plasticity and evolution of gene regulatory networks and their role in decision-making. The ultimate goal of her research is to develop a predictive framework for understanding how vital decisions between competing demands are made.
Seemesh Bhaskar

Seemesh Bhaskar received his B.Sc. honours (2016) and M.Sc. (2018) degrees in Chemistry from Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning, India. He completed his Ph.D. degree from Surface plasmon-based Translational and Advanced Research (STAR) Lab, Central Research Instruments Facility (CRIF), SSSIHL in 2021 in the domain of photo-plasmonics. Further, he pursued post-doctoral studies at NanoStructured Materials (NSM) group, IIT Bombay. During his research internships at SASTRA University and Indian Institute of Science, as part of the DST-Inspire program he obtained expertise in Raman & Luminescence spectroscopy, Microfluidics, electrochemistry and Microscopy. He is the recipient of the prestigious DST-Inspire scholarship & fellowship, AWSAR, K. V. Rao Scientific Society (KVRSS), Young Achiever, M.Sc. Chemistry and All-rounder Gold medal awards. His research work in collaboration with various universities including IIT-Bombay, IIT-Kharagpur, IIT-Gandhinagar, CIIRC focuses on building effective nano-engineering protocols for biosensing at advanced physicochemical interfaces, and is the pioneer in the development of the photonic crystal-coupled emission (PCCE) platform (2020), CryoSoret nanoengineering technology (2022), Ferroplasmon-on-a-mirror (FPoM) technology (2023).

In 2022, Seemesh joined the Prof. Brian T. Cunningham’s Nanosensors group at HMNTL, UIUC as a post-doctoral research associate. He became an IGB fellow in the multi-disciplinary theme of Center for Genomic Diagnostics (CGD) and focusses on development of integrated photonic platforms for detection of disease-related biomolecules in buffer and in bodily fluids. His specific research interests include utilization of photonic crystal nanostructures in conjunction with microscopy-based detection instruments to detect biomarker molecules such as miRNA, ctDNA, and proteins with single-molecule resolution, thereby facilitating point-of-care diagnostic tests for resource-limited settings.
Arpita Bhurke

Arpita received her M.Sc. in Biotechnology from University of Pune in India, before moving to the United States to pursue a career in Reproductive Physiology. In 2014, she completed her second masters at Rutgers university where she worked on understanding transgenerational effect of developmental exposure to di-(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP) on female reproductive physiology, especially on ovarian folliculogenesis. Following her masters, she joined Dr. Indrani Bagchi’s lab group at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign to pursue her Ph.D. Her doctoral work focused on deciphering the molecular mechanism by which hypoxia inducible factor 2 alpha (HIF2α) regulates the uterine physiology during embryo implantation. In 2021, IGB put together a new theme- Environmental Impact on Reproductive Health (EIRH) and Arpita was appointed as a postdoctoral fellow for the theme.

As an IGB fellow, Arpita is setting up the research space for the theme’s projects. Currently she is focusing on understanding how exposure to different phthalates during early pregnancy disrupts female reproductive physiology, specifically, angiogenesis and placental development in mice. She is also investigating the mechanism by which exposure to different phthalates during early pregnancy impacts secretion of proteins essential for maintaining pregnancy.
Chia-Wen Chang

Chia-Wen Chang received his B.S. and M.S. degrees in Chemical Engineering at National Taiwan University of Science and Technology (Taiwan Tech) in Taiwan. He obtained his Ph.D. in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the Ohio State University (OSU). His graduate research focused on the in vitro modeling of angiogenesis and lymphangiogenesis using biomedical microfluidic technology. Specifically, he studied the ECM biophysical properties and fluid forces mediated vascular functions on the microvessel analogues. After completing his PhD studies, he joined IGB in the Regenerative Biology and Tissue Engineering (RBTE) theme in October 2021.

As an IGB fellow, Chia-Wen works on multidisciplinary research at the interface of microtechnology, biomaterials science and cell biology to develop microphysiological systems to address important questions in cell-matrix interactions, tissue developments and disease progressions. During his research at IGB, he works collaboratively with researchers in the RBTE theme under the leadership of Professor Brendan Harley to develop innovative biomedical microdevices and engineered biomaterials. His specific research interests include recapitulating the biophysical and biochemical dynamics of tissue microenvironments for disease modeling and tissue regeneration applications in the fields of vascular mechanobiology, immunoengineering and cancer.
Shelby Lawson

Shelby Lawson received her B.S. degrees in Biology and Psychology from St. Mary’s College of Maryland in 2014, after which she worked as a lab manager and research technician at University of Maryland College Park studying bird song perception. In 2017, she came to University of Illinois Urbana Champaign and completed her Ph.D. degree in Evolution, Ecology, and Behavior under Prof. Mark Hauber in 2022. Shelby’s research focused on yellow warbler referential alarm calls known as “seet” calls that are made to warn of nearby brown-headed cowbirds, birds that lay eggs in other birds nests. Her dissertation explored the sensory ecology and behavior regarding the production of this call by yellow warblers in central Illinois.

Shelby became an IGB Fellow as part of the IGB Communications Team in August 2022. Currently, Shelby writes about new and interesting research happening at the university and helps shine a spotlight on the researchers that make it happen.
Tomas Lyu

Huibin Lyu (Tomas) received his B.S. degree in Guangdong University of Technology and M.S. degree in the State Key Lab of Respiratory Disease in Guangzhou, mainland China. After that, he joined HKU-Pasteur Research Pole as a Ph.D. student at the University of Hong Kong.

During his Ph.D. study, he focusses on the investigation of the cross-reactive humoral responses to SARS-CoV-2 in human and mice model. At the early stage of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, they were interested in the scientific questions about the cross-reactive antibody response between SARS-CoV-1 and SARS-CoV-2 after infection or immunisation, and they searched for evidence of antigenic imprinting between these two Sarbecoviruses. Their study not only addresses a fundamental question regarding antigenicity differences between SARS-CoV-2 and SARS-CoV-1 but also has implications for immunogen design and vaccine development.

After receiving his Ph.D., he joined as a Postdoctoral Research Associate in Dr. Nicholas Wu’s group in the IGB with the Mining Microbial Genomes (MMG) theme at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Recently, he has started his studies with a focus on comparing influenza antibody response among different natural hosts, including human, duck, and swine. Particularly, he is interested in comparing the molecular signatures of broadly neutralizing influenza antibodies from these hosts. To answer this question, he aims to synergize his background in antibody immunology with the high-throughput methodologies in Dr. Nicholas Wu’s lab. This study will be important for not only influenza therapeutic development, but also the fundamental understanding of antibody gene evolution.
Chao Pan

Chao Pan received his B.S. degree from Tsinghua University in 2017, and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in 2019 and 2022. Advised by Professor Olgica Milenkovic, Chao's primary research focus has been the advancement of tools in geometric machine learning (i.e., Graph Neural Networks), particularly their integration with diverse biological applications. He has also ventured into areas concerning data privacy, notably Differential Privacy and Federated Learning. His Ph.D. thesis focused on developing novel methods for building more efficient, robust, and privacy-preserving data storage systems along with associated learning algorithms.

As an IGB fellow in the Center for Artificial Intelligence and Modeling (CAIM) theme, Chao plans to continue his postdoctoral research on geometric machine learning and explore its potential to solve network-related problems in biology, such as protein and gene interactions.”
Varsha Pathare

Varsha is a plant ecophysiologist interested in advancing our understanding about plant-climate interactions and in using this information to predict and combat the impacts of climate change on our natural and agricultural ecosystems. She completed her PhD (Plant Biology) in 2018 from Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment (Western Sydney University, Australia). During her PhD, she investigated the photosynthesis and growth responses of Australian woodland species to climate change. As a post-doctoral researcher at Washington State University, Varsha worked on understanding how variation in leaf anatomical and biochemical properties affect photosynthesis and plant water-use in agriculturally and ecologically important grasses. Besides developing our fundamental understanding about leaf structure-function relations and improving photosynthetic models, her work has identified several leaf properties that can be modified for developing ‘climate-resilient’ crops. As an Institute for Genomic Biology fellow in the Genomic Ecology of Global Chang (GEGC) theme, Varsha plans to continue pursuing her interest in leaf structure-function relationships. Particularly, she will investigate whether genetic manipulation of ‘stomata’- the microscopic pores on leaf surface regulating plant-atmosphere CO₂-water fluxes, improves drought tolerance and growth in Soybean-world’s most important protein seed and oil crop. The goal of her project is to develop Soybean lines that are ‘climate-resilient’ and produce more seeds whilst using less water.
Saurav Prakash

Saurav Prakash holds a B. Tech. in Electrical Engineering from IIT Kanpur, and a Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from USC under the mentorship of Prof. Salman Avestimehr. His expertise encompasses distributed and privacy-preserving machine learning, with a focus on federated learning – a crucial paradigm for training machine learning models on decentralized edge devices while ensuring data privacy. During his postdoctoral tenure at UIUC's Coordinated Science Laboratory, he worked with Prof. Olgica Milenkovic, pioneering integrated solutions at the intersections of federated classification, machine unlearning, and hyperbolic spaces. Saurav joined IGB in the Genomic Security and Privacy (GSP) theme in August 2023, where he's delving into the intricate interplay of data privacy, genomics, agriculture, and machine learning, guided by Prof. Carl Gunter. Notably, Saurav earned distinction as a recipient of the 2021 Qualcomm Innovation Fellowship.
Sierra Raglin

Sierra S. Raglin received her BSc in Animal Science (with a minor in Marine Science) from Rutgers University, New Brunswick-Piscataway in 2016, and her Ph.D. in Environmental Sciences from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign in 2023 from the laboratory of Dr. Angela Kent. Her dissertation research explored the unintended consequences of agricultural manipulation on plant-microbiome interactions within industrial agricultural systems. Sierra hopes to take a One Health approach to understand the adverse outcomes of anthropogenic activity on environmental microbiomes and health in urban environments during her fellowship within the Infection Genomics for One Health (IGOH) research theme.
Diana Ranoa

Diana received her M.Sc. in Molecular Biology and Biotechnology from the University of the Philippines–Diliman. In 2006, she moved to the United States to pursue her Ph.D. in Microbiology at the University of Illinois–Urbana-Champaign under the direction of Dr. Richard I. Tapping (Dept. of Microbiology). Her graduate studies focused on understanding the mechanisms of microbial sensing and the dynamics of interaction among members of the Toll-like receptor 2 subfamily of innate immune receptors. In 2014, she joined Dr. Ralph R. Weichselbaum’s lab at the University of Chicago Dept. of Radiation and Cellular Oncology to investigate the RNA- and DNA-mediated tumor cell intrinsic response to ionizing radiation, and to define the molecular mechanisms that promote tumor proliferation and metastasis.

Diana joined Dr. Paul Hergenrother’s lab as an ACPP Cancer Center Illinois/IGB Fellow in November 2019. She will be investigating the ability of the synthetic drug PAC-1, in combination with immune checkpoint therapy, to enhance anti-tumor responses and improve immunologic memory for tumor cell recognition in animal models.