Manuel Garber
2009-present
Principal investigator
Systems immunology, regulatory genomics, and computational models of human inflammatory disease.
People
A cross-disciplinary lab
We are a group of scientists with diverse backgrounds spanning biology, math, and computer science, devoted to tackling key problems in immunity through a data-driven approach.
Current members
Principal investigator
Lab administration
Heidi Beberman
2011-present
Department Financial Administrator
Heidi is the department's financial administrator, and the person who keeps this lab running. She manages our finances and grants, listens to everyone, and always finds a way to help.
Graduate students
Shuo Shan
2020-present
Graduate Student
I map expression and response QTLs (reQTLs) in human skin cells to understand how genetic variants shape cytokine responses. My work combines eQTL and reQTL mapping with chromatin accessibility data and sequence-based deep learning models to identify variants that alter regulatory DNA elements and transcription factor binding.
Wei-Che Ko
2022-present
Millennium Program PhD Student
I am a board-certified dermatologist with subspecialty expertise in allergic contact dermatitis. In the clinic, I perform patch testing to identify the specific allergens driving a patient's skin disease. In my research, I combine clinical sampling with single-cell approaches and computational methods to define allergen-specific molecular signatures and dissect the immune mechanisms underlying contact allergy.
Computational scientists and research staff
Carolina Salomao Lopes
2019-present
Senior Scientist
I systematically stimulate skin stromal, mesenchymal, and immune cells with defined cytokines to map their precise responses. I use these response maps to identify the key signaling forces driving inflammation in autoimmune skin disease.
Sandhiya Ravi
2026-present
Computational Biologist
I apply computational and AI/ML approaches to analyze single-cell and spatial transcriptomic data. My current work includes developing gene-expression scoring methods and studying cellular responses and states in inflammatory skin diseases.
Thomas Jacob
2023-present
Bioinformatician
I am the bioinformatician and data scientist for the VIGOR study, a longitudinal vitiligo family study aimed at identifying the genetic and environmental causes of the disease. I build and maintain computational workflows to harmonize study data, derive insights from complex genomic datasets, integrate wearable biometrics (e.g., Fitbit data), and manage the cohort across platforms. My current focus is developing pipelines to evaluate genomic risk scores in the VIGOR cohort to better understand how a person's genome influences vitiligo onset.
Clinical and experimental collaborators
Alumni and past members
Graduate students
Pranitha Vangala
Sept 2014 - May 2020
Graduate Student and Postdoctoral Fellow
Role of cis-regulatory elements in transcriptional regulation integrating evolutionary approaches, 4D interaction data and chromatin activity maps
Now: Computational Biologist, Takeda Pharmaceuticals
Working on: Biomarkers and translational data science for gastro-intestinal and inflammatory diseases
Yuming Cao
Sept 2018 - May 2024
Graduate Student and Postdoctoral Fellow
Investigated host-virus dynamics at single cell resolution in primary human cells.
Now: Computational Scientist, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard
Working on: Computational tool development for large-scale single cell Perturb-seq screens
Yuqing Wang
March 2019 - Feb 2027
Graduate Student and Postdoctoral Fellow
Investigating the molecular mechanisms of photosensitivity in autoimmune skin diseases, including dermatomyositis and cutaneous lupus erythematosus (CLE), through integrated multi-omics analyses encompassing single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq), proteomics, and spatial transcriptomics.
Now: Bioinformatics Scientist, New England Biolabs, Inc.
Working on: Enzyme characterization using NGS, pipeline development and automation.
Jake Gellatly
March 2016 - May 2021
Graduate Student
Shaked Afik
Visiting Masters Student
Postdoctoral fellows
Elisa Donnard
2014-2020
Postdoctoral Fellow
Single-cell and comparative genomics approaches to dissect transcriptional and post-transcriptional regulatory programs across diverse tissues. A particular focus was Fragile X syndrome, showing how loss of the FMRP protein leads to cell-type-specific transcriptional changes in mouse brain, and is linked to mRNA stability.
Now: Group Leader / Principal Investigator, Broad Institute / Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Genomic Mechanisms of Disease
Working on: Functional genomics and gene regulation in metabolic disease-relevant cell models, using cell villages and large-scale Perturb-seq screens
Xiaopeng Zhu
Postdoctoral Fellow
Now: Jian Ma Lab, University of Pittsburgh
Computational scientists and research staff
Alan Derr
Computational Biologist
I developed the End Sequence Analysis Toolkit (ESAT), which extracts additional information from single-cell RNA-seq data through 3' end sequencing, and built it into the core of the lab's single-cell analysis pipeline.
Now: Retired
Working on: Traveling the world, biking, cooking, and designing jewelry, and combining traveling and biking as much as possible
Narayan Sadagopan
Bioinformatician
Rachel Murphy
Research Technician
Joined the lab as a technician right after graduating from WPI.
In memoriam
Patrick McDonel
1977–2023
Patrick passed away on November 19, 2023. The Garber lab owes much of the things we do to him. He established our molecular biology operation and instilled its philosophy.
It was not only in science that Patrick knew what was important. He kept everyone in touch — whether it was his Christmas gathering for non-Christians, an overnight smoking affair, or just cocktails, it was always at Patrick's house that we'd end up seeing people the rest of us hadn't made the time to seek out ourselves. He is sorely missed, and we keep his memory with us.