Christopher Sturgeon, Ph.D.

After completing his Ph.D. under the supervision of Michel Roberge at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Chris moved to Toronto for his postdoctoral studies with Gordon Keller. There, Chris developed a passion for embryonic stem cells and their potential for regenerative medicine and developmental biology. He then moved to St. Louis to run his own lab, as an Assistant Professor, in 2014. Chris strongly believes in having an open-door policy with his lab, and that collaboration across labs is key to success. Although his first love is to play tennis, as an ex-pat he still loves to watch hockey and listen to Nickelback, eh!

Stephanie LufF, Ph.d.

Stephanie Luff, Ph.D. is a postdoctoral fellow investigating signaling cues and transcriptional modulation involved in the specification of hemogenic endothelium from its mesodermal progenitor. Through combined experimental and computational approaches, the goal of her project is to discover novel pathways that can specify HSC-competent hemogenic endothelium from human pluripotent stem cells. Stephanie received her Ph.D. in Molecular Biology & Genetics from the University of Delaware and spent her doctoral tenure investigating megakaryocyte differentiation from primary hematopoietic stem cells under the guidance of Dr. Terry Papoutsakis. In her spare time, Stephanie can be found zipping through New York City streets on her bike or reading through her never-ending stack of unfinished books.

Zhong-Yin Li, Ph.d.

Zhong-Yin Li earned his Ph.D. from the Chinese Academy of Sciences. He previously worked at the University of Chicago before joining our lab here at Mount Sinai. His previous work as a postdoc included the molecular basis for the NK cell maturation arrest in ID2-deficient mice. Currently, he is doing studies on human NK cells.

Kendra STurgeon, M.s.

Kendra Sturgeon is the Lab Manager and a total science geek who loves to learn new things. After completing her undergraduate degree in Cell Biology and Genetics at the University of British Columbia, she attended graduate school at the University of Toronto earning a MSc in Molecular Genetics. She is happy to be back in the eastern time zone enjoying her first real winter in years! She is an avid enabler of like-minded people who get a sense of glee from organization.

HARRY YU

Harry Yu is our new research assistant in New York. He studied at Brown University and earned his degree in Biomedical Engineering, focusing on the development of a microfluidic process to efficiently separate cells from tissue in cancer diagnostic workflows. Outside the lab, he’s likes to play the guitar, and hopes to live long enough to read the final books in the Game of Thrones series.

Sunitha Mary Chacko, PH.D.  

Sunitha is a fresh graduate who joined our lab as a post-doctoral researcher. Sunitha received her Ph.D. in Biotechnology from Mahatma Gandhi University, Kerala, India where she spent her doctoral tenure investigating the impact of phytocompounds such as p-Coumaric acid on the cardiotoxicity induced by a popular chemotherapeutic – Doxorubicin. She loves animals and in her spare time she can be seen face-timing with her pets back at home, going on walks to places where they have dog parks and visiting deli’s having cats!