People

Liangying Yin, PhD | EWSC Postdoc Fellow (Broad Institute) | 🐈

Dr Yin is an Eric and Wendy Schmidt Center postdoc Fellow at the NG-TBL since January 2025, where she is co-supervised by Caroline Uhler (Broad Institute/MIT). Her research focuses on developing and applying novel machine learning, causal inference methods to analyze large-scale “omics” and clinic data, with the goal of uncovering actionable biological insights.

Liangying holds a Bsc in Biomedical Engineering from Shandong University and an Mphil in Biomedical Informatics from Zhejiang University, followed by a Ph.D in Biomedical Informatics from The Chinese University of Hong Kong, where she was advised by Professor Hon-Cheong So. Her academic journey reflects a strong interdisciplinary foundation, bridging computational biology, genetics, and data science.

Publications: Google Scholar Contact: lyin6@mclean.harvard.edu Fun fact: Liangying enjoys playing badminton and hiking.

Javier Gilbert-Jaramillo, PhD | Postdoc Fellow | 🦆

Dr. Javier Gilbert-Jaramillo is a postdoc at the NG-TBL and Harvard Medical School since June 2025. Javier’s research focuses on mitochondrial nutrient metabolism in the human brain in health and disease with the goal to understand the dynamics of mitochondrial nutrient processing across different brain cell types during aging and in neuropsychiatric disorders. Javier holds a BSc (Hons) in Biology from ESPOL Polytechnic University (Guayaquil, Ecuador), an MRes in Translational Neuroscience from UCL under the supervision of Prof. Adrian Isaacs and a DPhil from University of Oxford under the joint supervision of Prof. William James, Prof. Zoltán Molnár, and Prof. Kieran Clarke.

Publications: Google Scholar
Contact: jgilbertjaramillo@mgb.org

Fun facts: Youngest Ecuadorian to research in Antarctica. Visited the Galapagos a couple of times as the Islands are part of the Ecuadorean territory. Loves making noise with a violin, football and kitchen pots

Milou Sep, PhD | Visiting Postdoc Fellow (University of Amsterdam) | 🐈

Dr. Sep is a visiting postdoc at the NG-TBL since March 2023. Milou’s key research interest in the between-individual variation in resilience to stress/trauma and its consequences for mental health. Academically, she trained in Biomedical Sciences (BSc 2010), Clinical Psychology (BSc 2012; MSc 2015), and Neuroscience (MSc 2015; PhD 2021) at Utrecht University.

Publications: Google Scholar
Contact: msep@mclean.harvard.edu
Twitter: @MSC_Sep

Marina Soliva Estruch, MSc | PhD Student (Maastricht University) | 🦆

Marina was a MSc student from November 2021 to August 2022, and since September 2022 is currently a Ph.D. student at NG-TBL and Maastricht University since September 2022. Her project studies the impact of trauma timing at the molecular level. She is conducting postmortmem brain molecular studies and utilizes multiple cell models of stress (iPSC-dericed neurons, primary neurons). Her thesis is focusing on effects mediated by the corticosteroid receptors.

Marina received a BSc in Psychology from the University of Valencia, Spain, and her MSc in Fundamental Neuroscience at Maastricht University, The Netherlands

Publications: PubMed

Contact:msolivaestruch@mclean.harvard.edu

Fun fact: Marina likes extravagant earrings and diving into memes!

Ioulia Tsatsani, MSc | PhD Student (Maastricht University) | 🐈

Ioulia is a Ph.D. student at NG-TBL and Maastricht University since March 2023 and an affiliate member of the Broad Institute. Her research interests lie in investigating the intricate interplay between stress, mitochondria, and nuclear transcription using computational tools. By exploring these connections, Ioulia aims to gain deeper insights into stress-related mental disorders.

Ioulia received a BSc in Biology from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece with BSc in Biology, and her MSc in Bioinformatics from the University of Glasgow (UK). Before joining the lab, she worked in the UK National Health Service.

Publications: PubMed

Contact:itsatsani@mclean.harvard.edu

Fun fact: Ioulia equally enjoys making loops in programming and crocheting!

Amaury Pelzer, MSc | PhD Student (Maastricht University) | 🐈

Amaury was a visiting MSc student from September 2024 to March 2025, and since April 2025 is a Ph.D. student at NG-TBL and Maastricht University.

His research focuses on applying bioinformatics and machine learning approaches—such as multi-omics integration and multimodal modeling—to uncover the biological mechanisms underlying psychiatric disorders and to enhance clinical prediction using real-world datasets.

Amaury holds a BSc in Biomedical Sciences from Maastricht University, with a minor in Biomolecular Science and Neuroscience from Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. He later completed an MSc in Cognitive and Clinical Neuroscience at Maastricht University.

Contact:apelzer@mclean.harvard.edu

Fun Fact: Amaury loves to travel and once found himself demonstrating an Aikido technique—on live Japanese television—during an interview.

Malvina S. Millet | PhD Student (University of Montpellier) | 🦆

Malvina is a Ph.D. student at NG-TBL and University of Montpellier since April 2025, co-supervised by Prof. Kerry J. Ressler and Freddy Jeanneteau. Her PhD project is supported by Dr. Chris Palmer’s Metabolic and Mental Health Program (MMHP).

Her research investigates how early life stress-induced anxiety disorders can be modulated by diet. Using a multi-omic approach, she aims to uncover the metabolic and transcriptomic mechanisms linking nutrition to psychiatric outcomes, with the ultimate goal of evaluating whether dietary strategies can serve as effective treatments for psychiatric disorders.

Malvina earned her BSc in Human Nutrition and Psychology from the University of Lyon, France with honors, followed by an MSc in Neuroscience from the University of Aix-Marseille, France with honors. She brings a strong interdisciplinary background to her work at the intersection of psychiatry, nutrition, and systems biology.

Fun fact: A global citizen at heart, Malvina loves traveling and discovering different cultures, but she needs a huge amount of sleep to be fully functionnal!

Eirini Sparaki, MSc | PhD Student (Maastricht University) | 🐈

Her work leverages computational genomics, statistical genetics, and machine learning to unravel the genetic mysteries of complex psychiatric disorders and identify drug repurposing targets.

She holds an MPharm (University of Patras, Greece) and an MSc (Université Paris Cité, France). Before joining the lab, she trained at the Regeneron Genetics Center and the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and also practiced as a pharmacist.

Publications: Google Scholar

Contact:eirini.sparaki@mclean.harvard.edu

Fun fact: During her first week as an intern in New York, she ended up at the same table as Madonna at New York Fashion Week

Sofia Veloudou | Master Thesis Student (University of Amsterdam) | 🐈

Sofia is an MSc student in Biomedical Sciences at the University of Amsterdam (UvA). They joined the lab in January 2025 as an intern to complete the Big Biomedical Data Analysis Major (UvA) and conduct their Master’s thesis. Their project focuses on applying OMICS data to better understand stress-related mental disorders.