People

Aarti Jajoo, PhD | Instructor

Dr. Jajoo is an Assistant Neuroscientist at NG-TBL since October 2021. She is also an instructor in psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, a Staff Scientist at the National Human Genome Research Institute, NIH, and an affiliate member of the Broad Institute. Dr. Jajoo’s research is focused on developing mathematical and statistical tools to facilitate bioinformatics advancements. In the lab, she is involved in developing pipelines and machine learning models concerning multi-omic data, with the ultimate goal of better understanding psychiatric disorders on the omics level.

Dr. Jajoo received her Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics from the University of Houston, postdoctoral training from Baylor College of Medicine, and worked as a research scientist at Brandeis University before joining NG-TBL.

See publications from Dr. Jajoo:  Google Scholar
Contact: ajajoo@mclean.harvard.edu

Twitter: @jajooaarti

Fun Facts: Birder and loves kayaking.

Serdar Aslan, PhD | Instructor

Dr. Askan is an Assistant Neuroscientist at NG-TBL since February 2022 and is co-mentored by Blaise Frederick. He is also an instructor in psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and an affiliate member of the Broad Institute.

Dr. Aslan works at the intersection of neuroscience, machine learning, deep learning, signals and systems, various mathematical areas, control theory, computational optimal transport graph theory, random matrix theory, and detection and estimation theory. He specializes in various computational techniques. He applies those techniques in brain hemodynamics and fMRI studies. 

As a member of the NG-TBL, he is working on an imaging genomics project. He analyzes big data from UK Biobank and other projects. He derives useful resting state fMRI-derived features and performs neurogenetic modeling.

See publications from Dr. Aslan:  Google Scholar
Contact: saslan@mclean.harvard.edu

Twitter:

Fun Facts: Likes walking

Artemis Iatrou, PhD | Instructor

Dr. Iatrou is an Assistant Neuroscientist at NG-TBL since September 2022. She is also an instructor in psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and an affiliate member of the Broad Institute. Dr. Iatrou’s research focuses on elucidating the multilayer omic structure of psychiatric diseases. She is currently developing computational and statistical methods to explore how stress is implicated in the pathophysiology of psychiatric disorders and contributes to disease heterogeneity.

Dr. Iatrou received her Ph.D. in Epigenetics and Neuroscience from Maastricht University, the Netherlands, and postdoctoral training from Rush Alzheimer’s Disease Center, Chicago, IL.

See publications from Dr. Iatrou: Google Scholar
Contact: aiatrou@mclean.harvard.edu

Fun Facts: Artemis enjoys surfing and snowboarding.

Cameron Pernia, PhD | Instructor

Dr. Pernia is an Assistant Neuroscientist at NG-TBL since June 2023. He is also an instructor in psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and an affiliate member of the Broad Institute. Cameron was previously a postdoctoral fellow in the lab from November 2019 to May 2023 (holding the record).

Dr. Pernia is interested in developing novel in vitro tools for studying epigenetic and acquired psychological disorders related to stress. Dr. Pernia’s long-term goal is to develop innovative approaches for studying psychiatric conditions, including PTSD, in the hopes of finding new treatments.

Cameron received his Bsc in Molecular, Cellular & Developmental Biology and BA in Psychology with honors from the University of California Santa Cruz, and his Ph.D. in Biomedical Sciences from Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute’s Graduate School.

See publications from Dr. Pernia: PubMed
Contact: cpernia@mclean.harvard.edu

Fun fact: Cameron is an avid surfer and donut connoisseur

Marina Soliva Estruch, MSc | Pre-doctoral Fellow (PhD Student)

Marina was a Master’s student (November 2021 – August 2022) and is currently a Ph.D. student at NG-TBL since September 2022. She is also an affiliate member of the Broad Institute. Her project “Human brain transcriptomic signature of PTSD and MDD due to environmental and genetic factors” studies the impact of trauma timing at the molecular level. She is also interested in the impact of trauma on the reward system to study the link between trauma and anhedonia. She is focused on the modulating role of epigenetic mechanisms accounting for this relation.

Marina received a BSc in Psychology from the University of Valencia, Spain, and her MSc in Fundamental Neuroscience at Maastricht University, The Netherlands
Contact: msolivaestruch@mclean.harvard.edu

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

Ioulia Tsatsani, MSc | Pre-doctoral Fellow (PhD Student)

Ioulia is a Ph.D. student at NG-TBL 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 a deeper insight into stress-related disorders and uncover novel insights into the biological pathways involved.

Her academic journey began at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece, where she developed a solid foundation in biology and continued at the University of Glasgow, United Kingdom, where she earned her MSc in Bioinformatics. Before joining the lab, she worked as a bioinformatician in public health in the United Kingdom.

Contact: itsatsani@mclean.harvard.edu

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

Justina Lugenbühl, MSc | Pre-doctoral Fellow (PhD Student)

Justina was a Master’s student (November 2022 – August 2023) and is currently a Ph.D. student at NG-TBL since January 2024. She wants to gain a deep understanding of the risk and resilience factors that influence the trajectory from (early) life stress to mental disorders like PTSD and MDD. Specifically, she hopes to identify important epigenetic regulators and molecular pathways. These may reveal biologically distinct subtypes of the presumably same disorder. She hopes that this work will contribute to novel mechanism-informed diagnostics, preventions, and treatments of stress-related disorders.

She worked with maltreated children at Charité University Hospital in Berlin, Germany. This motivated her to further investigate the biology of stress.

Justina received a BSc in Psychology from the University of Mannheim, Germany, and her MSc in Fundamental Neuroscience at Maastricht University, The Netherlands

Contact: jlugenbuhl@mclean.harvard.edu

Fun fact: Justina’s laugh is funnier than her jokes.