Kyriakos Papanicolaou, Ph.D.
Research Associate
Kyriakos@jhmi.edu

Kyriakos, a native of beautiful sunny Cyprus, also comes to Hopkins by way of Boston, where he trained in the lab of Dr. Kenneth Walsh, Director of the Whitaker Cardiovascular Institute of the Boston University School of Medicine. His doctoral thesis examined the role of heart mitochondrial membrane proteins called mitofusins, particularly with respect to their influence on the mitochondrial permeability transition that marks the onset of cell death by necrosis. He also showed that mitofusins 1 and 2 are essential for postnatal metabolic remodeling in the heart. We are happy to have him on board.

Meghana Prakash
Research Technologist

Meghana earned her bachelor’s degree in biotechnology from Dayananda Sagar University, India. Before pursuing her master’s at JHU, she worked in Dr. Avadhesha Surolia’s lab at the Indian Institute of Science, investigating the roles of MEP pathway genes in Mycobacterium species. During her master’s at JHU, she studied the impact of innate immune activation on tolerance to myocardial ischemia and reperfusion injury in Dr. Brian O’Rourke’s lab, where she discovered her interest in regenerative medicine.”

Kevin Prasad
Graduate Student Researcher

Kevin is an enthusiastic researcher with a diverse background; he has lived in three countries—India, Indonesia, and The Netherlands—before pursuing his master’s at JHU. He obtained his BSc from Maastricht University in The Netherlands. Kevin’s bachelor’s thesis sought to elucidate the appropriate stiffness of the cell culture substrate to convert myofibroblasts into fibroblasts. He showed that 3D-engineered heart matrices possess the ideal magnitude stiffness for transforming myofibroblasts into fibroblasts. Kevin also led the 2021 iGEM MSP Maastricht team, which was awarded the iGEM silver medal and the prestigious National Student Engineering Award from the Royal Society of Engineers (KIVI) in the Netherlands. Before joining JHU, he interned at a biotech startup in Bangalore, India, where he learnt the workings of the business of science.

Sogol Sedighi, M.D.
Postdoctoral Fellow

Sogol earned her Doctor of Medicine degree from Shiraz University of Medical Sciences in Iran, where she pursued her research interest in clinical cardiology. She joined Hopkins in April 2023 to further expand her research expertise in molecular cardiology. Her research focuses on the application of targeted proteomics in unraveling the pathophysiology of heart diseases. She aspires to become a clinician/scientist in the near future, all while traveling to as many countries as she can!

Michael Sheen
Research Technologist
msheen2@jh.edu

Michael is a passionate researcher from Wilmington, Delaware. He recently graduated from Cornell University with a Bachelor of Science in molecular and cell biology and a minor in business. As an undergraduate, he worked in Dr. Chun Han’s lab, where he studied neurodegeneration and developed novel CRISPR/Cas9 tools in Drosophila. He aspires to become an academic physician. Outside of the lab, he enjoys playing soccer, tennis, and basketball.

Tony Shen
Graduate Student Researcher
tshen16@jh.edu

Tony, a student researcher who is passionate about conducting research. His hometown is Shanghai, China where he was born and raised before coming to the US for college. He obtained his bachelor’s degree from Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) in Biochemistry and was trained in the lab of Dr. Johannes von Lintig as an undergraduate student researcher. Tony’s bachelor thesis characterized the carotenoid binding proteins, the Aster protein family. His ongoing work is examining the impact of manipulating retinoic on the contractility of human stem cell-derived engineered heart tissue.

Sunayana Begum Syed
Postdoctoral Fellow

Sunayana has a rich background in molecular genetics, cloning, and aging research. She earned her Ph.D. from Osmania University, India, where her work focused on Assessment of genetic and molecular studies in children with congenital septal defects, specifically investigating folic acid metabolism genes. She later received a prestigious fellowship from the Department of Biotechnology (DBT-RA), India, to develop and synthesize potential inhibitors targeting integrin-linked kinase (ILK) through structure-based drug design. As a Visiting Research Fellow at the National Institute on Aging, she investigated the impact of long-term photobiological modulation therapy on aging in mouse models. Her research combines molecular and therapeutic approaches to address critical questions in human health and disease.