The Wainger Lab

Christine Marques, PhD

Instructor

After graduating with a degree in biotechnology engineering at Polytech Marseille, Christine completed her PhD in Neuroscience under the mentorship of Dr. Caroline Rouaux (INSERM U1118) at the University of Strasbourg. During her PhD, Christine deciphered the molecular mechanisms that selectively trigger CSMN dysfunction and degeneration during the course of ALS and improved characterization of the cortical pathology in this disease. She developed a protocol that allowed, for the first time, the transcriptomic analyses of pure populations of CSMN isolated from the cerebral cortex of adult wild type and Sod1G86R mice at different stages of the disease.

In July 2018, Christine joined the Wainger lab, where she is interested in applying stem cell biology to better understand the cellular and molecular mechanisms of protein spread involved in ALS. Christine received the Milton Safenowitz Postdoctoral Fellowship from the ALS Association in 2019.

Aaron Held, PhD

Instructor

Aaron completed his BA and MA degrees at Boston University and his Ph.D at Brown University with Dr. Kristi Wharton and Dr. Diane Lipscombe. His graduate work found a contribution of non-motor neurons to motor circuit dysfunction in a Drosophila model of ALS, and identified BMP signaling as a modifier of neurodegeneration in the same model.

Aaron joined the Wainger lab in December 2018 and is interested in using hiPSCs to study altered neuronal activity in ALS. The NIH named Aaron a Postdoctoral Individual National Research Service Award (F32) recipient in 2020.

Ben Johnston, MD, PhD

Post-Doctoral Fellow

Ben completed his BA at Hamilton college, PhD at UT Arlington & UT Southwestern Medical Center, and MD at Brown University. His dissertation was on long-gap peripheral nerve injuries and neuroma pain. Ben joined the Wainger lab in August, 2021 and is interested in using hiPSCs/SMNs to preserve muscle function after SCI, and gene therapies to limit chronic pain development. He is a neurosurgery resident at Brigham & Women’s Hospital. Ben’s work is supported by the 2021-22 NREF Research Fellowship Grant and the 2022-2023 David Borsook Project.

Courtney Bannerman, PhD

Post-Doctoral Fellow

Courtney completed her BSc and PhD at Queen's University in Canada. During her PhD, she investigated the role of the gut microbiome on pain and neuroinflammation after spinal cord injury, as well as the circadian rhythm of thermal nociception. 

Courtney joined the Wainger lab in March 2024 and is interested in using gene therapy as a therapeutic for chronic pain.

Lucia Capano, PhD

Post-Doctoral Fellow

Lucia completed her undergrad degrees from Brandeis University and her PhD from Washington University in St Louis with Dr. Andrew Yoo. For her thesis, she defined microRNA-mediated direct reprogramming of human skin cells to neurons as a model of tauopathies. Lucia joined the Wainger lab in 2023 and will use the same transdifferentiation method to model ALS.

Sanghun Lee, PhD

Instructor

Sanghun is an Instructor in Neurology at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School. He received his Ph.D. in Medicine (Physiology) from Seoul National University College of Medicine in South Korea. He has a specialty in electrophysiology and made unique contributions by employing his expertise in neurophysiology to uncover synaptic dysfunction in the hippocampal circuits using various mouse models of Alzheimer's disease. Sanghun joined the Wainger lab in June 2023 and is interested in ion channels regulation for chronic pain as well as synaptic dysfunction in ALS and FTD.

Sid Kavuturu

Research Assistant

Sid joined the Wainger Lab in May 2021 after graduating from Johns Hopkins University with a bachelor's degree in Neuroscience.

Sharon Powley

Research Assistant

Sharon joined the Wainger Lab in July 2022 after graduating from Princeton University with a bachelor’s degree in Neuroscience and a certificate in Cognitive Science.

Lauren Sun

Research Assistant

Lauren joined the Wainger lab in August 2022 after graduating from Wellesley College with a bachelor’s degree in Anthropology and Neuroscience.

Martha Yates

Research Assistant

Martha joined the Wainger lab in August 2022 after graduating from Stanford with a bachelor’s degree in Human Biology and a minor in East Asian Studies.

Pramith Senaratne

Research Assistant

Pramith joined the Wainger Lab in July 2023 after graduating with a bachelors in Neuroscience and a minor in History of Medicine and Health

Adina Mistry

Research Assistant

Adina joined the Wainger lab in July 2023 after graduating from Cornell University with a bachelor’s degree in Biological Sciences concentrating in Neurobiology and Behavior and a minor in History.

Genevieve Anex

Research Assistant

Genevieve joined the Wainger Lab in July 2023 after graduating from Macalester College with a bachelor’s degree in Biology and a minor in Neuroscience.

Abegale McDermott

Research Assistant

Abegale joined the Wainger Lab in January 2024 after graduating from Cornell University with a bachelor's degree in Biological Sciences concentrating in Computational Biology and a minor in Spanish.