Photo credit: Will Kirk
Dr. Anthony K. L. Leung is an expert in the area of gene regulation—specifically RNA, ADP-ribosylation and proteomics.
Anthony completed his undergraduate at the University of Oxford, earned his Ph.D. from the University of Dundee under the mentorship of Dr. Angus I. Lamond, and mentored by Nobel Laureate Dr. Phillip A. Sharp and Dr. Paul Chang at MIT for his postdoctoral training.
In 2011, Anthony started his lab and has risen the rank to Professor with tenure at Johns Hopkins University. He has been recognized with Top 5 Agilent Early Career Professor (2013), the Inaugural Johns Hopkins Catalyst Award (2015), Research Scholar Award from the American Cancer Society (2016), Top 10 Finalist for the American Society of Cell Biology–Gibco Emerging Leader Prize (2016), and the Shikani/El-Hibri Prize for Discovery & Innovation (2019). Other accolades and professional experiences are detailed in his CV.
Anthony is always excited to discuss new technology developments and discover new biology on RNA and ADP-ribosylation.
Core Team
Aravinthkumar Jayabalan, Ph.D.
Research Associate
Aravinth is from India, received his Ph.D. from Chosun University, South Korea, and then joined Leung lab in 2016. His research focuses on understanding the basic principles of stress granule assembly and its implications in disease states, with a particular interest in viral infection. He enjoys cooking, playing cricket, and hiking in his free time.
Awards: Co-awardee, Fisher Center Discovery Program Pilot Grant (2018), Winner in Research Scientist/Postdoctoral Fellow Category, Research Photo Context, Johns Hopkins University (2018), Winner, GE Healthcare Cell Image Contest (2018), Best Poster Award, Annual BMB retreat (2019), Sharon Krag Award for Leadership (2020), Forbeck Scholar Award (2021) | LinkedIn
Morgan Dasovich, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Fellow
Morgan hails from the midwest and when not in lab can be found running long distances and drinking beer, but probably not at the same time. He uses his background in chemistry and physics to think about biological problems like an engineer, which has been facilitated by his PhD co-advisor in the chemistry department, Marc Greenberg. He recently graduated on October 2022 and will continue with a short stint of postdoc here. He likes working in the Leung lab because we are free to pursue what we are interested in, and can ask basic, fundamental questions that have therapeutic relevance.
Awards: Elsa Orent Keiles Fellowship in Biochemistry (2020), Roger McMacken Scholarship (2020) | LinkedIn
Shang-Jung Cheng
Ph.D. Candidate, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
After completing her bachelor and master’s programs at the National University of Taiwan, Shang-Jung continues her graduate work in the United States. Her current research focuses on how PAR modulating the assembly of stress granules and their relevance to neurodegeneration/cancer using microscopy and biochemical approaches. She is eager to explore new methods to add different perspectives to her work, including gene-editing by CRISPR. Shang-Jung’s love of benchwork even extends to her kitchen, where she experiments with newly acquired techniques and combinations of flavors. One quality that she cherishes of the Leung Lab is a cohort of supportive and entertaining colleagues, whose input further piques her intellectual curiosity in her fields of interest and beyond, while adding small joys that enrich her life as a Ph.D. student.
Awards: Ministry of Education Scholarship, Taiwan (2019–2021), Crawford Award (2021) | LinkedIn
Isabel Uribe
Ph.D. Candidate, Chemistry–Biology Interface
Isabel is a Mexican-American born and raised in Philadelphia, and in her free time she enjoys baking, salsa dancing, and snuggling with her cat Stella. With her background in chemistry from U Pitt, she takes an analytical approach to study biological questions with public health relevance. She enjoys working in the Leung lab because it provides an educational environment — being surrounded by diverse scientific expertise and getting to learn about her colleagues cultures’ while sharing her own.
Honor: Honorable Mention, NSF Graduate Research Fellowship (2020)
Awards: Journal of Cell Science Travelling Fellowship (2020), Elsa Orent Keiles Fellowship in Biochemistry (2021), Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award Individual Predoctoral Fellowship (F31), NIGMS, NIH (2021–2023)
Hongrui Liu
Ph.D. Candidate, XDBio
Hongrui hails from a beautiful city named Dalian on the northeastern coast of China and received his Bachelor’s degree in biology from Tsinghua University. He is a crazy fan of tennis and heavy water drinker who spends much of his free time smacking tennis balls and watching tournaments. He also enjoys watching YouTube with his iPad Air in his comfy bed. Hongrui joined the Leung lab at the end of the summer in 2021, attracted to the friendly and collaborative environment of the lab created by the dedicated PI and the optimistic lab members. He is focusing on dissecting the roles of cellular ADP-ribose in stress conditions particularly viral infection, as well as trying to incorporate some interesting and promising techniques to this field.
Award: XDBio Program Fellowship (2020–2025) | LinkedIn
Hien Vu
Lab Manager
Hien was born and raised in Vietnam, with a background in biotechnology and food chemistry and years of experience in different food chemistry and biology labs. Her research works in the Leung lab focus on macrodomain and lab operation. In her time away from the lab, she enjoys cooking, reading (audio books), and spending time with her family. Her family time includes exploring different state parks in the summer, snow sledging in the winter, and playing card games and board games.
Rachy Abraham, Ph.D.
Assistant Scientist
Rachy comes from the southern Indian state of Kerala. She received her PhD for her work on the Chikungunya virus, from the Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Biotechnology. She then moved to the U.S. for her postdoctoral fellowship, where she was mentored by neuro-virologist Dr. Diane Griffin, University Distinguished Professor at Hopkins. In collaboration with Dr. Leung’s team, Rachy explored the role of viral macrodomains in viral replication. Rachy is now an Assistant Scientist at Dr. Leung’s lab and continuing her research in viral macrodomains. Rachy enjoys traveling and exploring new places, watching movies and baking cakes with her little one.
Banhi Biswas, Ph.D.
Research Associate
Banhi is born and raised in India. She got her Ph.D. from India Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi, India where she studied unusual DNA secondary structures in viruses. She came to the United States as a postdoctoral fellow at the National Cancer Institute, Frederick, and worked on reverse transcription and packaging in Retroviruses. She joined the Leung lab in August 2022 where she will be working on the macrodomain project. She loves working in the Leung lab because it is scientifically diverse and people from different scientific backgrounds coexist in harmony. Apart from viruses, mushrooms also amuse her. She loves photographing and identifying mushrooms. She also enjoys traveling to National Parks and exploring different cuisines.
Rameez Raja, Ph.D.
Research Associate
Rameez is originated from Kashmir Valley, a beautiful place located in the Northern India. His PhD focuses on HIV-1 biology and his postdoc on immune regulation in viral infection. He is working on macrodomain project. He likes playing and watching sports, preferably cricket, as well as watching movies. He finds the Leung lab very friendly and resourceful. “Scientific research and ideas are discussed and supported which makes it a great lab!!!”
Meenakshi Pillai, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Fellow
Meenakshi was born and raised in India. She graduated with a Ph.D. from AcSIR- National Chemical Laboratory, focusing on studying the protein conformational states in neurodegenerative diseases. She is trained as a biophysicist and would explore single molecule research to investigate the role of FUS-PAR conformation in the disease context in Leung lab. She joined Leung Lab in Feb 2023 as a Postdoctoral fellow as she was attracted to a highly collaborative work environment. When not in the lab, she loves watching movies, dancing, traveling, and exploring new places!
Maranda McDonald
Ph.D Student, Chemistry-Biology Interface
Maranda is from San Diego, California and received her Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry from Texas State University. She loves the outdoors, and enjoys running, biking, and camping in her free time. Her research focuses on noncovalent interactions between PAR and proteins at both the single-molecular and proteomic level. Maranda strives to discover more about the physical properties of PAR and how they relate to biomolecular condensates implicated in neurodegeneration. She enjoys the Leung Lab for the team-based research approach and the freedom to use a wide range of techniques.
Raymond Cai
ScM Student, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Raymond comes from Nanjing, a prominent city nestled beside the Yangtze River in the southeast quadrant of China. He obtained his Bachelor’s degree in biochemistry at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Outside the laboratory, he spends his leisure time conquering high-difficulty video games and editing his highlights. He is also a huge basketball fan and devotes much of his free time to watching NBA games. Currently, Raymond’s research efforts focus on dissecting the intricate molecular mechanism behind PAR-induced FUS condensation. As a newcomer just beginning to engage in scientific research, Raymond loves the friendly members and enjoys the collaborative milieu here in Leung lab.
Alumni
Hanyu (Ivy) Zhong, M.S.
ScM graduate (2022-2023)
Research Technician, Massachusetts General Hospital with Dr. Alexander Marneros
Mohsen Badiee, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Fellow (2018-2022)
Staff Scientist, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Awards: NCI T32 postdoctoral fellowship (2018–2020), Scholarship to attend the Center for the Physics of Living Cells Summer School at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (2019)
Minghui Xu
ScM graduate (2021-2022)
Associate Scientist, Proteologix, The Bay Area
Veronica Busa, Ph.D.
Ph.D. graduate (2018-2022)
Teaching Postdoctoral Fellow, with Elana Fertig in the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins
Awards: Co-awardee, Core Coin Pilot grant from Experimental and Computational Core, Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins (2018), PhRMA Foundation (Informatics) Pre-doctoral Fellowship (2019–2021)
Junlin Zhuo
ScM graduate (2019-2020)
Ph.D. student, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine
Jack Goodman
ScM graduate (2019–2020)
MD student, Quinnipiac University
Joe Fischer, Ph.D.
Ph.D. graduate (2015–2019)
Senior Scientist, AstraZeneca
Awards: Poster Award, 2nd place, 2018 Genetics Research Day Poster Competition from the Maryland Genetics, Epidemiology and Medicine Training Program (2018), Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award Individual Predoctoral Fellowship (F31), NIGMS, NIH (2018–2019), Best Talk Award, Annual BMB Retreat (2018), Co-awardee, Core Coin Pilot grant from Experimental and Computational Core, Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins (2018), ORISE fellowship at FDA (2019–2021)
Lyle McPherson, Ph.D.
Ph.D. graduate (2015–2019)
Helen Hay Whitney Fellow, MIT with Dr. Laura Kiessling
Awards: Journal of Cell Science Travelling Fellowship (2015), Elsa Orent Keiles Fellowship in Biochemistry (2017), Best Talk Award, Annual BMB Retreat (2017), Best Poster Award, PARP2017, 20th International Conference on ADP-ribosylation (2017), Co-awardee, 2017 Proteomics Core Coins, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine (2017), Best Poster Award, Annual BMB Retreat (2018), Helen Hay Whitney Fellowship (2021-2024)
Christina Vivelo, Ph.D.
Ph.D. graduate (2013–2018)
Communication Specialist, NCI
Award: The Spirit of Student Assembly Award
Yoshinari Ando, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Fellow (2011–2017)
Administrator, RIKEN Institute, Japan
Awards: Travel Grant Award to attend 36th Annual Meeting of the Molecular Biology Society of Japan (2013), Traveling Fellowship, 20th Annual Meeting, RNA Society (2015)
Casey Daniels, Ph.D.
Ph.D. graduate (2011–2015)
Senior Scientist, AstraZeneca
Awards: Journal of Cell Science Travelling Fellowship (2012), Scholarship to attend Proteomics Course in Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (2013), Elsa Orent Keiles Fellowship in Biochemistry (2014), Joy Cappel Young Investigator Award from the Rockland Immunochemicals Inc. (2014), John Scocca Achievement Award (2016)
Ryan Weltzer
ScM graduate (2012–2013)
Clinical Research Coordinator II, University of Arizona