Lab Member

Current Position

Chathuna Sri Anjuna Bodahandi 

(PhD Candidate)

The Graduate Center, The City University of NY, New York NY

Shakir Khan, PhD 

(Research Fellow)

Celli Lab, Department of Physics, University of Massachusetts Boston, Boston, MA

2022

Jimena Nicolas Morala  

(PhD Candidate)

Universidad Autonoma de Madrid, Madrid, Spain

2022

Demi Wekking

 (Masters Candidate)

 The University of Amsterdam, Netherlands

2020- 2023

Caroline Coradi Tonon, PhD DDS

(Preofessor)

Professor Zhaohui Zhou (pronounced like Joe), a.k.a. Sunny, received his B.S. in chemistry from Peking University, Ph.D. in bioorganic chemistry from The Scripps Research Institute under Professor Donald Hilvert (now at ETH), and did postdoctoral research in enzymology and biochemistry with Professor Rowena G. Matthews at the University of Michigan. He is an editor of the journals mAbs and Therapeutic Antibodies. Sunny’s laboratory at Northeastern University works on proteins chemistry, analysis and engineering. One program is the development of light-activated protein-based biologics via bioconjugation of proteins

Jose Quilez Alburquerque, MS

(Postdoctoral Researcher)

Jose’s previous research in the Hasan lab focused on evaluating the efficacy of ruthenium(II) complexes in cancer cells and microbes. After earning his PhD from the Complutense University of Madrid, he has returned to the Hasan Lab as a Research Fellow. 

Akilan Palanisami, PhD

Hanna now works as a 3D Imagist Specialist at ZEISS Microscopy in Seattle Washington. Hanna received her PHD from the Department of Chemistry and Molecular Biology at the University of Gothenburg, studying biophotonics

(Chemistry – PhD program)
After working for 2 years as a Research Technician at the Hasan Lab, Joseph is now a PhD student in Chemistry at Rice University, at Houston, Texas focused on peptide and supramolecular chemistry.

Xiaodong Ding, MD PhD

Assistant Professor
The University of Texas at Dallas

Girgis has over 10 years of experience in tumor targeted nanotechnology. His expertise is in molecular targeted photodynamic-based therapy with the goal of improving tumor delivery, reducing toxicity and maximizing therapeutic benefits. In addition, Dr. Obaid has focused on molecular targeted probes and nanotracers for the quantitative imaging of tumor biomolecules to guide nanoconstruct engineering, treatment design and image guided surgery. His research  focuses on using photonically-activatable nanoconstructs as a means for regulating drug delivery, treatment regimen design, and spatio-temporal induction of cancer therapy.

(PhD Candidate)
The Islamia University, Pakistan

MSAT Senior Specialist at Alexion, Dublin Ireland. After graduating from Trinity College Dublin in 2016 with an Honours degree in Chemistry and in 2020 with a PhD in Organic Chemistry, Susan worked as a visiting researcher at Norwegian University of Science and Technology. Her work at the Hasan Lab included performing invitro and in vivo experiments and biological assays using photodynamic tools. In her current role, she develops process unit operations including chromatography and TFF.

After working as a Research Technician at the Hasan Lab, Marvin is now a PhD Candidate at Tufts University.

Michael Pigula

(PhD Candidate)
After attending Boston College for his BS degree, Michael worked at the Hasan Lab as a Research Technician. Now a part of the Schultz Lab at Scripps Research, he is pursuing his PhD.

Tufts University. A frequent collaborator with the Hasan Lab, Valli is now an Assistant professor at Tufts and runs her own lab there (the integrated Biofunctional and Therapeutics Laboratory or iBIT). Her research focuses on utilizing non-invasive acoustic and optical imaging techniques with nanomaterials and biological models to understand the structural, functional, molecular and biomechanical heterogeneity of pathologies such as cancer. She was a Research Fellow and Assistant Professor at the Hasan Lab.

Shubhankar Nath, DVM, PhD

Shubhankar is a Senior Scientist at Sensei Bio. His specialties are D Organoids and Characterization • CDX and PDX Tumor Models • PDX Organoid Model for Drug-screening • FACS • RNAi-lentivirus • MSD • High-content imaging • Cell Painting • 3D Image Analysis & Rendering • CRISPR

(Assistant Professor)
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

Jerrin Kuriakose, PhD

Scientist, Patent Agent, Consultant

Now studying in Northeastern University Boston, MA

(Assistant Professor)
University of Maryland

Huang Chiao Huang is an Assistant Professor in the Fischell Department of Bioengineering at the University of Maryland. He is also the Newsletter Editor for International Photodynamic Association and American Society for Photobiology. Dr. Huang attended graduate school at the Arizona State University and completed his Ph.D. training in Chemical Engineering with Professor Kaushal Rege in 2012. He then joined the Wellman Center for Photomedicine (MGH/Harvard Medical School, Boston) as a Postdoctoral Fellow to begin photodynamic therapy (PDT) research with Professor Tayyaba Hasan. In January 2018, Huang Chiao established his lab at the University of Maryland. His research focuses on the development and clinical translation of photochemistry-based platform technology for treatment and diagnosis of disease, optical sensing, and tissue engineering. Huang Chiao’s research efforts have been recognized by several awards such as the Tosteson & Fund for Medical Discovery Fellowship and the NIH Pathway to Independence Award.

Currently Joe is also collaborating with the Hasan Lab as well.

Yan Baglo, PhD

(Postdoctoral Researcher) 

Yan Baglo received her Ph.D. in Molecular Medicine from Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU, Trondheim) in 2014. Her Ph.D. research focused on photodynamic therapy and photochemical internalization in bladder cancer and was supported by Central Norway Regional Health Authority since 2011. In 2015, Dr. Baglo further secured a two-year Postdoc Research Fellowship from the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences at NTNU and joined Professor Tayyaba Hasan’s laboratory as a research fellow at Wellman Center for Photomedicine (MGH/Harvard Medical School, Boston).  Her research involved in imaging-based combination strategies for optimal photodynamic therapy in cancers, and nanotechnology-enabled photosensitizer delivery. Dr. Baglo continued her postdoctoral training at Wellman under mentorship of Assistant Professor Tianhong Dai, conducting antimicrobial blue light research, prior to joining UMD in 2018.

Mans Broekgaarden, PhD

(ERC Starting Grant project leader)

at INSERM, Grenoble, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, France.

Mans is Passionate about using my experience in molecular cell biology, experimental oncology, and biophotonics to contribute to the bench-to-bedside translation of novel nanoscale therapeutics for patients with difficult-to-treat cancers.

Ahmed Alkhateeb, PhD

Director, Oncology External Innovation at Sanofi, MA

(Attending Physician)
Shanghai Skin Disease Hospital, China

Rehab Amin, PhD

(Assistant Professor)
National Institute of Laser Enhanced Science (NILES) Cairo University, Egypt

Rehab Amin is the Co-Founder of Nano Gate, a Cairo-based nanotechnology startup company. She is a Professor of nanobiophotonics at Egypt’s National Institute of Laser Enhanced Sciences (NILES) at Cairo University, where her academic interests include nanotechnology, microbiology, biotechnology, and biosafety and biosecurity. She earned a Ph.D. from NILES in biomedical applications of laser technology and was a Fulbright visiting scholar at Harvard University. Dr. Amin is an advisor for PandemicTech (Austin, Texas, USA), a virtual technology incubator that supports innovators and innovations confronting pandemic infectious disease threats.

Kohei Watanabe, PhD

Chun-Te (Patrick) Chiang, PhD

Sultan Sibel Erdem, PhD

Ruth Goldschmidt, PhD

Toshihiro Kushibiki, PhD