Lab Members

Daman received her Ph.D. from the Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India. She studies the mechanism of repeat expansion mediated silencing that is seen in many Repeat Expansion Diseases with a focus on the FMR1 gene silencing that is responsible for fragile X syndrome.

Dr. Zhao received her Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2010 and joined the Usdin lab the same year. She has been using mouse models to investigate the role of DNA repair proteins in repeat instability in the Fragile X-related disorders. Currently, she is working on preclinical gene therapy studies targeting somatic instability in the mouse models of Fragile X-related disorder and Huntington’s diseases.

Bruce received his Ph.D. in Molecular Genetics from Glasgow University. Prior to joining the Usdin Laboratory his research interests have included the evolutionary history of LINE elements and the characterization of imprinted genes. He is studying genetic factors that influence repeat expansion using a mouse embryonic stem cell model and is involved in the search for previously unknown repeat expansion diseases and the development of diagnostic assays for them.

Carson received his Ph.D. from Yale University in 2012 and joined the Usdin lab in 2018. His research focuses on the molecular mechanism that drives repeat expansion in the repeat expansion diseases using CRISPR and other molecular genetics tools to study the process in a mouse embryonic stem cell model of the Fragile X-related Disorders.

Diego graduated with a B.A. from Cornell University, NY, USA in 2021 and joined the Usdin lab in June of that year. He has been directing his research efforts to unraveling the mechanism driving expansion in the Repeat Expansion Disorders (REDs)—such as Huntington’s Disease and the FMR1-related disorders.