The Madhani Lab at UCSF
Hiten Madhani
hitenmadhani [at] gmail [dot] com
Professor & Vice-Chair
Dept. of Biochemistry and Biophysics
B.S./M.S. Stanford University
Ph.D. Genetics, UCSF
M.D. UCSF
Postdoctoral, Whitehead Institute/MIT
Link to CV.
See ‘about the PI’ page for his Bio.
Michael Boucher
michael.boucher[at]ucsf[dot]edu
Postdoctoral Fellow
Ph.D. Microbiology and Immunology
Stanford University
Mike was born and raised in Massachusetts and completed his undergraduate degree in Microbiology at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Here he studied how African trypanosomes, the parasites that cause African sleeping sickness, replicate their unique mitochondrial DNA, called kinetoplast DNA (kDNA). He then moved to California to pursue his Ph.D. in Microbiology & Immunology at Stanford University, where he studied how malaria parasites replicate a four-membraned nonphotosynthetic plastid called the apicoplast. As a postdoc in the Madhani lab at UCSF, Mike is using functional genomic approaches to study how the environmental yeast Cryptococcus neoformans colonizes and causes disease in mammals. Outside of the lab, Mike spends his time caring for his adopted pitbull and trying to keep up with the seemingly endless list of Bay Area restaurants to try.
Sanjita Banerjee
sanjita.banerjee [at] ucsf [dot] edu
Specialist
Ph.D. Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Pennsylvania State University
Exploring the intricate defense mechanisms employed by a host against various harmful agents, both pathogenic and non-pathogenic, has been the primary focus of Sanjita’s research. In the Madhani lab, she is particularly interested in unraveling the etiological factors of Cryptococcal meningitis by investigating the interactions between fungal effectors and different immune cell populations within the central nervous system (CNS). To achieve this goal, she is currently developing a mouse model of brain infection to gain insights into the pathways through which Cryptococcus neoformans invades, colonizes, and proliferates within the CNS.
In another project, she is working to generate a library of Cryptococcus neoformans with every ORF labeled in order to analyze the localization and expression patterns of critical genes under conditions of homeostasis as well as pathogenesis.
When not having fun with fungi, Sanjita loves to read and hike. In her free time she also likes to bake and compete with her children in completing jigsaw puzzles.
Kyle Cesar
kyle.cesar[at]ucsf[dot]edu
Staff Research Associate
B.S. Biology, San Francisco State University
Kyle works with Manning on manipulating the Cryptococcus neoformans genome using the CRISPR-Cas9 system, and with Liz to study the interactions between fungal virulence factors and host immune cells. During his undergraduate, Kyle used immunohistochemistry and confocal microscopy to investigate the role macrophages in the liver during intermittent fasting. When he is not in the lab, Kyle enjoys lifting weights and playing guitar.
Lingzi (Liz) Hong
Postdoctoral Fellow
Ph.D. Immunology, Case Western Reserve University
Liz was born and raised in China. She obtained her PhD from Case Western Reserve University, where she studied the post-transcriptional regulation of mRNAs in innate and adaptive immune signaling pathways and their implications in the pathogenesis of inflammatory diseases. After spending years in northern Ohio, she moved to UCSF hoping to bask in the delightful summer of "sunny" California. As a postdoc in the Madhani lab, Liz is investigating how virulent effectors produced by the fungal pathogen Cryptococcus neoformans modulate host innate immunity. Outside the lab, she enjoys exploring local coffee shops, hiking, and road trips.
Patrick Hecht
Staff Research Associate
B.S. Molecular Biology, Colorado College
Patrick is from the local Bay Area. During his undergraduate research experience with budding yeast, Patrick developed a passion for fundamental biological questions in epigenetics. Now assisting research in the Madhani lab, Patrick uses Cryptococcus neoformans to study epigenetic mechanisms involved in gene silencing. Outside the lab, Patrick loves riding his bike on the beautiful roads and trails around San Francisco.
Manning Huang
manning.huang[at]ucsf[dot]edu
Postdoctoral Fellow
Ph.D. Biological Sciences, Carnegie Mellon University
Manning is a postdoc whose research focuses on developing tools for high throughput genetic interaction mapping in C. neoformans to identify mechanisms for uncharacterized virulence genes, in particular genes that lack any clear in vitro growth phenotype. His graduate training with Dr. Aaron Mitchell at CMU examined the diversification of transcriptional circuits governing biofilm formation in another fungal pathogen, Candida albicans. Outside of the lab, he enjoys hiking, foraging for wild food, and fishing.
Meenakshi Belekar Joshi
meenakshi[dot]joshi[at]ucsf[dot]edu
Postdoctoral Fellow
PhD Biochemical Sciences, CSIR-NCL Pune
Meenakshi was born and raised in India. She did her PhD from National Chemical Laboratory, Pune, and did chemical genetics using the parasitic pathogen Toxoplasma gondii. During her PhD, she developed phenotypic screens to identify inhibitors of specific stages of infection by Toxoplasma gondii including host cell invasion, egress, and apicoplast segregation, and identified inhibitors that interfere with these processes. She joined Madhani lab at UCSF to study host-pathogen interaction using another pathogen, Cryptococcus neoformans, which is an environmental fungus. How this environmental yeast evolved to cause infection in humans is still unknown, and she is trying to find fungal effectors and their role in fungal pathogenicity.
When she is not working in the lab, Meenakshi likes to explore the city, enjoy making her favorite food in her kitchen, and hang out with her family and friends.
Matt Nalley
mattnalley[at]ucsf[dot]edu
Graduate Student (Tetrad Program)
B.S. Business Administration (Finance), University of Florida
Matt’s research involves utilizing CRISPR screens in the pathogenic yeast Cryptococcus neoformans to discover uncharacterized genes necessary for the mysterious mechanism of repetitive DNA recognition as well as novel components of chromatin regulation networks. Other than lab work and data analysis, Matt enjoys walking his dogs, hiking, backpacking, SCUBA diving, snowboarding, and wakeboarding. Matt feels that living and working in the Bay Area is a wonderful privilege because all the things he loves to do are practically in his backyard.
Tian Tian
Postdoctoral Fellow
Ph.D., Cell Biology, Life Sciences Institute, Zhejiang University, China
Tian grew up in China and completed her graduate training at Zhejiang University. Her Ph.D. work began with studying how SUMOylation of CTIP fine-tunes Homologous Recombination repair, and then focused on how post-translational modifications are involved in maintaining genome stability. Since then, she has developed a broad interest in chromatin activities, especially the epigenetic regulations under replication stress. As a postdoc in the Madhani lab, Tian expands her research interest in epigenetic inheritance, and is currently working on the crosstalk between establishment of DNA methylation and gene silencing in Cryptococcus neoformans.
Outside of the lab, Tian loves reading. She also likes to hike or play badminton with friends in her free time. In addition, she has a special liking for Chinese Opera, especially Yue Opera and Peking Opera.
Nguyen Nguyen
nguyen.nguyen [at] ucsf [dot] edu
Staff Research Associate
Nguyen grew up in Vietnam. She keeps the lab running!