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 Hiten’ page for his Bio.
Sanjita Banerjee
sanjita[dot]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[dot]cesar[at]ucsf[dot]edu
Jr. Specialist
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.
Patrick Hecht
patrick[dot]hecht[at]ucsf[dot]edu
Jr. Specialist
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.
Lingzi (Liz) Hong
lingzi[dot]hong[at]ucsf[dot]edu
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 virulence 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.
Manning Huang
manning[dot]huang[at]ucsf[dot]edu
Specialist
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.
Leá Lortal
lea[dot]lortal[at]ucsf[dot]edu
Postdoctoral Fellow
Ph.D. Mycology
King’s College London
Léa completed her PhD in Mycology at King’s College London in the Naglik and Richardson labs, where she studied host-pathogen interactions in the fungal pathogen Candida albicans. Her work focused on candidalysin, a peptide toxin secreted by C. albicans that drives epithelial damage and immune activation. She then joined the Madhani lab at UCSF, where she studies how genetic background shapes phenotypes and evolutionary adaptation in the human fungal pathogen Cryptococcus neoformans. Using genome-wide CRISPR screens across diverse isolates, she aims to identify genes and pathways involved in thermotolerance and antifungal drug resistance. Outside the lab, Léa enjoys playing table tennis and padel, spending time with friends, and discovering new restaurants in San Francisco.
Theo Morgan
theo[dot]morgan[at]ucsf[dot]edu
Jr. Specialist
B.S. Chemical Biology
UC Berkeley
Theo joins the lab with a diverse (but very Bay-Area-centric) background, hopping from medicinal chemistry at ChEM-H to proteomics and immunology in the Zaro lab around the corner at UCSF, before finally settling on learning molecular biology and genomics here in Genentech Hall. Currently, he works on interrogating a small gene family of unknown function in C. neoformans in hopes of finding new modalities for antifungal development. He also supports Meenakshi and the rest of the lab by using proteomics to help answer questions about conserved pathways between fungi and other eukaryotes. Outside of work, Theo enjoys running, camping, playing with the SF Pride Band, and dragging his friends along to yet another drag show.
Tiantai Ma
Titantai[dot]Ma[at]ucsf[dot]edu
Postdoctoral Fellow
Ph.D. Biological Sciences
UCSD
Tiantai was born and raised in China. As an undergraduate student in Shandong University, he utilized metabolic engineering to improve xylose utilization in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. He then moved to Michigan and completed his master’s training at Umich. He focused on the structural biology of how beneficial gut bacterium Eubacterium rectale uptakes arabinoxylan from dietary fiber. He then moved to sunny California and obtained his Ph.D. degree at UCSD. Tiantai’s PhD work focused on the 3’ end processing and quality control of human small nuclear RNA (snRNA) using combined biochemistry and sequencing. After graduate school, he decided to pursue his interest in gene regulation. As a postdoc in the Madhani lab at UCSF, Tiantai is excited to reveal the mysteries behind heterochromatin inheritance using Cryptococcus neoformans as a model organism. Outside lab, Tiantai enjoys running, hiking and soccer.
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.
Veda Nayak
veda[dot]nayak[at]ucsf[dot]edu
Jr. Specialist
B.S. Biotechnology (Bioinformatics specialization), UC Davis
Veda is a Bay Area local. During undergrad, she developed an interest in understanding the mechanisms underlying biological processes with her work on uncovering features of P-Rex2 (a RhoGEF) autoinhibition and on recombinant protein expression in yeast. She is currently working with Léa using genome-wide CRISPR screening to identify unique and conserved antifungal drug resistance and thermotolerance pathways in Cryptococcus neoformans isolates. Outside the lab, Veda enjoys hiking around California, baking lots of treats, and finding new restaurants!
Nguyen Nguyen
nguyen[dot]nguyen [at] ucsf [dot] edu
Staff Research Associate
Nguyen grew up in Vietnam. She keeps the lab running!
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.