Our Team

  • Sophia Liu

    Sophia Liu

    Principal Investigator (Bio | CV)
    sophia.liu@mgh.harvard.edu

    B.S. in Chemical-Biological Engineering, minor in Biology, MIT (2017)
    Ph.D. in Biophysics, Harvard University (2023)

    - Early Independence Fellow and Core Faculty, Ragon Institute of Mass General, MIT, and Harvard
    - BroadIgnite recipient, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard

  • Kenneth Wei

    Graduate Student
    kewei@mit.edu

    B.S. in Biological Engineering, minor in Computer Science, MIT (2023)
    Ph.D. Student in Health Sciences and Technology (HST) Medical Engineering and Medical Physics (MEMP)

    Kenneth is building approaches for host-pathogen interaction recording to measure the dynamics of cell interactions over infection. Kenneth is jointly advised by Sebastian Lourido.

  • Ally Vernich

    Research Technician
    avernich@meei.harvard.edu

    B.S. in Biology, MIT (2023)

    At MIT, Ally most recently worked on protein tagging using prime editing. In the Liu Lab, she works on the development of a spatial transcriptomics tool to study BCRs in homeostatic and disease contexts. Ally is broadly interested in immune cell profiling in human disease states and aging.

  • Kevin Chen

    Kevin Chen

    Research Technician
    bchen23@mgh.harvard.edu

    B.S. in Computer Science, B.S. in Neuroscience and Behavioral Biology, Emory University (2020)
    M.S. in Bioengineering, Stanford University (2023)

    Kevin is developing computational tools for spatial analysis, including studying B cell clonal development in the tissue context. Kevin is jointly mentored by Facundo Batista.

  • Kaitlyn Zhang

    Undergraduate Researcher
    kyz@mit.edu

    B.S. in Artificial Intelligence & Decision Making and Mathematics, MIT (2027)

    Kaitlyn is working on computational methods for spatial analysis, as well as developing host-pathogen recorders for identifying cell interactions during infection.

  • Jaewon Lee

    Postdoctoral Researcher

    B.S. in College of Science, Purdue University (2014)
    M.S./Ph.D. in Department of Biological Sciences, Sungkyunkwan University (2024)

    Jaewon is joining in January 2025!

  • Shorna Alam

    Undergraduate Researcher

    B.S. in Computer Science, MIT (2025)

Lab Alumni

Larissa Ma - 1/2023 - 1/2025 - Undergraduate Researcher. B.S. in Computational Biology and Molecular Biology, MIT (2025). Larissa worked on developing spatial methods for studying B cell receptors in tissues. She is interested in developing new technologies with applications in answering biological questions. She hopes to better understand the immune system to improve human health.

Ryan Lim - 9/2024 - 10/2024 - Rotation Student. Ph.D. Student in Medical Engineering and Medical Physics (MEMP), Harvard-MIT Health Sciences and Technology (HST) | B.S.E. in Bioengineering, Minors in Philosophy and Chemistry, University of Pennsylvania (2024).

Matthew Shum - 09/2023 - 06/2024 - Undergraduate Researcher. B.A. in Computer Science, Harvard University (2024). Matthew developed computational approaches for long-read sequencing and statistical models for time course data. He is interested in problems in high-dimensional statistics and randomized algorithms. Currently a software engineer at Citadel.

Ruth Raichur - 09/2023 - 06/2024 - Research Associate. B.S. in Biology, concentration in Genetics and Genomics, University of Texas at Austin (2022). Ruth was a Research Associate jointly with Fei Chen’s lab. At UT, she worked on testing the feasibility of a transposition-based genome-wide approach to identify the hitchhiking hotspots of the 2-micron selfish DNA element in the yeast genome. She worked on developing spatial transcriptomics tools for immune profiling over aging. She is interested in studying female reproductive health and biology. Currently a Ph.D. student at Cornell BCMB.

Jessica Shah - 10/2023 - Rotation Student. Ph.D. Student in Medical Engineering and Medical Physics (MEMP), Harvard-MIT Health Sciences and Technology (HST) | B.S.E. in Biomedical Engineering, Minor in Chemistry, Duke University (2023). Currently a Ph.D. student in Ritu Raman’s lab.

Lab Fun

We’ll try anything once!

Boxing - when you don't want a knockout to work

Boxing - when you don't want a knockout to work

Organizing samples - it's fun, trust us

Organizing samples - it's fun, trust us

Mini golf: a Hole lot of fun

Mini golf: a Hole lot of fun

Playing lotería & celebrating Hispanic heritage

Playing lotería & celebrating Hispanic heritage

Lifting each other up @ Level99

Lifting each other up @ Level99

One of our favorite (e)clips(e)

One of our favorite (e)clips(e)

Celebrating the year of the d[Ragon]!

Celebrating the year of the d[Ragon]!

It's like running a gel but just the running part

It's like running a gel but just the running part

Celebrating the new buildiing!

Celebrating the new buildiing!

An apple a day helps the scientists slay & science is a-MAZE-ing

An apple a day helps the scientists slay & science is a-MAZE-ing