Current members
Richard Nelson Hall

Graduate Student (joined @ 06/2017)
Bioengineering
NSF GRFP Fellow
joint with Andy Fire
B.S. in Biological Engineering, MIT
rnhall@stanford.edu
Dania Nanes Sarfati

Graduate Student (joined @ 05/2018)
Biology
Bio-X Bowes Graduate Student Fellowship
B.S. in Biology, National Autonomous University of Mexico
danians@stanford.edu
Livia Wyss

Graduate Student (joined @ 05/2019)
Biology
NSF GRFP Fellow
NIH Cell and Molecular Biology Training Program
B.S. in Neuroscience, Trinity College
lwyss@stanford.edu
Prateek Kalakuntla

Graduate Student (joined @ 07/2022)
Developmental Biology
Stanford Graduate Fellow (SGF)
NSF GRFP Fellow
B.S. in Bioengineering & Computer Science, MIT
prateekk@stanford.edu
Sidney Vermeulen

Graduate Student (joined @ 06/2023)
Genetics
B.S. in Biological Engineering & Computer Science, MIT
M.E. in Computer Science, MIT
sidneyv@stanford.edu
Abegail Bigasin

Life science research professional (joined @ 09/2021)
B.S. in Biology, UCSD
abigasin@stanford.edu
Shinji Tashiro

Visiting Scholar (joined @ 09/2023)
B.E. & M.E. in Mechanical Engineering, University of Tokyo, Japan
Bo Wang

Assistant Professor
Department of Bioengineering
Office: Shriram 084
wangbo@stanford.edu
(Don't click)
Former members

Alexander J. Tarashansky (current position)
PhD of Bioengineering, 02/2016-06/2021

Samuel R. Bray (current position)
PhD of Bioengineering, 06/2017-12/2022
Colin Kalicki, Coterm student (01/2021-08/2023). Colin worked to identify unannotated noncoding transcriptional active regions in the planarian genome using single-cell RNAseq data. His interests in bioinformatics continues as a Ph.D. student in Systems Biology at Columbia University.
Xi Yu, MS student (10/2018-05/2020). Xi worked on a RNAi screen to identify regulators of germline development in schistosomes. Her next station is Mayo Clinic, to pursue her Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering and Physiology.
Huiying Yang, Research associate (01/2016-07/2016). Huiying set up the lab routine of our schistosome work, and got our first set of experiments up and running. She is currently a pharmacologist and clinical researcher at Huashan Hospital, Fudan University, China.
Rotations
Yixin Wang, Bioengineering (09/2022-12/2022). Yixin worked to integrate transformer language models into cross-species cell type mapping.
Maya Sheth, Bioengineering (06/2022-09/2022). Maya studied the function of distal wound responses in the planarian regeneration.
Macy Vollbrecht, Biology (04/2022-06/2022). Macy used SAMap to compare chicken and human heart cell types. She went on to join Dominique Bergmann's lab.
Junqin Zhu, Biology (01/2021-04/2021). Jun analyzed the stem cell populations in the acoel worm, Convolutriloba longifissura.
Sophie Walton, Biophysics (01/2021-03/2021). Sophie worked on mRNA transfection of planarian cells. She joined Dmitri Petrov's lab to study microbial evolution.
Soham Sinha, Bioengineering (01/2021-03/2021). Soham built an instrument, 'worm cannon', to cut and collect planarian tissues with microscale precision. He joined Mark Skylar-Scott's lab to pursue his PhD on 3D printing techniques.
Jordan Xiao, Biophysics (09/2019-12/2019). Jordan worked on implementing single-cell ATACseq on schistosome cells in order to understand wound induced chromatin remodeling. Jordan joined Jan Skotheim's lab to study cell cycle control in yeast.
Jiawei Sun, Bioengineering (09/2019-12/2019). Jiawei's work aimed to develop an unsupervised algorithm for transcriptomic cell type atlas analysis. He went on to work with KC Huang for his PhD.
Sasha Zemsky, Biophysics (01/2018-03/2018). Sasha combined experiments and theory to understand the control mechanisms of cellular homeostatic dynamics in planarians. Sasha joined Zev Bryant's lab for her thesis research.
Ellie Flaum, Biophysics (01/2018-03/2018). Ellie explored super-resolution imaging methods to characterize nuclear architecture in planarians. She went on to join Manu Prakash's lab.
Pam Rios Coronado, Biology (09/2017-12/2017). Pam characterized gene expression patterns in the schistosome germline. She joined Kristy Red-Horse's lab to work on heart development.
Pranav Vyas, Bioengineering (09/2017-12/2017). Pranav's work with us focused on the remodeling of planarian gut during growth and degrowth. Pranav went on to join Manu Prakash working on a variety of marine organisms.
Paul Bump, Biology (10/2016-03/2017). Paul's work was to purify the planarian immune cells. Paul went on rotating with Irv Weissman to work on tunicates, and joined Chris Lowe to work on hemichordates for his PhD.
Trisha Chong, Developmental Biology (09/2016-12/2016). Using functional genomic analysis, Trisha compared the molecular wounding responses between regenerative and non-regenerative flatworms. Trisha went on to join Lucy Shapiro's lab for her thesis research.
Yuan (Soso) Xue, Bioengineering (09/2015-03/2016). As the first student, Soso declared open the lab at the 2016 Shriram new lab welcome party. During his time with us, he searched for a "first principle project" that defines life by experimenting many different things on the planarian. Soso joined Steve Quake's lab for his thesis research.
Undergrads
Catherine Rogers (06/2019-08/2019). Through the BIOE REU program, Cat worked with Dania on the planarian goblet cells.
Eric Liu (06/2018-08/2018). Eric worked with Nelson on transgene expression in planarian cells, through the BIOE REU program.
Xóchitl Longstaff (10/2017-08/2018). Xóchitl worked on a variety of projects from schistosomes to auxotrophic bacterial communities. Her work was supported by Bio-X USRP, and she co-authored a paper with us (Adv Healthc Mater, 2018).
Eva Frankel (06/2017-12/2017). Through the BIOE REU program, Eva worked with Margarita to characterize gene functions in the planarian immune-like cells. She presented her first poster at the Bioengineering REU poster fair.
Taylor Chavez (01/2017-08/2017). Through the BIOE REU program, Taylor worked with Youngbin to characterize the phototaxis of planarians.