Dr. Manoj Bhasin is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics and Biomedical Informatics at Emory School of Medicine. He also holds the position of Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and is an Associate Member of the Benson Henry Institute for Mind-Body Medicine. In addition, he serves as the Director of Genomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics, and Systems Biology at Children Healthcare of Atlanta, as well as the Aflac Director of the Single Cell Biology Program at Children Healthcare of Atlanta.
Dr. Bhasin is also the co-Director of the Atlanta Initiative for Single Cell Omics and Analytics, a collaborative effort involving Emory School of Medicine, Georgia Tech, and Morehouse School of Medicine. His primary focus is on the application and development of innovative analytical strategies for high-throughput transcriptional profiling, epigenomics, genotyping, proteomics, and metabolomics data. These approaches aim to enhance the molecular understanding of diseases and to identify new diagnostic, prognostic, and therapeutic biomarkers in relation to cancer and diabetes.
Additionally, Dr. Bhasin's team is actively involved in the development of novel AI-based approaches for personalized cancer treatment, utilizing multidimensional data. He is at the forefront of developing computational methodologies for the systems-level integrative analysis of imaging, clinical, and single cell genome-level data. These efforts aim to identify key features that drive diseases and provide valuable insights for improved disease management.
Assistant Professor of Pediatrics Emory School of Medicine, A major focus of my research is to understand the tumor compositional landscape. I am interested in studying the dynamics between different cell types within the tumor microenvironment. I am using single cell transcriptome analysis to characterize the expression profiles of individual cells and delve into the molecular pathways that drive these tumors.
Recent developments in cell capturing and sequencing technologies allow us to profile thousands of individual cells and study their transcriptional profiles in great detail. We are isolating single cells from primary tumors and simultaneously studying their transcriptomes and cell surface protein expression profiles to look for new molecular targets/pathways for therapeutic intervention.
Mojtaba Bakhtiari leads both in vitro and in vivo experiments within the Bhasin Lab to further analyze genes that emerge from the lab’s single-cell analyses. He also engages in conducting omics experiments, particularly those that encompass single cell RNA sequencing and Spatial Visium assays. He is actively involved in many projects in the lab, including Diabetic Foot Ulcers, Multiple Myeloma, Pediatric Leukemias, Brain Tumors, and more.
Denis is a MD/PhD student in the lab pursuing a doctorate in Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory. His primary project applies machine learning methods to single-cell RNA sequencing datasets to differentiate Acute Myeloid Leukemia cells from non-malignant immune cells and identify transcriptomic changes amenable to established therapeutics. His future projects intend to examine intra-patient tumor heterogeneity and its consequences for treatment response. Outside of the lab he enjoys playing with his dogs, video games, board games, and rock climbing.
Katie is a 1st year PhD student at Georgia Tech in the Medical College of Georgia MD/PhD program. Her primary research interests revolve around single-cell transcriptomics and immunology. In her free time, she likes to train for / run in cross country races and spend time with her family, friends, and cat.
My research involves the computational analysis of single-cell RNA sequencing data across a variety of tissue type and conditions with my primary work focusing on the immune microenvironment of Multiple Myeloma patients.
Sarthak is an Emory CSI PhD student from Kolkata, India. His research interests are in the predictive modeling approaches to single cell sequencing data. He is working in development of a deep learning-based model to classify plasma from multiple myeloma and its precursor stages into malignant and malignant cells using single-cell profiles of plasma cells. Sarthak is actively involved in multiple collaborative projects with the pediatric brain cancer, multiple myeloma research foundation (MMRF) and other teams. Outside the lab, Sarthak enjoys cooking, biking and swimming. Prior to joining Emory, Sarthak graduated from the BS-MS program in University of Hyderabad, India majoring in Systems Biology.
Hope is from Dacula, Georgia and graduated from Georgia Tech with a BSc in Biomedical Engineering in 2020. She is currently a third year PhD student in Computer Science and Informatics/Biomedical Informatics at Emory. Her research is in single-cell RNA sequencing and cancer informatics, and she enjoys spending time with her family/friends, playing golf/tennis, and playing video games.
Marina is a Cancer Biology PhD student from Emory University interested in the development and application of computational tools to biomedical research. Her research in the lab primarily centers on the development and application of single-cell and spatial transcriptomic tools to investigate vascular biology and cancer. When she is not at her computer, Marina enjoys spending time outdoors hiking, kayaking, climbing, camping, and playing golf or tennis.
Yara Beyh is a PhD candidate in Nutrition and Health Sciences at Emory University Rollins School of Public Health. Her research investigates the exposure to environmental and epidemiologic risk factors during childhood on the development of diabetes in low and middle-income countries.
Using artificial intelligence, single-cell RNA sequencing, and the cell-chat method, Yara’s research leverages the latest technology and investigative tools to understand how cells communicate with one another in the process of developing diabetes at a young age.
Yara also contributes to the ongoing work at the Emory Global Diabetes Research Center and Bhasin lab in diabetes, cancer, and transcriptomics.
Min Huang is a third-year PhD student in the Biomedical Informatics program at Emory University. Her research interests involve constructing and leveraging machine learning models in the context of bulk and single-cell RNA sequencing data. In her free time, she likes watching live performances or musicals in the theatre. She also likes to go hiking and explore the great outdoors.
Juhye Yim is a second-year PhD student in the Cancer Biology program at Emory University. She is originally from South Korea, and she completed her undergraduate degree in Fredonia, New York. She is interested in understanding how drugs impact the tumor microenvironment in pediatric cancers. In her free time, she likes running, climbing, baking, and doing yoga.
Dahim is pursuing a doctorate in biomedical engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory. She is mainly working on analyzing Single-Cell RNA sequencing data from patients with diabetic foot ulcers to find prognostic biomarkers for wound healing. Currently, she is analyzing scRNA-Seq data from debrided DFUs and contributing to the development of diabetic foot ulcer monitoring platform driven by AI.
Seibi is a 2nd year PhD student at Emory University in the Department of Biomedical Informatics. He is a registered physical therapist, and is interested in researching the molecular dynamics and complications of critical illness using multi-omics and clinical epidemiology. In his free time, he enjoys riding on his bicycle and visiting museums.
Sean is currently a first-year PhD student in the Biomedical Informatics program at Emory University and is originally from Columbia, Maryland. His work involves analyzing transcriptional heterogeneity across various cytogenetic subtypes of pediatric Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML) as well as analyzing differences in treatment response to AML across different races and sexes. His hobbies include hiking, playing video games, and just lounging around.
Chenbin Huang is currently a PhD student in the Bhasin Lab at Emory University. Before that, he obtained an M.S. in Computer Science-Biomedical informatics at Emory University and his B.S. in Computer Science at ShanghaiTech University. With interest and extensive training in bioinformatics, his expertise lies in sequencing data analysis, software engineering, machine learning, and deep learning. Currently, Chenbin's research focuses on the analysis of single-cell RNAseq data, specifically exploring the role of long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) in diabetic foot ulcer healing. Additionally, he is also working on T-cell receptor (TCR) repertoire analysis to investigate immune responses following immunotherapy. With his passion for advancing knowledge in these areas, Chenbin strives to make significant contributions to the field of bioinformatics and its applications in biomedical research.
Siddhartha Mantrala is a first-year PhD student in the Computer Science and Informatics program at Emory University who is originally from Hyderabad, India. His interests lie primarily in biomedical image analysis. In his free time, he likes to play and watch football, do photography, and cook. He is also learning how to play the ukulele.
Lisa Staimez is an Assistant Professor at Emory University in the Hubert Department of Global Health, part of the Rollins School of Public Health. She grew up in the southwestern United States, and in her free time she likes to hike, go on nature walks, listen to music, and go to dinner parties. As a faculty member in the Emory Global Diabetes Research Center, she integrates epidemiology, diabetes pathophysiology, nutritional sciences, and laboratory sciences to examine the early stage mechanisms of type 2 diabetes. Her goals are to leverage mechanisms to identify new prevention strategies that can reduce health disparities in diabetes treatment.
Frank Chien is a Junior Faculty and Senior Associate of Pediatric Hematology and Oncology at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta. He was born and raised in Seattle, Washington, and attended Swarthmore College for his undergraduate education and Thomas Jefferson University for medical school. He did a residency at the Inova Children’s Hospital in Falls Church, Virginia, and then did a fellowship at the Emory University School of Medicine and Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta. His current research interests revolve around investigating pre-clinical... I don't even know how to word it. In his free time, he loves playing the ukulele and gaming on his Nintendo Switch.
Lokesh is an entering BioInformatics Masters student at the Georgia Institute of Technology. He is actively working in the lab on the Single Cell Atlas Project under Hope Mumme and Dr. Manoj Bhasin.
Meenakshi is currently a graduate student at GATech in the MS-BINF program. She is an Indian that grew up in the Middle East and completed her undergraduate education at NIT, Jalandhar. She has a strong interest in computational biology (especially single-cell omics) and is currently learning about machine learning. When she is not doing science, she is an ardent reader, a Model UN-er, and someone who considers baking as her sort of meditation. She is currently working on the transcriptional profiling of blood and placenta in patients with Gestational Diabetes Mellitus (GDM) in the Bhasin Lab.
Anne is a third-year at Georgia Tech, where she is pursuing a degree in biomedical engineering with a minor in health and medical sciences. She is interested in studying pediatric leukemias and collecting data samples. Outside of her work in the lab, she is a member of the Georgia Tech varsity swim team, loves cooking, and spending time with her friends and family.
Amanda is a junior at Emory University double majoring in QSS Informatics and Biology that is conducting an undergraduate research rotation with the Bhasin Lab. Her research interests are in bioinformatics and artificial intelligence, and her current project revolves around identifying genes that are overexpressed as a result of technical artifacts in single-cell sequencing data. In her free time, she loves to play volleyball, cook food, and learn new sports to play.
Rohini is pursuing a Master’s in Bioinformatics at Georgia Tech. She is from Bangalore, India where she worked as an Associate Bioinformatics Engineer at Strand Life Sciences. In the Bhasin Lab, she is working with Sarthak Satpathy to develop a framework to repurpose drugs utilizing pathway information from scRNA-seq data. In her free time, she enjoys reading books and practicing yoga.
Adya Srinivasan is a high school student at Innovation Academy, a STEM Magnet High School in Fulton County, working as an intern at Dr. Bhasin's Lab. Adya is currently working on the Pediatric Brain Cancer project, and is analyzing the effect of a new cancer treatment, the Stat3 inhibitor. By using tools to analyze pediatric medulloblastoma samples, she recognizes the immune cell types in patients' blood before and after treatment using Single Cell, CyTOF, and Cytokine Profiling.
My current research areas is around Computer vision and Machine Learning. I'm currently working on developing a deep learning based Diabetic Foot Ulcer platform for detection, classification, and analysis of diabetic foot ulcers over time. In the future I plan to integrate this platform with single cell analysis tools to develop a comprehensive platform for Diabetic Foot Ulcer Monitoring.
Molly Green is the administrative assistant for the Bhasin Lab and is originally from Atlanta, GA. In her free time, she enjoys singing, reading, and spending time with her spouse and three children.
Beena Thomas is a scientist in the Department of Pediatrics at Emory University. She has multi-disciplinary research experience in the fields of immunology, transcriptional regulation, protein-interactions, biomarkers, and metabolomics. She is working on elucidating, especially with content to immune effector cells, changes in gene expression, biological pathways and factors (small molecules, DNA, RNA and proteins) that lead to disease progress/suppression.
Rania Alaadin was an assistant professor of biochemistry at Deraya University in New Minya, Egypt before joining the Bhasin Lab in October of 2023. She has an extensive research history that covers topics such as cancer, molecular, and cell biology. Her current research interests include performing single-cell RNA sequencing experiments to understand the molecular pathogenesis underlying tumors. Her hobbies include playing tennis, watching movies, and walking.
Shivali is a sophomore at the Gwinnett School of Mathematics, Science and Technology. She is highly interested in computer science, machine learning, artificial intelligence, and computational biology. She is a diligent and visionary person with a strong work ethic. She is currently working on creating the SurvivalGenie2.0 software. Her interests are NLP, golf, viola and robotics.
I am a senior at Northview High School. I specialize in bioinformatics, particularly single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) data. Currently, I am working on implementing deep learning models in scRNA-seq data to elucidate genetic insights for diseases such as multiple myeloma. My current focus is implementing a deep learning-based classifier to classify malignant plasma cells from multiple myeloma data. I have co-presented this work at the 2023 Atlanta Workshop for Single-cell Omics (AWSOM).
Akhil Turaga is a third-year Biomedical Engineering Major at Georgia Tech. He is originally from Lilburn, Georgia, and is currently living in Atlanta. He is currently working on a project that involves developing a pattern recognition-based approach to classify cells into cluster types utilizing a Deep Belief Network consisting of stacked Random Boltzmann Machines and a Random Forest Classifier. In his free time, he enjoys dancing, spending time with family, and solving Rubik’s cubes.
