David Briscoe, MD

David Briscoe is Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School, the Casey Lee Ball Chair in Transplantation, and Director of the Transplant Research Program at Boston Children’s Hospital. He graduated from the Royal College of Surgeons Medical School in Ireland and completed his initial residency training in General Medicine and Pediatrics in Dublin, Ireland. He subsequently trained at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center in Denver, Colorado, and at Boston Children's Hospital. His initial postdoctoral research was performed in the laboratory of Dr. Jordan Pober, and a second postdoctoral fellowship was performed under the mentorship of Drs. Ramzi Cotran and Andrew Lichtman at the Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School. In 2013, he was appointed Director of the Transplant Research Program, and in 2015, he became the first incumbent Casey Lee Ball Chair in Transplantation. David is a an elected member of the National Physician-Scientist Honors Society, the American Society of Clinical Investigation (ASCI).

Johannes Wedel, MD, PhD

Johannes Wedel is an Assistant Professor in Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School. He received his MD in 2012 from Heidelberg University, Germany. During his training, he was a member of an International Research Training Group that fosters interactions between the Medical Faculty of Mannheim, Heidelberg University, Germany and the University of Groningen, Netherlands where he received his PhD in Transplant Immunology. In 2014, Dr. Wedel moved to the USA and he established his laboratory within the Transplant Research Program in 2021. Dr. Wedel’s research is focused on how intracellular signaling networks direct T cell activation, promote immunoregulation, and resolve inflammation. His broader interest is to identify mechanisms that can prevent transplant rejection and induce operational tolerance following organ transplantation.

Margaret Diehl, BS

Maggie received her Bachelor's degree in Biology from Stonehill College. She oversees the administrative issues for the Briscoe Lab and the Transplant Research Program, including grant management. Her long term goal is to enroll in Nursing School.

Max Lin, BS

Max received his Bachelor's degree in Biological Sciences with double minors in Managerial Economics and Technology Management from the University of California, Davis. He is currently pursuing his Master of Public Health with dual certificates in Healthcare Management and Infectious Disease. His STEM and Management background allows him to oversee administrative issues throughout the Transplant Research Program and he has the ultimate goal of continuing to work in hospital administration to enhance and better the current U.S. healthcare system.

Sayantan Bose, PhD

Bose received his PhD from the University of Calcutta in 2020 for studies on tumor immunity with a particular focus on regulatory T-cells and their modulation by micro-RNAs. He is studying the intracellular mechanisms involved in the function of NRP-2 and DEPTOR, both regulators of the mTOR pathway in immune cells.

Kaifeng Liu, MD

Kaifeng graduated from Tongji Medical University School of Medicine in 1986. He worked in southern China as a clinical surgeon prior to moving the USA. He trained in research, and specifically in the use of animal surgical models at the Universities of Michigan, Chicago and Emory, prior to joining Dr. Gary Visner’s laboratory in the Pulmonary Division at Children’s Hospital Boston. He works with the Briscoe laboratory and other members of the Transplant Research Program to support ongoing collaborations and studies using animal models of lung, heart and skin transplantation. His current interests relate to the analysis of distinct roles for regulators of the immune response, and how this is important in the development of chronic rejection.

Dakshna Balasubbramanian, PhD

Dakshna received her PhD from Texas A&M University College of Medicine in 2020. She has a longstanding interest in hypertension and vascular disease and hopes to develop an understanding in the role of endothelial cell-specific pathways in regulating immunity.

Liang Zhou, MMed

Liang received his MMed in Organ Transplantation of Surgery from Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China in 2022. He received his MB in Clinical Medicine from Jianghan University, Wuhan, China . Liang was recruited to the Briscoe Laboratory as a microsurgeon supporting ongoing research using animal models of skin and heart transplantation. His current interests are to identify the mechanism of function of cell intrinsic DEPTOR in immune cells. Liang hopes to earn his PhD in the future.

Emily Toal

Emily received her Bachelor’s degree in Health Behavior Science with minors in Business Administration and Public Health from the University of Delaware in 2018, she then worked as a Clinical Research Coordinator in Philadelphia for 3 years, specializing in liver disease. She now works as a Clinical Research Specialist in the Transplant Research Program, while pursuing her Masters of Public Health at Boston University. Emily hopes to specialize in Epidemiology and Biostatistics in Chronic Diseases.

Morgan Miovski, BS

Morgan received her Bachelor of Science in Cell and Molecular Biology under the Honors Program at Northeastern University. Morgan is a living liver donor to her mother who received a liver transplant in March of 2020. This experience was a catalyst for her passion in transplantation. Morgan hopes to one day become a physician.

Jessica Leyva-Rangel, PhD

Jessica received her PhD in Molecular Biomedicine from the National Autonomous University of Mexico, Mexico City, in 2015. Her focus of study was T cell development and selection during infection. Over the course of her studies she worked extensively with transgenic mice and has developed insight into the expansion of distinct T cell populations in the course of infectious disease. Upon relocation to Boston, Jessica was recruited to the Briscoe Laboratory as a Research Technologist and she supports Laboratory activities including the development, phenotyping and maintenance of transgenic mice.

A.G. Pramoda Sahankumari

Pramoda received her MSc in Biochemistry from the Brigham Young University, Provo, United States. She received her BSc in Biochemistry and Molecular biology from the University of Colombo, Sri Lanka. She has recently joined the laboratory and hopes to develop her career as a PhD in the future.

Maddie Maslyar, BS

Maddie is a research technician and works in Dr. Wedel's Laboratory on the regulation of T cell responses following organ transplantation. She recently received her Bachelor’s degree in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at Boston University, and is currently expanding her expertise in transgenic mouse models and immunological in vitro techniques. Maddie hopes to attend Medical School in the future.

Bayan Alsairafi

Bayan is a research technician in Dr. Wedel's Laboratory and works on the understanding of immunoregulation. She received her BA/MS in Cellular and Molecular Biology from Boston University in 2021. Bayan looks forward to her research career and hopes to attend graduate school in the future.