Principal Investigator


Lin He
​
Lin He received her B.S. in Biology from Tsinghua University and her Ph.D. in Stanford University under the mentorship of Dr. Gregory S. Barsh.  Lin was a postdoctoral fellow at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory with Greg Hannon before joining tthe University of California at Berkeley in 2008. Currently, Lin is a Thomas and Stacey Siebel distinguished chair professor at UC-Berkeley, and a HHMI faculty scholar.  

Postdoctoral fellows
​
Suifang Mao
Ph.D. University of Iowa
​TRDRP Postdoctoral Fellow

Suifang is from Guangzhou, China, where she received her B.S. in  biotechnology at South China Agricultural University (华南农业大学). She moved to the United States to get her PhD in Molecular Physiology and Biophysics at Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine, University of Iowa. She also did a postdoctoral fellowship with the Tobacco-Related Disease Research Program. Her research interests include cilia biology, pulmonary physiology, and brain development. Outside of the lab, Suifang enjoys swimming, Zumba, petting cats, and hanging out with food and tea. She also volunteers for the Chinese Graduate and Postdoctoral Scholars Association at UC Berkeley (CGPSA) https://cgpsa.berkeley.edu/.
Haruna Yamashiro
Ph.D. The University of Tokyo
CIRM postdoctoral fellow

Haruna was born and raised in Kobe, Japan. She received her PhD at the University of Tokyo, where she studied small RNA biology. She also did postdoctoral research to study translation machinery at RIKEN. She moved to United States to join the lab at UC Berkeley. Her research interest includes retrotransposon and preimplantation embryo development. Outside of the lab, she loves cycling, hiking, camping, IPAs, playing the flute and Nintendo games!
Graduate students
Johnny Gan Chong
B.S. Univ. of California at Los Angeles

Johnny was born and raised in Panama City, Panama, and moved to the United States to attend UCLA, where he developed a fascination for ncRNAs, gene regulation and imaging technologies. Now at Berkeley for graduate school, he looks to study transposons’ regulatory capacity and developmental importance using imaging techniques. Outside of the lab, Johnny enjoys hiking, landscape photography, and learning new skills and random facts :).
 Maureen Tam
 B.S. The Hong Kong Univ. of Science and Technology

Maureen was born and raised in Hong Kong. She studied biochemistry and cell biology at The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. She moved to the United States to join UC Berkeley to study for her PhD. She is interested in studying retrotransposons and reproductive aging. Outside of the lab, Maureen enjoys movies, hiking, boardgames, animation, and hanging with friends. 
         Peiqi (Alex) Yang

            Alex was born and raised in Beijing, China. He is an undergraduate senior at Berkeley              with a major in Molecular & Cell Biology (Cell & Developmental Biology).  He is 
            interested in cancer biology and stem cell biology. He is actively learning embryo
            developments and transposons. Outside of the lab, he enjoys traveling, hiking,
            cooking, and teaching.
Staff
Nicholas Lofrese
​B.A. Univ. of California at Berkeley

Nicholas is from Danville, CA (East Bay Area). He received his undergraduate degree in Molecular and Cell Biology with emphasis in Cell and Developmental Biology from UC Berkeley in 2021. Nicholas joined the He Lab in November 2021. He is interested in studying brain development, cilia biology, and Shh biology. Outside of the lab, Nicholas enjoys music, sports, video games, and reading!
Undergraduate students
Wei-Chi Chen

Hello! My name is Wei-Chi Chen, and I am currently an undergraduate double majoring in Molecular and Cell Biology and Psychology, and minoring in Public Health. I am from San Gabriel, CA (near downtown LA), and decided to head north for college! Some of my favorite hobbies include travelling, dancing, and swimming. Aside from research, I'm also involved in clubs like iHCA, MEDLIFE, and CARE on campus. My future aspiration is to enter a MD program and become a gastroenterologist. Some fun facts about me are that I am trilingual and have 3 younger siblings!
Haina Jin

Haina was born and raised in Jiangsu, China. She came to Berkeley to study Molecular and Cell Biology (Genetics, Genomics & Development track) and Comparative Literature. She is interested in studying imaging techniques, embryo developments, and transposons. Outside of the lab, she enjoys calligraphy, tea, and video games!