Randy Longman, MD / PhD, Principal Investigator
Randy is a gastroenterologist and mucosal immunologist focused on inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) research. He completed his undergraduate studies at Yale University and his graduate work at the Tri-Institutional (Rockefeller/Sloan-Kettering/Cornell) MD-PhD Program. Randy did clinical Internal Medicine and Gastroenterology training at Columbia University Medical Center and post-doctoral training with Dr. Dan Littman at NYU. The intricate dialogue between host and pathogen fascinates him; his research aims to discover novel mechanisms of microbial regulation of mucosal and systemic immunity and to develop new, targeted therapies for IBD. Outside of science, Randy loves spending time with his family, skiing, and playing soccer! Learn more about Randy here.
Monica Viladomiu, PhD, Postdoctoral Associate in Medicine
Monica grew up in Barcelona (Spain), where she earned her undergraduate degree in Biotechnology. After college, she joined the Genetics, Bioinformatics and Computational Biology program at Virginia Tech. Her doctoral work combined experimental immunology and high-throughput sequencing approaches to characterize the mechanisms by which mononuclear phagocytes contribute to chronic Helicobacter pylori persistence and differentially modulate adaptive immune responses, thus affecting disease outcome. After receiving her Ph.D., she joined the Longman Lab as a post-doctoral associate. Trained as an immunologist, Monica is interested in microbial regulation of intestinal and systemic immune responses, with the ultimate goal to understand the underlying pathogenesis of inflammatory bowel diseases and develop new therapies to improve health outcomes.
Svetlana Lima, DVM, PhD, Postdoctoral Associate in Medicine
Svetlana grew up in Goiânia (Brazil) where she earned her Doctor of Veterinary Medicine from Federal University of Goiás. After obtaining her DVM degree, Svetlana came to New York and pursued her PhD in Animal Science (minors in Microbiology and Epidemiology) from Cornell University, where she combined microbiome research, molecular biology and population studies to develop strategies that prevent and/or moderate animal diseases. Currently, Svetlana is interested in host-microbiome interaction, gut-drug microbe interaction and mucosal immunology.
Silvia Pires, PhD, Postdoctoral Associate in Medicine
Sílvia grew up in Guimarães, Portugal. She moved to Porto (Portugal) where she earned her undergraduate degree in Biology at University of Porto (UP). She later joined the Cellular and applied microbiology group at IBMC, UP, where she developed interest in bioactive compounds and bacterial secondary metabolism. In 2016 she moved to New York to do a post-doc in host pathogen interaction, at Columbia University. There, she focused on type I and type III interferon activation induced by Staphylococcus aureus and Acinetobacter baumannii airway infection. As for Sílvia’s current scientific interests they are focused on mucosal immunology, host-microbiome interaction, immunometabolism and cancer.
Grace Maldarelli, MD / PhD, Instructor in Medicine
Grace grew up in Maryland; after completing her undergraduate degree in Public Health Studies, she earned her MD and PhD from the University of Maryland School of Medicine. Her doctoral work focused on type IV pili in Clostridium difficile. She matched to the Medical Research Track program at Weill Cornell Medical Center for a combined residency in Internal Medicine and fellowship in Infectious Diseases. Her scientific interests are in enteric bacteria and host-microbe interactions. Outside of the lab, Grace enjoys running and visiting the many museums of New York.
Wei Yang, PhD, Postdoctoral Associate in Medicine
Wei was born and grew up in Anshan, northeast part of China. Wei obtained her Ph.D. degree at University of Science and Technology of China (USTC), Hefei, Anhui province. Her doctoral work was to study the role of Th1 and Th17 in the pathogenesis of murine autoimmune cholangitis and colitis. In 2016, she started her postdoctoral training at University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), her project was to define the function of Protein Kinase 2 (CK2) in CD4+ T and CD8+ T cells in the context of autoimmunity and infection. In 2021, Wei joined Dr. Longman’s lab to study host-microbiome interaction and mucosal immunology.
Manabu Nagayama, MD / PhD, Postdoctoral Associate in Medicine
I was born in Miyazaki Prefecture, Japan, where there is a beautiful sea and lots of delicious food (wagyu beef, mango, etc.). I received my M.D. and Ph.D. from Jichi Medical University in Tochigi Prefecture. Tochigi is famous for the World Heritage site of Nikko. I am a gastroenterologist, and my specialty is inflammatory bowel disease. During my graduate school days, I was a member of Dr. Kenya Honda's lab at Keio University, where I studied the interaction between gut microflora and the intestinal immune system. I like hiking and watching youtube.
Seun Oguntunmibi, Lab Manager / Research Technician
Seun spent most of his childhood years right outside of Savannah, Georgia and completed his undergraduate degree in Neuroscience at Duke University. During this time, he spent time with Duke Global Neurosurgery and Neurology, where he reinforced his passion for healthcare and expanded his love for research. Seun hopes to pursue a career in medicine and plans to apply in 2024. Outside of lab, you can find Seun playing basketball, going to the gym, and learning more about New York City.
Recent Alumni
Lance Chou, Physical Therapy Student
Maeva Metz, Post-Doctoral Fellow, Harvard University
Gabriela Funez-dePagnier, Medical Student
Lucía Duenas-Bianchi, Medical Student, University of Connecticut
Lasha Gogokhia, Medical Resident, Johnston Memorial Hospital
Jimmy Castellanos, MD PhD Student, Weill Cornell Medicine
Viola Woo, R&D Associate, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals
Charlie Kivolowitz, Graduate Student, Thomas Jefferson University
Danny Victorio, Medical Student, Rush Medical College
Ahmed Abdulhamid, Internal Medicine Resident, Henry Ford Hospital
Amy Rupert, Medical Student