Alumni

Former Reilly Lab members move on to impactful roles in science and technology.

Former Post-doctoral Associates

  • Currently a Postdoctoral Fellow at Marie Skłodowska-Curie.

    Email | Bluesky | ORCID | Google Scholar | Linkedin | Github
    Stephen is a computational genomicist passionate about understanding how regulatory sequences impact the regulation of gene expression. His research in the FGC group focuses on using capture Hi-C datasets to map the complex regulatory interactions between enhancers and promoters to understand complex human disease and mammalian evolution. Before joining the FGC group, he was a postdoctoral fellow in the Reilly lab at Yale University, where he analyzed massively parallel reporter assays and deep learning variant effect predictions to identify functional variants in human adaptive evolution and mammalian evolutionary conservation. He completed his BA at Washington University in St. Louis in mathematics and anthropology on modeling the evolution of eusociality, and his PhD at Brown University on the RNA splicing effects of genetic variants in archaic introgression. Outside of the lab, he enjoys cooking, movies, and exploring new restaurants, museums, and nature.

Former Graduate Students


  • Currently a MIT Postdoc with Gene-Wei Li and Jonathan Weissman.

    Email

    Steve was my postdoc mentor during my time in the Sabeti lab. We worked together on exploring the functional consequences of 3' UTR variants and human-specific deletions. Currently I am transferring my talents to explore the world of functional genomics in bacteria.

Former Laboratory Managers

  • Currently a Genomics Ph.D. Student at Duke University.

    Bluesky | Google Scholar | ORCID | Website

    After leaving Wellesley, I moved to Dr. Pardis Sabeti’s lab at the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT under the mentorship of Dr. Steve Reilly, working on human functional genomic characterization with the ENCODE Consortium. I then became the lab manager for the newly minted Reilly lab as it opened its doors at Yale in the fall of 2021. My work at Yale focused on the functional characterization of positively selected human variants, especially those within genetic regulatory elements, as well as consciously building the framework for an inclusive lab environment as the Reilly lab’s first member.
    My current Ph.D. work seeks to understand how epigenomic and structural factors interact to affect population genetics of hybridizing species in the diverse clade of Heliconius butterflies, in collaboration with teams at George Washington University and the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute.

  • She is currently Director of Strategic Operations at Haven's Harvest.

    Email | Linkedin | ORCID
    As our lab manager, Catherine helped the lab run smoothly and loved supporting everyone's research. She also developed the lab's prime-editing toolkit for future prime-editing experiments. She now works for a local non-profit, Haven's Harvest, whose mission is to build community and reduce food waste, one food rescue at a time.

Former Post-graduate Associates

  • Currently a Computational Biologist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.

    Email | Linkedin

    Rohit was a Postgraduate Associate in the Reilly Lab who joined in August 2023. He is interested in developing computational tools to better our understanding of the human genome and its role in disease and evolution. Originally from Sunnyvale, CA, Rohit started his career in research by working in the clinical chemistry and toxicology laboratories at San Francisco General Hospital/UCSF under Dr. Alan Wu in high school. He then attended UCLA and graduated with degrees in Computational and Systems Biology and Computer Science. While at UCLA, he studied muscle development in C. elegans under Dr. Pavak Shah and created a data pipeline to genotype cancer cells in the lab of Dr. Paul Boutros. Outside of research, Rohit enjoys hiking and baking, and will hopefully one day work up the motivation to actually go to the gym instead of just talking about it.
    During his time in the Reilly Lab, he worked on analyzing data for the MPAC paper and did preliminary data analysis for single-cell MPRA work with Mackenzie.

  • Currently obtaining a master's in Genetic Counseling at the University of Michigan.

    Email

    Elise graduated from Williams College in 2023 with a degree in biology and math. She was a postgraduate associate in the Reilly lab from 2023-2025 working with Thanh Thanh Nguyen on the somatic brain MPRA, Maggie Prentice and the Sumida and Hafler labs on autoimmune MPRAs, and Erin Gilbertson, Aviv Pinker, and the Massalani lab on an evolutionary 3'UTR MPRA. She is now in the University of Michigan genetic counseling Master's program.

  • Currently a Ph.D. student in Microbiology at Darthmouth.

    Maggie was a Research Associate in the Reilly lab, having completed a bachelor’s in Biological Sciences at Smith College. During her time at Smith, her work under Dr. Chris White-Ziegler focused on phenotypic effects of sRNA regulation in E.coli. In academic and industrial settings, Maggie has also studied the impacts of novel decontamination technologies on bacteria and fungi. Outside of the lab, Maggie enjoys running, nordic skiing, collaging, and searching for the perfect cup of coffee. 

Former Undergraduates

  • Aviv is currently an English teach in Madrid, Spain.
    Email

    Aviv graduated from Yale in the Class of 2025 with a B.S. in Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology. During his time in the Reilly Lab, Aviv worked with his mentor Elise Root and others in the lab to produce his senior thesis project titled "The Evolutionary Impact of DNA Variants in 3’ UTRs of Hominids". This research employed a Massively Parallel Reporter Assay to scan 3' UTR variants across Humans, Neanderthals, and Denisovans for post-transcriptional effects that may have led to evolutionarily significant phenotypic changes. Aviv is currently living abroad in Spain, working as an English teacher in Madrid, but he plans to continue studying biology in the near future. Outside of work, Aviv enjoys adventurous activities such as hiking, skiing, fishing, and sailing.

  • Currently an undergraduate at Yale University, class of 2026.

    Email
    I'm an undergraduate student at Yale (Class of 2026) who worked in the Reilly Lab after my first year. In the lab, I worked under Stephen on a project examining how haplotype background influences the functional effects of causal alleles at the LCT locus, using Enformer, a deep-learning model for predicting gene expression. I’m now finishing my bachelor's degree in computer science and plan to work as a software engineer in NYC after graduation.

  • Currently a Premedical Fellow at DermCare Experts and Beacon Clinical Research

    Email | Linkedin
    Manuel completed his 5-year BS/MPH at Yale, earning degrees in Neuroscience and Epidemiology of Microbial Diseases, respectively. He was an undergraduate researcher in the Reilly Lab from January 2022 to May 2024. During his time in the lab, he constructed CRISPR-Cas9 prime-editing plasmids under the guidance of Ava Mackay-Smith and Catherine McGuiness to edit alleles in TRIM14 — a gene associated with the innate viral immune response. For his senior thesis, he optimized DNA transfection methods in C2C12s and HSkMCs to improve the gene-delivery efficiency of high-throughput assays that identify novel therapeutics for neuromuscular disorders. Manuel is currently completing a two-year Combined Dermatology and Clinical Research Post-Baccalaureate Premedical Fellowship at DermCare Experts and Beacon Clinical Research in Boston, MA. Clinically, he works as a certified medical assistant and aids two board-certified dermatologists at a busy, private dermatology practice. In research, he works as a certified clinical research coordinator responsible for participant recruitment, data collection, and protocol adherence; he concurrently manages two phase III studies and one phase IV study. He plans to ultimately attend medical school to fulfill his dream of being a physician involved in research.