Postdoctoral Scholars

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Belinda Wang, MD, PhD

Sheng Wang​, PhD

About BELINDA

I was an MD/PhD student at Harvard and received my PhD in the laboratory of Bill Hahn where I leveraged genome-scale perturbation screens to understand molecular pathways that mediate vulnerability and resistance to targeted chemotherapy in cancer cells. I completed adult psychiatry residency at UCSF and stayed for child and adolescent psychiatry fellowship. For my post-doctoral training, I am interested in using using systems biology approaches to study risk genes identified by human genomic studies in order to understand the pathobiology underlying childhood-onset psychiatric disorders. ​
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AWARDS​

​Sorensen Foundation Fellowship in Child and Adolescent Fellowship (2022-2025)

UCSF Weill Clinician Scientist Award (2023)

NIMH U01 MD/PhD Administrative Supplement (2021-2023)

​NIMH Outstanding Resident Award (2020)
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SIGNIFICANT PUBLICATIONS

Willsey HR, Willsey AJ, Wang B, State MW. Genomics, convergent neuroscience, and progress in understanding autism spectrum disorders. Nature Reviews Neuroscience. 2022.

Wang S, Wang B, Drury V, Drake S, Sun N, Alkhairo H, Arbalaez J, Duhn C, Tourette International Collaborative Genetics (TIC Genetics), Heiman GA, Tischfield JA, Fernandez TV, O’Donovan MC, Thapar A, State MW, Jeremy AJ. Rare coding variants on chromosome X contribute to male sex bias in autism, Tourette syndrome, and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. medRxiv. 2022.

Searles Quick VB*, Wang B*, State MW. Large genomic data approaches to understand etiology of and develop treatment for autism spectrum disorder. Neuropsychopharmacology, 2020.

Wang B*, Krall EB*, Aguirre AJ*, Kim M, Widlund HR, Doshi MB, Sicinska E, Sulahian R, Goodale A, Cowley GS, Piccioni F, Doench JR, Root DE, Hahn WC. ATXN1L, CIC, and ETS transcription factors modulate sensitivity to MAPK pathway inhibition. Cell Reports, 2017. 

Krall EB*, Wang B*, Munoz DM*, Ilic N, Raghavan S, Niederst MJ, Yu K, Ruddy DA, Aguirre AJ, Kim JW, Redig AJ, Gainor JF, Williams JA, Asara JM, Doench JG, Janne PA, Shaw AT, McDonald Iii RE, Engelman JA, Stegmeier F, Schlabach MR, Hahn WC. KEAP1 loss modulates sensitivity to kinase targeted therapy in lung cancer. Elife, 2017.

​*Co-first authors
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FUN QUESTION: if you could be any animal, what would it be and why?

​I would be an octopus because they are intelligent and resilient, and they have eight arms to work with (which can regenerate!).

about sHENG

​I received my Ph.D. from China Agricultural University & National Institute of Biological Sciences, Beijing, where I worked on postzygotic variant analysis from either healthy donors or rare disease patients using whole-genome sequencing, whole-exome sequencing, single-cell sequencing, and other related sequencing methods. During my postdoc training, I mainly focus on detecting genetic risks from Tourette Disorder (TD) patients/families and conduct combined analysis across different disorders, including TD, ADHD, OCD, and ASD, to investigate the shared mechanisms to explain the high comorbidity in these patients.
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FUN QUESTION: if you could be any animal, what would it be and why?

Cat, full of curiosity on everything​.

Research and Support Staff

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Nawei Sun, PhD - Specialist

Juan Arbelaez - Wet-Lab Manager

ABOUT NAWEI

​I obtained my Ph.D. from Rutgers University. During my doctoral studies under Dr.Jay Tischfield at Department of Genetics, I focused on investigating the molecular phenotypes for Tourette  Disorder (TD). My thesis work involved conducting whole exome sequencing on multiplex TD families to identify high-confidence genetic risk variants, generating induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) from members of a multiplex TD family, and performing functional characterizations of a risk variant in iPSC-derived neurons. For my postdoc training, I joined Dr. Jeremy Willsey’lab at UCSF and led projects that used CRISPR-based approaches to perturb risk genes for ASD and TD in iPSC-derived 2D or 3D neural models, screening for molecular and cellular phenotypes. In my current role as a specialist in Dr. Matthew State’s lab, I aim to leverage iPSC-derived 2D and 3D neural models for in-depth research on cellular phenotypes associated with ASD and TD.
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​AWARDS

10/01/2019 – 03/31/2023 2019 UCSF QBI Bold and Basic Grant Recipient Role: Principal Investigator

​10/01/2018 – 09/30/2019 Simons Foundation Autism Research Initiative-Explorer Awards Role: Postdoctoral Research Associate (Key Personnel)
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SIGNIFICANT PUBLICATIONS

​1. Lasser, M., Sun, N., Xu, Y., Wang, S., Drake, S., Law, K., ... & Willsey, H. R. (2023). Pleiotropy of autism-associated chromatin regulators. Development, 150(14). https://doi.org/10.1242/dev.201515

2. Wang S, Wang B, Drury V, Drake S, Sun N, Alkhairo H, et al. Rare maternally inherited coding variants on chromosome X carry predominantly male risk in autism, Tourette syndrome, and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. medRxiv 2022. https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.09.22.22280248.

3. Helen Rankin Willsey, Cameron R. T. Exner, Yuxiao Xu, Amanda Everitt, Nawei Sun, Belinda Wang, Jeanselle Dea, Galina Schmunk, Yefim Zaltsman, Nia Teerikorpi, Albert Kim, Aoife S. Anderson, David Shin, Meghan Seyler, Tomasz J. Nowakowski, Richard M. Harland, A. Jeremy Willsey, Matthew W. State. Parallelized in vivo analysis pinpoints neurogenesis as a convergent vulnerability in autism spectrum disorders and suggests estrogen as a potential resilience factor. Neuron 2021 March 3.

4. Wang S, Mandell JD, Kumar Y, Sun N, Morris MT, Arbelaez J, Nasello C, Dong S, Duhn C, Zhao X, Yang Z, Padmanabhuni SS, Yu D, King RA, Dietrich A, Khalifa N, Dahl N, Huang AY, Neale BM, Coppola G, Mathews CA, Scharf JM. De Novo Sequence and Copy Number Variants Are Strongly Associated with Tourette Disorder and Implicate Cell Polarity in Pathogenesis. Cell Rep. 2018 Sep 25; 24(13):3441-3454.e12. PMID: 30257206.

5. Willsey AJ, Morris MT, Wang S, Willsey HR, Sun N, Teerikorpi N, Baum TB, Cagney G, Bender KJ, Desai TA, Srivastava D, Davis GW, Doudna J, Chang E, Sohal V, Lowenstein DH, Li H, Agard D, Keiser MJ, Shoichet B, von Zastrow M, Mucke L, Finkbeiner S, Gan L, Sestan N, Ward ME, Huttenhain R, Nowakowski TJ, Bellen HJ, Frank LM, Khokha MK, Lifton RP, Kampmann M, Ideker T, State MW, Krogan NJ. The Psychiatric Cell Map Initiative: A Convergent Systems Biological Approach to Illuminating Key Molecular Pathways in Neuropsychiatric Disorders. Cell. 2018 Jul 26; 174(3):505-520. PMID: 30053424.

6. Sun N, Nasello C, Deng L, Wang N, Zhang Y, Xu Z, Song Z, Kwan K, King RA, Pang ZP, Xing J, Heiman GA, Tischfield JA. The PNKD gene is associated with Tourette Disorder or Tic disorder in a multiplex family. Mol Psychiatry. 2018 Jun; 23(6):1487-1495. PMID: 28894297.

​7. Sun N, Tischfield JA, King RA, Heiman GA. Functional Evaluations of Genes Disrupted in Patients with Tourette's Disorder. Front Psychiatry. 2016; 7:11. PMID: 26903887.
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FUN QUESTION: if you could be any animal, what would it be and why?

​I would be a bird because birds can fly and have enhanced and more complex color visions, so I can have a whole new experience exploring the world.

​about juan

Octavio Castillo - Staff Research Associate

​ABOUT OCTAVIO

​I fell in love with science, specifically Biology, during my time at UC Santa Barbara where I received a B.S. in Cell and Developmental Biology. During my time there, I did research on the effects of Alzheimer's and anastasis—cell survival after the point of no return in apoptosis—fruit flies under the supervision of Denise Montell, whose passion for science influenced me to pursue a degree in Developmental biology. In the lab, I have been working on ways to efficiently clone high-risk ASD genes to ultimately analyze a protein-protein interaction network built from these genes via cell culture work, immunoprecipitation assays, and mass spectrometry. I am interested on how these molecular interactions can help us better understand how autism works in the human brain and find ways to therapeutically help those who have been diagnosed with it. Outside of the lab, I enjoy going on walks around the city, exercise, play video games, go to coffee shops, read and try new restaurants! A good cup of coffee always makes my day.
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​SIGNIFICANT PUBLICATIONS

Lasser, M., Sun, N., Xu, Y., Wang, S., Drake, S., Law, K., Gonzalez, S., Wang, B., Drury, V., Castillo, O., Zaltsman, Y., Dea, J., Bader, E., McCluskey, K. E., State, M. W., Willsey, A. J., & Willsey, H. R. (2023). Pleiotropy of autism-associated chromatin regulators. Development, 150(14). https://doi.org/10.1242/dev.201515
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FUN QUESTION: if you could be any animal, what would it be and why?

​I would 100% be a Golden Retriever because they are supportive, loyal, charismatic, and humorous. They will always see the positive side of things and will support you no matter how hard your day is.

Erich Martinez - Staff Research Associate

ABOUT ERICH

Originally from Los Angeles, I received my B.A. from UC Berkeley majoring in Molecular & Cellular Biology with an emphasis in Immunology as well as in Spanish Linguistics. In the lab my interests have been refining our approaches with cell culture in assessing protein interactions among ASD-associated genes. In my free time I enjoy swimming, exploring new restaurants and cuisine in the bay area, as well as volunteering at a pediatric behavioral therapy clinic focused on treating children with autism spectrum disorder and neuro-developmental disorders.​

FUN QUESTION: if you could be any animal, what would it be and why?

I would be a cat so I can get the sleep I need!

Niat Yohannes - Staff Research Associate

​ABOUT NIAT

​I earned my B.A. in Molecular and Cell Biology with emphasis in Cell and Developmental Biology from UC Berkeley in 2022. In the State lab, I’m assisting with the Psychiatric Cell Map Initiative by cloning Autism  Spectrum Disorder risk genes and protein-protein interactions involved. 
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FUN QUESTION: if you could be any animal, what would it be and why?

​Eagle. Eagles symbolize strength, power, and freedom. 

Shawn Liu - Staff Research Associate

​ABOUT SHAWN

I recently graduated with my M.S. in bioengineering from UCLA where I applied machine learning approaches to better understand the predictive value of domain knowledge (i.e., drug target information) on common drug-induced side effects. In the lab, I am interested in better understanding the biological mechanisms underlying neurological disorders while learning/exploring various wet-lab and dry-lab techniques. I enjoy trying new places to eat, exercising, hanging out with friends, and playing musical instruments during my free time. Fun fact: I can play eight different musical instruments. The first instrument I picked up was the Erhu (Chinese Violin), and I can play any tune on this instrument by ear.
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​SIGNIFICANT PUBLICATIONS

​Liu HJ and Wilson JL (2023), Drug target, class level, and PathFX pathway information share utility for machine learning prediction of common drug-induced side effects. Front. Drug. Saf. Regul. 3:1287535. doi: 10.3389/fdsfr.2023.1287535

​Cheng, K. V., Liu, H. J. S., Sun, B., Wu, S., & Speier, W. (2022, October). Fully Automated Approaches for Localization of Intraoperative Electrocorticographic Electrodes. In 2022 IEEE International Conference on Metrology for Extended Reality, Artificial Intelligence and Neural Engineering (MetroXRAINE) (pp. 410-415). IEEE.
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FUN QUESTION: if you could be any animal, what would it be and why?

I would be an Eagle. Not only are they diligent, resilient, they can fly and see the world up in the air from a broader perspective.

Ashley Clement - Administrative Officer

ABOUT ASHLEY

​I graduated from Clark University in Worcester, MA where I double majored in Sociology and Gender Studies. I do not have a science background at all so working in the lab has been a cool learning experience for me. I enjoy helping out in any way I can so that all the smart people in the lab can focus on science and not all of the admin duties! I submit expense reports, assist with purchasing, HR tasks, event planning, and lots of other things that come up. I live outside of Boston, MA with my husband and our almost-two year old son, one dog and two cats! I enjoy spending time outside, going to museums, yoga, and cooking.
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FUN QUESTION: if you could be any animal, what would it be and why?

​Probably a house cat because I love lying in the sun

Student Volunteers

Presley Pham 

ABOUT PRESLEY

​I'm an undergraduate student at UC Berkeley studying Cognitive Science and Molecular and Cell Biology with a minor in Education. I'm interested in many topics like psychiatric disorders, consciousness, psychedelic science, vision science, biochemistry, and genetics. Currently, I'm focusing on primarily computational work while trying to develop my basic lab science skills. I like filmmaking, going to concerts, traveling, reading, writing, coffee, fashion,  and hanging out with friends and family.
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FUN QUESTION: if you could be any animal, what would it be and why?

A cat because cats are awesome

Aria "Rani" Sindledecker

​ABOUT RANI

​I'm a Sophomore at Mountain View High School, and am interested in several biology and neuroscience sub-topics including psychiatric disorders, genetics, affective science, biochemistry, molecular communication, and more. In the lab, my focus is on studying identified risk genes in order to understand the systems underlying childhood-onset psychiatric disorders, computationally, and expanding into the wet lab. Outside of the lab, I am passionate about mental health advocacy that is empowered through public speaking, filmmaking, advisory boards, research, and clubs. I also love hanging out with friends and family, going to concerts, watching movies, reading, writing, traveling, and going to the beach.
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FUN QUESTION: if you could be any animal, what would it be and why?

​A sea turtle in a secluded coral reef, because turtles are amazing, underwater life is so beautiful, and it seems so peaceful!