Nelson LaMarche Ph.D

Principal Investigator

Chang Zhang Ph.D

Postdoctoral Fellow

Chang received his PhD in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology in 2020 from Shanghai Institute for Biological Science, Chinese Academy of Science (CAS), where he was focusing on the splicing factor’s role in liver cancer. In 2020, he joined the Institute of Neuroscience of CAS to start his postdoctoral training on gene therapy based on CRISPR. In 2022, Chang joined Dr. Müschen's lab at Yale and investigated mitochondrial fission/fusion in B-cell development and B-cell malignancies. In 2024, he began his work with Dr. LaMarche at Yale, where he is currently working on discovering cytokine roles in controlling non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). He is also interested in how the distinctive immune microenvironment regulates tumorigenesis and in translating laboratory discoveries into clinical therapies. Chang loves Chinese calligraphy and music. He also cherishes his family, his wife, and their two lovely daughters. At home, they’re all his bosses.Email him at chang.zhang@yale.edu.

Sasha Coates–Park

PhD Student

Sasha holds bachelor's degrees in Biochemistry and Neurobiology&Physiology from the University of Maryland (UMD). During her undergraduate studies she worked in a protein biochemistry lab at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and a Chemical/Biomedical Engineering lab at UMD. After graduating, she completed a postbaccalaureate fellow in a pathology lab at NIH. As a graduate student in the LaMarche lab, her research now focuses on the interplay between the nervous and immune systems in regulating metastatic progression. She is especially interested in uncovering the mechanisms that drive or suppress brain metastases. In her free time, you can find her traveling, hiking, climbing, hanging out with her pets, building something, or abandoning yet another hobby. Email her at sasha.coates-park@yale.edu.

Jake Fontaine

PhD Student

Jake is a graduate student who graduated from Emory University in 2022. Upon joining the LaMarche Lab in 2024, his current research is focused on how solid tumors disrupt haematopoiesis, and how NK cells regulate the development of immune cells. He is also interested in elucidating how lung tumors impact B-cell-mediated antitumor immunity through chronic IL-4 signaling and disrupted crosstalk with myeloid cells. When he is not in lab, he enjoys PC gaming (shoutout to BG3 and Expedition 33) and tabletop games, like D&D and Catan. Email him at jake.fontaine@yale.edu.

Eduardo Menoti-Silva

Postgraduate Associate

Eduardo is a Brazilian guy from the countryside, curious about technology and fascinated by all living things. He is interested in computational biology, machine learning, and immunology. In his spare time, he spends an alarming number of hours trying to figure out where he is in the world on GeoGuessr. Email him at eduardo.menotisilva@yale.edu.

Justin Baldassarre

Undergraduate Associate

Bean and Pinto

Bean (right) survived a housefire, was abandoned, and then rescued from a roof in Maryland. Pinto (left) was picked out of a gutter in Puerto Rico. Bean is the peace to Pinto's chaos; even with a six-year age gap, they are best friends.

IV and Nikki

IV (left), named for the spots that run down his back and spell out "IV" in Morse code, short for IV Shrödinger League, adopted during Sasha's quantum chemistry era. Nikki (right), short for Snickers or Nikita (depending on why her government name is being used), survived a few hours in the wild before being rescued against her will, she takes this personally. In their free time they run circles around the apartment and dissociate with an empty head.

George Mourgkos

Former post-graduate associate in the LaMarche Lab, currently pursuing an MD at Stanford Medical School