People - The Marshall Lab - THE MARSHALL LAB

Principal investigator

John M. Marshall, PhD (he/him)

Associate Professor in Residence
Divisions of Biostatistics & Epidemiology
School of Public Health
Innovative Genomics Institute
Center for Computational Biology
University of California, Berkeley (which sits on the territory of xučyun, the ancestral and unceded land of the Chochenyo Ohlone people)

Mailing address:
School of Public Health,
2121 Berkeley Way #5302,
UC Berkeley,
Berkeley, CA 94720-7360, USA

Phone: +1-510-664-4724
Office: 2121 Berkeley Way #5328
Email: john.marshall@berkeley.edu
Website: https://www.MarshallLab.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/MarshallJohnM
Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=aG77NyAAAAAJ&hl=en
Current CV: JohnMarshallCV.pdf

John received his PhD in biomathematics from UCLA in 2008 writing his dissertation on the use of gene-edited mosquitoes to control malaria transmission. Prior to joining UC Berkeley, he worked on several aspects of this project as a postdoc - social, cultural and regulatory issues at the UCLA Center for Society & Genetics, ecological field work at the Malaria Research and Training Center in Mali, molecular biology and population genetics at Caltech, and infectious disease modeling and epidemiological field work at Imperial College London. Here at UC Berkeley, he teaches two courses on mathematical modeling of infectious diseases and consults on this field generally. His own research focuses on the use of mathematical models to inform novel genetics-based strategies for mosquito control, and to support efforts to control and eliminate mosquito-borne diseases such as malaria, dengue and Zika virus broadly.

Assistant project scientist

Héctor M. Sánchez C., PhD

Héctor received his BSc in 2009 in Mechatronics Engineering and his PhD in 2017 in Computer Science at Tecnológico de Monterrey, México. In the past he collaborated in animal vocalizations research with Charles Taylor (UCLA), and the Malaria Elimination Initiative (UCSF). He was awarded one of the 2016 Google Research Awards in Latin America to work on predicting Zika epidemics through the use of social networks; and worked as a consultant for Dr. David L. Smith (UW) in the development of a framework for epidemiological simulations. His work focuses on the creation and use of computational individual-based models to contain and eliminate mosquito-borne diseases. He joined the Marshall Lab in July, 2017. He loves guitars, singing, Pusheen and FPV quadcopters... oh yeah... and programming!

Email: sanchez.hmsc@berkeley.edu
Website: https://chipdelmal.github.io/

Postdocs

Yogita Sharma, PhD

Yogita received her MSc in 2010 in Mathematics from Panjab University. She recently obtained her PhD in Mathematical Biology from the Department of Mathematics at the Indian Institute of Technology, Ropar. She is mainly interested in mathematical modeling of gene drive systems in insect populations. Her research focuses on understanding regime shifts in bistable biological systems, which includes occurrence of sudden, catastrophic and often irreversible shifts from one state to another. The majority of her work is based on the analysis of regime shifts using early warning signals considering mathematical models of different types of stochastic bistable biological systems. Examples include models of gene expression and ecological models of insect outbreaks in the presence of diverse stochastic environments. She will be joining the Marshall Lab in January, 2018.

Email: yogita.sharma@berkeley.edu

Sanjay Lamba, PhD

Sanjay received his Master of Science & Technology in mathematics in 2012 and his PhD in mathematical and computational biology from Central University of Rajasthan, India, where his doctoral research work focused on modeling of regulation of nitrogen metabolic pathways in Dr. Amit Chakraborty from 2013-2017. Before joining the Marshall Lab in June 2019, in collaboration with the Tata Institute for Genetics and Society, he was working as a Research Associate at Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani, where his research work focused on mathematical modeling and analysis of the dynamics of diabetes mellitus in Indian populations, and control measures against this. His postdoctoral work focuses on the mathematical and computational aspects of gene drive systems in mosquito vectors of malaria, dengue, chikungunya and Zika virus. He is involved in adapting the MGDrivE framework to accurately reflect the ecology of mosquito disease vectors in India, characterizing the epidemiology of mosquito-borne diseases in India, and collaborating with molecular biologists to model genetic constructs.

Email: sanjaylamba@berkeley.edu

Senior research officer

Gordana Rašić, PhD

Gordana received her MSc in biology in 2005 from the University of Belgrade (Serbia) working on Drosophila population genetics, and her PhD in biology in 2011 from the University of Western Ontario (Canada) where she built an empirical model system in Landscape Genetics using pitcher plant insects. Since 2012, her work has been focused on the development of molecular and bioinformatics tools and analytical frameworks for the implementation of innovative vector control strategies, such as Wolbachia-based suppression of arboviral diseases transmitted by Aedes mosquitoes. Gordana has established mosquito population genomics/bioinformatics platforms within two Australian research institutions (University of Melbourne and QIMR Berghofer) and she leads this research component on several international collaborative projects within the Mosquito Control Laboratory at QIMR Berghofer, as well as advises projects in France, Singapore and Spain. With Dr. Marshall, Gordana is devising robust approaches for inferring mosquito dispersal patterns and their impact on innovative vector control strategies in different landscapes.

Email: Gordana.Rasic@qimrberghofer.edu.au

Graduate students

Jared Bennett, BSc

Jared completed honors bachelors of science in Biochemistry, Molecular Genetics, and Physics with honors minors in Math and Music Performance from The Ohio State University in 2014. After graduation, he worked under Dr. Richard Fishel studying DNA Mismatch Repair using single-molecule microscopy techniques. In the fall of 2016, Jared began a PhD program at UC Berkeley in Biophysics with a designated emphasis in Computational Biology. He is currently studying the evolutionary characteristics of CRISPR/Cas mediated gene drives.

Email: jared_bennett@berkeley.edu

Váleri Vásquez, MS

Váleri Vásquez is a PhD student with the Energy and Resources Group, a Moore/Sloan Fellow at the Berkeley Institute for Data Science, and a former research scholar in the Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory. Váleri’s research interests include the use of computational models to examine the environmental drivers and economic impacts of infectious diseases. She is currently studying questions relevant to the use of gene drive systems for malarial control. Prior to graduate school, Váleri focused on international and domestic climate change issues at the U.S. Department of State, the Center for American Progress, and the White House Council on Environmental Quality. In addition, she served as primary advisor to the co-chair of the United Nations negotiations that culminated in the Paris Agreement on climate change in 2015. Váleri received her MS from the University of California, Berkeley and her BA from the College of William and Mary.

Email: vnvasquez@berkeley.edu

Agastya Mondal, BS

Agastya Mondal is a doctoral student in the department of Epidemiology. He received his BS in Biomedical Engineering and Applied Mathematics from Johns Hopkins University in 2016, after which he worked in a variety of software engineering roles in the biotech and humanitarian aid sectors. At Berkeley, he is interested in the intersection of computation, mathematics, and public health, hoping to apply heterogeneous stochastic models, graph theory, and statistical methods to better inform infectious disease dynamics. He also hopes to use these insights to analyze and guide epidemiological policy. A native East Coaster, he enjoys arguing about regional foods, film photography, collecting records, and paying too much for coffee.

Website: https://agastyamondal.com
Email: agastya_mondal@berkeley.edu

Natasha Harrison, BA

Natasha is a current MPH student studying Epidemiology/Biostatistics with a concentration in Data Science. She is currently working on statistically analyzing malaria surveillance data from São Tomé and Príncipe, and eventually hopes to have a career in research. In her free time, Natasha enjoys going on hikes in Sonoma County with her family.

Email: natasha_harrison@berkeley.edu

Francois Rerolle, MS

Francois graduated from Ecole Polytechnique in Paris in 2014 where he studied Engineering, Mathematics and Physics. In 2015 he obtained his MS from Stanford University in Environmental Engineering. He is currently pursuing his PhD in Epidemiology at UCSF under the supervision of Dr. Adam Bennett and Dr. Hugh Sturrock at the Malaria Elimination Initiative (MEI). He is interested in geo-spatial modeling, sampling designs and mathematical models to target high risk populations and inform national programs working towards malaria eradication. With Dr. John Marshall, Francois is trying to evaluate vector control intervention parameters to be included in predictive risk mapping. He is an outdoor guy, enjoying surfing, sailing, hiking and climbing and sneaks out of the lab whenever he gets a chance.

Email: Francois.Rerolle@ucsf.edu

Undergraduate students

Ameek Bindra

Ameek is a junior studying Data Science and Human Biology, with an interest in population health. This semester, she is working on creating gene drive simulations data analysis pipelines under the mentorship under Dr. Héctor Sánchez. In her spare time, you can probably catch her at a cafe hunting for a decadent mocha, playing a lot of Tetris, or jamming to the latest Bollywood music.

Email: ameekbindra@berkeley.edu

Chris De Leon

Chris is a senior studying Computer Science. He is currently working on machine learning algorithms for the MGDrivE modeling framework under the mentorship of Dr. Héctor Sánchez. In his free time, Chris likes to play guitar, read, exercise, and drink an obscene amount of caffeine.

Email: chrisdeleon333@berkeley.edu

Darpa Anireddy

Darpa is a sophomore studying public health and education. She is currently working on tracking and analyzing the changes in malaria cases and rates under the mentorship of Dr. Tomás León. In her free time, Darpa enjoys cooking, traveling with her family, and playing with her dog at the beach.

Email: darpa.anireddy@berkeley.edu

Ashley Zhang

Ashley is a sophomore studying Computer Science and Statistics. She is working on creating data analysis pipelines for mosquito gene drive simulations under the mentorship of Dr. Héctor Sánchez. In her free time, Ashley likes trying different workouts on Youtube, baking, and finding new songs on Spotify.

Email: ashley_zhang@berkeley.edu

Lab alumni

Sean Wu, PhD (UC Berkeley, PhD Epidemiology & DE Computational Biology): PhD student, 2015-2020
Tomás León, PhD (UC Berkeley, PhD Environmental Health Sciences): Postdoc, 2018-2020
Thien-An Ha (UC Berkeley, MPH Epidemiology & Biostatistics): MPH thesis student, 2019-2020
Hao Wang (UC Berkeley, MA Biostatistics): Graduate researcher, 2020
Priscilla Zhang (UC Berkeley, Chemistry & Data Science major): Undergraduate researcher, 2020
Daniel López (UC Berkeley, Molecular & Cell Biology major): Undergraduate researcher, 2020
Gillian Chu (UC Berkeley, Computer Science & Bioengineering major): Undergraduate researcher, 2018-2020
Maya Shen (UC Berkeley, Computer Science major): Undergraduate researcher, 2018-2020
Victor Ferman, PhD (Tecnológico de Monterrey, Mexico): Postdoc, 2018-2019
Rodrigo Careaga (Tecnológico de Monterrey, Mexico, Computer Science major): Visiting graduate researcher, 2019
Yi Li (Ohio State University, Statistics major): Visiting undergraduate researcher, 2018-2019
Sarafina Smith (UC Berkeley, Computer Science major): Undergraduate researcher, 2018-2019
Yunwen Ji (McGill University, Canada, Computer Science & Biology major): Visiting undergraduate researcher, 2019
Sejal Mohata (SRM Institute of Science and Technology, India, Computer Sciences major): Undergraduate researcher, 2019
Joshua Yeung (UC Berkeley, Computer Science major): Undergraduate researcher, 2019
Biyonka Liang (UC Berkeley, Statistics major): Undergraduate researcher, 2017-2019
Samson Kiware, PhD (Research Scientist, Ifakara Health Institute, Tanzania): Wellcome Trust postdoc fellow, 2015-2018
Benjamín Valdés Aguirre, PhD (Tecnológico de Monterrey, Mexico, Computer Science): Visiting teaching faculty, 2018
Graham Northrup (UC Berkeley, PhD Computational Biology): Graduate researcher, 2018
Qinlong Jing, PhD (Sun Yat-sen University, China, PhD Epidemiology & Medical Statistics): Visiting graduate researcher, 2017-2018
Partow Imani (UC Berkeley, PhD Biostatistics): Graduate researcher, 2017-2018
Suzanne Dufault (UC Berkeley, PhD Biostatistics): Graduate researcher, 2017-2018
Sabrina Wong (UC Berkeley, Applied Mathematics major): Undergraduate researcher, 2017-2018
Shaina Desai (UC Berkeley, Public Health major): Undergraduate researcher, 2017-2018
Aiden Baek (UC Berkeley, Public Health major): Undergraduate researcher, 2017-2018
Chloe Tarrasch (UC Berkeley, Statistics major): Undergraduate researcher, 2016-2017
Lina Montoya (UC Berkeley, MA Biostatistics): Graduate researcher, 2016
Jaclyn Guerrero (UC Berkeley, MPH Epidemiology & Biostatistics): MPH thesis student, 2015-2016
Hannah Sumiko Daly (UC Berkeley, Public Health major): Undergraduate researcher, 2015
Raíra Marotta (Escola Nacional de Ciências Estatísticas, Brazil, Statistics major): Visiting undergraduate researcher, 2015