
Doug Kwon
Principal Investigator - dkwon@mgh.harvard.edu

Seth Bloom
Postdoctoral Fellow - smbloom@mgh.harvard.edu

Upasana Das Adhikari
Postdoctoral Fellow - udasadhikari@mgh.harvard.edu
Upasana joined the Kwon Lab as a postdoctoral fellow in December 2018. Before moving to Boston, she was a Signgene Fellow doing her Ph.D. in a collaborative project between the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Max Delbruck Centre of Molecular Medicine in Berlin. During her Ph.D., she studied the gut epithelial stem cell regeneration addressing the crosstalk between reserve and active stem cells. This led her to become fascinated by the three amigos of the gut: the epithelium, Gut Associated Lymphoid Tissue, and the microbiome. In the Kwon Lab, Upasana will study the cause of the misbalance of these interactions during HIV progression to halt the viral replication in the gut reservoir. In her free time, she loves to dance salsa and bachata!

Fatima Hussain
Postdoctoral Fellow - fhussain3@mgh.harvard.edu
Fatima joined the Kwon Lab as a Research Fellow in May 2020 to study the female genital tract microbiome from an evolutionary ecology perspective. For her PhD, she studied bacteriophage-driven evolution of marine microbes with Martin Polz at MIT. Her previous work focused on near-term resistance evolution to lytic phages in bacteria of the genus Vibrio, and the role of lysogenic phages in shaping Vibrio genomic diversity. She applies the same framework in her postdoctoral work to determine how ecological interactions, both phage-bacteria and bacteria-bacteria, drive the intra-species evolutionary dynamics of Lactobacillus populations in the vagina. Ultimately, she aims to use her research to design ecologically-informed microbial therapeutics for women’s health. Prior to becoming a microbiologist, Fatima studied Environmental Engineering and Women’s and Gender Studies at MIT and Stanford. In her free time, she enjoys hosting dinner parties, culturing sourdough, yoga, and gardening.

Joshua Gammon
Postdoctoral Fellow - jgammon1@mgh.harvard.edu

Benjamin Read
Postdoctoral Fellow - bread1@mgh.harvard.edu
Ben joined the Kwon lab as a postdoctoral fellow in July 2021. He completed his Ph.D. in medical engineering at MIT, where his research focused on engineering nanoparticle antigens to enable innate immune recognition and directed accumulation within draining lymph nodes to improve immune responses. In the Kwon Lab, Ben works to elucidate the immunological changes that occur in the female genital tract following HIV infection and how these changes evolve over time. He aims to utilize his research to inform the development of the next generation of interventions to prevent and treat HIV infection. In his free time, Ben enjoys running, reading, and playing board games with friends.

Jiawu Xu
Lab Manager - jxu25@mgh.harvard.edu
Joseph Elsherbini
Data Scientist/Bioinformatician - jelsherbini@mgh.harvard.edu
Joseph joined the Kwon Lab in 2021 as the Bioinformatician and Data Scientist for the lab. He did his PhD in the MIT Microbiology program working in Martin Polz’s lab on the temporal dynamics of closely related microbes from the coastal ocean. In the Kwon Lab he is working on making existing datasets in the lab easier for everyone to use and creating pipelines to do common tasks in the lab in a reproducible way. When he’s not supporting research projects in the lab, he is usually making coffee, watering his plants, or scouring the internet for new guitar pedals.
Meilin Zhu
Graduate Student - mzhu@broadinstitute.org
Meilin Zhu is a PhD candidate and NSF GRFP fellow at MIT in Biological Engineering, co-advised with Dr. Paul Blainey. She completed her bachelor’s degree in Biochemistry at Arizona State University, where she developed point-of-care diagnostic tools for HPV-associated cervical cancer screening in low resource settings. In graduate school, Meilin decided to explore the world of microbes, with projects including, 1) developing high throughput screening methods for discovering new antibiotic potentiators against gram negative ESKAPE pathogens, and 2) understanding how bacterial metabolism in the female genital tract can be leveraged to rationally design and shift microbiota compositions. In her free time, Meilin can be found at the park chasing after her crazy corgi or trying out new restaurants on Newbury St.

Blythe Gulley
Project Manager - bbgulley@mgh.harvard.edu
Blythe Gulley joined the Kwon Lab as Staff Assistant in July 2020. She received her B.A. in English & Comparative Literature from UNC-Chapel Hill, where she was involved with The Carolina Quarterly and the UNC Institute of Politics. In 2018, she co-curated an exhibition for her research seminar: “Reconstructing Frankenstein’s Monster: Mary Shelley’s World in Print.” When she’s not at the lab, Blythe can be found wandering around museums, reading a good book, or cheering on UNC’s basketball team!

Tess Brunner
Research Technician - tbrunner@mgh.harvard.edu
Tess Brunner joined the Kwon Lab as a Research Technician in June 2021.
Suzanne Carpe Elías
Research Technician - SCarpeElias@mgh.harvard.edu
Suzanne had the honor of joining the Kwon Lab as a Research Technician in July 2022 to support the work of postdoctoral fellows Ben Read and Josh Gammon. Born and raised in El Salvador, she firsthand experienced the devastating effects of infectious diseases at a young age. Suzanne received a B.S. in Biology and French from Trinity College, where she researched the role of the caudal gene in Tribolium castaneum development. She also studied the long-term effects of COVID-19 at Saint Francis Hospital and examined an anti-IL-1β and anti-PD1 immunotherapy for metastatic pancreatic cancer at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. These experiences led her to become fascinated by infectious diseases and immunology. When she is not in lab, she can be found reading, running around Boston, or traveling the world!
Aditi Kannan
Research Technician - akannan5@mgh.harvard.edu
Aditi joined the Kwon Lab as a Research Technician in July 2022. She received her B.A. from Wellesley College where she majored in Biochemistry and minored in Music. While at Wellesley, her research focused mainly on microbial ecology and human gut microbiology. In the Kwon Lab, she aims to study the vaginal microbiome and microbe-host interactions within the vagina under the mentorship of Dr. Fatima Hussain and Dr. Upasana Das Adhikari. Outside of the lab, Aditi can be found playing the violin or listening to music, walking around the city, or reading a novel!

Sinaye Ngcapu
Postdoctoral Fellow - sinaye.ngcapu@caprisa.org

Nondumiso Xulu
Research Technician - nxulu@mgh.harvard.edu

Suuba Demby
Undergraduate Researcher - suubademby@college.harvard.edu
Suuba joined the Kwon Lab in October of 2020. She is currently studying Molecular and Cellular Biology at Harvard College, with a minor in Energy and Environment. Prior to joining the lab, Suuba spent five years living overseas in Malawi and has worked on public health and policy-based projects in Sierra Leone for the past two years. In the Kwon Lab, Suuba is studying the female genital tract microbiome from an evolutionary ecology perspective under the mentorship of Dr. Fatima Hussain. Outside of the lab, Suuba enjoys photography, biking, and working as an EMT.
Honorary Lab Members:

Boomer
Honorary Kwon Lab Member - boomer@kwonlab.org
Shayna and Jamila Hussain-Blank
Honorary Kwon Lab Members
Shayna joined the Kwon Lab in the fall of 2020. Jamila followed suit in early 2022!























