Oluwafemi (Femi) Balogun, MBBS, MPH
Dr. Femi Balogun currently works on exploring novel predictive methods for early diagnosis of deteriorating state for neurocritical conditions. He holds a master’s degree in public health (with a major in epidemiology and biostatistics) from Boston University and a medical degree from the University of Ilorin, Nigeria. In his free time, Femi likes to go cycling, take road trips, and visit family and friends.
Daniel DiGiacomo MD, MPH
Dr. Daniel DiGiacomo is a clinical and research fellow in allergy and immunology at MGH. He joined the CTEU in July 2021 and is mentored by Dr. Hamed Khalili. He received his MD from Tulane University School Of Medicine, MPH in epidemiology from Columbia University, and completed his residency in pediatrics at Children’s National Medical Center. His research interests focus on using inborn errors of immunity as a model to predict treatment responsiveness in refractory inflammatory bowel diseases.
Connor M. Geraghty, PhD
Dr. Connor Geraghty is a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow under Drs. Andrew Chan and David Drew in the CTEU at Massachusetts General Hospital and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Department of Epidemiology. Connor earned his PhD in Nutrition from The Ohio State University where he studied prostate chemoprevention mechanisms of the dietary phytochemical lycopene. Connor's research focus aims centers on the role of pharmaceuticals, diet, and nutrition for chemoprevention with a particular interest in the role of the microbiome during cancer promotion or prevention.
Kayla Hartjes, MD
Dr. Kayla Hartjes is a clinical and research fellow in pediatric gastroenterology at MGH. Her research mentors are Dr. Tracey Simon and Dr. Raymond Chung. Her research interests focus on pediatric NAFLD. She received her MD from University of Massachusetts Medical School. She plans to go on to be a pediatric transplant hepatologist and work in academic medicine.
Takuma Higurashi, MD, PhD
Dr. Higurashi is a post-doctoral research fellow in the CTEU. He received his Medical Degree and Doctor of Philosophy at Yokohama City University (YCU) . He specialized endoscopic procedures, especially endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD). His research focuses on prevention and survivorship of colorectal cancer.
Xinwei Hua, Ph.D., MPH
Dr. Xinwei Hua is Research Fellow at MGH CTEU mentored by Dr. Hamed Khalili. Her current research interest is the interplay of environmental factors and molecular characteristics in the pathogenesis of inflammatory bowel disease.
She is a trained molecular epidemiologist and received her MPH from Emory University and her doctoral degree from the University of Washington and the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. Her previous research centers around inflammation and colorectal cancer survivorship.
Ming-ming He, MD
Dr. Ming-ming He is a postdoc in Dr. Mingyang Song’s group. She is an attending medical doctor from the Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center (SYSUCC), specializing in gastrointestinal (GI) cancer, both diagnosis / treatment and research, as well as a collaborative, studious medical oncologist with a strong medical background, passionate about cancer epidemiology, and translating cancer research into cancer prevention and control.
Minsik Kim, BS, MS, PhD
Minsik is a postdoctoral researcher in the Lai lab and CTEU. He graduated with his BS, MS, and PhD degree at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST). During his prior postdoctoral fellowship, he became fascinated by the microbiome when studying how microalgae treatment of wastewater reduces pathogenic bacteria through competitive microbe-microbe interactions. On holidays, he loves riding something with wheels such as bikes, cars, Segways, and skateboards.ol.
Chun-Han Lo, MD, MPH
Dr. Chun-Han Lo is a postdoctoral research fellow at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and MGH. He received his medical degree at Chung Shan Medical University, Taichung, Taiwan in 2017 and subsequently obtained his MPH degree at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health where he currently works under the joint mentorship of Dr. Andrew Chan, Dr. Mingyang Song and Dr. Ashwin N. Ananthakrishnan. His research focuses on utilizing large prospective cohorts to determine the influence of dietary pattern, lifestyle factors, and underlying diseases on the risk of developing colorectal cancer/polyps and inflammatory bowel disease.
Emily Walsh Lopes, MD
Emily Walsh Lopes is a current third-year general gastroenterology fellow at MGH. She completed undergraduate training in chemical engineering at the University of Florida and medical training at New York University School of Medicine. She completed internal medicine residency training at MGH and was Chief Resident for the medicine residency program for the 2018-2019 academic year. She completed clinical research training through the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health's Program in Clinical Effectiveness.
Dr. Lopes will be pursuing a sub-specialty fellowship year in inflammatory bowel disease at MGH after completion of her general GI fellowship. She is currently mentored by Dr. Hamed Khalili in the CTEU, and has an interest in how dietary, metabolic and genetic factors influence the development and course of inflammatory bowel disease.
Raaj Mehta, MD
Dr. Raaj Mehta is a clinical and research fellow in gastroenterology at MGH. He is mentored by Dr. Andrew Chan. His research interests lie at the intersection of epidemiology, microbiology, and immunology. He received an AB from Princeton University and an MD from Harvard University. He was a Fulbright scholar to Ecuador from 2010 to 2011 and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Medical Research Fellow from 2014 to 2015. He plans to be an academic gastroenterologist.
Georgios Polychronidis MD, Dr.med, M.Sc.
Dr. Georgios Polychronidis is a postdoctoral research fellow in the Department of Epidemiology in the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. He is mentored by Dr. Mingyang Song. He graduated from the University of Ioannina Medical School and after joining the Heidelberg Transplantation Center for a research fellowship he completed his general surgery residency at the Department of General, Visceral and Transplant Surgery at the University Hospital Heidelberg. During his training he was a research scientist at the Study Center of the German Surgical Society and studied clinical trial management at the Beuth University of Applied Sciences. His research is mainly focused on evidence-based surgery and liver disease. Dr. Polychronidis has been awarded a two-year research fellowship from the German Research Foundation (DFG) to investigate the link between liver disease and colorectal neoplasia.
Eric Przybyszewski, MD
Dr. Eric Przybyszewski is a clinical and research fellow in gastroenterology at MGH.He received a BS from Cornell University and an MD from Columbia University.He was a House Officer at MGH where he completed his internal medicine residency.He completed clinical research training through the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health's Program in Clinical Effectiveness. His research interests are in the coagulation changes associated with chronic liver disease.He plans to be an academic transplant hepatologist.
Magdalena Sevilla, PhD
Magdalena Sevilla is a postdoctoral researcher in Dr. Alissa Manning’s Lab. She received her master’s and PhD degree in Science at National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). Magdalena is passionate about solving population health problems related to the highly prevalent metabolic diseases, particularly type 2 diabetes and its interaction with obesity and environmental factors. Her current research interest is in using mathematical models and complex biostatistics methods to integrate genetic, metabolomic, and environmental factors to understand the molecular mechanisms that underlie the risk to develop type 2 diabetes.
Michaela Tracey, MD
Dr. Michaela Tracey is a clinical fellow in Pediatric Gastroenterology at Boston Children's Hospital and a research fellow in the Harvard-wide Pediatric Health Services Research Program. She joined the CTEU in August 2021 and is mentored by Dr. Hamed Khalili. Her research focuses on social determinants of health and outcomes in inflammatory bowel disease. She received her MD from the University of Massachusetts Medical School and completed her residency in pediatrics in the Boston Combined Residency Program in Pediatrics, based at Children's Hospital and Boston Medical Center.
Hannah VanEvery, PhD
Dr. Hannah VanEvery is a postdoctoral research fellow in the CTEU at Massachusetts General Hospital and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Department of Nutrition. She is co-mentored by Drs. Long Nguyen, Andrew Chan, and Curtis Huttenhower. Dr. VanEvery earned her PhD in Nutritional Sciences and Clinical and Translational Science from The Pennsylvania State University where she studied dietary and metabolic risk factors for rheumatoid arthritis. Hannah’s current research centers on the role of dietary factors and gut microbial communities in inflammatory bowel disease.
Liang Wang, MD
Dr. Liang Wang is a gastrointestinal surgeon from the First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, China. He joined the CTEU at MGH and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in 2018 as a research fellow under the mentorship of Dr. Mingyang Song. His research interests include risk factors of colorectal cancer and the relationship between biomarker of fatty acids and colorectal serrated polyp and conventional adenoma.
Yiqing Wang, PhD
Yiqing Wang is a research fellow in the CTEU, working in Dr. Andrew Chan's research group. She received a BS in Biochemistry from the University of Virginia and a PhD in Nutrition Epidemiology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her current research interests include the roles of diet, genetics, metabolomics, and gut microbiome in the pathogenesis of colorectal cancer, inflammatory bowel disease, and cardiovascular diseases.
Kenny Westerman, PhD
Kenny Westerman is a research fellow in the CTEU, interested in developing improved approaches to personalized nutrition using genomic and bioinformatic methods. He received his PhD in Biochemical and Molecular Nutrition from Tufts University, and is now a part of the Manning Laboratory, where his work involves the development of software for large-scale gene-environment interaction analysis and its application in uncovering novel gene-diet interactions. When not in the lab, he can often be found salsa dancing, playing the piano, or bargain hunting at Whole Foods.
Robert (Rob) Wilechansky, MD
Dr. Rob Wilechansky is a current gastroenterology fellow at MGH and is mentored by Dr. Tracey Simon and Dr. Raymond Chung. Rob graduated from Williams College and received his MD from Columbia University. He completed residency training and Chief Residency at Boston University Medical Center. He is a former AASLD Emerging Liver Scholar and Ambassador and plans to pursue transplant hepatology fellowship in the future. Rob’s research interests lie in the epidemiology of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, dietary influences, and factors underlying progression to cirrhosis.
Keming Yang, MD, PhD
Dr. Keming Yang is a postdoctoral research fellow co-mentored by Dr. Andrew Chan, Dr. Yin Cao, and Dr. Kyle Staller in the CTEU at MGH. She received her medical degree in clinical medicine from Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, China, PhD in epidemiology from Indiana University, Indianapolis, IN, and prior research training from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA. Her current research interests focus on environmental factors, molecular markers, as well as their interplay in the pathogenesis of chronic digestive diseases and colorectal cancer using data from large cohorts and trials.