Meet the Team
Come build with us. We are actively recruiting.
Principal investigator
Sounak Sahu, DPhil
Assistant Professor, NYU Grossman School of Medicine.
PhD: University of Oxford, UK (2014-2019)
Postdoc: National Cancer Institute, NIH (2019-2025)
Research Associate
Alexander Leong
B.S. University of Toronto (2025)
Alex graduated from the University of Toronto in 2025 where he studied molecular genetics. During his undergraduate he studied developmental genetics using both zebrafish and C.elegans as models. Alex is interested in functional genomics for precision cancer medicine. Outside of the lab, Alex is a keen triathlete, choir singer, and devoted ESL teacher.
NYU Vilcek PhD student
Jane Chea
B.S. University of Washington (2023)
Jane graduated from the University of Washington in 2023 with a B.S. in Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology. After graduating, she worked in the Sancak Lab investigating how mitochondrial calcium regulated branched-chain amino acid metabolism in Fibrolamellar Carcinoma. Now, she is a NYU Vilcek PhD student studying the link between developmental and cancer biology through the lens of mammary gland development and breast cancer.
NYU Vilcek PhD Student
Ruiyi Shirley Song
B.A. Smith College (2025)
Shirley received her B.A. in Neuroscience from Smith College in 2025, where she studied bioelectric signaling and Timothy syndrome–associated CACNA1C mutations in zebrafish embryonic development. She is interested in investigating how developmental processes at cellular and molecular level contribute to our understanding of disease
Postdoctoral fellow
Gaurab Ghosh, PhD
B.S. Presidency University, Kolkata, India (2018)
M.S. PhD Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER-Kolkata) (2026)
Gaurab was born and raised in Kolkata, India. His doctoral research focused on how steroid hormones drive the transition of epithelial cells into non-professional phagocytes, using Drosophila oogenesis as a model. His research interests lie in understanding signaling cross-talk during development and disease. Outside the lab, he enjoys watching football, cricket, and lawn tennis, and hopes to travel across Europe with friends.
Bioinformatics expert and data analyst
Mélissa Galloux
M.S. University of Aix-Marseille, France
Melissa hold an engineering degree in biotechnology and bioinformatics, and work as a computational biologist with a background in both biology and computer science. Her expertise spans genomic and transcriptomic data analysis, statistical modeling, and visualization.
Undergraduate student
Cindy Xinyue Yu
Cindy was born in China and grew up in both Vancouver and China. She is currently an undergrad studying Biology and Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering in NYU. She is interested in research, especially organoids, but is also open to exploring other areas in genetics and developmental biology. In her free time, she enjoys cooking and snowboarding.