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Ellinor LabEllinor Lab
Using genetics to identify new pathways and
therapeutic targets for cardiovascular diseases
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    • Our Team
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Our Team

Our Team

Patrick T. Ellinor, MD, PhD

Patrick T. Ellinor, MD, PhD

Director, Cardiac Arrhythmia Service Massachusetts General Hospital <br />Professor of Medicine Harvard Medical School <br />Associate Member, The Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT

Director, Cardiovascular Disease Initiative, Director, Precision Cardiology Laboratory, and Institute Member, The Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT; Director of the Cardiac Arrhythmia Service, Massachusetts General Hospital; Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School

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Although I was born in a suburb of Boston, I was raised in Cincinnati and graduated from the University of Cincinnati with a degree in Biology. I then moved from the Midwest to Northern California to attend Stanford University for medical and graduate school. My doctoral work focused on the on the structure and function of calcium channels in the laboratory of Dr. Richard Tsien. I moved to Boston in 1996 for medical residency at Brigham and Women’s Hospital followed by fellowship training in cardiology and cardiac electrophysiology at Massachusetts General Hospital. In 2001, I joined the faculty at MGH and split my time between research and the clinical care of patients with arrhythmias.

I have always been intrigued with human genetics, so my research lab began with an initial focus on trying to identify the genetic basis of early-onset atrial fibrillation. This work in turn led the establishment of the AFGen Consortium, an international group of investigators studying the genetics of atrial fibrillation. In the ensuing years, we have led large-scale genetic analyses for atrial fibrillation and many other cardiovascular diseases. Our work now spans a wide range of topics centered on cardiovascular disease genetics, mechanisms, single cell sequencing, and therapeutic development.

Outside of work, I enjoy spending time with our two boys, our cute, but rather clueless dog, reading, and working as a part-time contractor. As you will see below, I am fortunate to work with an amazing team that is smarter, better looking and all round more interesting…

Research Scientists

Mostafa Al-Alusi

Mostafa Al-Alusi

Mostafa’s research interests include investigating the use of wearable devices in the diagnosis and management of cardiac disease, and applying…

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Mark Chaffin, MS

Mark Chaffin, MS

Staff Scientist

Mark Chaffin focuses his efforts on applying various computational methods to dissect cellular diversity in cardiac tissue and study how this relates to disease.

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Stephen Flemming, PhD

Stephen Flemming, PhD

Staff Scientist

Stephen works on single-cell RNA sequencing data, and uses machine learning techniques and probabilistic modeling to develop principled approaches to data analysis that can be run on cloud compute architecture.

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Vera Koledova, M.D. Ph.D

Vera Koledova, M.D. Ph.D

Vera Koledova focuses on genetic regulation in cancer stem cells and the potential use of iPSCs differentiated into cardiomyocytes to advance our knowledge for regenerative medicine and cardiac repair post-myocardial infarction.

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Vagner Rigaud

Vagner Rigaud

Vagner has 15+ years of research experience from basic science to clinical trials and has been recognized with several awards…

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Bridget Simonson, PhD

Bridget Simonson, PhD

Staff Scientist

Bridget is working on identifying new therapeutic targets for cardiovascular disease.

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Carmen Diaz Verdugo, PhD

Carmen Diaz Verdugo, PhD

Carmen Diaz Verdugo is a Computational Scientist in the Cardiovascular Disease Initiative and Precision Cardiology Lab of the Broad Institute of…

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Jon Willcox

Jon Willcox

Jon Willcox is a computational scientist working to identify genetic factors associated with cardiovascular diseases. He received his PhD in…

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Xiaofei Yin, Ph.D.

Xiaofei Yin, Ph.D.

Research Scientist

Xiaofei is working as part of the Broad-Bayer Collaboration to support an early drug development program.

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Postdoctoral Fellows

Ezim Ajufo

Ezim Ajufo

Ezim is a third-year general cardiology fellow at BWH.

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Zeina Al Sayed

Zeina Al Sayed

Postdoctoral Fellow

Zeina's work focuses on cardiac arrhythmia/stem cells.

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Nobuyuki Enzan

Nobuyuki Enzan

Postdoctoral Fellow

Nobuyuki is a Cardiologist from Japan. He graduated with a MD from Kyushu University School of Medicine. After completing two…

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Akl Fahed, MD, MPH

Akl Fahed, MD, MPH

Postdoctoral Fellow

Akl is currently studying genomic risk prediction in coronary artery disease, and is interested in improving prediction, prevention and treatment of coronary heart disease by harnessing genomic data and deep phenotyping in large biobanks.

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Matthew C. Hill, PhD

Matthew C. Hill, PhD

Matthew C. Hill is a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Dr. Patrick Ellinor in the in the Cardiovascular Disease…

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Heather Jameson, PhD

Heather Jameson, PhD

Postdoctoral Fellow

Heather has focused her research efforts on elucidating the functional significance of genes associated with atrial fibrillation.

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Min Seo Kim, MD

Min Seo Kim, MD

Min Seo is a postdoctoral research fellow. He completed MD from the College of Medicine at Korea University in 2020.…

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Satoshi Koyama, Ph.D

Satoshi Koyama, Ph.D

Postdoctoral Fellow

Satoshi is a physician-scientist specializing in cardiovascular diseases. His research interest is in elucidating the causes and modifiers of cardiovascular diseases utilizing the biomedical large-scaled dataset generated by high-throughput assay and its clinical applications for precision medicine.

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Victor Nauffal, MD

Victor Nauffal, MD

Victor Nauffal, MD joined the Ellinor lab in 2020. His research is focused on examining the genetic basis of cardiac…

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Avanthi Raghavan, MD

Avanthi Raghavan, MD

Avanthi is studying the functional significance of genes associated with vascular disease.

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Keisuke Usuda, MD, PhD

Keisuke Usuda, MD, PhD

Keisuke is a board-certified cardiologist and electrophysiologist from Japan, with a career dedicated to the treatment and research of arrhythmias.…

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Ling Xiao, PhD

Ling Xiao, PhD

Postdoctoral Fellow

Ling obtained her PhD in pharmacology and therapeutics from McGill University, Canada. Her research focused on the molecular regulation of…

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Collaborating Scientists

Sean Jurgens, BSc

Sean Jurgens, BSc

Sean is an affiliated scientist at the Broad Institute, who works with the Ellinor lab to understand the genetic underpinnings of…

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Frederick Kinyua, PhD

Frederick Kinyua, PhD

Postdoctoral Fellow

Fred’s research work is in the genetics of cardiovascular disease, and his interests include data mining, statistical modeling and machine learning in genomics.

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Tetsushi Nakao, MD, PhD

Tetsushi Nakao, MD, PhD

Postdoctoral Fellow

Tetsushi Nakao aims to integrate conventional and developing methods including in vivo, in vitro, genetics or new sequencing technologies to promote understanding of the mechanisms which leads to developing therapies of cardiovascular diseases.

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Gavin Schnitzler, PhD

Gavin Schnitzler, PhD

Staff Scientist

Gavin is currently spearheading an effort to develop methods to much more rapidly connect noncoding genetic variants associated with coronary artery disease to target genes and cellular mechanisms.

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Lu-Chen Weng, PhD

Lu-Chen Weng, PhD

Postdoctoral Fellow

Lu-Chen is a senior postdoctoral fellow in the Lubitz laboratory and she has collaborated with the Ellinor lab on a number of projects over the years.

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Visiting Scientists

Research Associates

Maiwen Amegadjie

Maiwen Amegadjie

Maiwen just graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign this past spring. She is from Chicago and is a…

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Patricio Flores

Patricio Flores

Patricio graduated from the University of Vermont with a B.S in Microbiology where he studied the role of environmental effectors…

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Yasmine Guedira

Yasmine Guedira

Yasmine is interested in using genomic techniques to study diseases.  

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Sakin Kirti

Sakin Kirti

HI! My name is Sakin and I recently graduated with a Computer Science degree from Case Western Reserve University. I am excited…

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Alex Mandia

Alex Mandia

Alex Mandia is excited to have joined the CVDi team. He recently graduated with a B.S. in Biology from Lehigh…

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Jessica Morris

Jessica Morris

Jessica (most people call her Jess) is so excited to be joining everyone at the Broad! She has spent the…

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Nicole Toppses

Nicole Toppses

Hi everyone! My name is Nicole Toppses. I recently graduated from Wheaton College MA with a BA in Biochemistry. I…

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Graduate Students

Leonoor Wijdeveld

Leonoor Wijdeveld

Leonoor (or Leo for short) is a MD-PhD candidate at the Amsterdam UMC, the Netherlands, on the topic of Genetic,…

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Yesh Datar

Yesh Datar

Yesh is a medical student at Boston University and is pursuing a research year through the Sarnoff Cardiovascular Research Fellowship.…

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Management

Diane Pillsbury

Diane Pillsbury

Executive Assistant to Dr. Ellinor

Diane is the Executive Assistant to Dr. Ellinor.

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Keenan Holmes

Keenan Holmes

Project Manager

Keenan joined the Ellinor Lab in 2019, working in project management and coordination.

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Erika Kovacs-Bogdan, PhD

Erika Kovacs-Bogdan, PhD

Administration

Erika is the Alliance Manager of the Broad-Bayer Cardiovascular Collaboration

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Marisa Shea, RN

Marisa Shea, RN

Administration

Marisa coordinates all aspects of the MGH AF Study.

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Maddie Shepardson

Maddie Shepardson

Maddie is the Administrative Assistant, and supports several alliances at the Broad.

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