Team

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H. Benjamin Larman, Ph.D.
Principal Investigator

Originally from Portland, Maine, Ben earned his B.S. in Engineering Physics and Bioengineering from UC Berkeley in California. He went on to obtain his Ph.D. from Harvard-MIT’s Division of Health Sciences & Technology in the laboratory of Steve Elledge, developing new molecular assays such as “Phage ImmunoPrecipitation Sequencing” (PhIP-Seq), and “ParalleL Analysis of Translated ORFs” (PLATO). He next postdoc’ed with Pete Schultz at The Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, CA, where he worked on high throughput screening methods, including “RNA Annealing, Selection and Ligation sequencing” (RASL-seq). In 2014, Ben started the Laboratory of Precision Immunology in the Pathology Department at Johns Hopkins, within the Division of Immunology. Here, his team develops and deploys massively multiplexed technologies to better understand human immune responses in health and disease states.

Manju Thakar
Antibody Profiling Platform Manager

Manju earned her B.S. in Biology and Chemistry at Osmania University in Hyderabad, India, followed by an M.S. in Biochemistry at Pune University in Pune, India and an M.S. in Biochemistry at Ohio State University. Manju runs the antibody profiling platform for the Larman lab.

Postdoctoral Fellows

Anna Liebhoff, Ph.D.

After her Master’s in Computer Science in 2014, Anna worked at Airbus and then consulted EdTech startups. She then completed a Ph.D. in Systems Biology in Hamburg, Germany, where she became fascinated by the role of the microbiota in human health. Currently she holds a co-appointment in the Larman and Langmead Labs where she explores the gut-phage-immune axis via development of novel algorithms for antibody profiling applications.

Ph.D. Students

Puwanat (“A”) Sangkhapreecha

Originally from Bangkok, Thailand, A earned his BS in Biology and Chemical-Biological Engineering from MIT. As an undergraduate, he worked on bi-specific antibodies. A joined the Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Ph.D. program at Johns Hopkins in 2019. In the Larman lab, A is working on a novel method to study receptor-ligand interactions.

Will Morgenlander

Will earned his B.S. in Physics and Biological Sciences from the University of Notre Dame before entering the Johns Hopkins MD-PhD program. He joined the Biomedical Engineering PhD Program and the Larman Lab in 2020. Will works to advance PhIP-Seq capabilities and develop a new antibody profiling assay while using these technologies to investigate antiviral immune responses.

Wayne Monteiro

Originally from Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Wayne earned his B.Tech. in Chemical Engineering from the National Institute of Technology Karnataka in India. In the Larman lab, Wayne develops new assays to analyze post-translational protein modifications to ultimately discover novel diagnostic and therapeutic modalities.

Alex Luo

Alex grew up in Taipei, Taiwan and moved to the US in 2012. He obtained his B.S. in biology from University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point and M.S. in microbiology from University of Wisconsin-Madison. Alex joined the Pathobiology Ph.D. program and the Larman lab in 2021 and is working on developing multiplexed assays to profile antiviral immunity and is co-advised by Dr. Heba Mostafa.

Vivian Dai

Vivian earned her B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. After completing her Masters Degree in the Larman Lab, she has continued on as a Ph.D. student in the Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Department. In the Larman Lab, Vivian is developing a novel antibody profiling technology.

Scientific Staff

Julia Angkeow

Julia earned her B.A. in Biology and Statistics from Columbia University. In the Larman Lab, she works to characterize humoral immune responses to the enteric microbiota (Angkeow et al, Immunity, 2022). Julia is an aspiring physician-scientist.

Yang Miao

Yang earned her BS degree in Biotechnology from Beijing Normal University in China. After completing her Masters Degree in the Larman Lab, she has continued on as a research technician developing new applications for programmable M13 bacteriophage display.

Interns

Saung Oo (Mary) May

Mary is from Yangon, Myanmar and is currently pursuing her B.S. in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Johns Hopkins University. In the Larman Lab, she is working with Alex on developing multiplexed assays to profile antiviral immunity.

Alumni

  • Peter Liu
  • Asvini Krishnaprakash, M.S.
  • Elizabeth Bertelson, M.S.
  • Miso Na, M.S.
  • Sahana Jayaraman
  • Meng (“Erin”) Hsiao, Ph.D.
  • Raja Venkataraman, Ph.D.
  • Joel Credle, Ph.D.
  • Emily Zhou
  • Ankith Maremanda
  • Stephanie Henson
  • Xuwen (“Alice”) Zheng
  • Jonathan Gunn
  • Daniel Monaco, Ph.D.
  • Janelle Montagne, Ph.D.
  • Divya Mohan, M.S.
  • Brandon Sie
  • Tiezheng Yuan, Ph.D.
  • Sanjay Kottapalli
  • Azaan Wilbon, Ph.D.
  • Daniel Wansley, Ph.D.
  • Chris Itoh, M.D.
  • Muhammad Noon