Students

Devanshi Patel

Devanshi Patel

Dr. Lindsay Farrer’s Lab, Biomedical Genetics
Ph.D. in Bioinformatics, Boston University, Boston, MA (2015- present)
M.S. in Bioinformatics, Boston University, Boston, MA (2014)
B.S. in Biopsychology, Tufts University, Medford, MA (2012)

Research Interests

Using genetics, genomics, bioinformatics, and machine learning to further understand Alzheimer’s Disease

Selected Publications

· Patel D, Mez J, Vardarajan BN,…, Farrer, L. (2019) Association of Rare Coding Mutations With Alzheimer Disease and Other Dementias Among Adults of European Ancestry. JAMA Netw Open. 2019;2(3):e191350. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2019.1350

· Bis, J., Jian, X., Kunkle, B., Patel, D., Farrer, L. (2018) Whole Exome Sequencing Study Identifies Novel Rare and Common Alzheimer’s-Associated Variants Involved in Immune Response and Transcriptional Regulation. Molecular Psychiatry.

· Cox, J. W.+, Patel, D.+, Chung, J., Zhu, C., Lent, S., Fisher, V.,  Zhang, X. (2018). An efficient analytic approach in genome-wide identification of methylation quantitative trait loci response to fenofibrate treatment. BMC Proceedings, 12(S9). doi:10.1186/s12919-018-0152-7

+Co-first authors

· Bevilacqua, J., Hesse, A., Cormier, B., Davey, J., Patel, D., Shankar, K., & Reddi, H. V. (2017). Clinical utility of a 377 gene custom next-generation sequencing epilepsy panel. Journal of Genetics, 96(4), 681-685. doi:10.1007/s12041-017-0791-x


Rebecca Panitch

Dr. Lindsay Farrer’s Lab, Biomedical Genetics
Ph.D. in Bioinformatics, Boston University
B.S. in Neuroscience, Brandeis University

Research Interests

My research primarily focuses on creating APOE specific AD profiles by investigating different multi-omic data. Some of the data I work with includes  RNA-seq, chIP-seq, methylation arrays, and whole-genome sequencing, and I focus on integrating different levels of omic data to find how these elements interact. 

Selected Publications

Ellis S. E., Panitch R., West A. B., & Arking D. E. Transcriptome Analysis of Cortical Tissue Reveals Shared Sets of Down-Regulated Genes in Autism and Schizophrenia. Transl. Psychiatry 6, e817 (2016)


Tong Tong

Dr. Lindsay Farrer’s Lab, Biomedical Genetics
Ph.D. in Bioinformatics, Boston University, Boston, MA (2020 – Present)
M.S. in Bioinformatics, Boston University, Boston, MA (2018 – 2020)


Research Interests

Identification of biomarkers for Alzheimer’s Disease through statistical, genetic, and genomic approaches.


Nicholas O’Neill

Ph.D. Candidate, Boston University
B.S. Biochemistry, Boston College (2013)

Research Interests:
– Single-Cell sequencing analysis
– Alzheimer’s disease progression
– Gene regulation and epigenetics

Selected Publications:
– Jadhav U, Saxena M, O’Neill NK, et al. “Dynamic Reorganization of Chromatin Accessibility Signatures during Dedifferentiation of Secretory Precursors into Lgr5+ Intestinal Stem Cells.” Cell Stem Cell 2017;21(1):65‐77

– Saxena M, Roman AKS, O’Neill NK, Sulahian R, Jadhav U, Shivdasani RA. “Transcription factor-dependent ‘anti-repressive’ mammalian enhancers exclude H3K27me3 from extended genomic domains.” Genes Dev. 2017; 31(23-24):2391‐2404.

– Jadhav U, Nalapareddy K, Saxena M, O’Neill NK, et al. “Acquired Tissue-Specific Promoter Bivalency Is a Basis for PRC2 Necessity in Adult Cells.” Cell 2016; 165:1389-1400

– Cejas P, Li L, O’Neill NK, Duarte M, et al. “Chromatin immunoprecipitation from fixed clinical tissues reveals tumor-specific enhancer profiles.” Nat Med. 2016; 22:685-691


Zhuorui Sun

Prof. Xiaoling Zhang’s lab, Data Analyst
M.S. in Bioinformatics, Boston University, Boston, MA (2021-2022)
M.S. in Biomedical Engineering, Tufts University, Medford, MA (2018-2020)B.S. in Biomedical Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China (2013-2017)
Research Interests
Focusing on CircRNAs and circular-transcriptome-wide analysisUsing bioinformatics tools and machine learning to further understand Alzheimer’s Disease in gene level
Selected Publications
Ma F*, Yang L*, Sun Z, Chen J, Rui X, Glass Z, Xu Q. Neurotransmitter-derived lipidoids (NT-lipidoids) for enhanced brain delivery through intravenous injection. Science advances. 2020 Jul 1;6(30):eabb4429.

Marlene Tejeda

Dr. Lindsay Farrer’s Lab, Biomedical GeneticsPh.D. in Bioinformatics, Boston University, Boston, MA (2019- present)B.S. in Biology, University of Massachusetts Boston, Boston, MA (2011-2015)
Research Interests
Using genetics, bioinformatics, and machine learning to understand the association between microbes and Alzheimer’s Disease.

Olowatosin Olayinka
Work with Dr. Lindsay Farrer and Dr. Xiaoling Zhang
PhD Bioinformatics (2020-present)
BS Biology UNC Chapel Hill (2016-2020)
Research Interests:  
Use of statistical methods to uncover transcriptional mediators of Alzheimer’s disease pathology.