Steen Laboratory

Lab Members

Current Members

Associated members

• Andrew Briscoe, Dept. of Urology, Children's Hospital Boston
• John Froehlich, Dept. of Urology, Children's Hospital Boston
• Richard Lee, Dept. of Urology, Children's Hospital Boston
• Hui Zhou, Dept. of Urology, Children's Hospital Boston

Current Members

Judith Steen was educated in Africa, N.America and Europe. She studied chemistry and genetics at the University of Toronto. She moved to the University of Southern Denmark to work with Sir Peter Roepstorff, where she experienced mass spectrometry and discovered a world of immediate gratification. Judith loves chocolate and likes walking on the beach (on her hands).

Hanno Steen studied in many places starting at the University of Freiburg, Germany; UMIST, Manchester, UK; ETH, Zurich, Switzerland and the University of Southern Denmark with Matthias Mann. Hanno has his hair cut at Sal's Barbershop in JP. Hanno is a gourmet/and, and loves bikes and rowing!

Saima Ahmed recently joined the Steen Lab with an enthusiasm to learn all about MS. She is primarily working on the LTQ, but hopes to one day master the FT and Orbi as well. She graduated with a B.S. in Biology from Umass Amherst. Whether it be a hike up Mount Sugarloaf, a weekend in the Berkshires, or just some coffee from Rao's, she will find any excuse to revisit the Pioneer Valley and reminisce with her college friends.

Bikem Akten was born in Istanbul, Turkey and moved to the US to pursue graduate research in genetics and neuroscience. A big fan of all things Drosophila, Bikem is currently pursuing a project that interfaces the technical wizardry of the Steen lab with the neurological savvy of the Sahin lab. Having downsized from fruitflies, Bikem now spends her days coaxing her fledgling peptides into the mass spec. She enjoys cooking, dancing, and immunoprecipitation.

Damon Anderson earned a BS in Biochemistry from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and a PhD from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, prior to joining the Steen group in 2008. His research interests center around the critical role(s) of iron in biological systems, and his investigations focus on transport and signaling networks involved in iron uptake and storage. He is currently working on a joint project with Fleming lab focused on the design of MS-based methods for the detection/quantitation of iron biomarkers in mammalian systems.

Stephane Belin, born in Saint-Etienne, France, is a joint postdoctoral fellow in He lab and Steen lab. He earned his PhD at University Claude Bernard Lyon I in the field of molecular biology to study the implication of ribosome biogenesis in physiology and pathological process. Stephane is currently pursuing a project to decipher the mechanism of mTOR mediated axon regeneration. mTOR is a major regulator of translation, the project will focus on the study of modification of the proteome, and particularly the modification of the translation machinery, during activation or inhibition of this pathway.

Alex Kentsis is a Hematology and Oncology fellow at Children's Hospital Boston and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Currently, he is using urine proteomics to study Kawasaki disease, neuroblastoma and Wilms tumor, and using genome-wide RNA interference and protein mass spectrometry to discover and define new treatments for acute myeloid leukemia. He believes that application of advanced molecular technologies and bioinformatics to patient-centered clinical trials will lead to improved ways to diagnose and treat a variety of common and rare diseases. He holds an AB and SM in Biochemistry from the University of Chicago, a PhD in Biophysics from New York University, and an MD from the Mount Sinai School of Medicine. He can be found at http://alexkentsis.net and tweets @oleg8r.

Marc Kirchner earned his Ph.D. from the University of Heidelberg, Germany. His research focuses on Computational Proteomics (CPX), where he develops tailored data analysis algorithms, machine learning approaches and statistical analysis procedures for quantitative mass spectrometry data. Marc is into rock climbing, running, reading and, recently (and more or less successfully), into asian cooking.

Minjeong Kye is a joint postdoctoral fellow in Sahin lab and Steen lab. She earned her PhD at Max-Planck Institute for Experimental Medicine, Goettingen, Germany, after which she moved to Santa Barbara, California for postdoc training -- where she studied miRNA, human stem cell identity, and learning and memory processes in rodent brain. Minjeong's project in the Sahin lab focuses on SMN related microRNA function in axonogenesis. SMN is the major disease-causing gene for Spinal Muscular Atrophy, and SMN deficient neurons show defects in neuritogenesis, including shorter axons. While it is known that SMN plays a role in splicing in the nucleus, the function of cytoplasmic SMN is not yet clear. Her research is therefore focused on proteomic studies on the cytoplasmic function of the SMN complex in neurons.

Joao Paulo is a native New Englander who was born in Pawtucket, RI and attended Brown University, in Providence, RI before joining us at CHB in 2008. He is currently working on a joint project between the Steen and Conwell labs, investigating protein/peptide biomarkers associated with chronic pancreatitis. Joao enjoys reading on the train, his favorite instrument is the nanodrop, and he is sure to show up at any CHB event so long as food (preferably chocolate) is provided free of charge.

John Sauld was born and raised in Port-au-Prince, Haiti and came to the United States as a teen in hopes of furthering his education. As the most recent member of the Steen Lab, John is currently enrolled in a Bachelor of Science program in Biomedical Science and is engaging the world of proteomics with a whole heart and open arms. John's leisure activities include volunteering and mentoring troubled youths (and/or fellow Steen lab members) in his community, playing sports, and spending time with friends and family.

Sasha Singh studied plant genetics for her MSc and biochemistry/crystallography for her PhD at the University of Toronto. Sasha is a big fan of the Toronto Maple Leafs and can become quite irate if they manage to lose more than three consecutive games. Late hours in the lab go by fast when she listens to the games live on the internet. She is scared of icebergs, outerspace and autoclaves.

Peter Warren was born and raised in Western Massachusetts, where he earned a B.A.from Amherst College, and a M.S. in Electrical Engineering, U. Mass/Amherst. In 2004, Peter earned a M.S. in Bioinformatics from Brandeis U., where he developed a love for mass spec proteomics data analysis. After internships at Wyeth Research and Serono, he worked in the Bioinformatics Department of Wyeth Research in Cambridge. He's enjoying the transition from the world of biopharma industry to the research -- and loves diving into mass spec data analysis: identification, quantitation, protein inference, pathway/network identification, and visualizations. Peter's other professional (more or less) is that of musician -- primarily guitars - acoustic, electric, and a bit of slide guitar.

Dominic Winter, a native German, studied Biotechnology at the University of Applied Sciences in Bingen and completed his Diploma Thesis on phosphopeptide enrichment using IMAC and MALDI mass spectrometry at Sanofi Aventis in Frankfurt. He then pursued a PhD in the field of phosphopeptide analysis, protein quantification and peptide fragmentation using UPLC-ESI-mass spectrometry under supervision of Prof. Dr. Wolf Lehmann at the German Cancer Research Center and the Faculty of Biosciences of the University Heidelberg. As a dedicated fisherman, he likes everything associated with water and when not in the lab or at the shore he can be found either swimming or riding his bike or both.

Associate Members

Andrew Briscoe Originally a hotel manager from Dublin in Ireland he gained his B.Sc. in Developmental Biology from the University of Edinburgh in 2002. He moved to Boston in order to take advantage of the fantastic research opportunities that exist here. In his free time he competes as a marathon canoeist, and in slalom kayak. Andrew plays guitar, but seems to have suffered a deletion in the Irish singing gene.

John Froehlich was born in Minneapolis and studied chemistry at Macalester college in St. Paul. After moving west to Davis California for graduate school, he is now exploring the east coast for the first time. While at UCD, he studied the glycosylation and phosphorylation of human milk proteins during early lactation. He enjoys hiking, cooking and playing soccer and guitar. His research interests include protein glycosylation and quantification, MS instrumentation, and biomarker discovery.

Richard Lee is a Urologic Surgeon. He is completing a Pediatric Urologic Surgery Fellowship at Children's Hospital Boston. As a urologist he works with a lot of urine, so he is investigating urinary protein expression in renal injury. Outside of work Richard is often seen biking with his wife and Hanno (with Hanno lagging behind), participating in triathlons, hiking with his dog, or cooking.

Hui Zhou coming soon...