Our team members
Leadership:
Miriam S. Udler, MD PhD
Principal Investigator
Miriam is physician scientist at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and an investigator in the MGH Center for Genomic Medicine. She is also an Associate Member of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. Dr. Udler is a practicing endocrinologist and the founding director of the MGH Diabetes Genetics Clinic, which provides genetic testing, counselling, and management to patients with monogenic forms of diabetes. Her team’s research focuses on genetic contribution to diabetes risk and clinical applications of genomic data, including using genetics to identify atypical forms of diabetes and to dissect disease heterogeneity. Outside of work, she enjoys running, spending time with family, and traveling, especially to Australia where her husband is from.
Administration:
Lynette Desharnais
Administrative Coordinator
Lynette Desharnais is an Administrative Coordinator for the Udler lab, Florez lab, Diabetes Unit, and Endocrine Division. She completed her undergraduate degree in Biology and Nutrition from Framingham State University. Before working with our team, Lynette worked at the MGH Chelsea Health Care Center for five years. In her free time, she enjoys spending time with family and friends, walking, hiking, going to the beach, and vacationing at Lake Winnipesaukee in NH.
Genetic Analysis:
Aaron Deutsch
Post-doctoral fellow
Aaron Deutsch is an endocrinology fellow at MGH. Prior to fellowship, he received an MD from Harvard Medical School and completed training in internal medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. He is interested in understanding genetic risk for type 1 and type 2 diabetes by analyzing patients from diverse populations. He is also interested in atypical forms of diabetes, such as ketosis-prone diabetes, which may be more prevalent in certain ancestry groups. In his free time, Aaron enjoys watching baseball, listening to classical music, and spending time with his family.
Raymond Kreienkamp
Post-doctoral fellow
Ray Kreienkamp is a pediatric endocrinology fellow at Boston Children's Hospital. He completed medical school at St. Louis University, where he completed a MD/PhD. He did his graduate work in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology in the lab of Susana Gonzalo, PhD, studying the molecular mechanisms driving Hutchinson-Gilford Progeria Syndrome. He completed his pediatric residency at St. Louis Children's Hospital and Washington University School of Medicine. He is now a pediatric endocrinology fellow at Boston Children's Hospital. He is passionate about pediatric endocrinology, but also the study of diabetes and its genetic drivers. Outside of the hospital and the lab, you can probably find him outdoors somewhere or around a pool, playing, coaching, or reffing his favorite sport of water polo.
Sara Cromer
Post-doctoral Fellow
Sara Cromer is an Assistant in Medicine in Endocrinology, Diabetes, and Metabolism at Massachusetts General Hospital. She received her medical degree from Baylor College of Medicine, completed internship and residency at New York Presbyterian Hospital-Columbia University Medical Center, and completed fellowship at Massachusetts General Hospital. Dr. Cromer’s research focuses on understanding and addressing racial and socioeconomic disparities in the care of patients with type 2 diabetes. Meanwhile, she maintains an active clinical presence, seeing patients in the MGH Diabetes Center and Endocrine Associates clinic, as well as attending on the Inpatient Diabetes Management and Endocrine Consult services. Aside from her clinical and research roles, she seeks to build expertise as a clinical educator, working with both medical students and residents to expand her ability to teach, mentor, and lead. In her free time, she enjoys practicing her Spanish, travel, and birding.
Ahmed Alkanaq
Post-doctoral fellow
After completing his PhD in Medical Genetics from Japan, Ahmed Alkanaq developed an interest in rare genetic variation responsible for complex metabolic diseases like diabetes. He has an MD degree from Iraq and an MS degree in Human Genetics and Genetic Counseling from New York. His passion for serving patients with genetic disorders led him to pursue a research path for identifying novel genetic variants responsible for medical pathologies. He is a member of the discovery team of the Rare and Atypical Diabetes Network (RADIANT) study, where he utilizes his molecular genetics and bioinformatics skills to performing genome analysis to identify genes responsible for atypical and rare forms of diabetes. Outside work, Dr. Alkanaq enjoys mountain biking in summer, snowboarding in winter, and hiking all year round.
Kirk Smith
Staff scientist
Kirk Smith completed his undergraduate degree in Mechanical Engineering at Virginia Tech and his masters degree in Biomedical Engineering at University of Michigan. His research focuses on developing a high-throughput model for genetic loci clustering. Outside of work, his hobbies include ice hockey, hiking with his dog, and traveling.
Chris Bryan
Staff scientist
Chris Bryan completed his undergraduate degree in Statistics at Purdue University with research interests in statistical genetics and multi-omics network analysis. Within the lab, his research focuses on analysis of gene expression datasets. Outside of work he is interested in baseball, music, and film.
Sarah Hsu
Staff scientist
Sarah Hsu is a computational biologist interested in applying computational methods to analyze genomic and genetic data in diabetes research. Her current projects include using computational genetic and genomic approaches to study type 2 diabetes and gestational diabetes. She is manages the lab’s data from the Mass General Brigham Biobank. When not at work, she enjoys traveling and taking ballet classes.
RADIANT MGH Clinical Site
Evelyn Greaux
Senior clinical research coordinator
Evelyn Greaux graduated from the University of Rochester with a BS in Biochemistry and joined the MGH Diabetes Research Center as a Clinical Research Coordinator. She plans on attending medical school and incorporating clinical research into her career. She is a lover of everything science, medicine, and technology. Her personal interests include traveling, nail art, and spending time with my loved ones.
Mariella Facibene
Clinical research coordinator
Mariella Facibene completed her Health Science degree at Northeastern University. She has been working at the MGH Diabetes Research Center since January 2021 and recently joined the MGH RADIANT study team. She is currently applying to medical school. Outside of work, she loves cooking and traveling.
Kathy Chu
Clinical research coordinator
Kathy Chu was born and raised in Portland, Maine. She moved to Boston to attend Boston University and has stayed since. Her work interests involve a combination of diabetes, research, and genetics while emphasizing the importance of maintaining empathy with patients. Outside of work, she is an avid weightlifter and self-proclaimed master chef.
Victoria Chen
Student
Victoria Chen is an undergraduate student at Brown University, concentrating in computational biology. She is interested in using genetic analysis to understand atypical forms of diabetes. In her free time, she enjoys cooking, biking, and playing the flute.
William Marshall
Student
William Marshall recently graduated from Boston University and currently working as a PCA at Brigham and Womens hospital on cardiac surgery step down and ICU. He is currently applying PA school.
Emmanuel Oshodi
Student
Emmanuel Oshodi is a student at the University of Rochester, where he majors in Microbiology and minors in Psychology. He is passionate about giving back to the community, equality in patient care, and clinical trials. He hopes to transition his background in biological sciences to healthcare and strives to ensure all patients receive appropriate care regardless of their background.
Micah Koss
Student
Micah Koss is a rising senior at Tufts University studying Community Health with a Spanish minor on the pre-med track. He became interested in Diabetes Research shortly after being diagnosed with T1D halfway through sophomore year of undergrad. This inspired him to want to learn more about this life-changing disease that manifests in so many ways, and hopefully apply what he learned from his own experiences along the way. Besides research and school, he works as a Medical Assistant, loves going to the gym, says hi to most dogs he passes, and watches his fair share of TV.
Cristina Fernandez Hernandez
Student
Cristina Fernandez Hernandez is currently a second-year medical student at the University of Puerto Rico School of Medicine. She started working with Dr. Udler as part of MGH Summer Research Training Program in June 2022. After obtaining her medical degree, she plans to continue into a residency program, hopefully in a research-oriented institution, that gives her the opportunity to create spaces in medicine for other students underrepresented in medicine. Regardless of where she trains, her ultimate goal is to practice medicine in Puerto Rico.
Alumni
Timothy Majarian
Computational Biologist
Tim is a Computational Associate II. He completed his undergraduate degree in Mathematics and Biology at University of Vermont and his master’s in Computational Biology from Carnegie Mellon University. He led efforts to curate large-scale biobank data for the team. Following his time with our group, Tim joined Vertex Pharmaceuticals as a Research Scientist.
Hyunkyung “Claire” Kim
Computational Biologist
Claire completed her undergraduate degree in Computer Science from Yonsei University and her master’s in Computational Biology and Quantitative Genetics from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Claire’s research in the lab focused on developing a high-throughput model to perform cluster analysis of genetic loci. Her work was published in Diabetologia in January 2023. She left the group to start a PhD in Genetics at University of Chicago in fall 2021.