Meet the Team

Principal Investigator

Kenichiro Taniguchi

Education:

Research Investigator, University of Michigan Medical School
Postdoctoral Fellowship, University of Michigan Medical School
PhD, Cell Biology, University of Virginia School of Medicine
BS, Genetics, Cell Biology and Development, University of Minnesota

Postdoctoral Fellow

Nikola Sekulovski

Nikola completed his BS from Ss. Cyril and Methodius University (Skopje, Macedonia), and studied at Southern Illinois University as a Fulbright Foreign Student scholar where he completed his PhD in 2020 investigating female reproductive biology in the laboratory of Dr. James MacLean. His major goal is to identify novel mechanosensitive molecules that drive BMP signaling, as well as BMP-dependent transcriptional machineries during amniogenesis. 

Jeenat Urmi

Jeenat graduated from Holy Family Red Crescent Medical College and Hospital with her MBBS and Hamamatsu University School of Medicine with a PhD.

Postdoctoral Fellow

Ph.D Candidate

Amber Carleton

Amber started as a PhD student in 2020 after obtaining her BS from the University of Wisconsin–Parkside. She aims to understand the role of trafficking machineries during human peri-implantation development as well as organogenesis. 

Ph.D Candidate

Anusha Rengarajan

Anusha started as a PhD student in 2021 after completing her BTech in Biotechnology at SRM University Chennai. After undergrad, Anusha was a junior research fellow at Tata Institute of Fundamental Research. In the lab, Anusha is exploring the mechanisms underlying apicosome formation.

Ph.D Candidate

Maliha Kabir

Maliha began her PhD studies in 2024. Before coming to MCW, Maliha graduated with a BS in Bioinformatics & Biotechnology from the Asian University for Women in 2023.

Medical Student

Jenna Wettstein

Jenna completed her BS from the University of Wisconsin – Madison, and her MS in Medical Physiology from the Medical College of Wisconsin. She is now enrolled as a medical student at the Medical College of Wisconsin. Jenna employs various hPSC-derived systems to investigate molecular and cellular mechanisms governing human embryogenesis. 

Research Associate

Linnea Taniguchi

Linnea completed her BS from Bemidji State University, and her MS in Genetics from the University of Minnesota – Twin Cities.

Research Technician

Lauren Juga

Lauren completed her BS in Biochemistry from Liberty University in 2022. In addition to being a fabulous technician, she just enrolled at MCW for Genetic Counseling.

Former Members

  • Sicong Wang - graduate student, Stanford University