Click on each picture to learn more about our team

Principal investigator

The broad goal of Dr. Salas research is to investigate how cell heterogeneity impacts human health and disease, with an emphasis on how genetic, environmental, and lifestyle factors model the human epigenome and therefore the cell plasticity. Dr. Salas’ laboratory studies how some key epigenetic mechanisms (DNA methylation, DNA hydroxymethylation, chromatin accessibility, and miRNA alterations) affect gene expression and cancer outcomes, including how the immune cells are altered in this disease. Other research interests include biomarker development, chronic inflammation, and human disease, and how exposures during fetal life alter newborn and childhood outcomes.

Postdoctoral fellows

Dr. Karra earned her PhD from the University of Utah in Nutrition and Integrative Physiology. The primary goal of her research is to identify biomarkers for obesity-related cancer prevention and early detection strategies. Dr. Karra comes from a background in basic sciences with extensive training in epidemiology and over 6 year of research experience in the industry. She is a recipient of the prestigious National Cancer Institute F99/K00 Predoctoral to Postdoctoral Fellow Transition Award. For the K00 postdoctoral phase of this award, she is working with Dr. Salas and Dr. Christensen labs studying metabolic dysregulation, accelerated aging and obesity-related cancer risk and mortality.

Graduate students

I am a PhD student in Integrative Neuroscience co-mentored by Dr. Lucas Salas and Dr. Francesca Gilli. My research centers around utilizing epigenomics and transcriptomics to understand how our immune and nervous systems interact in the context of human diseases such as multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease and brain cancer. My goal is to discover cellular states present at early stages of disease so we can provide new potential drug targets for preventative medicine.

I am a PhD student in Quantitative Biomedical Sciences (QBS) with a nutrition background. My primary research interests lie in DNA methylation and metabolomics. I aim to develop advanced epidemiological and bioinformatic analytical skills to deepen my expertise in these areas under the guidance of Dr. Salas.

Minghui holds a Master’s degree in Epidemiology from Johns Hopkins University and is currently pursuing her PhD degree in Quantitative Biomedical Sciences (QBS) at Dartmouth. Her research revolves around cancer, specifically in identifying genetic and epigenetic factors, exploring modifiable behaviors, and understanding gene-environment interactions that contribute to cancer risks. She hopes to uncover behaviors that could mitigate cancer risk and markers for cancer diagnosis and prognosis.

Undergraduate students

Rotation students

I’m Petra, a first-year PhD student in Integrative Neuroscience, passionate about the intersection of neuroscience, computational biology, and immunology. My current focus is using epigenomics data to better understand the peripheral immune system in Parkinson’s disease. When not in lab, I like getting lost on forest trails!

Himanshu is a first-year MCB PhD student currently rotating in the Salas Lab. He is performing single-cell RNA sequencing analysis to explore the molecular and cellular landscape of normal human kidneys, rejecting kidney transplants, and tolerized kidney transplants using publicly available datasets. In particular, he is interested in teasing apart the different immune cell populations across these conditions and studying the interactions of different kidney cells and immune cells in kidney transplants.

Sadia Islam Kana is a second-year Ph.D. student in the MCB program at Dartmouth College. Her research interests are cancer biology and cancer immunology. Before coming to Dartmouth, Sadia received a Master’s degree from Western Michigan University. At Western, she researched the effectiveness of a novel cancer therapy called oncolytic virotherapy. Sadia is originally from Bangladesh. She received her Bachelor’s degree from the University of Dhaka in Bangladesh. Sadia enjoys traveling and reading.

Visiting scholars

Alumni

Ze Zhang, PhD (QBS)

I am a PhD from the Quantitative Biomedical Science Department at Dartmouth College. My research interests lie in the area of molecular epidemiology, specifically epigenetics in cancer, developmental biology, immunology, and cell heterogeneity. I’m intrigued to combine my skills and knowledge in medicine, biology, epidemiology, and bioinformatics to develop biomarkers for the improvement of population health. In my spare time, I enjoy basketball, MMA, skiing, music, and movie.