LAB MeMBERS

Ryan Doan, PhD, FACMG

Ryan is an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics in Division of Genetics and Genomics at Boston Children’s Hospital and the principal investigator of the Doan Lab. He completed his Bachelor of Science degree in Cell Biology and Biochemistry at Bucknell University, his Ph.D. in Genetics within Dr. Scott Dindot’s lab at Texas A&M University and a Clinical Molecular Genetics fellowship at Harvard Medical School and Boston Children’s Hospital. In graduate school, he developed novel tools for analyses of coding and noncoding regions for traits and diseases in multiple species, including cattle, horses, sheep, and dogs. He performed some of the first exome focused CGH arrays for copy number analyses and whole genome sequencing in cattle and horses. As a post-doctoral fellow at Boston Children’s Hospital, he collaborated with international consortiums to study coding and noncoding causes of autism spectrum disorder, while also developing sequencing methods for analyses of germline and somatic mutations in neurological disorders. He joined Boston Children’s Hospital in the Department of Pediatrics in 2019 where he started his own independent research group, while also maintaining a clinical genetics role in the Department of Pathology at Brigham & Women’s Hospital.

Mia O’ Connell

Mia received her undergraduate degree in Neuroscience and Music at Boston College. She studied the biology of stress at Boston College and interned at a genetics lab researching the use of polygenic risk scores. At the Doan Lab, she is eager to learn more about the genetic heritability of neurodevelopmental disorders and ways of improving pharmacological interventions.

Paulina Eugenia Gonzalez Tovar

Paulina received her undergraduate degree in Neuroscience at Wellesley College. At Wellesley, she studied the brain-gut microbiome axis in female mice. At the Doan Lab, Paulina is eager to learn more about the genetic factors that play a role in neurodevelopment disorders. Outside of research, she enjoys swimming and visiting new places.

Laura Grueneberg

Laura holds a Bachelor's degree in Biology from the University of Bremen with a major in molecular biology and biochemistry and is currently pursuing her Master's degree with the Graduate School of Systemic Neuroscience at LMU Munich. Laura's research is centered around her Master's thesis project, which she is conducting under the guidance of the Doan lab. As an exchange master's student, she is investigating the impact of noncoding variants within neurotransmitter pathways on neurodevelopmental disorders.

Julieta Bonacina

Julieta received her undergraduate degree in Biotechnology and her Ph.D. in Biological Sciences from the National University of Tucuman, in Argentina. At the Doan lab, she is eager to advance in the understanding of the underlying genetics of neurodevelopmental and neuropsychiatric disorders. Outside the lab she enjoys reading, visiting new places and playing tennis.