OUR TEAM

Christian Jacome-Galarza, PhD, is an Instructor in Medicine and Orthopaedics at Harvard Medical School and Associate Scientist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, MA. He is a national from Mexico and received his Undergraduate degree in Pharmaceutical Sciences and his Master’s degree in Clinical Biomedicine both from the University of the Americas-Puebla, in Mexico. He then moved to the U.S., and received his PhD, in Immunology from the University of Connecticut Health Center. His doctorate studies were focused on the identification and characterization of monocyte precursors their lineage relation to osteoclasts, macrophages and dendritic cells and how osteoclasts contribute to bone resorption when influenced by parathyroid hormone and inflammatory signals. Christian then completed his postdoctoral fellowship, first at King’s College London and later at Sloan Kettering Institute, where he studied the biology of macrophages and discovered the developmental origins of osteoclasts, novel mechanisms for their maintenance, and a potential cell-based therapy to treat osteopetrosis and related bone diseases. Christian is currently investigating the biology of osteoclasts, macrophages and other myeloid cells during embryogenesis, adulthood and aging. He is particularly interested in studying developmental differences and transcriptional regulatory mechanisms that control osteoclast and macrophage functions in health, inflammation and disease.

Sijia Chen obtained her training in the Netherlands and is currently a post-doctoral fellow in the Gravallese lab. Sijia’s research is focused on common mechanisms underlying chronic inflammatory diseases and bone pathology.

Priyanka received her PhD from the AcSIR-CDRI, India where she studied the role of miRNAs in the regulation of bone mass. For her postdoctoral research, she joined The Johns Hopkins University to investigate the metabolic requirements of the osteoblast and osteoclast during bone formation and the mechanisms by which these cells contribute to the regulation of whole-body metabolism. In the Gravallese lab, her research work is mainly focused on the cellular and molecular aspects of inflammation in rheumatoid arthritis and bone diseases.

Hannah is an alumnus of Indiana University (BA Human Biology, Chemistry) and current graduate student at the Boston University School of Medicine (MS in Medical Sciences). Her research is focused on the cellular origins and functions of macrophages and osteoclasts in inflammatory arthritis.

Victor is an alumnus of Swarthmore College (BA Biology). Having focused his research on honeybees and social behavior in undergrad, he seeks to broaden his horizons with deeply interesting and foreign phenomena while also honing his bench, colony, and research skills prior to attending graduate school.

Que was a third-year undergrad at Northeastern University currently pursuing a Masters in Biology with a minor in Japanese. Que spent six months in the Gravellese lab working on the AIM2 project alongside Dr. Sijia Chen to investigate the correlation between the AIM2 inflammasome pathway and bone formation as it relates to rheumatoid arthritis. They worked on in-vitro studies involving the stimulation of macrophages, dermal fibroblasts, and bone marrow stromal cells by DNA to determine how the inflammasome pathway and production of cytokines differs between AIM2+/+ and AIM2-/- cells.