Our Group
Principal investigator
Manolis Roulis, PhD
Assistant Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine
manolis.roulis@pennmedicine.upenn.edu
LinkedIn profile
Manolis studied Biology at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece. He pursued his doctoral studies in "Alexander Fleming", in Athens, Greece (Kollias lab), focusing on the role of TNF and MAP kinase signaling in the pathogenesis of Inflammatory Bowel Diseases in mouse models. His postdoctoral studies in the same lab led him to the discovery of a fibroblast-mediated mechanism of intestinal epithelial homeostasis. He moved to Yale and joined the laboratory of Richard Flavell, where he focused on the functional diversity of intestinal mesenchymal cells and investigated the role of specific fibroblast populations in intestinal tumorigenesis as well as in chronic inflammation and fibrosis. He started as an Assistant Professor at UPenn in July 2023.
Investigators
Eleanna Kaffe, PhD
Instructor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine
eleana.kaffe@pennmedicine.upenn.edu
LinkedIn profile
Eleanna studied biochemistry and earned her PhD at the University of Thessaly in Greece, focusing on mass spectrometry and liver diseases. As a postdoctoral researcher in "Alexander Fleming" in Athens, Greece (Aidinis lab), she studied the role of phospholipid metabolism in liver fibrosis and cancer, by employing mouse models and mass spectrometry-based lipidomic analyses. She moved to Yale and worked on congenital cholangiopathies (Strazzabosco lab). Then she joined Richard Flavell's lab at Yale, where she developed a novel humanized mouse model that bears a functional human hepatic tissue - read her 2023 paper in Cell here. Her current research focuses on the role of lipid metabolic pathways in chronic liver and intestinal diseases. She started as an Instructor at UPenn in September 2023.
Lauren Questell
PhD student - Cell and Molecular Biology Graduate Group / Microbiology, Virology, and Parasitology
lauren.questell@pennmedicine.upenn.edu
Lauren is a PhD student in the CAMB-MVP program, with an interest in understanding host-diet-microbe interactions in the context of colorectal cancer. She earned her BS in Environmental Science from Johns Hopkins University and worked at the U.S. EPA before shifting her focus to human health. She completed her ScM in Molecular Microbiology and Immunology at Johns Hopkins, where her thesis research in the Suez Lab explored the impact of artificial sweeteners on the gut microbiome and metabolic health.
Shimin Liu
Master's student
shimin.liu@pennmedicine.upenn.edu
Shimin is a Master's student in the Biotechnology program of UPenn and she joined the lab in September 2024. She completed her undergraduate studies at the University of Toronto, where she conducted research in cancer biology and stem cells. She is interested in cell interactions between immune cells, fibroblasts, and tumor cells within the tumor microenvironment. Outside the lab she is a figure skater.
Kaily Ayisi
Undergraduate student
Kailey is an undergraduate student majoring in neuroscience at UPenn. Originally from Columbus, Ohio, she joined our lab in June 2024. Kailey has an interest in studying neurological disorders as well as the interactions between fibroblasts and neurons. She plans to pursue an MD in the future.
Kaley Chen
Undergraduate student
Kaley is an undergraduate student studying nursing at UPenn, originally from California. She joined our lab in November 2024. Kaley is interested in studying metabolic pathways in human disease and she works with Eleanna on mass spectrometry and lipidomics.
Bruno Ndiba Mbwaye Roy
PURM undergraduate student
brunombw@seas.upenn.edu
Bruno is an undergraduate student in the School of Engineering at UPenn, originally from Cameroon. He joined the lab in May 2025 as a fellow of the Penn Undergraduate Research Mentoring Program (PURM). He is interested in computational and data-mining approaches to discover mechanisms of pathogenesis of gastrointestinal inflammatory diseases and colon cancer. In his free time, he enjoys playing tennis.
Chiara Santoso
PURM undergraduate student
csantoso@sas.upenn.edu
Chiara is a UPenn undergraduate student and a fellow of the Penn Undergraduate Research Mentoring Program (PURM), originally from Jakarta, Indonesia. She is studying Biology and Computer science, with a strong focus on the intersection between the two fields. She joined the lab in 5/2025, and she is particularly interested in how data-driven approaches can be used to unravel complex biological systems, leading to advances in molecular biology and healthcare.
Administration
Deborah Johnson
Administrative Assistant, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine
deborah.johnson3@pennmedicine.upenn.edu
215-573-4765
Deborah Johnson joined the lab in April 2024 as the Administrative Coordinator. Prior to joining the lab she spent 19 years at Penn Nursing as a Research Project Manager on various projects. Deborah is co-author on several research publications and enjoys going to Broadway Musicals.
Alumni
Investigators
Yutong Li, BSc | Master's Thesis student (Penn Bioengineering) | 9/2023-5/2025 | → Georgia Institute of Technology, Bioengineering Ph.D. Program
Zhixin Liang, BSc | Master's student (Penn Bioengineering) | 12/2023-12/2024 |
Yange Cui, PhD | Postdoctoral researcher | 1/2024-1/2025 | → Research Associate, UPenn
Maria Sacta, MD, PhD | Allergy/Immunology Fellow (CHOP) | Visiting member 1/2025-5/2025 | → Attending physician, CHOP
Undergraduate students
Makayla Cheng | UPenn, Bioengineering | 10/2023-7/2024