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.
Liping Yang
Visiting Postdoctoral Scientist
Liping.Yang@PennMedicine.upenn.edu
Liping got her Ph.D. from Chongqing Medical University in 2022, focusing on the mechanisms of tumor metastasis and tumor metabolism. She completed a two-years postdoctoral fellowship in Chongqing Medical University, China, mainly focusing on the crosstalk between cells in tumor microenvironment. Then, she worked in the Department of Clinical Laboratory at the Second Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, China, as an associate researcher and attending technician. She joined our lab in November 2025 as a Vising Scholar.
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.
Xinyi Chen
Master's student
xchen952@seas.upenn.edu
Xinyi is a Master’s student in the Biotechnology program at Penn and joined the lab in September 2025. She earned her BS in Biochemistry from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she studied bile acid function in intestinal homeostasis. She is interested in how environmental and microbial factors influence intestinal homeostasis and disease.
Stella (Zhiyan) Du
Master's student
stelladu@seas.upenn.edu
Stella is a Master’s student in the Biotechnology program at Penn. She joined the lab in August 2025. She received her Bachelor’s degree in Molecular, Cell, and Developmental Biology from UCLA, where she conducted research on drug discovery for glioblastoma. Her current research focuses on the adaptability and functional roles of intestinal fibroblasts in inflammation.
Ying Duan
Master's student
yduan17@seas.upenn.edu
Ying Duan is a Master’s student in Biotechnology at Penn and joined the lab in September 2025. She graduated from UC San Diego with a B.S. in Human Biology and a minor in Business. She is interesting in the role of tissue microenvironment in inflammation and currently investigating ethanol-driven liver injury in humanized liver models in mice.
Ramy Ismail
Master's student
Ramybadreldinhamid.Ismail@PennMedicine.upenn.edu
Ramy is a Master’s student in Molecular Biology at the University of Vienna. Originally from Cairo, Egypt, he joined the lab in October 2025. He is studying the role of the tumor microenvironment in colon cancer metastasis.
Bruno Ndiba Mbwaye Roy
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.
Chiara Santoso
Undergraduate student
csantoso@sas.upenn.edu
Chiara is a UPenn undergraduate student, 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 as a fellow of the Penn Undergraduate Research Mentoring Program (PURM). 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
Laurie Flynn
Administrative Assistant, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine
Laurie.Flynn@Pennmedicine.upenn.edu
Where are we from?
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
Kaley Chen | UPenn, Nursing | 11/2024-12/2025