Lucas Kniess Debarba, PhD

Lab Manager / Research Associate

Lab member since 2024

Lucas is a Research Associate and Lab Manager in the Gonçalves Lab. He holds a PhD in Physiology from the University of São Paulo and oversees laboratory operations, equipment, and maintenance. He provides technical expertise and scientific consultation to researchers and collaborators, supporting the design and execution of integrated metabolic and functional phenotyping experiments, including high-resolution indirect calorimetry (Promethion), bomb calorimetry, metabolic treadmill testing, body composition analysis (EchoMRI), and rodent surgical procedures.

Ezequiel Dantas, MD, PhD

Instructor

Lab member since 2019

Ezequiel is a physician and scientist with a PhD in Immunology. He is studying the effects of dietary interventions on the immune system using mouse models and human samples. Cancer is another example where diet can influence immunity so Ezequiel is studying the crosstalk among tumor cells, the immune system, and the regulators of systemic metabolism that ultimately lead to the wasting syndrome called cachexia. This research has also sparked his interest in finding and validating early biomarkers for cachexia and lung cancer.

Maira Di Tano, PhD

Post-Doctoral FelLow

Lab member since 2022

Maira is a postdoctoral fellow. She obtained her PhD in Molecular Oncology from the European School of Molecular Medicine (SEMM) in Milan (Italy). In Goncalves lab, she is interested in identifying cancer metabolic vulnerabilities, focusing on colorectal and pancreatic cancer. Specifically, Maira is studying how cancer genetic alterations leads to specific metabolic dependencies and how nutrients, in particular fructose, impact on tumor progression and therapy response, with the ultimate goal to identify novel thera-peutic targets for the treatment of these aggressive tumor types.

Carolina Echeverría, PhD

Post-Doctoral Fellow

Lab member since 2022

Carolina is a biotechnologist with a PhD in Biomedicine from Universidad de los Andes, Chile. She is studying nutrient absorption in the small intestine in the context of obesity. Specifically, Carolina focuses on the molecular mechanisms underlying the fructolysis pathway to engineer novel weight-loss therapies.

Jack Sanford, PhD

Post-Doctoral Fellow

Lab member since 2023

Jack is a postdoctoral fellow who received his PhD in genetics and molecular biology from UNC Chapel Hill. In the Goncalves lab, he is investigating how lung- and tumor-derived secreted proteins influence cancer- and emphysema-associated cachexia using mouse models of disease and human samples research. Given that these proteins influence weight loss, blocking their associated pathways could prove to be a useful strategy for the treatment of cachexia in these diseases.

Alexander Emmanuelli, PhD

Post-Doctoral Fellow

Lab member since 2024

Alex completed his PhD in Immunology and Microbial Pathogenesis at the Weill-Cornell Graduate School of Medical Sciences. Alex is investigating methods of targeting insulin signaling as a druggable pathway in endometrial cancer. Alex also conducts research on the crosstalk between tumor resident immune cells and systemic metabolism in lung cancer associated cachexia.

Yingzhao Wang, MD, PhD

POST-DOCTORAL FELLOW

Lab member since 2025

Yingzhao Wang is a physician-scientist whose research focuses on the tumor microenvironment, with particular expertise in myeloid cell biology. Her work examines how dietary factors shape tumor development and mortality, with a specific emphasis on fructose as a key pro-tumorigenic mediator. Her research integrates dietary interventions, immunological modulation, metabolic reprogramming, and microbiome-based approaches.

Noriko Kemuriyama, PhD

Visiting Scholar (Fulbright Scholar)

Lab member since 2025

Noriko is a nutrition scientist and registered dietitian with a PhD in Endocrinology and expertise in toxicological pathology. Her research focuses on hepatic lipid metabolism and the crosstalk between inflammation and fibrosis, with the goal of developing nutritional strategies for liver diseases. More recently, she has developed an interest in the links between hepatic metabolic and pathological changes and wasting metabolic syndromes such as cachexia, as well as their potential management through clinical nutritional interventions.

Jonathan Gao

Research Technician

Lab member since 2022

Jonathan is a Research Technician who earned his BA in Chemistry, with a concentration in Biochemistry, from CUNY Hunter College. In the Goncalves Lab, he investigates the effects of dietary fructose on villus elongation and explores potential therapeutic interventions to mitigate the physiological consequences of fructose consumption.

Jeshua Kim

research Technician 2024

Undergraduate Volunteer 2023

Lab member since 2023

Jeshua Kim graduated from New York University in 2024 with a BA in Psychology. At the Goncalves Lab, she investigates the tumor microenvironment in cachexia and the upregulated factors that drive cachexia using mouse models of lung cancer. Her research focuses on defining how distinct immune cell populations contribute to disease development and progression. She also explores how differences in dietary composition affect immune function and metabolic outcomes.

Philip Moon

research Technician 2025

Undergraduate Volunteer 2024

Lab member since 2024

Philip is a Research Technician who earned his BA in Psychology from New York University. In the Goncalves Lab, he supports various projects that explore mechanisms of body weight regulation in cancer-associated cachexia and obesity.

Odinakhon Shamieva

Undergraduate Volunteer

Lab member since 2023

Odinakhon graduated from the Macaulay Honors College at Hunter College with a Bachelor of Arts in Human Biology and Economics. She is currently completing a gap year as a research volunteer in the Goncalves Lab, where her work focuses on the fructolysis pathway and its implications for weight-loss therapies.

Kyan Bayona

Undergraduate Volunteer

Lab member since 2024

Kyan is an Undergraduate Volunteer majoring in Psychology at NYU. In the Goncalves Lab, he investigates the role of lung-derived secreted proteins in driving cancer cachexia and altering whole-body metabolism.

Omar Abdallah

Undergraduate Volunteer

Lab member since 2025

Omar is an undergraduate volunteer pursuing his B.A. in Psychology at New York University. In the Gonçalves Lab, he supports research on how diet and immune function influence cancer-associated cachexia in mouse models, contributing through data collection, laboratory techniques, and analysis.

Shiri Li, BM, PhD

Research Associate

Lab member 2021-2024
MDG Lab - West Coast Affiliate 2025

Sarah Stewart

MD Student

Lab member since 2023-2025

Maurice Hurd, MA

Clinical RESEARCH SPECIALIST

Lab member 2019-2024

Former senior clinical research coordinator and manager for the Goncalves lab.

Azrul Kadir, DPhil

Post-Doctoral Fellow

Lab member 2023-2024

Manager, Strategy and Partnership at KPJ Healthcare University

Tiffany Perrier

Technician II

Lab member 2022-2024

MD Candidate

Mujmmail Ahmed

Technician II

Lab member 2021-2024
MDG Lab - West Coast Affiliate 2025

PhD Candidate @ UC Berkeley

Tanvir Ahmed

Technician I

Lab member 2022-2024

Zoha Syed

Technician I

Lab member 2024

MD Candidate @ Harvard Medical School

Lourdes Pajuelo

PhD Student

Lab Rotation 2024

Samuel R. Taylor, MD, PhD

MD/PhD Student

Lab member 2018-2022

Internal Medicine Resident @ Brigham and Women’s Hospital

Heme-Onc Fellow @ Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center

Shakti Ramsamooj

Research specialist

Lab member 2018-2022

PhD Candidate @ Weill Cornell Medicine

Anirudh Murthy

Technician

Lab member 2020-2022

Medical Student @ Stony Brook Medicine

Rita Pozovskiy

Undergraduate Volunteer

Lab member 2019-2021

Graduate student at the Donald & Barbara Zucker School of Medicine and Feinstein Institute for Medical Research

Roger Liang

technician

Lab member 2018-2020

UT Southwestern Medical School Medical Scientist Training Program (MSTP)

Seo-Kyoung "Katie" Hwang, MS

Research Specialist

Lab member 2018-2019

Scientist for Pfizer

Erica Nagase

Medical Student

Lab member since 2022

Anesthesiology Resident @ Brigham and Women’s Hospital

Rahul Grover

Medical Student

AOC student 2019

Internal medicine resident @ Montefiore
Gastroenterology fellow @ UT Southwestern Medical Center
Clinical Assistant Professor @ NYU Grossman School of Medicine