Current members:
Sara Alqudah – Graduate Student
Sara was born in Saudi Arabia to a Jordanian father and a Yemeni mother, she earned her bachelor’s degree in Medical Laboratory Sciences from Jordan University of Science and Technology (JUST) and was ranked the top of her class in 2013. She then started her academic career by working as a Teaching Assistant in the Medical Laboratory Sciences department while earning her master’s degree in Hematology and Blood Banking at JUST in 2016. Her master’s thesis was about investigating the dysregulation of the RANKL/RANK/OPG axis in thalassemia intermedia patients. In 2015, she worked as a full time Medical Lab Technician in the Pathology and Medical Laboratory department at King Abdullah University Hospital where she also trained students in advanced equipped medical laboratory techniques. She moved to Cleveland to start her PhD journey in 2021, studying Clinical Bioanalytical Chemistry at Cleveland State University, and after rotating in the Claesen Lab, she decided to join the lab, where she is working on the dietary effect of flavonoid metabolites in a diabetic mice model.
In her free time, Sara enjoys jogging, trying different kinds of food, listening to music, traveling, discovering new places, and spending time with her family and friends.
Jan Claesen – Associate Staff/Professor
Jan was born and raised in Alken, a small town with a big brewery in Belgium. He obtained a B.S. and M.S. in Biological Engineering at the KU Leuven, Belgium, and specialized in Cell and Gene Biotechnology. Next, Jan joined the lab of Prof. Mervyn Bibb and he received his Ph.D. in Molecular Microbiology in 2011 from the John Innes Centre and University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK. His Ph.D. studies involved the genetics and biosynthesis of ribosomally synthesized and post-translationally modified peptide antibiotics in Streptomyces. After his graduate studies, Jan was a postdoctoral scholar in the lab of Dr. Michael Fischbach in the Department of Bioengineering and Therapeutic Sciences at the University of California, San Francisco, USA. There, his work focused on the characterization of bacterial metabolites that mediate microbe-microbe and microbe-host interactions in human gut and skin. Jan is now an Associate Staff/Professor at Cleveland Clinic Research, where the Claesen group was established in November 2017. Our aim is to characterize the role of bioactive microbial and dietary small molecules in microbiota-associated diseases.
In his free time, Jan enjoys hiking, outdoors activities, cooking, traveling, RPG computer games, heavy and alternative music, Lego, and spending time with his wife and two daughters.
Google Scholar – ORCID – LinkedIn – Twitter
Layan Hamidi Nia – Graduate Student
Layan was born in the southern part of Iran and raised in the United Arab Emirates. She obtained a B.S. in Biomedical Engineering – Mechanical Engineering Track and minored in Chemistry at the University of Akron (UA), where she graduated with an honors degree. During her junior undergrad year, Layan completed a 1 year CO-OP as a Quality Engineer at Core Molding Technologies. Next, she was an Undergrad Research Assistant at the Chemistry Department at UA where she performed microscopic analysis of fluorescence of cells and assisted with general lab tasks. In her senior Capstone Project, she worked on Left Ventricular Assist Device (LVAD) Infection where she pursued FDA device design process and developed the risk management of the project. In fall 2021, Layan started her PhD in Applied Biomedical Engineering at Cleveland State University.
In her free time, Layan enjoys cooking, listening to rap music, and spending time with friends.
Ying Liu – Postdoctoral Fellow
Ying was born and raised in Beijing, China. She received her B.S. in Biological Sciences from Capital Normal University, Beijing, China. She joined the lab of Dr. Gerald Koudelka and obtained her M.S. and Ph.D. in Biological Sciences from State University of New York at Buffalo, United States. Her Ph.D. research focused on how carbohydrates of Lipopolysaccharide modulate E. coli recognition and predation by Acanthamoeba castellanii. She is now a postdoctoral fellow in in the lab of Dr. Jan Claesen at Lerner Research Institute, Cleveland Clinic.
In her free time, she enjoys watching live sports, seeing classic movies in theaters, hiking.
Rachel Markley – Postdoctoral Fellow
Rachel was born and raised in Harleysville, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Philadelphia. She obtained a B.S. in Biology and a B.A. in Fine Arts from Gettysburg College. She later went on to obtain a M.S. in Biotechnology from The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State). After a short interlude studying the proteomic profile of Chlamydia trachomatis at a pharmaceutical company she returned to Penn State to work in the lab of Dr. Girish Kirimanjeswara. While in the Kirimanjeswara lab, her work focused on the effects of dietary selenium on macrophage response to the intracellular bacteria Francisella tularensis. Rachel finished her Ph.D. in Immunology and Infectious Diseases in 2017. After completion of her graduate studies she moved to the Cleveland area where she is presently a postdoctoral fellow in the lab of Dr. Jan Claesen at Lerner Research Institute, Cleveland Clinic. She is currently studying the role of aryl polyenes, a product of a biosynthetic gene cluster (BCG) in Escherichia coli and other Gram-negative bacteria . Rachel is focused on gaining a better understanding of how aryl polyene expression influences bacterial colonization, immune response and resulting pathogenesis.
In her free time Rachel enjoys spending time with her family and dog hiking, gardening, cooking and traveling.
Sarah Preston – Graduate Student
Sarah was born in Massachusetts and grew up in Austin, Texas. She received her bachelor’s degree in Biological Sciences from Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) in 2022. While at CMU, she was a teaching assistant in the advanced laboratory classes and a member of the Minden Lab, studying bacterial endosymbionts in Drosophila. Following graduation, she joined the Molecular Medicine PhD program at Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) through Cleveland Clinic.
In her free time, Sarah enjoys starting crafts she will most likely not finish, baking family recipes, and going rock climbing with friends.
Past members:
Emily Ghazarian – Undergraduate Student
Judi Elmallah – High School Student
Viharika Bobba – Postdoctoral Fellow
Genevieve Mann – Undergraduate Student
Tharika Thambidurai – Undergraduate Student
Brianna Matthew – Medical Student (summer internship) – Current position: Medical Student at Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine, Cleveland, OH
Maggie Ginter-Frankovitch – Undergraduate Student – Current Position: Student at Case Western Reserve University
Yaheya Idris – Research Technician – Current position: Medical Student at West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV
Mario Alberto – Undergraduate Student – Current Position: Research Assistant in the Brophy lab, Stanford University, Stanford, CA
Emma Dester – Medical Student (summer internship) – Current position: Medical Student at Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine, Cleveland, OH
Luke Osborn – Graduate Student and later (1 year) Postdoctoral Fellow – Current position: Director of Microbiology and Assistant Professor of Clinical Pathology at Keck School of Medicine of USC, Los Angeles, CA
Beckey DeLucia – Research Technician – Current position: Medical Student at Ohio State University, Columbus, OH
Shreyaa Nagajothi – Undergraduate Student – Current position: Neuroscience Student at the University of Pittsburgh, PA
Kelsey Ouyang – Medical Student (summer internship) – Current position: Medical Student at Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine, Cleveland, OH
Karlee Schultz – Undergraduate Student – Current position: Medical Student at Ohio State University, Columbus, OH
Carter Powers – Medical Student (summer internship) – Current position: Medical Student at Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine, Cleveland, OH
Isabel Johnston – Postdoctoral Fellow – Current position: Postdoctoral Fellow in the McDonald lab, Lerner Research Institute, Cleveland, OH
BJ Massey – Rotation Graduate Student – Current position: Graduate Student in the Brown lab, Lerner Research Institute, Cleveland, OH
Jade Larney – Undergraduate Student – Current position: Leasing and Operations Manager at Equity Management, Youngstown, OH
Liz McManus – Undergraduate Student (summer internship) – Current position: MD/PhD student at Princeton University, NJ
Claesen group 