People

Kosaku Shinoda

Assistant Professor, Group Leader

Kosaku joined the faculty of Albert Einstein College of Medicine in 2018. After working in biotech industries for 5 years, he completed his Ph.D. in Systems Biology at Keio University in Tokyo, where he focused on machine learning algorithms in computational proteomics. He then performed postdoctoral research at the University of California, San Francisco in the laboratory of Shingo Kajimura. There, he studied the biochemical and genetic basis of beige fat development.

Fun fact: Kosaku was a ball boy at the Chicago Cubs.

Gabrielle Jocelyn Benitez

Research Technician

Gabrielle joined the Shinoda laboratory in July 2018. She has a B.S. in Forensic Toxicology and M.S. in Pharmacology.

Fun fact: Gabrielle loves languages and yoga.

Ahava Muskat

Medical student researcher

Ahava is a medical student in Einstein class 2023. She is studying the cellular mechanism of adipogenesis in human lipomas.

Fun Fact: I spent one year of college studying in Israel.

Austin Landgraf

PhD student (Medical Scientist Training Program)

Austin joined the Shinoda lab in September 2021. He is studying the functional specification of hepatocytes using single-cell genomics.

Fun fact: when I was 10, I accidentally burned down my parents empty chicken coop.

Yana Kost

Medical student researcher

Yana is a medical student in Einstein class 2023. She is studying the immunologic mechanism of human radiation dermatitis.

Fun fact: Yana loves to cook.

Valerie Fong

Medical student researcher

Val is a medical student in Einstein class 2022. She is studying a role for tumor-associated adipocytes in breast cancer progression.

Hannah Meikle

High school student researcher

Hannah is working on transcriptome and epitranscriptome of human beige adipocytes.

‘Fun’ fact: I love singing and do it all the time!