Brikha R. Shrestha, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Harvard Medical School
Affiliate Faculty, The Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard
Brikha grew up in Nepal and attended Brown University, where he studied Neuroscience, wrote for The Critical Review, and conducted research on the development of dendritic spines in the mouse hippocampus. He then earned a PhD in Neurobiology and Behavior at Columbia University studying molecular regulation of dendrite morphogenesis in Drosophila. As a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard Medical School, he studied molecular diversity of auditory sensory neurons and uncovered an intriguing phenomenon of postnatal plasticity in their cellular identities. Molecular genetic frameworks underlying neuronal form and function have been his longstanding interests and continue to shape his research goals. Brikha loves to spend time outdoors, exploring hiking trails and bike paths all over New England.
Lauren Celardo
Bioinformatics Research Assistant
M.D. candidate, Duke University
Lauren studied Computational Biology at Cornell University and is broadly interested in applying computational tools in biomedical research. She also has a specific interest in understanding auditory processing and human deafness. Since joining the lab in 2023, she has worked on several projects characterizing neuronal development in mice harboring mutations in genes of interest, including those related to human deafness, by single-cell RNA sequencing. In her free time, she enjoys traveling, reading, and running.
Benjamin Tibbetts
Research Assistant
B.S. in Biology, Barry Goldwater Scholar, Tufts University
Ben is interested in the development and refinement of neuronal identities from a molecular and functional perspective. Ben completed his undergraduate thesis research in the Shrestha Lab on the link between spontaneous neural activity and gene regulation in auditory sensory neurons. Ben plans to pursue a PhD and continue doing research at the intersection of molecular genetics and neuroscience. Outside of the lab, he enjoys writing poetry, playing violin, and spending time in nature.
Samantha McLemore
Research Assistant
B.A. in Neuroscience, Bowdoin College
Sammi is interested in neuronal plasticity on both structural and functional levels. As an undergraduate, she conducted in vivo electrophysiology research on the plasticity of the auditory system in Gryllus bimaculatus. Currently, she is investigating the emergence of distinct sensory neuron identities and plans to pursue a PhD in neurobiology. Sammi likes to spend time outdoors running and indoors baking all forms of carbs.
Jiahe Jin
Rotation Student
PhD student, Harvard University
Jiahe grew up in Wenzhou, China and studied Biomedical Engineering at the University of Wisconsin – Madison. He spent two years developing methods to improve otic sensory lineage specification in hPSC-derived inner ear organoid models at Boston Children’s Hospital before joining the Speech and Hearing Bioscience and Technology (SHBT) program at Harvard. In the Shrestha Lab, he is studying how extrinsic cues integrate with intrinsic factors to guide neuronal subtype specification through complex gene regulatory networks. Outside the lab, he enjoys tennis, hiking, and photography.
Emilie Chin
Co-op student
B.S. candidate in Behavioral Neuroscience, Northeastern University
Emilie is broadly interested in how changes in biological processing contribute to neurological conditions. She is eager to explore how neuronal diversity and developmental differences influence auditory processing. Outside
of the lab, she has two dogs and enjoys reading, thrifting, and watching F1 and tennis.
Past members
Allison Shan
Research Assistant, 2023-2025
>MD candidate at Royal College of Surgeons, Dublin, Ireland
Pierrick Bordiga
Postdoctoral Fellow, 2022-2025
Lily Xie
Research Assistant, 2021-2023
>MD candidate SUNY Upstate Medical University, Syracuse, NY
Jenny Jin
Data Science Specialist, Master's thesis research student, 2022-2023
>Data Scientist at Abiomed in Danvers, MA
Amer Mansour
Research Assistant, Summer 2022
>MD candidate SUNY Upstate Medical University, Syracuse, NY
