TEAM MEMBERS
Berna Sozen
Group Leader
Dr. Berna Sozen is Assistant Professor of Developmental Stem Cell Biology at Yale Department of Genetics, secondary faculty at Department of Ob/Gyn & Reproductive Sciences and affiliated member of Yale Stem Cell Center at Yale School of Medicine.
Dr. Sozen grew up in Turkey and first trained as a Reproductive Biologist at Akdeniz University, Turkey (2009-2015), and later as a Developmental Biologist at the University of Cambridge, UK (2015-2019). In her earlier training years, she worked with Prof. Tom Fleming in Southampton, UK (2012) on pre-implantation embryogenesis and developmental programming. After a short training as a Clinical Embryologist at Istanbul University, Turkey (2015), she moved to Cambridge, UK to complete her PhD project. She then undertook her post-doctoral research first at Cambridge, and later at California Insitute of Technology (Caltech) during which she developed in vitro systems to model mammalian early embryogenesis using various types of stem cells, in the Magdalena Zernicka-Goetz group. In 2020, she established her independent research group at Yale Genetics. She is award recipients of the NIH Director’s New Innovator (DP2) (2022), the Smith Foundation Program (2022), the American Society of Reproductive Medicine (ASRM) (2024), ReproGrants (2023), Blavatnik Family Foundation (2024) and Pew Scholars (2025), and the 2026 Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Biomedical Science.
Liangwen Zhong
Associate research scientist
Liangwen Zhong first trained as a Reproductive Biologist (2008-2016) and later as a clinical embryologist (2016-2017) at the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) in in their first IVF lab-affiliated hospital. He worked in Prof. Qinghua Shi’s lab on the genetic causes of spermatogenic failure and male infertility, later moving to the US for his postdoctoral training as a stem cell biologist (2017-2022). Liangwen studied the directed differentiation of human PSCs into lung progenitors in Prof. Sarah Xuelian Huang’s lab at UT Health, and pluripotency maintenance in mouse embryonic stem cells in Prof. Duancheng Wen’s lab at Weill Cornell Medicine. Over his early training years, he generated novel mouse models that phenocopy non-azoospermia symptoms, defined genes that cause meiotic monopololar spindle formation in mouse spermatocytes, and found that lipid supplementation maintained the full developmental potency and genomic stability of embryonic stem cells. In Aug. 2022, Liangwen joined the Sozen lab as an Associate Research Scientist, curious about the role of metabolism and intracellular signaling for stem-cell based embryo development, as well as for natural mammalian embryogenesis.
Blaine HARLAN
pOSTDOCTORAL ASSOCIATE
Blaine joined the Sozen lab as a postdoctoral research associate in October 2023, bringing a background rooted in cancer, stem cell biology, and single-cell genomics. She earned her bachelor’s degree from Butler University in 2014 (Indianapolis, IN) and her PhD in Genetics from Cornell University in 2021 (Ithaca, NY). In the Soloway Lab at Cornell, she used single-nuclei ATAC-seq to assay chromatin accessibility changes in adipose tissue that govern lipid metabolism responses to bariatric surgery. Subsequently, as a postdoctoral researcher in the Danko lab at Cornell, she again utilized single-nuclei ATAC-seq, this time to investigate tumoral regional heterogeneity of chromatin accessibility in glioblastoma multiforme as well as cross-platform deconvolution of nascent transcription to understand microenvironmental niches important for patient survival. She is broadly interested in development and new analytical techniques, and in particular, is aiming to leverage single-cell technologies to unravel the intricate gene regulatory networks that underlie cell fate transitions during development. She is excited to contribute to the collaborative and dynamic research environment in the Yale Genetics department.
blaine.harlan@yale.edu
Jason Rizo
pOSTDOCTORAL ASSOCIATE
Jason earned his B.Sc. from Zamorano University (Honduras) and his M.Sc. from the Animal Molecular and Cellular Biology program at the University of Florida. He then completed his PhD in Reproductive Biology at Mizzou under Drs. Tom Spencer and Andrew Kelleher. During his PhD, he used mouse and human organoids, endometrial assembloid cultures, and multiomic approaches to investigate how mechanisms directing epithelial fate specification during fetal and neonatal development are reactivated and contribute to disease progression in the adult uterus. Jason joined the Sozen Lab as a postdoctoral associate in September 2025 to pursue his curiosity about the developmental dialogue between the embryo and the uterus. His research integrates embryo modeling, functional genomics, and advanced imaging to dissect the role of metabolic signaling in embryonic tissue remodeling. By leveraging stem cell–based systems with comparative analyses of in vivo embryos, Jason aims to uncover fundamental principles of human embryonic patterning.
jason.rizo@yale.edu
TOVA FinkelStein
PHD STUDENT
Tova is a PhD Student in Genetics at Yale University joining the Sozen Lab in March 2023 after matriculating through Yale’s Biological and Biomedical Sciences PhD program in the Fall of 2022. Tova graduated from Barnard College in 2020 with a Bachelor of Arts in Cell and Molecular Biology. During her undergrad, she conducted research in the Mansfield Lab where she studied the the role of Hoxa5 in regulating musculoskeletal patterning and brown fat differentiation. Before coming to Yale, Tova worked as a Research Assistant in the Simon Lab at The Rockefeller University studying the unique proteomic signature of a rare liver cancer, Fibrolamellar Hepatocellular Carcinoma.
Tova is the recipient of 2026 American Heart Association pre-doctoral fellowship!
IPEK GASSALOGLU
PhD STUDENT
Ipek earned her B.Sc in Genetics and Bioinformatics from Bahçeşehir University, Istanbul. Later on, she moved to Berlin to major in M.Sc. Molecular Medicine at the Charité Universitätsmedizin. During this period, she worked with stembryo models such as Gastruloids and Trunk-like structures (TLS) and performed her thesis on “Molecular recording of mouse embryonic stem cell-derived TLS” at the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics under the supervision of Dr. Jesse Veenvliet and Adriano Bolondi. After graduating from Charité, she spent one year in the same lab as a Research Assistant to understand the effects of hypoxia in development by using the gastruloid model. She started her PhD in Yale BSS program in September 2023. In a nutshell, she is intrigued to understand mammalian development and to decipher how cellular processes are regulated to ultimately give rise to a whole organism.
Ipek is the 2026 recipient of Lo Graduate Fellowship for excellence in stem cell research!
ADRIANA N. VÉLEZ-AVILÉS
MD-PhD STUDENT
Adriana is an MD-PhD student and aspiring OBGYN physician-scientist, from the UPR- Yale cooperative program. Her clinical and research focus lies in the field reproductive medicine and women’s health. She graduated as a MARC Scholar from the UPR in Rio Piedras in 2020 where she majored in Cell and Molecular Biology. Her undergraduate research was conducted in Dr. Gregory Quirk’s laboratory where she studied neural circuits involved in decision making. Her passion for genetics and development sparked after conducting research in Dr. Mariana Wolfner’s lab at Cornell where she focused on understanding the key pathways involved in drosophila egg activation, a process essential for egg development. After completion of three years of medical school, Adriana joined Dr. Berna Sozen’s lab for her PhD in early 2024, studying the mechanisms of infertility associated to embryo implantation and uterine receptivity in the context of endometriosis.
Adriana is the 2026 recipient of NIH F31 Fellowship from the National Institute of Child Health and Development!
Roopini (Ruby) Sathia Sai Kumar
Postgraduate Research assistant
Ruby joined the Sozen Lab as a Postgraduate Associate in August 2026. She trained as a Clinical Embryologist in India, completing her B.Sc. Zoology and Biotechnology from Stella Maris College and M.Sc in Clinical Embryology from JSS Medical College before working at Manipal Hospitals, where she conducted research on oocyte maturation and deep learning applications in IVF. She later earned a Master’s degree in Biomedical Informatics from New York University, where she joined the Fenyö Lab to study the immune landscape of endometriosis and implantation failure using single-cell transcriptomics. She then joined the David Beck lab as a Research Associate and investigated inflammatory disorders through computational genomics. Ruby is passionate about reproductive medicine and her research interests lie at the intersection of early embryo development, immunology, and genetics.
LAB ALUMNI
MONIQUE PEDROZA, PhD
Current position: Postdoctoral Researcher, Stanford University
Monique was a PhD student in the Sozen Lab between 2021-2025, and they were the 2023 recipient of Lo Graduate Fellowship for excellence in stem cell research.
Ashley Abel, PhD
Current position: CEO at a Stealth Mode Biotech
Ashley was a PhD student in the Sozen Lab between 2021-2025, and she was the 2023 recipient of NIH F31 fellowship from the National Institute of Child Health and Development.
Dominica cao
Current position: PhD Student, Yale University
Dominica was a postbaccalaureate research assistant in the Sozen Lab between 2021-2023. During their time, they focussed on studying gastrulation dynamics, working with mammalian embryos and their stem cell models to study metabolic guidance of embryogenesis.
JENNA BERGMANN, MD, phd
Current position: Yale Medical School
Jenna was an MD PhD student in the Sozen Lab between 2021-2026. During her time, Jenna focussed on studying the impact of metabolic environment on early embryonic development. Jenna was the 2024 recipient of NIH F31 Fellowship from the National Institute of Child Health and Development.
Tyler jensen, MD, phd
Current position: Clinical Fellow, Brigham and Womens Hospital, Harvard Medical School
Tyler was an MD PhD postdoctoral research assistant in the Sozen Lab between 2024-2026. During his time, Tyler focussed on exploring the role of epigenetics in human embryonic development and stem cell fate determination. He was a recipient of NIH F30 fellowship from the National Institute of Child Health and Development.
IREM BEYZA URALCAN
Current position: Incoming PhD student, University of Cambridge
Beyza was an postbaccalaureate research assistant in the Sozen Lab between 2024-2026. During her time, Beyza focussed on human tissue-based organoids and disease models.
HONORARY MEMBERS
Lana mish-mish Pilchik
Lana is a dachshund-terrier mix from Junction, Texas. She began her scientific training in the Sözen lab when she was adopted by Jenna in May 2023. Her interests including napping, chewing, and sunbathing in the rose garden.
Franklin Fury Finkelstein
Franklin, named for Rosalind Franklin, joined the lab in April 2023 when he was adopted by Tova. Besides representing women in science he loves to nap, chase string, and work from hom
Millie Patience Harlan-Wright
Millie is a mixed-breed dog from rural Kentucky. She was fostered and then adopted by Blaine and her significant other, Logan, in March 2020. Millie is passionate about belly rubs, naps in the sun, and eating any and all kinds of food