Our team

Yicheng obtained his bachelor degree in biological sciences from Tsinghua University in Beijing, and then he joined Jane Jackman's lab at Ohio State to pursue his PhD research on RNA repair and reverse RNA polymerization in Dictyostelium (a social amoeba) and budding yeast. After completion of his PhD study, he joined Tom Cech's lab at University of Colorado Boulder to study how RNA-protein interaction regulates epigenetic repression. Yicheng established his independent research lab at Weill Cornell in August 2021, and he is interested how molecular interactions among RNA, DNA and protein regulate gene expression in cell identity, development and diseases.

Outside the lab Yicheng loves hiking, skiing, tennis, soccer, board games, and exploring new restaurants in New York City. He also love cuddling with his Akita Shepherd dog Summer.

Christian is an ambitious researcher who loves anything from RNA to chromatin to stem cells. For his scientific endeavors, he has traveled the world quite a bit: He graduated from the Technische Universität Dresden in Germany, completed his Ph.D. in Molecular Biology at the EMBL Rome in Italy, and then went on for his postdoc research in Edinburgh, Scotland, and Boulder, Colorado.

Christian joined the lab in October 2021, where he can be seen knocking out lncRNAs and differentiating iPSCs to cardiomyocytes.

Outside the lab, Christian enjoys playing football, table tennis, and billiards. He’s always down for fun events and all kinds of activities in and around town.

Sandy earned her bachelor's degree in Biotechnology in India and then moved to the US to pursue her master's degree in Biological Sciences at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. She then went to work in the labs of Dr. Tom Maniatis at Columbia University and Dr. Daniele Canzio at UCSF. In both labs, Sandy studied the molecular regulation of clustered protocadherins in neural cell-surface identity using mouse models. It was during this time that Sandy developed an interest in further exploring research pertaining to RNA regulation within a defined chromatin environment. She then joined the BCMB PhD program in late 2020 and joined our lab in the summer of 2022. 

In her free time, Sandy likes to sketch, read, watch anime, and play chess. 

John graduated from Cornell University in May 2021 and joined the lab in Oct 2021. John is in charge of the baculoviral production of recombinant protein complexes and downstream biochemical approaches. Outside the lab, John loves climbing and running.

Liming is a passionate postdoctoral researcher with particular research interests in developing gene editing tools and studying long noncoding RNA functions. Liming had a mixed background in molecular biology, genetics, and pharmacology/toxicology. He earned his B.S. degree at the Ocean University of China with a major in Medicine. He then came to the US to pursue higher education. Majoring in pharmacology/toxicology, he earned his M.S. degree at St.John’s University and his Ph.D. degree at UCONN. After that, he had a two-year postdoctoral training at Harvard Medical School, where he found a research interest in gene editing and iPSC differentiation. Liming joined the lab in December 2022, and he will be in charge of developing CRIPSR-based tools in the study of genetic regulation by long noncoding RNAs.

Outside the lab, Liming likes building computers and photographing.  

Jeff Abrams is a cardiology fellow with a research background in ion channels and cardiac arrhythmias; he is returning to the lab for the final years of his fellowship.  He's excited to be a member of the Long lab where he will be studying epigenetic regulators of cardiomyocyte differentiation. 

Jeff previously received his undergraduate degree from the University of Pennsylvania and his MD/PhD at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons.  Outside of his time in the hospital and lab, he enjoys spending time with his family and learning new things. 

Hazel is an adventurous first year BCMB student at Weill Cornell. She received her B.S. degree in Biological Sciences from Sichuan University in China and M.S. degree in Biotechnology from Columbia University. Driven by curiosity, her previous research experience encompassed a broad range of topics including structural biology, CRISPR, synthetic genomes, and extremophiles. She later joined Weill Cornell to pursue her interests in gene regulation during cell differentiation. Outside the lab, Hazel loves vegetarian food, music, people-watching, and reading.  

Alex is a first year BCMB student at Weill Cornell. He received his bachelor's in chemical biology from UC Berkeley in 2021. Upon graduation, Alex took a job at Pfizer where he was involved in the bioprocess development efforts of mRNA vaccines until 2023. After this work in industry, Alex joined Weill Cornell Medicine where he hopes to study more about epigenetic regulation and cell differentiation.

For fun, Alex enjoys traveling, hanging out with friends, cooking, playing pickup sports, and watching movies.

Viggy is a first year graduate student in the BCMB program at Weill Cornell. She received her Bachelor of Technology in Biotechnology degree from Anna University, India in 2017 and moved to the Unites States to pursue an MS in Biotechnology from the California State University, Channel Islands. During her masters, she joined Dr. Kit Lam's lab at UC Davis as a CIRM Bridges intern and worked on developing peptides for targeting cancer stem cells. After graduation, she joined the Marson Lab at Gladstone Institutes- UCSF as a Research Associate working on genome wide CRISPR screens for understanding HIV latency. She later joined the BCMB program to explore her interest in epigenetic regulation of cell fate decisions. Viggy is currently exploring her interest in RNA mediated chromatin dynamics as a rotation student in our lab! 

Besides lab, Viggy enjoys exploring the city, reading and photography.

Roxanne is a passionate medical student from University of Montreal (cohort 2020-2025) who joined the Long Lab in the summer of 2022. She is working on multiple projects including one involving proteins in the PRC2 complex. Her general interests align with internal medicine and cardiology. 

Outside the lab, she loves to travel and discover great places to eat in the city. Feel comfortable sending recommendations her way as she is always willing to try out new spots! Roxanne also enjoys knitting, early runs in Central Park and playing chess – you can challenge her to a game anytime, she rarely declines the opportunity.

Cyril is a driven medical student interested in cardiology and internal medicine from University of Montreal (cohort 2020-2025); he joined the Lab back in June 2022 and has been working on the PRC2 complex amongst other projects.  

Outside the lab, when he is not brewing kombucha (or drinking it), he can be seen going out for runs around town. Some of his other hobbies include snowboarding, sailing, and biking. Feel free to reach out to him as he is super social and loves to exchange on different subjects. 

Kristin is currently at Cornell University studying chemistry as an undergraduate student. Her current interests are in cardiology and biochemistry. Some of the things she love to do in her free time include playing the violin, going to the gym, and thrifting.