Instructor in Ophthalmology

Dr. Kinga Bujakowska earned her PhD in Molecular Genetics from the University College London, UK, where she studied the disease mechanism of a specific form of Retinitis Pigmentosa caused by mutations in the splicing factor gene PRPF31. She did her first post-doctoral training in the Insitut de la Vision, France, where she was involved in mapping new genetic defects in patients with Retinitis Pigmentosa and Congenital Stationary Night Blindness.
Kinga joined the Ocular Genomics Institute in September 2012, where she is involved in the genetic characterization of patients with inherited retinal degenerations.

Contact Information:
Phone: 617-573-6944

Research Technologist

Dr. Erin Zampaglione graduated from Caltech in 2011 with a BS in Biology. She did her graduate studies at UCSC, where she worked on characterizing functional responses in mouse retinal ganglion cells.
Erin joined the Ocular Genomics Institute in December 2017 as a research technologist for Dr. Kinga Burjakowska

Research Fellow

Dr. Hilary Scott earned her PhD in genetics from Texas A&M University studying the role of sialylation, a post-translational modification of glycoproteins, on neuronal-glial functional coupling and its impact on neural development and physiology.
Hilary joined Ocular Genomics Institute in July 2018 focusing on developing methods to detect and validate pathogenic mutations in new and known IRD genes to find missing genetic causality in patients with inherited retina degenerations.

Research Fellow

Dr. Riccardo Sangermano graduated in Medical Biotechnology from the Federico II University of Naples, Italy. In Naples, he also worked as fellow at the Telethon Institute of Genetics and Medicine (TIGEM). In September 2013 he obtained a Marie Curie Early Stage Researcher fellowship and moved to the Netherlands, where he joined the group of Prof. Frans Cremers at the Department of Human Genetics, Radboud University Medical Center. His research mainly focused on the investigation of novel genetic causes in inherited retinal dystrophies and on unraveling the missing heritability in ABCA4-associated Stargardt disease. In July 2018 he obtained his PhD in Medical Science from the Radboud University, The Netherlands.
Riccardo joined the Ocular Genomics Institute in August 2018, where he is involved in the investigation and functional characterization of genetic modifiers in patients with inherited retinal dystrophies.

Research Assistant

Cassandra graduated from the University of New Hampshire with a BS in Genetics and a minor in Archaeology in May of 2018. During her time at the University of New Hampshire, Cassandra spent three years working for the Natural Resources department analyzing the transitioning of New England Cottontail and Eastern Cottontail populations in the New England area. Cassandra also spent three years working for the Archaeology Lab identifying Native American lithics and fossils from settlements in Michigan. Cassandra presented at the University of New Hampshire Undergraduate Research Conference in April 2018 on Modifications of Elution Time Periods in Commercially Available DNA Extraction Kits. She wishes to continue her studies one day in Ancient Human Genetics.

Cassandra joined Dr. Bujakowska’s lab in May of 2019 as a research assistant.

Research Technologist

Liz graduated in 2017 from Rhodes College in Memphis, Tennessee, with a B.S. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. While at school, she briefly studied the role of epigenetic mechanisms in progression and severity of prostate cancer. Outside of school, she was heavily involved with an Immune Signaling and Metabolism laboratory at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, an Ophthalmology laboratory at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center, and a laboratory at the Universidade de São Paulo, Brazil. Liz joined the Ocular Genomics Institute in December of 2017 as research technologist for Dr. Revital Bronstein.