Blekhman Lab
Professor
Department of Medicine, Section of Genetic Medicine, University of Chicago
Ran Blekhman is a Professor of Genetic Medicine at the University of Chicago, where he leads a computational genomics lab studying the human microbiome and its role in health and disease. Using large-scale data, deep learning, and multi-omic integration, the lab works to understand how microbial communities vary across diverse contexts, interact with host biology, and drive human health and disease.
Dr. Blekhman holds a B.Sc. in Biology and Computer Science, and received a Ph.D. in Human Genetics from the University of Chicago, where he studied the evolution of gene regulation in primates. He completed his postdoctoral training at Cornell University, where he began his research on host-microbiome interactions. He joined UChicago in 2022, following nine years as faculty at the University of Minnesota, where he was recognized as a McKnight Land-Grant Professor and a Northrop Professor.
His research has been continuously funded by the NIH, and has been recognized with a Sloan Research Fellowship and a Scialog Fellowship. He serves on the editorial boards of Genome Biology and PLOS Biology, and his work has been covered by outlets including the New York Times, Science, Nature, Wired, and National Geographic. He writes publicly about microbiome science, research culture, and the future of biomedicine.
Senior Data Scientist
Rich is interested in analysis of large-scale publicly available data to learn about global variation in the microbiome. As a lab manager, he is leading our work on the Human Microbiome Compendium. Rich received his PhD in Bioinformatics and Computational Biology from the University of Minnesota in 2022, and holds a B.A. in print journalism from the University of Maryland.
Bioinformatician
Marco joined the lab in 2023 as a bioinformatician as part of the Host-Microbe Research Core in the Center for Interdisciplinary Study of Inflammatory Intestinal Disorders (C-IID). Marco holds a Ph.D. in Integrated Biomedical Sciences from Rush University Graduate College.
Postdoctoral Associate
NSF Postdoctoral Research FellowMark is interested in the co-evolution of hosts and their microbial communities, and his research focuses on using wild mammals as a model for understanding the mechanisms controlling this symbiotic relationship. Mark joined the lab in 2021 after completing a Ph.D. in Biological Sciences at Louisiana State University.
Postdoctoral Associate
Pamela joined our lab in January 2023. Her research is focused on characterizing patterns of microbial transmission in mother-infant pairs and in social groups, both in human and animal hosts. Before joining the lab, Pamela completed her PhD at EMBL with Peer Bork.
Postdoctoral Associate
Chicago DFI FellowSambhawa's research focuses on using machine learning approaches for understanding host-microbiome interactions. She uses large datasets, including omics data and electronic health records to shed light on links between the microbiome and disease. Sambhawa holds an M.S. degree in Computer Science from Lehigh University.
Postdoctoral Associate
ITM TL1 Postdoctoral FellowLauren joined our lab in 2025 after completing a PhD in microbiology at the University of Washington. Her research focuses on the interaction of the gut microbiome and bile acids, and she is co-mentored by Sonia Kupfer. Lauren holds a BS from the University of Minnesota.
Graduate Student
Genetics, Genomics & Systems BiologyAshwin's research focuses on developing and applying machine learning techniques for integrating microbiome and host genomic data. He joined the lab in 2021 and holds a B.S. and M.S. in Computer Science from the University of Chicago.
Graduate Student
Ecology and EvolutionKatja joined the lab in 2022. Her research focuses on understanding the ecology of the human gut microbiome and associated host cells using metabolic modeling approaches and genomic data. Katja holds a B.S. from Minerva University with a double major in Earth's Systems and Data Science.
Graduate Student
Molecular Metabolism & Nutrition Digestive Health T32 FellowJJ completed both a B.S. and M.S. at Loyola University Chicago, where he worked with Michael Burns examining the microbiome in Celiac disease. He is co-mentored by Eugene Chang.
Graduate Student
Genetics, Genomics & Systems Biology Genetic Mechanisms & Evolution T32 FellowLiz joined the lab in 2023. She holds a BS in Plant Biology and Computational Math, Science, and Engineering from Michigan State University. At the Blekhman Lab, Liz works on integration of microbiome data and host single-cell genomic data.
MD-PhD Student
Microbiology — MSTPTess is co-advised with Sam Light. She holds a BS from Wesleyan University and is interested in the evolutionary forces acting on the gut microbiome of patients undergoing medical treatment in different disease contexts.
Graduate Student
Pritzker School of Molecular EngineeringLaura joined the lab in 2026. She uses machine learning and network approaches to uncover biological principles from large-scale microbiome and host genomic data. Prior to joining the lab, she developed computational pipelines for single-cell and bulk RNA sequencing at Weill Cornell and the Icahn Mount Sinai Precision Immunology Institute. She holds an M.S. in Computational Biology from Weill Cornell and a B.S. in Molecular, Cellular, Developmental Biology and Mathematics from UCLA.
Postdoctoral Associate, 2020–2025
Assistant Professor
University of Southern California
Graduate Student, 2021–2025
Postdoctoral Fellow
Brigham and Women's Hospital
Graduate Student, 2018–2024
Postdoctoral Associate
University of Minnesota
Bioinformatician, 2014–2023
Grand Challenges Postdoctoral Fellow, 2017–2022
Assistant Professor
Old Dominion University
Postdoctoral Associate & Research Scientist, 2019–2022
Research Scientist, Microbiome Bioinformatics
Rebiotix, Inc.
Graduate Student, 2016–2022
Postdoctoral Associate, 2016–2020
Computational Biologist
Boston Children's Hospital
HHMI Postdoctoral Associate, 2013–2016
Associate Professor
Loyola University Chicago
Postdoctoral Associate, 2014–2016
Associate Professor
University of Minnesota, Twin Cities
Postdoctoral Associate, 2014–2016
Assistant Professor
Fairleigh Dickinson University
M.S. Student, 2014–2015
Researcher
Insight Centre for Data Analytics
