MEMBERS
WE LOVE WHAT WE DO!
Etienne Caron, PhD
PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR | ASSISTANT PROFESSOR
Dr. Caron is a Canadian scientist with a background in Biotechnology and Systems Immunology. He received his PhD from the University of Montreal and completed his education at ETH-Zürich in Switzerland under the guidance of Dr. Ruedi Aebersold. Dr. Caron is known for his international leadership and expertise in immunopeptidomics for the global analysis of MHC-associated peptides using mass spectrometry technologies. His scientific program has the potential to revolutionize the research on vaccine design, cancer immunotherapy, infectious and autoimmune diseases, including treatment of neurodegenerative diseases and aging.
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In 2023, Dr. Caron was recruited by the Yale Center for Immuno-Oncology (YCIO) and the Department of Immunobiology. He is also currently a member of the Yale Center for Infection and Immunity (CII), and the Yale Center for Systems and Engineering Immunology (CSEI).
Saketh Kapoor, PhD
Associate Research Scientist | Lab Manager
Saketh started his research career at the prestigious Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, India. To pursue his Ph.D., he moved to Yenepoya (Deemed to be University) that is nestled in the beautiful city of Mangalore along the Arabian Sea coast to work on Stem cell proteomics. He received the European Molecular Biology Organization Short-Term Fellowship to University of Bari, Italy. He was trained at the National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro-Sciences, Bangalore and contributed to setting up the first testing facility for SARS-CoV-2 virus at the Yenepoya Hospital, India. To further pursue his academic career, he moved to Helmholtz Zentrum Munich, Germany where he set up the ultra-high sensitive mass spectrometer lab and combined it with cutting-edge technologies such as DISCO clearing and spatial proteomics culminating in significant publications in the journal Cell. In the Caron Lab, Saketh seeks to combine his background in spatial and low-input proteomics with a newly found passion for immunopeptidomics. Saketh loves travelling, hiking and meeting new people, and has a fetish for collecting non-fiction books!
Valeria de Azcoitia, PhD
Associate Research Scientist
Dr. Valeria de Azcoitia is a dedicated biomedical researcher with a background in molecular biology and extensive experience in hematopoietic stem cell development, functional genomics, and the ethical management of biospecimens. She holds a PhD from Universidad Autónoma in Madrid, Spain, and completed her postdoctoral training at the University of Montreal in Canada. With a robust background as a Senior Project Manager at Azenta Life Sciences, Valeria has managed the sourcing and quality control of human biospecimens for various global pharmaceutical clients. Valeria joined the Caron Lab in September 2024 as an Associate Research Scientist. In her new role, she supports the team in the isolation of MHC-bound peptides and aims to collaborate with various departments at Yale to coordinate the collection and management of biospecimens for cutting-edge proteogenomics and immunopeptidomics studies.
Jing Sun, PhD, M.Med
Postdoctoral Associate
Jing Sun completed her training in Clinical Oncology at Zhejiang University, School of Medicine in 2020 and earned her PhD in Haematology in 2024 under the mentorship of Prof Eric So at King’s College London and Dr. Eliezer Van Allen at Dana Farber Cancer Institute. During her PhD, she focused on investigating the immune signature and neoantigen landscape of Myeloproliferative Neoplasms. In addition to her Haematology/Oncology background, Jing is also a computational biologist and pipeline developer for single cell proteomics and bulk sequencing data analysis including WES, RNA-seq, ChIP-seq, ATAC-seq, and CUT&RUN. Jing joined the Caron lab as a postdoctoral researcher in Sep 2024, to implement and develop computational tools to identify both canonical and non-canonical neoantigens in the tumour immunopeptidome using integrated multi-omics approaches. In her spare time, Jing enjoys traveling, hiking, and doing flower paintings. She wonders how to become a successful scientist-artist having her works published on Nature and Vogue: P
Ruimin Wang, PhD
Postdoctoral Associate
Ruimin Wang obtained his bachelor's degree in computer science and technology from the University of Science and Technology of China. In July 2024, he received his PhD from Fudan University and Westlake University, conducting multidisciplinary research in computational mass spectrometry. Through collaborations with external biology labs and companies, he improved his skills in analyzing proteomics and metabolomics LC-MS data. Ruimin's research spans from designing novel machine learning algorithms to developing enterprise-grade software. His work covers various aspects, including sample randomization, data compression, quantification, identification, acquisition automation, and quality control. His software platforms have been adopted by leading labs, testing companies, and hospitals across China, supporting the analysis of over 200,000 biological samples. Ruimin joined the Caron Lab in September as a postdoctoral associate, focusing on algorithm development and software design for immunopeptidomics MS data. The goal is to enable biomedical researchers to identify tumor specific antigens with higher sensitivity and accuracy, contributing to the development of more effective cancer immunotherapies.
Mohammad Shahbazy, PhD
Postdoctoral Associate
Moh is passionate about proteomics, bioinformatics, analytical biochemistry, mass spectrometry, and antigen discovery research. He obtained an MSc in analytical chemistry and bioinformatics (machine learning) strategies for biomedical data analysis for early cancer diagnosis to pursue these research interests. Through a postgraduate research program, he received a PhD in the Immunoproteomics Lab led by Prof Anthony (Tony) Purcell at the Biomedicine Discovery Institute, Monash University (2023). During his PhD candidature career, he endeavored to develop high-throughput mass spectrometry-based proteomics and immunopeptidomics platforms for quantitative analysis of stability profiles and PTMs in MHC/HLA-bound peptides. He developed immunoinformatics software tools for unsupervised data visualization and clustering analysis of MHC peptides to mine immunopeptidomes and explore antigen landscapes. Moreover, he developed machine learning models to predict peptide immunogenicity profiles and T-cell responses for virus-derived MHC peptides with physicochemical features and thermostability predictors to shortlist potential targets for more efficient T-cell immunotherapies and vaccines. In 2024, Moh joined the Caron Lab to continue his journey in exploring cancer-specific (neo)antigens by integrating immunopeptidomics, quantitative proteomics workflows, multi-omics strategies, and thermal immunopeptidome profiling.
Vigneshwar Rajesh, HBSc
Postgraduate Associate
Vigneshwar Rajesh is a postgraduate associate at the Caron Lab, dedicated to miniaturizing mass spectrometry based immunopeptidomics sample preparation methods using digital microfluidics (DMF) based “lab-on-a-chip” technology. He earned an Honors Bachelor of Science degree in Chemistry from the University of Toronto where he had a focus on physical, and analytical chemistry.
During his time there, Vigneshwar worked at Dr. Aaron Wheeler’s group on various DMF projects. One was studying surfactants on DMF chips. Another was translating PCR and magnetic bead purification protocols to the INTEGRA Biosciences Miro Canvas DMF platform, to help automate SARS-CoV-2 DNA sample preparation for detecting variants of concern in wastewater via mass spectrometry. He also contributed to the software development of the Microdrop graphical user interface for the Sci-Bots DropBot DMF system.
Simultaneously, Vigneshwar worked with Dr. Jeremy Schofield in the Chemical Physics Theory Group, where he enhanced a hybrid Monte Carlo sampling program to calculate the configurational entropy of coarse-grained proteins. His efforts also extended to applying machine learning techniques to predict protein folding entropies.
Maya Weitzen
Undergraduate Student
Maya is finishing up her Bachelor's degree in the History of Science, Medicine, and Public Health on the Pre-Medical track at Yale University. She interned for several years at Regeneron Pharmaceuticals in the Bioanalytical and Biomarker Technologies Group where she applied high-throughput immunopeptidomics to various cancer types, generating novel immunotherapeutic targets. She then maintained this line of work at Yale, assisting the Lieping Chen Lab in the Immunobiology Department on several projects related to the molecular, biochemical, and functional aspects of cell surface molecular pathways in the control and modulation of immune responses. Maya joined the Caron Lab in the Fall of 2023 where she aims to apply mass-spectrometry-based immunopeptidomics to uncover oncological and viral targets within the HLA-Ia and -Ib immunopeptidome.
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