The Lloyd Lab

Welcome to the Lloyd Lab at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine!

Principal Investigator

Thomas Lloyd, M.D., Ph.D

Associate Professor of Neurology and Neuroscience

Dr. Thomas Lloyd specializes in neuromuscular disorders in adults, with a particular interest in neurogenetics and motor neuron diseases including amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), motor neuropathies, and muscle diseases such as Inclusion Body Myositis (IBM). His research interests include understanding the mechanisms of motor neuron degeneration using simple genetic model systems. Current investigations focus on the role of genes that regulate transport of organelles and survival signals along motor nerve axons. In the lab, he is developing genetic and pharmacologic screens to identify novel drug targets for motor neuron diseases. Tom received his M.D. and Ph.D. from Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas. He then came to Johns Hopkins Hospital for residency training in Neurology, after which he completed a fellowship in Neuromuscular Medicine.

Faculty

Sarah Berth, M.D. Ph.D.

Assistant Professor of Neurology

Sarah received her BA in biological sciences at Northwestern University, and her MD and PhD in at University of Illinois-Chicago. Her graduate research was on defining mechanisms for dysregulation of fast axonal transport in HIV distal sensory polyneuropathy. She then came to Johns Hopkins Hospital for residency training in Neurology and completed her fellowship in Neuromuscular Medicine. She is currently evaluating axonal transport in a model of C9orf72 ALS. In her free time she enjoys running, hiking, reading and spending time with her daughter.

Post-Doctoral Fellows

Hyun Sung, Ph.D

Hyun is from Seoul, South Korea. He received his BS and MS in life sciences at Hanyang University, and received his PhD in neuroscience and physiology at Purdue University. During his PhD, he studied axonal transport of mitochondria and organelle quality control with Dr. Peter Hollenbeck. At the Lloyd lab, he is interested in the role of axonal transport with organelle dynamics in motor neuropathies, such as ALS and CMT.

Sandeep Dubey, Ph.D

Sandeep has received his PhD degree in the laboratory of Prof. Madhu Tapadia at Banaras Hindu University, India, where he worked on the role of Hippo pathway and nucleocytoplasmic transport in PolyQ-meditated neurodegeneration using genetic and cell biology approaches in Drosophila. In Lloyd lab, he is interested to stufy how C9orf72 disrupts the nucleocytoplasmic transport machinery by using expansion microscopy to perform super-resolution imaging of the nuclear pore complex.

Sunyuan Zhang, Ph.D

Sunyuan Zhang received her Bachelor degree in Life Sciences from Peking University, China in 2014. Later she finished her PhD degree in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology in the University of Melbourne, Australia in 2018. She joined Iloyd lab in Septermber 2019 and became part of the ALS disease mechanism team with main focus on RNA metabolism. In her free time, she enjoys reading, cooking, badminton, running, and hiking.

Chiseko Ikenaga, Ph.D

Chiseko is from Sapporo, Japan and received her MD and PhD degrees from the University of Tokyo. After she finished her Neurology fellowship in the University of Tokyo Hospital, she worked on RNA-sequencing analysis of muscle from patients with inclusion body myositis (IBM) as part of her PhD work. At Washington University in St. Louis, she studied the function of FYCO1 in the muscle (July 2019−December 2020). She joined the IBM team of Lloyd lab in December, 2020. When she is not working, she enjoys hiking, visiting museums, and trying local foods.

Graduate Students

Kirstin Maulding

Graduate Program: Cellular and Molecular Medicine

Kirstin Maulding graduated from Texas A&M University in 2016 with a BS in Molecular and Cell Biology and minors in Genetics and Neuroscience. Her interest in neuroscience and neurodegenerative disease peaked her interest in the Cellular and Molecular Medicine program here at Johns Hopkins. She joined the Lloyd lab and is now studying the underlying mechanisms that cause neurodegeneration, including aberrant signaling pathways and disruption of the nuclear pore. In her free time, she enjoys backpacking, reading, and hanging out with her cats.

Andrew Wilson, M.S.

Graduate Program: Human Genetics

Andrew Wilson is from Sidney, Maine and received his B.S. in biology with a minor in chemistry from the University of Maine Orono in 2015. Following his undergraduate degree, he continued on with a master’s degree in zoology at the University of Maine, studying the effect of different color combinations on human subjects’ visual acuity using the program created during his undergraduate degree. After obtaining his master’s degree in 2017, Andrew joined the lab of Dr. David Nauen at Johns Hopkins as a research technologist studying transcriptome changes in the dentate gyrus during and after the development of temporal lobe epilepsy. In 2019 he matriculated into the Pathobiology graduate program and shortly after joined Tom Lloyd’s lab investigating molecular mechanisms and possible therapeutic approaches for Inclusion Body Myositis (IBM) in a mouse xenograft model. In his free time, Andrew enjoys fishing, hiking, playing and watching sports.

Laboratory Manager

Andrew Cheng

Andrew Cheng joined the Lloyd Lab in July of 2017 as a research technologist and lab manager. Prior to joining the lab, Andrew graduated from the University of Maryland, College Park where he studied bioengineering with interests in biomedical devices and electronics. In lab, Andrew studies the role of the Dynactin complex in neurodegenerative diseases such as HMN, ALS, and Perry Syndrome. In his spare time, he enjoys physical activities, such as weightlifting, tennis, and ultimate frisbee, as well as the occasional movie or video game night.

Undergraduate Research Assistants

Dominick Rich

Dominick is a junior at Johns Hopkins University studying Neuroscience. He has been in the Lloyd lab for a year and a half and is very happy he chose to work here. His current focus is the p150-Glued gene, and mutations to this gene that are implicated in ALS, CMT, and HMN7. On campus, Dominick is a Training Officer and EMT on the Hopkins Emergency Response Unit, an active volunteer in Thread Mentorship Program, and a member of the JHU chapter of Nu Rho Psi. Dominick is from Long Island, NY, and in his free time enjoys working out, playing basketball, surfing, snowboarding, and playing card games and video games with his friends.

In Collaboration With:

Dr. Mark Wu, MD, PhD

Dr. Charlotte Sumner

Dr. Jeffrey Rothstein