Meet Our Team

Margaret Chang, MD, PhD

Dr. Chang is an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School and a Pediatric Rheumatologist in the Division of Immunology at Boston Children’s Hospital. She obtained her M.D./Ph.D. degree from the David Geffen UCLA School of Medicine in 2013. She completed pediatric residency and pediatric rheumatology fellowship training at Boston Children’s Hospital in 2019 before joining the faculty.

Dr. Chang’s research interests are in site-specific autoimmune diseases, with an emphasis on tissue resident memory T cells and how they contribute to joint-specific memory and arthritis flares, as well as T cells drivers of autoimmune uveitis.

Yang Yang, PhD

Dr. Yang obtained his Ph.D. degree from Baylor University in 2023. His previous research focused on gene editing, RNA sequencing, and neurobiology, with a particular interest in the auditory system. He is currently investigating pathways in resident memory T cell differentiation and memory T cell plasticity in arthritis.

Postdoctoral Fellow

Yang, Y., Murtha, K., Climer, L.K., Ceriani, F., Thompson, P., Hornak, A.J., Marcotti, W. and Simmons, D.D. (2023), Oncomodulin regulates spontaneous calcium signalling and maturation of afferent innervation in cochlear outer hair cells. J Physiol.

Murtha, K.E†., Yang Y†, Ceriani, F., Jeng, J.-Y., Climer, L.K., Jones, F., Charles, J., Devana, S.K., Hornak, A.J., Marcotti, W., Simmons, D.D., 2022. Oncomodulin (OCM) uniquely regulates calcium signaling in neonatal cochlear outer hair cells. Cell calcium, 105, 102613.

Yang, Y., Wu, D., Liu, D., Shi, J., Zhou, R., He, X., Quan, J., Cai, G., Zheng, E., Wu, Z., & Li, Z. (2017). Mutation of the XIST gene upregulates expression of X-linked genes but decreases the developmental rates of cloned male porcine embryos. Molecular reproduction and development, 84(6), 525–534.

Publications

  • American Association of Immunologists abstract award 2026

  • Joint Biology Consortium microgrant award 2024

  • TSM Travel Award. 55th Meeting of the Texas Society for Microscopy 2020

  • MidWinter Travel Award. Association for Research in Otolaryngology 2020

  • Smith Fellowship. Department of Biology, Baylor University 2020

Awards

Eamon Winden, PhD

Dr. Winden received his PhD in Genetics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and brings a background in bioinformatics and molecular tool development to better understand children's diseases. He is currently studying how T cells interact with their environment in the context of tissues and autoimmune conditions and the genetic underpinnings of juvenile autoimmunity.

Postdoctoral Fellow

Calle-Casteñeda S, Winden E, Vasquez-Echeverri A, Schickling M, Browning E, Hernandez Ortiz JP, Schwartz DC. 'Gel-Stacks' gently confine or reversibly immobilize arrays of single DNA molecules for manipulation and study. Biotechniques. 2024;76(6):285-289. Epub 2024 Apr 24. PMID: 38655877.

Winden E, Vasquez-Echeverri A, Calle-Castañeda S, Lian Y, Hernandez Ortiz JP, Schwartz DC. A database of restriction maps to expand the utility of bacterial artificial chromosomes. GigaByte. 2023 Sep 20;2023:gigabyte93. PMID: 37753479.

Publications

  • Pediatric Rheumatology Symposium Top Genetics & Pathogenesis abstract award 2026

  • Pediatric Rheumatology Symposium First Place Trainee Award 2026

Awards

Emma Haley, MD

Emma earned her medical degree from the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at the University at Buffalo in 2024. She is currently a senior resident in the Boston Combined Residency Program and will be applying to pediatric rheumatology fellowship. While an undergraduate at Tufts University, she conducted spondyloarthritis research at Brigham and Women's Hospital. Her work has since evolved to include epigenetic studies of juvenile idiopathic arthritis during medical school. She is currently investigating treatment-refractory arthritis and juvenile spondyloarthritis in the Chang lab.

Pediatric Resident

Jiang K, Haley EK, Barshad G, He A, Rogic A, Rice EJ, Sudman M, Thompson SD, Danko CG, Jarvis JN. Functional and Computational Interrogation of the Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis Risk Loci Identifies Candidate Causal SNPs and Target Genes in CD4+ T cells. medRxiv. 2025 Dec 16. PMID: 41445665.

Ermann J, Matmusaev M, Haley EK, Braun C, Jost F, Mayer-Wrangowski S, Hsiao P, Ting N, Li L, Terenzio D, Chime J, Lukas S, Patnaude L, Panzenbeck M, Csordas D, Zheng J, Mierz D, Simpson T, King FJ, Klimowicz AP, Mbow ML, Fine JS, Miller CA, Fogal SE, Byrne FR. The potent and selective RIPK2 inhibitor BI 706039 improves intestinal inflammation in the TRUC mouse model of inflammatory bowel disease. Am J Physiol Gastrointest Liver Physiol. 2021 11 01; 321(5):G500-G512. PMID: 34494462.

Haley EK, Matmusaev M, Hossain IN, Davin S, Martin TM, Ermann J. The impact of genetic background and sex on the phenotype of IL-23 induced murine spondyloarthritis. PLoS One. 2021; 16(5):e0247149. PMID: 33983951.

Publications

  • Pediatric Rheumatology Symposium Abstract Award 2026

Awards

James Hazen

James joined the Chang Lab in 2024. He graduated Noble and Greenough School in 2026 and is attending Harvard College. He uses 3D synovial organoids to investigate gene expression changes during resident resident memory T cell differentiation and survival.

Research Assistant

Arushi Gangwani

Arushi is a junior at the Commonwealth School. She joined the Chang lab in 2025 and is continuing research for a second consecutive summer. Her projects include characterizing treatment refractory arthritis patients and studying the cross-talk between resident memory T cells and fibroblast-like synoviocytes.

Summer Research Intern

You?

Interested in joining? We are actively looking for motivated researchers to join our team.