Current Students

Trase Aguigam

University of California, Los Angeles
BS, Molecular, Cell, and Developmental Biology

Research summary: Mechanisms of 5'-3' mRNA degradation

Outreach activities:
BE-STEM (Black Excellence in STEM)
IMSD (Initiative for Maximizing Student Development)

Camila Benitez

University of California, Berkeley
BA, Molecular and Cell Biology emphasis in neuroscienc

Research summary: How TSC1 haploinsufficiency leads to the specific accumulation of Tau

Kenya Bonitto

University of California, Los Angeles
BS, Molecular, Cell, and Developmental Biology

Research summary: Exploring the functions of non-canonical translation factors and understanding how oncogenes are translated in cancer

Addie Cady

Duke University
BS, Biology

Research summary: Molecular mechanisms that drive meningioma pathology

Nathan Cho

Stanford University
BS, Biology with Honors

Research summary: Defining the mechanisms by which NuMA drives spindle mechanical robustness

Pervin Choksi

University of Western Australia
BS, Biomedical Science

Research summary: Manipulating oval cells to restore liver function in alcoholic hepatitis patients

Zach Cogan

University of California, Santa Barbara
BA, Biology

Brandon Courteau

University of Rochester
BS, Biological Sciences - Biochemistry

Research summary: Cryo-EM structural studies of receptor tyrosine kinase HER receptors and receptor serine-threonine kinase BMP receptors

Lorenzo Del Castillo

California State University, Northridge
BS, Cell and Molecular Biology

Research summary: I am using optogenetic tools in cells to manipulate hedgehog signaling and look at pathway dynamics in different developmental systems.

Emmy Delaney

University of California, Davis
BS, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

Research summary: Investigating separase substrates and their role in cell cycle progression

Camille Derderian

CUNY Hunter College
BA, Psychology

Research summary: Studying the localization and function of membrane lipids at the primary cilium

Outreach activities: I have participated in UCSF’s Science Education Partnership with San Francisco Public Schools since 2022. I plan to continue signing up for the SEP each year.

Eli Dugan

University of California, Berkeley
BA, Molecular Cell Biology

Research summary: Comprehensive Identification of HIV host factors in primary T cells.

Carla Espinoza

University of California, San Diego
BS, Biochemistry and Cell Biology

Research summary: Investigating structure and signal activation of proto-oncogene RON receptor with it's ligand, Macrophage Stimulating Protein (MSP).

Chloe Ghent

University of California, Berkeley
BA, Molecular and Cell Biology

Research summary: Investigating the regulation of antibiotic resistance in bacteria

Outreach activities: Collaborated through the UCSF SEP program to teach science lessons to elementary school children.

Kelsey Hennick

University of California, Davis
BS, Genetics

Research summary: cortical development

Outreach activities:
SEP Highschool Internship Program
Letters to a Pre-scientist

Alex Hong

Massachusetts Institute of Technology
BS, Biology

Research summary: Characterizing P. aeruginosa antiphage defense systems – Gabija and "ImmunoX" – particularly how their putative proteins target infecting phage DNA and the regulatory mechanisms behind these systems.

Matt Howard

Washington University
AB, Biology & Chemistry: Concentration in Biochemistry

Research summary: Development of high-throughput genetic screening platforms to study GPCR function, evolution, and pharmacology

Philipp Huettemann

University of Michigan-Ann Arbor
BS, Biochemistry

PI: Tanja Kortemme

Research summary: Designing de novo signaling systems

Julia Kim

Smith College
BA, Biochemistry

Research summary: Metabolism in Early Development

Tracy Knight

Brown University
BS, Cell and Molecular Biology

Research summary: Identifying the mechanism of nuclear membrane protein emerin in human skeletal muscle differentiation

Claire Kokontis

University of Chicago
BS, Biology

Research summary: Mechanisms of a bacteriophage-encoded protective "nucleus-like" structure and anti-CRISPR proteins

Jennifer Le

University of California, Riverside
BS, Biochemistry

Research summary: Cellular self-organization in the mammary epithelium

Armando Martinez

San Jose State University
BS, Molecular Biology

Research summary: Investigating SOS1 two distinct RAS binding sites: a catalytic site and an additional allosteric RAS binding site

Jessica Mella

University of Utah
BS, Biology

Research summary: Sequence determinants of nuclear envelope protein function

Melissa Mendez

Univ of London-King's College London
BSC, Biochemistry

Research summary: A novel role for the ER HSP70 in proteotasis via a nucleotide-independent interaction with the UPR sensor IRE1⍺

Kim Meneses

University of California, Los Angeles
BS, Microbiology, Immunology, and Molecular Genetics

Research summary: The role of basement membrane on the structural niche of insulinlow beta cells in pancreatic islets

Camille Moore

University of California, Berkeley
BA, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

Research summary: Investigating the structure of heterochromatic domains using a minimal in vitro system and high throughput sequencing

Thomas Moss

University of Virginia
BS, Biology

Research summary: Mechanistic investigation into translational abrogation by Hsc70 phosphorylation

Deepa Rajan

Vanderbilt University
BA, Neuroscience

Research summary: Origins of Intelligence

Outreach activities: Bay Area Science Festival

David Sanchez Godinez

University of California, Santa Cruz
BS, Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology

Research summary: Investigating how epithelial cells interpret mechanical and soluble cues to polarize during collective cell migration

Outreach activities: Taught middle school students through SEP, recruited underrepresented students at the SACNAS Diversity in STEM Conference, and went to lunches with BAYS high school interns at UCSF.

Frederick Santana

San Francisco State University
MS, Cell and Molecular Biology
BS, Biology (Microbiology)

Research summary: Pseudokinase regulation of PI3K-Akt-mTOR signaling in melanoma

CJ Sarabia

University of California, Santa Cruz
BS, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

Research summary: Investigation of GPCR signaling from intracellular membrane compartments in primary neurons

Outreach activities: I am a member of the UCSF Society for the Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science (SACNAS) chapter where I have helped organize graduate application workshops and other community events.

Steve or Steven Sun

San Francisco State University
MS, Cell and Molecular Biology
BS, Cell and Molecular Biology

Research summary: Impact of associative overdominance on nucleotide diversity and the site frequency spectrum

Vanna Tran

Southwestern University
BS, Biology

Research summary: Defining the physical and molecular basis of mammalian kinetochore structural maintenance under force

Outreach activities:
Lowell High School outreach (2022)
Discovery Day at Bay Area Science Festival Booth (2022)
ScholarMatch coach (2022-2024)
High School Student Summer Internship Mentor (2022-2024)

Alexis Villani

University of California, Irvine
BS, Microbiology and Immunology

Research summary: Temperature-induced inactivation of bacterial immune systems

Gabriel Viramontes

University of California, Merced
BS, Biology: Emphasis in Ecology and Evolution

Research summary: Uncoupling how algal cues trigger multicellular development in the closest living relatives of animals

Taylor Watanabe

Whittier College
BA, Biology

Research summary: Studying TDP-43 Proteinopathies: Modeling Early-Stage Disease Pathogenesis

Caroline Wilson

Colby College
BA, Biology: Concentration in Neuroscience

Research summary: High-throughput combinatorial CRISPR-based epigenetic editor discovery

Jenny Zhang

University of California, Berkeley
BA, Molecular Cellular Biology

Research summary: Molecular components that mediate Candida-Pseudomonas antagonism.

Rio Barrere-Cain

University of California, Los Angeles
Human Biology

Research summary: Elucidating the regulation and function of skin-localized CD4 T cells

Outreach activities:
Advocate for Public Science Funding
-Opinion piece in Sacramento Bee
-Invited guest on NPR's 1A Radio show based in Washington DC

Designed and led hands-on lab experiments with high school studuents through UCSF ImmunoExplorer program.

Mentor for NSF Research and Mentorship for Postbaccalaurates (RaMP). I design and lead microbiology, immunology, and professional development curriculum for a cohort of postbaccalaureate students. I am the primary mentor for a year long full time postbaccalaureate student in our lab.

Community for Underrepresented Physician Scientists Outreach Leader: I coordinate mentorship opportunities with students from underrepresented backgrounds who were interested in physician-scientists career paths. For example, in February 2022, together with colleagues, I helped host a conference for prospective MD-PhD students from underrepresented backgrounds.

Mentorship: I participated in a UCSF mentorship program with the Latinx Medical Student Association where I worked with met individually for 1hr with over 15 students from underrepresented backgrounds interested in research and medicine. In these sessions we talked about everything from wellbeing, medical school applications, and getting into research. I now mentor students from underrepresented backgrounds applying to MD-PhD programs.

Non-Partisan Voter Outreach Leader: I led six UCSF phone banks to increase voter participation and helped organize letter writing campaigns. I worked on a team of medical students to develop guiding principles for how civic health, particularly increasing non-partisan voting opportunities in clinical settings, could be integrated into medical school curriculum.

Medical Student Volunteer at Clínica Martin Barό: With this UCSF student led community clinic in the San Francisco Mission Neighborhood, I collaborate with attendings to provide bilingual primary care and referrals for primarily Spanish speaking low-income patients. Additionally, I mentor SF State students who are part of the care team.

Vice Chair American Physician Scientists Association (APSA) Justice Equity Diversity and Inclusion Committee (June 2021-July 2022): I helped lead diversity initiatives with the national American Physician Scientists Association, including a Virtual Summer Research Program (VSRP) that matched 156 undergraduates from underrepresented backgrounds with research mentors. I helped lead the programming and coordination for two VSRP summers. For our work increasing diversity in the physician-scientist career APSA was awarded a 2021 Power of A Silver Award from the Center for Association Leadership. I also served on the Fundraising Committee where I helped write grants, such as one to BD Biosciences.

Miranda Cabanski-Dunning

University of California, Davis
BS, Cell Biology

Research summary: Uncoupling the regulation of PI3K signaling from canonical RAS in HER2 amplified cell lines.

Aaron Corin

Brandeis University
BS, Biochemistry, Biology

Research summary: Reconstituting Genome Organization

Amelie Delcourt

University of California, Los Angeles
BS, Molecular, Cell, and Developmental Biology

Micah Fernando

Grand Valley State University
BS, Biochemistry

Research summary: Developing chemical probes for understanding the role of Rab proteins, a subfamily of small GTPases, in both cellular trafficking and disease.

Outreach activities: Science and Education Partnership (SEP)

Ruth Groza

University of Washington
BS, Biochemistry

Research summary: Longitudinal proteomics to decipher host selection pressures shaping influenza protein evolution

Abby Hein

University of Colorado at Boulder
BA, Biochemistry

Research summary: Examining how the exposure of Lamin A/C polymers change in response to mechanical strain

Haiming Hu

University of California, San Diego
BS, Chemical Engineering

Research summary: ”Curing” Alzheimer’s Disease through Transcriptional Reprogramming

Rachel Jones

University of Utah
BS, Cell and Molecular Biology

Research summary: Investigating the role of cytotoxic T lymphocytes in cancer cell vesicle secretion

Jimin Lee

Korea Advanced Inst of Sci and Tech
MS, Chemistry
KOREA UNIV - SEOUL
BS, Life Sciences

Research summary: Investigating the Structure of Tau Fibrils

Jodi Lee

University of California, Santa Cruz
BS, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

Research summary: Learning DNA Sequence Grammar that Regulate Chromatin Accessibility

Gabriella Maldonado

Northeastern University
BS, Biochemistry

Research summary: Dissecting molecular mechanisms driving immunsuppressive myeloid phenotypes in glioblastoma

Outreach activities: SACNAS, PROPEL

Ayush Midha

Harvard University
Human Developmental and Regenterative Biology

Research summary: Metabolic adaptations to hypoxia in mammals

Macey Slota

Belmont University
BS, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

PI: Davide Ruggero

Research summary: Understanding how cancers hijack protein synthesis

Outreach activities: Officer in Women in Life Sciences, Mentor in QBI Internship Program, Mentor in First Generation Student Organization, Vice President of Finance in the Out of State Student Association

Cole Tharp

Iowa State University of Science and Technology
BS, Biochemistry

Research summary: Elucidating biophysical constraints on the maturation of broadly neutralizing antibodies

Alex Vu

University of Southern California
BS, Biochemistry

Research summary: Regulation of Persistence in Human Regulatory T Cells

Keith Walcott

University of California, Santa Cruz
BS, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

Research summary: Investigating the impact of host protein homeostasis on SARS-CoV-2 evolution

Kaite Zhang

Tufts University
BS, Biology & Clinical Psychology

Research summary: Exploring heterochromatin irregularity with high-resolution, single-molecule nucleosome footprinting

Kevin Boardman

UC DAVIS
BS, Genetics and Genomics

Research summary: Investigating the regulatory roles of non-canonical translation factors

Rudra Bose

RUPRECHT-KARLS-UNIV HEIDELBERG
MS, Molecular and Cellular Biology
Vellore Institute of Technology
BTech, Biotechnology

Research summary: Elucidating the mechanisms of tau propagation in neurodegenerative diseases

Peiwen (Wendy) Cheng

University of Cambridge
BA, Natural Sciences (Biological)

Daniel Darling

NEW YORK UNIVERSITY
BA, Biology

Research summary: Generation of a synthetic chromatin array system to reconstitute the pathways of histone methylation spreading by methyl transferases

Sarina Ehteshamzadeh Ganjbakhsh

UNIV KENTUCKY LEXINGTON*
MS, Biological Sciences
IRAN
BSC, Cellular and Molecular Biology

Sam Ghaffari-Kashani

UC BERKELEY
BA, Molecular and Cell Biology

PI: Angela Phillips

Research summary: Elucidating how protein sequence background shapes adaptive evolution using viral drug resistance

Can Goksal

UC BERKELEY
BA, Molecular & Cellular Biology

Research summary: Mechanism of chromatin tethering to the nuclear lamina

Emily Graham

PI: Carlo Condello

Research summary: Understanding the affect of heterozygous CSF1R mutations on the Disease Phenotypes in CSF1R Related Leukoencephalopathy.

Michelle Grunberg

UC SANTA BARBARA
BA, Biology

Research summary: Elucidating phage strategies of bacterial nucleotide immune signaling inhibition

Julianne Lim

UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO
MS, Molecular Genetics
U WESTERN ONTARIO
BS MED SC, Biochemistry

Research summary: Dissecting MHC-I polymorphism and stability regulators governing neoantigen landscapes

Chang Liu

UNIV COLORADO BOULDER
BA, Integrative Physiology

PI: Jeannette Tenthorey

Miaoxi Liu

University of Toronto.
BSC, Immunology and Cell & Molecular biology

Paddy Liu

UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO
BS, Biological sciences; Philosophy

Brigitte Meyer

UNIV VIRGINIA
BS, Chemistry w/ Biochemistry Specialization

Research summary: Structural investigation of the PI3K signalosome

Megan Ostrowski

PRINCETON UNIVERSITY
BA, Molecular Biology

PI: Alex Pollen

Research summary: Sequence variation underlying the human-specific neuronal response to oxidative stress

Rafaella Shima

EARLHAM COLL EARLHAM SCH REL
BA, Biochemistry

Zhidong Tan

NANKAI UNIV
BS, Biological Science (Poling Class)

Eric Tang

SAN FRANCISCO STATE UNIVERSITY
MS, Biology (Cell and Molecular Biology)
BS, Biology (Cell and Molecular Biology)

Research summary: Elucidating transcription factor pathways that regulate adult cardiovascular regeneration in Zebrafish

Outreach activities: In addition to my research, I lead a program to bring hands-on science learning into public school classrooms in the San Francisco Unified School District. We work closely with groups at UCSF and San Francisco State University to bring volunteer scientists into classrooms and allow young, budding scientists to experience doing hypothesis-driven, novel research for the very first time.

Urvashi Thopte

COLUMBIA U SCH GENERAL STUDIES
MA, Biotechnology
Other
BS, Microbiology

Research summary: Retinoic acid signaling and its interaction with FGF8 in human prefrontal cortex development and specification

Carlo Vetralla

UNIV DEGLI STUDI DI MILANO-BICOCCA
MS, BIOTECHNOLOGY IN MEDICINE
BS, BIOTECHNOLOGY

Research summary: Exploring the role of RNA processing in stochastic Protocadherin gene choice

Kamel Awayda

PI: Geeta Narlikar

Research summary: Effect of Linker Histone Protein H1 on Chromatin Remodeling

Outreach activities: UAW 4811 (Graduate Student Union) - Contract Action Team Member

Cristina Dabaco

Cornell University
BS, Biological Sciences

PI: Joseph DeRisi

Research summary: Deep Mutational Scanning of CD320 (Transcobalamin Receptor)

Bezawit Danna

University of California: Los Angeles
BS, Biochemistry

Lindsay Farr

Whitman College
BA, Biochemistry, Biophysics, and Molecular Biology

Jake Foreman

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
BS, Biology and Chemistry

Research summary: Transposon-mediated interferon response

Laurel Geraci

University of California: Davis
BAS, Genetics/Genomics and Spanish

Research summary: Zinc finger transcription factors and their role in ciliopathies

Chet Graswich

University of Texas at Austin
BS, Biochemistry, BA in History

Research summary: Drugging DEAD-Box Proteins

Stephen Jiang

University of California: Berkeley
BA, Molecular and Cell Biology

Zuzhi Jiang

Peking University
BS, Integrated Science

Eshan Mehrotra

PI: Aashish Manglik

Research summary: Biophysical and biochemical characterization of sensory organelles

Landon Nguyen

University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas
PhD, Cell and Molecular Biology
Texas A&M University
BS, Microbiology

Research summary: Evolutionary Constraints on Human TRIM5a

Luis Oliva

University of California: San Diego
MS, Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics
University of California: Santa Cruz
BS, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

Patrick Quinn

Humboldt State University
MA, Academic Research in Biological Psychology
BA, Psychology

Research summary: Currently a member of Bjoern Schwer's lab and receiving co-mentorship from Jacob Young

Matias Rojas Montero

Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia
BS, Biology

Research summary: Exploring the versatility of MxB restriction of different viruses

Helen Than

University of California: San Diego
BS, Biochemistry/Chemistry

Bella Wischik

Amherst College
BA, Biochemistry and Biophysics

Wenxi Zhang

University of California: Los Angeles
BS, Computational Biology and Molecular Biology

Kate Zhou

University of San Francisco
BS, Biology

Research summary: Investigating the mechanism of multi-subunit ATP-dependent chromatin remodelers through biochemical and biophysical characterization

Zijian Zhu

Shanghai Jiao Tong University
BS MED SC, Biomedical Science

Parmis Abdoli

Rithika Adavikolanu

Sydney Becker

Elionel Botello-Cornejo

Jack Brown

Julia Conrad

Gabriela Contreras

San Diego State University
BS, Chemistry with an Emphasis in Biochemistry

Ethan Cordes

Haiyin He

Hillary Hernandez

Evelyn Keefer

Maia Kirkegaard

Quynh Le

Rebecca Li

Davion McFall

Samhita Nittala

Belle Okere

Andrés Olavarrieta Colasurdo

Rishika Patil

Thien Tran

Elliana Tsang

Research summary: ImmunoX Breaking Down Biology

Eileen Tzng

Megan Xu