Name: Danielle Schafer Hometown: Crystal Lake, IL Hobbies: Running, climbing, reading a good book! Lab: Dr. Gene Yeo/Dr. Nicole Coufal Lab websites: Gene Yeo https://yeolab.github.io/  Nicole Coufal: http://www.coufallab.com/ What do you study?I study how immune cells in the brain talk to other brain cells known as neurons. I use stem cells, which can be made into […]

Name: August (Gus) Williams Hometown: Camarillo, CA Hobbies: Running, working out, video games, reading Lab: Hangauer Lab Lab website: https://www.sites.google.com/view/Hangauerlab   What do you study? I study drug resistance in cancer cells. There are now many different drug therapies to treat different types of cancers, but a big problem is that a drug may work […]

Name: Sohela de Rozieres, PhS Hometown: I was born in Braunschweig, Germany, and raised in Tehran, Iran Hobbies: Art, gardening, travel, languages, reading, geography, reducing my carbon footprint Company: Illumina Department: Product Development Lab website: https://www.illumina.com/ What do you study? I am a scientist in the field of next-generation sequencing. As a product development (PD) scientist, I function as […]

Name: Erica Maissy Hometown: Orange County, CA Hobbies: rock climbing, hiking, backpacking, olympic lifting, dancing Lab: Zarrinpar Lab (metabolism, microbiome, & circadian rhythms) Lab website: https://zarrinparlab.org What do you study? I study how bacteria in our digestive system, called the “gut microbiome” can affect the brain, and other processes in the body, including metabolism and […]

Name: Thomas Shroka Hometown: Cleveland, OH Hobbies: Running, relaxing, outdoors, camping, beach, friends, reading Lab: Tracy Handel, UCSD, School of Pharmacy, Pharmacology Lab website: The Handel Lab at UCSD What do you study?  I study chemokine receptors, which are best known for their role in the immune system and driving immune cells to sites of […]

Name: Kristina Peck Hometown: Las Vegas, Nevada Lab: Regulatory Biology Laboratory of Dannielle Engle Lab websites: https://engle.salk.edu/ Hobbies: Hiking, reading, baking, finding new coffee spots What do you study? I work as a Research Assistant in a pancreatic cancer research lab. I help coordinate my labmates’ research goals and help them in their protocols and experiments. I […]

Name: Alessandra Zuniga Hometown: Las Cruces, New Mexico Lab: Currently working in the Agroecology Lab at the University of California Davis, led by Prof. Amelie Gaudin Lab websites: https://gaudin.ucdavis.edu/ Hobbies: Yoga, hiking, swimming, and running What do you study? The first part of my research focuses on the effects of climate change stress on perennial cropping systems […]

Name: Ayse Sahan Hometown: Sunnyvale, California Lab: Jin Zhang Lab at UCSD Lab websites: http://jinzhanglab.ucsd.edu/ Hobbies: Reading, baking, watching reality tv and cooking competitions, taking walks What do you study? The Zhang lab studies cell signaling using fluorescent protein-based biosensors, which can be attached to proteins to show us what they are doing inside of cells. I […]

Name: Colin Deniston Hometown: Los Angeles, CA Lab: Genomics Institute of the Novartis Foundation Lab Website: https://www.gnf.org/ Hobbies: Video Games, Japanese Manga, and Hiking What do you study? I currently work on helping to design drugs using 3D structures of proteins obtained through a technique called cryo-electron microscopy. I assist in designing drugs for a variety of […]

Name: Dr. Sebastian Memczak Hometown: Criewen, Germany Lab: Gene Expression Laboratory under the direction of Juan Carlos Izpisua Belmonte Lab websites: https://belmonte.salk.edu/ Hobbies: running, surfing What do you study? I study how cell identity and cell state is formed and how we might be able to reprogram both. In particular, I’m interested in how different levels of […]