Name: Brianne Palmer Hometown: Littleton, Colorado Lab: Lipson Lab, San Diego State University Lab website: http://www.sci.sdsu.edu/lipsonlab/author/dlipson/ Hobbies: Hiking, camping, ukulele, baking What do you study? I study how soil microbes that live on the upper layers of the soil survive fire, particularly cyanobacteria. Cyanobacteria are super cool microbes that act like both plants and microbes […]

Name: Hetika Vora Hometown: Orange County, CA Lab: Neal Devaraj Lab, UC San Diego Lab website:  https://www.devarajgroup.com/ Hobbies: Dancing, concerts, traveling What do you study? I am studying protein post-translational modifications (PTMs) in cancer. About one-third of human cancers have mutations in the Ras family of proteins, but there are currently no treatments that directly target these […]

Name: Christa Trexler Hometown: Phoenix, AZ Lab: Ju Chen Lab, UC San Diego Lab website:  http://juchenlab.ucsd.edu/homepage.htm Hobbies: Hiking, camping, reading, cross-stitching What do you study? Our lab focuses on understanding the ways in which the heart develops and responds to disease. We are particularly interested in identifying specific proteins in the heart that are essential for these processes. […]

Name: Michelle Franc Ragsac Hometown: San Mateo, CA Lab: Farley Laboratory Lab website: https://farleylab.com/ Hobbies: Eating new foods; Playing video games and board games with friends; Hanging out with my dog; Making artsy things What do you study? In my lab, I use bioinformatics tools and computational methods to study embryonic development in the model organism Ciona intestinalis, […]

Name:Ben Scott Hometown: Riverside, CA Lab: San Diego State University’s Phylogenetics and Evolution Lab website: https://kevinburnslab.com/lab-members/ Hobbies: Wildlife photography, backpacking, surfing, soccer, rock climbing What do you study? I curious about understanding why organisms look how they do and how that impacts their ability to survive. My main research is in studying the evolution of color […]

Name: Meredith Frie Hometown: Burlingame, CA Lab: Bjorn Lillemeier Lab website: https://lillemeier.salk.edu/ Hobbies: Reading, going to the beach What do you study?  ? I study T cells, which are a crucial cell type in the immune system to control and eliminate both infections and cancer. T cells have a unique receptor, the T cell receptor, […]

Name: Dorothea Portius Hometown: Leipzig, Germany Hobbies: Running, Yoga, Hiking, books, good music What do you study?  I studied nutritional sciences in Germany. I performed my Diploma thesis at the Else-Kröner Fresenius Institute for Nutritional Medicine in Munich. I got interested and passionate about human physiology and medical research. After finishing my diploma thesis, I started my PhD in […]

Name: Gaurav Mendiratta Hometown: Bangalore, India Lab: Integrative Biology Laboratory – Dr. Ed Stites Lab website: https://www.salk.edu/scientist/edward-stites/ Hobbies: I like reading widely including science fiction, fiction, math, anthropology. I also enjoy bicycling and occasionally, soccer and playing the guitar. What do you study? My dream is to have a complete understanding of how cells that make […]

Name: Elena Blanco-Suarez Hometown: Oviedo, Spain Hobbies: playing guitar, bass guitar and ukulele, going to live music shows, going to the beach, traveling and learning languages What do you study? A special cell type in the brain, called astrocytes, and their role in helping neurons to develop connections. Why is it important? The role of astrocytes in developing […]

Name: Niema Moshiri Hometown: Chula Vista, California Hobbies: Video games, TV shows, movies, and hacking What do you study? I study the evolution of viruses and try to create mathematical models in order to capture this evolution as accurately as possible. I also work with epidemiologists to apply the theoretical properties I find to real communities in the […]