• Karina Barbosa Guerra, B.S.
  Karina’s research focuses on understanding the dysregulation of epigenetic mechanisms in hematological malignancies to improve therapeutic interventions
• Nicole Bata, B.S.
  Nicole’s work focuses on exploring STK3/STK4 kinases as modulators of autophagy in cancer.
• Meher Beigi Masihi, M.S.
  Meher’s work is focused on understanding underlying molecular mechanisms of pediatric brain tumor development to identify potential therapeutic targets.
• Numana Bhat, B.S.
  Numana is interested in studying B-cell immunology and is utilizing mouse genetic models to understand how perturbations in the immuno-regulatory pathways in B-cells lead to autoimmune diseases.
• Betsaida Bibo Verdugo, M.S.
  Betsaida investigates the molecular sorting mechanisms that dictate the distribution of neutrophil serine proteases in azurophil granules.
• Katja Birker, B.S.
  Katja’s work focuses on elucidating the molecular, cellular, and morphological processes of candidate congenital heart disease genes in the Drosophila heart.
• Scotty Cadet, B.S.
  Scotty’s project will investigate the crosstalk between the Notch and Aryl Hydrocarbon receptors in pancreatic endocrine cell fate determination during cell reprogramming.
• Clyde Campbell, B.S.
  Clyde plans to utilize his experiences to help develop new genetic tools to manipulate gene function and elucidate the mechanisms involved in diseases associated with the liver and pancreas.
• Alex Campos, B.S.
  Alex's work focuses on understanding how cancer utilizes adaptive responses to stress, such as oxidative and metabolic stress, to provide growth, proliferation, and survival advantages over normal non-transformed cells.
• Lisa Elmen, M.S.
  Lisa's research is focused on establishing the etiological role of the gastrointestinal microbiome in colorectal cancer and inflammatory bowel disease.
• Joe Fromm, B.S.
  Joe’s research looks into the role of Fatty Acid Synthase in cancer metabolism and how inhibiting the protein’s functions with therapeutics can impact cancer outcomes.
• Anjali Gupta, M.S., M.B.A.
  Anjali is studying a novel molecular signaling pathway and its role in cardiomyopathy. She is also exploring the effects of altered gravity on the cardiovascular system using the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster as a model system, in collaboration with NASA. Anjali is a recipient of the prestigious Ruth L. Kirschstein NIH Predoctoral Fellowship which provides funding support for her research.
• Mallika Iyer, M.S.
  Mallika will be using structural bioinformatics to study protein conformational flexibility and how mutations altering this flexibility can lead to disease.
• James Kent, B.S.
  James’ work focuses on determining the three-dimensional structures of membrane proteins to elucidate how structure influences the biological activity of these proteins.
• Shaun Lim, B.S.
  Shaun's work explores the molecular and cellular mechanisms that regulate autophagic flux and their implications on aging using C. elegans as a model.
• Tianhui Liu, M.S.
  Tianhui is interested in contribution of autophagy in stress-induced cellular senescence.
• Ryan Loughran, B.S.
  Ryan is working to uncover new and important roles of phosphoinositide lipid kinase signaling in the context of tumor cell metabolism.
• Rachael McVicar, B.S.
  Rachael’s research aims to characterize proximal lungs cells by unique cell surface markers in order to increase the efficiency of lung differentiation protocols and enrich the target cell populations.
• Ayako Murao, B.S.
  Ayako will be studying the role of TMEM2 in brain development using TMEM2 conditional knockout mice.
• Stephanie Myers, B.S.
  Stephanie’s research is focused on exploring the molecular mechanisms underlying the pathogenesis and progression of Alzheimer’s Disease.
• Ruslan Nuryyev, M.S.
  Ruslan’s research will be focused on examining progenitor cells in a hypothermic environment in an effort to develop a neuroprotective treatment for hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy.
• Daniel Ojeda Juarez, B.S.
  Daniel works in HIV-induced brain injury, a degenerative disease of the brain. His research is aimed to further increase our understanding of the pathological mechanism behind virally induced damage of the central nervous system.
• Cameron Pernia, B.S.
  Cameron is interested in utilizing stem cells to model neurological disorders, as to gain a better understanding of how changes on the molecular scale in the brain results in complex changes in behavior and cognition.
• Miguel Reina Campos, M.S.
  Miguel’s research is mainly focused on the study of the role of atypical PKC’s pathway in cancer and cellular homeostasis thorough the identification of selective substrates for this PKC subfamily.
• Huiyu Ren, B.S.
  Huiyu’s research is focused on identifying and characterizing signaling molecules and intracellular pathways involved in cell death and survival.
• Pavel Ryzhov, B.S.
  Pavel is using nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) methods to investigate conformational dynamics of the pro-apoptotic protein BAX as it translocates between cytosol and the outer mitochondrial membrane resulting in programmed cell death.
• Marisa Sanchez, B.S.
  Marisa’s research is focused on understanding eIF2a-mediated stress response pathways in cells under oxidative and endoplasmic reticular stress on a fundamental level as well as in prostate cancer.
• Paloma Sanchez Pavon, B.S.
  Paloma studies the role that lysophosphatidic acid (LPA) plays in a neurological disease called hydrocephalus, trying to counteract its effects and improve the life of the patients.
• Jessica Stupack, B.S.
  Jessica is interested in elucidating underlying molecular mechanisms of various neurodegenerative diseases.
• Tiara Tirasawasdichai, B.A.
  Tiara is studying the role of desmosomal protein, desmoplakin, in Arrhythmogenic Right Ventricular Dysplasia/Cardiomyopathy (ARVD/C) using patient-specific induced pluripotent stem cells as a disease modeling.
• Zhouting Zhu, M.S.
  Zhouting will investigate the RNA methylation pathways and their impact on cancer development as well as identification of small molecule inhibitors of targets involved in cancer.

2018

• Róisín Puentes
  Ph.D. in Biomedical Sciences
  Thesis Title: Targeting the CNK1 PH domain to inhibit mutant KRAS cancer growth

• Marco Maruggi
  Ph.D. in Biomedical Sciences
  Thesis Title: Elucidating the Mechanisms Underlying Resistance to Targeted Therapy in Pancreatic Cancer
  Current Position: Postdoctoral Associate, Powis lab at Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute

• Francesca Boscolo Sesillo
  Ph.D. in Biomedical Sciences
  Thesis Title: Role of p53 in balancing self-renewal, myogenic commitment, and cellular transformation of muscle stem cells
  Current position: Postdoctoral research fellow, Alperin lab at University of California San Diego

• Wesley McKeithan
  Ph.D. in Biomedical Sciences
  Thesis Title: Reengineering an Antiarrhythmic with Human Pluripotent Stem Cells
  Current Position: Postdoctoral Scholar, Lim lab at University of California San Francisco

• Monica Gonzalez
  Ph.D. in Biomedical Sciences
  Thesis Title: The role of caspases in inflammation
  Current Position: Postdoctoral Fellow, Newton lab in the Institutional Research and Academic Career Development Award (IRACDA) program at University of California San Diego

2017

• Jinsha Liu
  Ph.D. in Biomedical Sciences
  Thesis Title: T-cadherin and Adiponectin in hippocampal synaptic functions and behaviors
  Current Position: Postdoctoral Scientist, Eli Lilly & Company

• Victoria Thaney
  Ph.D. in Biomedical Sciences
  Thesis Title: Neuroprotection by IFN-beta in HIV/gp120 Brain Injury
  Current Position: HCA Technical Sales Specialist at Thermo Fisher Scientific

• Khooshbu Shah
  Ph.D. in Biomedical Sciences
  Thesis Title: Pathological Interactions of Arrhythmogenic Right Ventricular Dysplasia/Cardiomyopathy (ARVD/C) Cardiomyocytes with ARVD/C Mesenchymal Stromal Cells
  Current Position: Applications Scientist at Bio-Techne

• Gianluigi Lichinchi
  Ph.D. in Biomedical Sciences
  Thesis Title: Dynamics of RNA methylation during HIV and ZIKV infections
  Current Position: Postdoctoral Scientist at Roche

2016

• Mirco Guigli
  Ph.D. in Biomedical Sciences
  Thesis Title: Investigation of Structured Illumination Confocal Microscopy for High Content Screening
  Current Position: Instrumentation Engineer at Vala Sciences

• Stephen Soonthornvacharin
  Ph.D. in Biomedical Sciences
  Thesis Title: Systems-Level Analysis to Elucidate the Regulation of the RIG-I-Mediated Antiviral Innate Immune Response
  Current Position: Research Scientist I at Tocagen

• Paula Coutinho Toto
  Ph.D. in Biomedical Sciences
  Thesis Title: Regulation of Skeletal Muscle Cell Quiescence, Proliferation and Differentiation by Brahma-based SWI/SNF Chromatin-Remodeling Complex
  Current Position: Associate Faculty at Mira Costa College

• Matthew Tierney
  Ph.D. in Biomedical Sciences
  Thesis Title: Regulatory mechanisms controlling muscle stem cell behavior during skeletal muscle repair
  Current Position: Postdoctoral Fellow in Fuchs Lab at Rockefeller University

• Alessandra Dall'Agnese
  Ph.D. in Biomedical Sciences
  Thesis Title: MYOD-directed changes in the nuclear architecture during myogenic conversion of somatic cells
  Current Position: Postdoctoral Associate at the Whitehead Institute

2015

• Giuseppina Claps
  Ph.D. in Biomedical Sciences
  Thesis Title: Redefining AFT2 in Braf-driven melanoma
  Current Position: Postdoctoral Associate at Institut Gustave Roussy

• Saumya Nagar
  Ph.D. in Biomedical Sciences
  Thesis Title: Role of MEF2 in photoreceptor degeneration

• Yi Ding
  Ph.D. in Biomedical Sciences
  Thesis Title: Structural and Functional Studies of the Outer Membrane Protein Ail from Yersenia Pestis
  Current Position: Data Scientist at Sysco

• Sara Gelino
  Ph.D. in Biomedical Sciences
  Thesis Title: Investigating the Mechanisms of Autophagy-Mediated Longevity During Dietary Restriction
  Current Position: Project Manager at Anza Innovations

2014

• Angel Bottini
  Ph.D. in Biomedical Sciences
  Thesis Title: Drug Discovery Studies on Influenza A Virus and Yersinia Outer Protein H (YopH)
  Current Position: Assistant Project Scientist at University of California San Diego

• Ryan Esquejo
  Ph.D. in Biomedical Sciences 
  Thesis Title: Integration of Lipid Synthesis and Other Biological Processes via Sterol Regulatory Element Binding Proteins
  Current Position: Senior Scientist, Biology at Pfizer

• Domenico Fasci
  Ph.D. in Biomedical Sciences 
  Thesis Title: New Insights into the Regulation of SUMO Dynamics by the Human SUMO-specific Proteases (SENPs) 
  Current Position: Postdoctoral Fellow at Universiteit Utrecht, The Netherlands

• Lorenzo Giordani
  Ph.D. in Biomedical Sciences 
  Current Position: Postdoctoral Fellow at the Institut de Myologie in Paris, France

• Ryon Graf
  Ph.D. in Biomedical Sciences 
  Thesis Title: The Regulation of Breast Cancer Metastasis by Caspase-8 
  Current Position: Senior Biomarker Scientist at Epic Sciences

• Janna Hachmann
  Ph.D. in Biomedical Sciences
  Thesis Title: Activity and Specificity of the Human Paracaspase MALT1
  Current Position: Manager Validation Fund, Berlin Institute of Health

• Philip McQuary
  Ph.D. in Biomedical Sciences
  Thesis Title: Understanding the longevity of rsks-1/S6K C. elegant mutants
  Current Position: Director of Product Development, OncoCyte Corporation

• Goonho Park
  Ph.D. in Biomedical Sciences
  Thesis Title: Investigation of Aberrant Epigenetic Mechanisms in Parkinson's Disease Pathogenesis
  Current Position: Postdoctoral Fellow in the lab of Dr. Edward Koo at UCSD

• Judith Scheliga
  Ph.D. in Biomedical Sciences 
  Thesis Title: Role of elf3e in mRNA Translation 
  Current Position: Technical Applications Scientist at Illumina

• Danhua Zhang
  Ph.D. in Biomedical Sciences
  Thesis Title: The Specification of Ductal Lineages in Liver and Pancreas
  Current Position: Postdoctoral Fellow in the lab of Dr. Farham Imam at UCSD

2013

• Xin Wang
  Ph.D. in Biomedical Sciences 
  Thesis Title: Loss of Sorting nexin 27 Continues to Excitatory Synaptic Dysfunction Via Modulation of Glutamate Receptor Recycling in Down Syndrome 
  Current Position: Principal Investigator, School of Medicine at Xiamen University 

• Wenqing Cai 
  Ph.D. in Biomedical Sciences 
  Thesis Title: Stage-Specific Cell Fate Commitment During Cardiac Differentiation in mESCs 
  Current Position: Research Fellow at Boston Children's Hospital

2012

• Runquan Zhang
  Ph.D. in Biomedical Sciences 
  Thesis Title: Novel Synthetic Ligands of CCR5 and CXCR4: Biochemical Characterization and Preclinical Studies
  Current Position: Scientist at QoolAbs

• Corrine Lee 
  Ph.D. in Biomedical Sciences 
  Thesis Title: Spinal Disinhibition in a Rodent Model of Painful Diabetic Neuropathy 
  Current Position: Postdoctoral Fellow in Dr. Mark Tuszynski's Lab at UCSD

2011

• Cheng-Ho Chung
  Ph.D. in Biomedical Sciences
  Thesis title: Adult Beta Cell Regeneration 
  Current Position: Physician, Mackay Memorial Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan

• Johanna Samuelsson
  Ph.D. in Biomedical Sciences
 
  Thesis title: DNA Demethylation of SST1 Pericentromeric Repetitive Elements in Human Cancer 
  Current Position: Gene Regulation and Product Services Manager at Active Motif

• Ying Zhang
  Ph.D. in Biomedical Biosciences
 
  Thesis Title: Integrating Computational Structure-Function Analyses for the Genome-Scale Modeling of Metabolic Networks 
  Current Position: Assistant Professor at the University of Rhode Island

2009

• Annelies Zinkernagel
  Ph.D. in Molecular Medicine

  Thesis title: Exploring Bacterial Pathogen Interactions with Host Phagocytes to Identify Novel Approaches to Infectious Disease Therapy
  Current Position: Attending and Physician Scientist at University Hospital Zürich, Division of Infectious Diseases and Hospital Epidemiology

• Lorena Puto
  Ph.D. in Molecular Medicine

  Thesis title: Epigenetic Control of Apoptosis and Autophagy Gene Expression and Promotion of Tumorigenicity by Nuclear Body Protein, Daxx
  Current Position: Faculty Member, Department of Medicine, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles