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- Winzeler Lab Positions

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Jason Hsiao

I am a PhD student in the Biological Sciences program, currently focusing on the development of long-acting anti-malarial drugs using antisense oligonucleotides. I completed my undergraduate studies at UCSD, but am originally from New Zealand. Outside of the lab, I love to play football and go climbing.

Maya Chang

I am an undergraduate student pursuing a B.S. in Chemical Engineering and a minor in General Biology. I hope to continue my education in medical school to become a physician. In the Winzeler lab, I work primarily with red blood cell cultures.

Alondra Tapia Villa

Hello ! I am an undergraduate student majoring in human biology and a minor in global health. I plan to go to medical school and go into pediatrics. In the Winzeler lab, I will be maintaining parasites in blood cultures and dissect mosquitoes.

Alex Foy

I am an undergraduate student studying Microbiology with the eventual goal of becoming a physician. I will be assisting with maintaining blood cell cultures in the lab.

Silas Black

Lizzie Tabornal

I am an undergraduate student currently studying blood stage parasites and am interested in the processes of drug design and discovery. I enjoy trying new food, playing piano, and traveling!

Eric Zhao

I am an undergraduate pursuing a Chemical Engineering degree and I plan to explore various related research. I will be assisting in liver cell research. In my free time, I enjoy playing video and tabletop games.

Elen Hovhannisyan

Ankita Ghosh

Hi! I am an undergraduate studying Molecular and Cellular Biology. I will be working with human and parasite cell cultures, mosquito dissections, and preparing cell samples for drug screening. I enjoy dancing, and trying new food!

Connie Tran

Hi there! I am an undergraduate studying Bioengineering with a specialization in Biotechnology. I will also be working on tissue culturing in the lab and I enjoy finding and trying out new cafes!

Ava Real

Amaan Khan

Philip Kovelman-Ottilie

I am an undergraduate at UCSC for biochemistry and molecular biology BS. I do triathlons and bike racing. I want to someday either get a Ph.D. or a Pharm.D. and do research for drugs.

Joie Esparza

Fu-Hsuan Ko

Priyan Kapoor

I am a MS student at UC San Diego majoring in Bioengineering and Biomedical Engineering. My work at the Winzeler lab involves In vitro evolution and whole genome sequencing analysis to discover novel targets for Antimalarial drugs. I use yeast (S. cerevisiae) systems to understand how drug resistance emerges.

Audrey Staton

I am an undergraduate student studying biochemistry. I hope to continue to obtain my masters and proceed into a field of drug design and discovery. In the Winzeler lab I am working primarily on maintaining red blood cell and liver cultures.

Viki Nguyen

Samuel Schaefer

Hello! I am an undergraduate student studying Human Biology. I will be assisting in the investigation of drug resistance and hope to eventually become a physician one day. If I’m not in the lab you can catch me surfing La Jolla Shores!

Dao Nguyen

I am an undergraduate student studying human biology and will be working on tissue culture in the lab. I enjoy late night drives and getting together with my friends.

Emily Nguyen

Hello hello! I am an undergraduate student studying Global Health with great interest in pursuing Oncology and Preventative Medicine. In the lab, I work with liver cell culturing and look forward to mosquito dissections! I enjoy museum and coffee shop hopping as well as going on long walks in my free time 🙂

Mariana Laureano de Souza, Ph.D.

Sarah Tiantian Jiang, Ph.D.

Francisco Guerra, MD, Ph.D.

Dyllan Mead

Madeline R. Luth, Ph.D.

A major component of the MalDA collaboration is the generation of resistant Plasmodium falciparum lines through in vitro directed evolution. I utilize various bioinformatics tools to analyze the whole genome sequence information of these parasites as well as other eukaryotic pathogens for the purpose of identifying drug targets and resistance mechanisms.

Daisy Chen

I am a student in the Bioinformatics PhD program at UCSD. In the Winzeler lab, I will be investigating the genetic basis of drug resistance in P. falciparum malaria parasites through analysis of whole genome sequencing data from field isolates and experimentally evolved lineages.

Emma Williams

Karla Godinez Macias

I received my M.S. degree in Bioinformatics in May 2019 where I constructed a pipeline to get insight into the differential gene expression using Illumina RNA-seq data. As part of the MalDA team, I use Bio/Cheminformatics tools to support the work in drug targets and resistance mechanisms identification aiming to discover novel therapeutics for the treatment of Plasmodium falciparum.

Irwin W. Sherman, Ph.D.

The principal focus of our laboratory was to characterize, in molecular terms, the membrane structure and function of the erythrocyte infected by malaria parasites. Of particular interest was the mechanisms whereby red cells infected with the human malaria Plasmodium falciparum become adhesive. Using monoclonal antibodies, synthetic peptides and in vitro binding assays, we identified an adhesive region of the erythrocyte that results from the exposure of cryptic residues of band 3 protein. After retirement, Professor Sherman was a Visiting Scientist at the Scripps Research Institute (La Jolla, CA 92037).

For more information about Dr. Sherman, please visit: Irwin Sherman Ph.D.

Jair L. Siqueira-Neto, PhD

I received my BS in biological sciences and my PhD in genetics and molecular biology from Unicamp University, Brazil. After that I worked as a postdoc and team leader at the Institute Pasteur Korea, developing high-throughput phenotypic screening assays to identify new drug candidates to treat leishmaniasis and Chagas’ disease. I am currently an Associate Adjunct Professor at the Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences and the director of the UCSD Screening Core. My research interest is in the development of new therapies to treat infectious diseases. I joined forces with Dr. Winzeler and will coordinate the MalDA consortium.

Rohini Bulusu

I am an undergraduate student who is interested in learning more about how drug resistance medication functions in the body. I hope to pursue a MD/MPH and serve as a pediatrician one day.

Deanna Page

Howard Chang

Hi! I am an undergraduate interested in learning more about malaria drug resistance mechanisms. I am interested in becoming an Oncologist in the future!

Ian Fosth

I am an undergraduate student interested in investigating the development of drug resistance and the mechanisms of drug design with eventual hopes to pursue an MD/PHD and serve as a psychiatrist.

Hunter Gage

Next generation sequencing technologies have allowed for the surveillance of malaria parasite diversity and markers of drug resistance. In my rotation project, I am using bioinformatic tools to analyze the population dynamics of Plasmodium falciparum field isolates from Malawi and Mozambique, in order to identify genes undergoing selective pressure from antimalarial drugs.

Justin Fong

I’m an undergraduate studying molecular and cell biology and will be maintaining blood cultures for the Winzeler Lab. I enjoy following sports, playing games, and producing music in my free time.

Emma Lhuillier

I am a UCSD undergraduate student studying Human Biology and Ethnic Studies to become a neonatologist. I work with blood cultures and do chores around the lab. I am a surfer, ice hockey player, and martial arts practitioner.

Tiana Mamaghani

I am a Lab Assistant in the Winzeler lab. I recently graduated from UC Irvine in Microbiology and Immunology, and I am currently on the route towards medical school.

Abigail Brunory

Abigail recently graduated from the University of Notre Dame, where she got her BS in Biological Sciences. After working as a cell culture biologist at Eli Lilly & Co. for a little over 6 months, she and her husband moved to San Diego. In the Winzeler Lab, Abigail is part of the screening team, and is also in charge of various lab coordination and lab safety tasks, including EH&S onboarding.

Tuo Yang, Ph.D.

Sabine Ottilie, Ph.D.

As the project manager of the MalDA Consortium, I am coordinating the efforts of multiple labs to discover the next generation of antimalarial drugs.

In addition, I am leading the efforts of Team Yeast to identify compounds with primary activity against eukaryotic pathogens causing diseases such as Malaria, Chagas’ disease, Schistosomiasis, Cryptosporidiosis and fungal infections and determine their cellular targets. Our approach utilizesa sensitized, attenuated strain of Saccharomyces cerevisiae, in vitro directed evolution and whole genome sequencing. By analyzing how yeast genetically adapts to treatment with small cytotoxic molecules we identify the compounds’ targets and/or targeted pathways, predict resistance mechanisms, and define sites of compound/protein interactions.

Jan M Economy

I am a Research Coordinator with the Winzeler lab. I am a media and communications professional with a Bachelors of Science degree focused in Business Administration-Statistical Management & Organizational Behavior from San Diego State University.

Jaeson Calla, Ph.D.

Frances Rocamora, Ph.D.

Richard Tram

I am a Global Health undergraduate student nurturing mosquitoes used for studying malaria cultures.

Nimisha Mittal, Ph.D.

I received my Ph.D. in India, where I worked on the epigenetic regulators of the parasite Leishmania. In the Winzeler lab, I am a part of the high throughput screening (HTS) team for anti-malarial compounds. I conduct in vitro experiments for the identification of hits having liver stage and asexual blood stage specificity.

Rachel Findlay

I am an undergraduate biology student working with Plasmodium cultures to identify potential drug targets.

Ashley You

I am an undergraduate student studying General Biology and I work with yeast cultures to identify potential drug targets.

Krypton Carolino

Plasmodium parasites are becoming resistant to the currently available drug treatments for malaria, thus there is a necessity to develop new medicines. I am interested in studying irresistibles, compounds that can kill parasites without being toxic to the host or conferring resistance within the parasites. I plan to utilize biochemical assays to unravel the mechanisms of action of these compounds.

Adryanna Nguyen

I am an undergraduate student that is interested in how organisms evolve to become resistant to certain drugs over time.

Lisa Pham

I’m an undergraduate student studying chemical engineering and interested in drug resistance research.

Sindhu Daggupati

I am an undergraduate student who is interested in learning more about how drug resistance medication works within the human body and I am also interested in becoming a pediatric surgeon one day.

Taylor Chin

Hi everyone! I will be working on maintaining blood cultures for Winzeler Lab. In my free time, I like to ice skate!

Alani Diamond

Lauren Midyett

I am an undergraduate student majoring in Bioengineering. I contribute to the mosquito dissections as well as analyzing readout data from the liver and asexual blood stage assays to determine their success.

Natalia Koga

A third year undergraduate biochemistry and cell biology major. I am doing research with plasmodium infected blood cells, using antimalarial drug selections to find resistance among the cells in order to target underlying genetic mechanisms.

Ioana Vestemean

I am a fourth year undergraduate Biochemistry and Cell Biology major. I work with plasmodium infected red blood cells under drug pressures and am interested in finding signs of a drug resistance in these cells so more information can be uncovered about the gene targets of these antimalarial drugs.

Miranda Song

I am an undergraduate bioengineering student working with Plasmodium cultures to identify potential drug targets.

Korina Eribez

Lab Manager
Area Safety Officer
SRA2
High-Throughput Screening
Drug Target Identification

Juan Carlos Jado, Ph.D.

I completed my PhD in June 2014 in renal pathophysiology in Madrid. As a postdoc, I have 2 main projects:

1) As part of the Malaria Drug Accelerator (MalDA) team, I work in the identification of drug targets, novel genes and the corresponding non-synonymous coding variants involved in drug resistance of Plasmodium falciparum.

2) Chemogenetic characterization of antineoplastic drugs using in vitro evolution followed by whole genome analysis (IVIEWGA) to define the “resistome” of cancer cells. To simplify the identification of alleles in cancer resistome, I use a near-haploid chronic myelogenous leukemia cell line as a model. The identification of resistant alleles (both copy number and single nucleotide variants) will be validated by CRISPR-Cas9

Jacklyn Sanchez-Alvarez

I am an undergraduate public health student working with Plasmodium cultures to identify the compounds’ targets and/or targeted pathways, leading our team to predict resistance mechanisms through selections.

Monica Le

I am an undergraduate researcher working on directed evolution of Plasmodium cultures through liver stage and asexual blood stage assays in order to identify potential drug targets. In doing so, I am able to analyze which compounds are actively treating parasites and identify the compounds’ targets and/or targeted pathways, leading our team to predict resistance mechanisms through selections.

Ayden Fonseca

Undergraduate researcher working on the ABS and liver-stage projects. When I’m not carving up mosquitos, I am carving up waves.

Christie Lincoln

I am an undergraduate student studying Human Biology and Computer Science. I contribute to the liver stage and asexual blood stage assays in the Winzeler lab.

Megan Verma

I am a third year Biochemistry/Cell Biology major with a Business minor. I am working on the gametocyte project in the Winzeler lab, as well as the asexual blood culture.

Lindsey Skokan

Undergraduate researcher working on the gametocyte project.

Pamela Orjuela-Sanchez, Ph.D.

Led a team of three people responsible for high-throughput screens (~30K/year) using a high content imaging platform in the search for new molecules against P. falciparum gametocytes. I have also developed competencies performing other cell-based drug screenings (liver and blood malaria parasite stage) using luciferase and sybr green systems. I am enthusiastic about fluorescence microscopy and high content imaging.

Lawrence Wang

RT-qPCR Technician, general research tech.

Jennifer Yang

Kristen Thorne

Mclean Taggard

Emma Paytas

Jenya Antonova, Ph.D.

Annie Cowell, M.D./MPH

I am an Infectious Diseases physician in my third year of fellowship at UC San Diego. I am interested in how next generation sequencing of pathogens from patient samples can answer biological and epidemiological questions. In the Winzeler lab, my projects include using selective whole genome amplification to enrich Plasmodium vivax DNA from patient samples for whole genome sequencing, and using proteomics to better understand malaria liver stage infection.

Purva Gupta, Ph.D.

I work on the drug discovery of malaria. Together with the MDTIP Consortium, we try to understand the resistome and the drug-able genome of the malaria parasite. Making the parasite resistant to different compounds helps us find the mutations responsible for resistance and genes that confer resistance. On this basis we hope to find novel gene targets for the drug-like compounds. We are also trying to validate the gene targets for small molecules through CRISPR

Greg LaMonte, Ph.D.

I have been working to determine the mechanism of action of several classes of antimalarial compounds, using a combination of Plasmodium and yeast genetics and molecular biology. More recently, I have been focusing on examining parasite liver stage development using a combination of transcriptional analysis and site-specific proteomics.

Dylan Hutson

Andrea Cheung

Colleen Boyle

Caroline Page

I am apart of the yeast team in the Winzeler lab and my main objective is to identify drug targets through the direct evolution of yeast cells.

Melanie Zou

I test the potency of natural product compounds against blood stage malaria, and look at liver stage parasite protein expression through proteomics.

Erika Sasaki

I work with the MDTIP Consortium to discover novel drug targets in Plasmodium falciparum by generating lines resistant to small molecules and then sequencing these lines to discover resistance causing mutations. We then use CRISPR to validate these gene targets and are using radio labeling to run metabolic assays. I am currently working on my Senior Honors Thesis using four small molecules from the seventh round of compounds from BMGF.

Jake Schenken

I am a part of the yeast models for malaria team in the Winzeler Lab, which is responsible for performing drug target identification for potential anti-malarial compounds via directed evolution in drug-sensitive yeast strains and phenotypic screening. In addition, I am responsible for target validation by gene editing in yeast using the CRISPR-Cas9 system with Homology Directed Repair followed by phenotypic screening.

Prianka Kumar

I am an undergraduate researcher working on directed evolution of yeast cultures to identify potential drug targets as well as using recombinant DNA expression to validate target identification.

Peter Chebi

My research focuses on learning more about the sexual phase of Plasmodium falciparum, referred to as the gametocyte stage. I take pride in doing all I can to reduce the transmission rates of malaria.

Matthew Abraham

As hits are generated from our high-throughput screening pipeline, the tractability of these small molecules is required before therapeutic consideration. To parse out attractive scaffolds, I conduct in-vitro and in-silico target identification experiments, for multiple stages in the Plasmodium life cycle. These efforts have led to the identification of several unique scaffolds with potent liver-stage specificity, and previously uncharacterized druggable targets in the asexual blood stage of infection.

Biniam Ambachew

I work as an undergraduate researcher under the guidance of Jenya Antonova, Ph.D. on the malaria asexual blood stage assay (ABS) and the liver stage assay.