2019-2020 Cohort | Postbaccalaureate Research Education Program at UC Davis

Alyssa Paparella

PhD program in Cancer and Cell Biology, Baylor College of Medicine
NSF GRFP Fellow
HHMI Gilliam Fellow

Alyssa Paparella graduated in May 2019 from Sarah Lawrence College in New York with degrees in Biology and Chemistry. While part of PREP, Alyssa joined Daniel Starr’s lab to study C. elegans to better understand nuclear migration. Specifically, she is focusing on UNC-83, a protein on the outer nuclear membrane surface that helps to recruit microtubule motor proteins for nuclear migration. Alyssa hopes to better understand UNC-83’s different isoforms and their specific role in nuclear migration.

Celena Lozano

Neuroscience PhD program, UC Davis (Kim McAllister lab)
NSF GRFP Fellow

Celena Lozano graduated from UC Davis with a BS in Neurobiology, Physiology and Behavior in June 2019. She is currently working in the Cheng Lab studying adult neurogenesis in the hippocampus. The integration of newborn granule cells in the hippocampal circuitry of the adult brain is involved in learning and memory, and disruption of these new connections is associated with neurological disorders. Celena uses immunofluorescent array tomography to investigate the molecular differences between the adult and aged brain at the newborn granule cell-CA3 pyramidal cell synapse.

Amy Leslie

Integrative Pathobiology PhD program, UC Davis (Allen Gao lab)
NSF GRFP Honorable Mention

Amy Leslie graduated from UC Santa Cruz with a BS in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology in June 2019. At UCSC, she was an IMSD scholar and conducted research in Alan Zahler’s lab, where she studied alternative pre-mRNA splicing in C. elegans. Amy’s research interests include genetics, molecular biology, and immunology. At UC Davis, she works in Lesilee Rose’s lab, which studies asymmetric cell division in C. elegans. The Rose lab has examined LET-99’s role in regulating spindle positioning and cytokinesis during asymmetric division. Amy will use structure function analysis to determine which domains of LET-99 are required for its localization to the membrane and its roles in cell division.

Nashley Fuentes-Sanabria

Nashley Fuentes-Sanabria earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Microbiology, Cum Laude, from the University of Puerto Rico, Arecibo, in 2019. She worked in the laboratory of Sergi Simó to study wound healing, and in the lab of Joy Geng from the Center for Mind and Brain on studies of attention control in humans.

Carlos Estrada

Tetrad PhD program, UCSF
NSF GRFP Honorable Mention
LinkedIn, Apprentice Backend Engineer

Carlos Estrada graduated from California State University, Chico, in May 2018, with a degree in Biological Sciences with the option in Cellular and Molecular Biology. He is currently working in Bruce Draper’s lab studying the sex determination and maintenance of the adult sexual phenotype in zebrafish. Members of the Draper lab have identified two zebrafish genes that are likely linked to estrogen biosynthesis, normal female sexual development, and maintenance of the female differentiated state. Carlos will use CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing to create new transgenic zebrafish lines and produce gene knock-out/knock-in lines to determine the role of a gap-junction protein in the exchanging of these signals and, ultimately, in the sex determination of zebrafish.

Colton Baumler

PhD program in BMCDB, UC Davis (Titus Brown lab)
NSF GRFP Fellow, UC Davis NIH Preparation Fellow, IMSD
T32 Training Program in MCB
Fellow, UC Davis Professors for the Future 2024-2025 Cohort

Colton Baumler graduated magna cum laude with a BS in Biology, BA in Chemistry, minor in Mathematics, and honors in research from Concordia University, St. Paul, in December 2018. In the Arsuaga-Vazquez lab at UC Davis, he studied the roles of symmetry and topology on DNA and examined the knotting of dsDNA as it is packaged in a P4 bacteriophage’s capsid to answer questions of how DNA organization, placement, and interactions take place within confined spaces. Colton also is working in Rachael Bay’s evolutionary genomics lab to study genomic differences in thermal tolerance in corals.