Faculty

Mariel Vasquez

Mariel Vasquez

  • Professor
  • Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics -- College of Biological Sciences
  • Department of Mathematics -- College of Letters and Science
Mariel Vasquez studies the shape and structure of DNA. She examines the mechanisms that underlie site-specific recombination of DNA and the packing of chromosomes in human cells and viral capsids using simulations and knot theory, and chromosomal aberrations using biophysical models and data analysis.
Jennifer Whistler

Jennifer Whistler

  • Professor and Associate Director, Center for Neuroscience
  • Department of Physiology and Membrane Biology -- School of Medicine
The majority of drugs used in human medicine target G protein coupled receptors (GPCRs). The focus in the Whistler laboratory is elucidating how altering the signaling “bias” of a GPCR for its various downstream signaling partners contributes to drug responsiveness and side effects. Dr. Whistler is particularly interested in the role of biased versus balanced GPCR signaling in modulating responsiveness to drugs of abuse and the co-morbidities of anxiety, depression and altered decision making that accompany drug use/abuse. The laboratory has demonstrated the in vivo relevance of altered signaling bias in addiction disorders, and has  extended these studies to other clinically important GPCR targets and their ligands/drugs that are important for the treatment of psychosis, depression, Parkinson’s disease, anxiety, asthma and metabolic disease. 
Karen Zito

Karen Zito

  • Professor
  • Department of Neurobiology, Physiology, and Behavior -- College of Biological Sciences
Karen Zito seeks to understand how synaptic connections form during development, and how they are modified by sensory experience and altered in disease. Zito uses imaging techniques in combination with molecular genetic and pharmacological manipulations to probe the cellular and molecular mechanisms that drive the refinement of neural circuits in the mammalian brain.

2018-2019 Cohort

JonathanAmezquita

Jonathan Amezquita

  • Molecular and Cell Biology PhD program, University of Washington (Brock Grill lab)
Jonathan Amezquita graduated in May 2018 from Macalester College with a Biology major and English minor. He currently works with JoAnne Engebrecht to study sex-dependent security checkpoints in meiosis via investigating the spindle-assembly checkpoint in C. elegans. Inhibition of this checkpoint may lead to mutagenesis, cell death, or defects in gametogenesis. Jonathan will characterize the spindle-assembly checkpoint response to erroneous kinetochore attachment in C. elegans male meiosis. He will use CRISPR/Cas9 to generate gene knockouts involved with the spindle assembly checkpoint and will analyze their effects to meiosis through live-cell imaging.
Anna Georgieva

Anna Andronicos (Georgieva)

  • Cell and Molecular Biosciences PhD program, UC Irvine (Peter Kaiser lab)
  • NSF GRFP Honorable Mention
Anna (Georgieva) Andronicos graduated from UC Riverside with a BS in Biology. As a PREP@UCD scholar, Anna works in Aldrin Gomes’ lab to investigate the effects of NSAIDs on the cardiovascular system. Specifically, she will examine changes in the proteasome activity caused by calcium and the mechanism behind those changes. Anna is primarily interested in molecular biology and biochemistry.
Elijah Blank

Elijah Blank

  • BCMB PhD program, Johns Hopkins (Mark Wu lab)
  • NSF GRFP Honorable Mention
Elijah Blank earned a BS in Biology with great distinction from the University of Maryland Baltimore County in May 2018. He is currently working in molecular neurobiology with the Trimmer lab to study ion channel complexes, which are known to organize junctions between the plasma membrane and endoplasmic reticulum in the brain. Mutations in these channels are also associated with devastating neurological disorders. Elijah will use proteomic analysis of these ion channel complexes to identify novel ion channel associated proteins in both mouse tissue and established cell lines.
Yesica Mercado Ayon

Yesica Mercado-Ayon

  • Molecular Biology Interdepartmental Doctoral Program, UCLA (Samantha Butler lab)
  • NSF GRFP Fellow
Yesica Mercado-Ayon completed a BS in Cell Molecular and Developmental Biology at the University of California, Riverside, in March 2018. Prior to joining PREP@UCD, she worked as a lab technician at UCR and studied the biogenesis of small RNAs in C. elegans.  At UC Davis, she works in Anna La Torre’s lab, where she studies the retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) that connect the retina to the brain. In diseases like glaucoma, these cells die and partial loss of vision or blindness can occur. The La Torre lab seeks better ways to culture RGCs with a higher yield and longevity for use as replacement in therapy. Yesica’s research interests include cellular and  molecular mechanisms of neurodegeneration and genetic basis of disease.
Joseph Rosas

Joseph Rosas

  • Integrative Genetics and Genomics PhD Program, UC Davis (Thomas Glaser lab)
  • IMSD Fellow
Joseph Rosas graduated with a BS in Molecular Biology with a minor in Human Development from UC San Diego in March 2018. He now works in Megan Dennis’ lab, which studies the effects of human-specific duplicated genes and how they play a role in development of neurocognitive disorders. Joseph examines how chromatin structure is differentially organized across fetal development for neural tissue of Rhesus macaques. Prior to PREP, he conducted research as an IMSD Scholar at UC San Diego, investigating conditional cytokine expression using a mouse model of sepsis.

2019-2020 Cohort

Colton Baumler

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
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.
Carlos Estrada

Carlos Estrada

  • Tetrad PhD program, UCSF
  • NSF GRFP Honorable Mention
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.