Lab Members

Cyrus Ghajar, Ph.D.

Cyrus Ghajar, Ph.D.

Title: Laboratory Head

Hometown: Los Altos, CA (USA)
Something you're inspired by: Selflessness
Favorite band: Khalid
Favorite scientist: Mina Bissell (I'm biased!)
A paper that amazes you: "Wounding and its role in RSV-mediated tumor formation"
Fantasy benchmate: Judah Folkman
Favorite movie: The Dark Knight
Fun is: Cooking great food

Candice Grzelak Ph.D.

Candice Grzelak Ph.D.

Title: Staff Scientist

Hometown: Sydney, Australia (NSW)
Something you're inspired by: Bill and Melinda Gates (I love their dedication to important humanitarian and scientific endeavors, even though they haven’t started out as trained scientists) 
Favorite band: Equal tie goes to AFI and Alkaline Trio
Favorite scientist: Hans Clevers
A paper that amazes you: "Macrophage-derived Wnt opposes Notch signaling to specify hepatic progenitor cell fate in chronic liver disease"
Fantasy bench mate: Walter White
Favorite movie: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Fun is: Going to see bands play

Santino Iannone, B.S.

Santino Iannone, B.S.

Title: Bioinformatics Analyst

Hometown: Seattle, WA (USA)
Something you're inspired by: The Karamazovs
Favorite Band: Shocking Blue
Favorite Scientist: Pavel Pevzner
A paper that amazes you:  Challenging the point neuron dogma: FS basket cells as 2-stage nonlinear integrators
Fantasy benchmate: Dale Cooper
Favorite movie: Pickpocket
Fun is: Other People!

 

Miles Linde, Ph.D.

Miles Linde, Ph.D.

Title: Postdoctoral Fellow

Hometown: Woodinville, WA (USA)
Something you're inspired by: Teachers
Favorite band: Muse or Foo Fighters
Favorite scientist: Ralph Steinman
A paper that amazes you: "IFNγ and lymphocytes prevent primary tumour development and shape tumour immunogenicity."
Fantasy benchmate: John Muir
Favorite movie: The Grand Budapest Hotel 
Fun is: Backpacking trips with my wife and brother

Sydney Marsh, B.S.

Sydney Marsh, B.S.

Title: Research Technician

Hometown: Austin, MN (USA)
Something you're inspired by: Passion + Hardwork
Favorite band: Vampire Weekend
Favorite scientist: Jennifer Doudna
A paper that amazes you: "Recovery From Repeat Mild Traumatic Brain Injury in Adolescent Rats Is Dependent on Pre-injury Activity State"
Fantasy benchmate: Cristina Yang
Favorite movie: Planes, Trains, & Automobiles
Fun is: Running, climbing, snowboarding, (basically any adventuring), good coffee, & spending time with friends and family

Nirasha Ramchurren, Ph.D.

Nirasha Ramchurren, Ph.D.

Title: Staff Scientist

Hometown: Durban, South Africa
Something you're inspired by: Courageousness 
Favorite band: Pink Floyd
Favorite scientist: Ronald Germain
A paper that amazes you: "Single-cell RNA-seq reveals new types of human blood dendritic cells, monocytes, and progenitors"
Fantasy benchmate: Ira Mellman
Favorite movie: Bohemian Rhapsody
Fun is: Dancing, hiking and playing tennis

Aya Sahib

Aya Sahib

Title: Lab Aide

Hometown: Baghdad, Iraq
Something you're inspired by: My Mom
Favorite band: Taylor Swift
Favorite scientist: Jennifer Doudna
A paper that amazes you: "CRISPR-Cas9 In Vivo Gene Editing for Transthyretin Amyloidosis"
Fantasy benchmate: Michael Scott
Favorite movie: Legally Blonde
Fun is: Spending time with family and friends!

Annelise Snyder, PhD

Annelise Snyder, PhD

Title: Postdoctoral Fellow

Hometown: Ashby, MA (USA)
Something you're inspired by: Silence in nature
Favorite Band: Odesza
Favorite Scientist: Yasmine Belkaid
A paper that amazes you: Inflammatory memory sensitizes skin epithelial cells to tissue damage
Fantasy benchmate: Jessica Walter (RIP)
Favorite movie: Hereditary
Fun is: Long van + camping trips with my dog, taking care of my plants, patio dinners with friends

 

Rebeka Tomasin, Ph.D.

Rebeka Tomasin, Ph.D.

Title: Postdoctoral Fellow

Hometown: Limeira (Brazil)
Something you're inspired by: Resilience
Favorite band: Coldplay
Favorite scientist: Marie Curie
A paper that amazes you: "Non-cell-autonomous driving of tumour growth supports sub-clonal heterogeneity"
Fantasy benchmate: Siddhartha Mukherjee
Favorite movie: The Silence of the Lambs
Fun is: Friends & family, traveling, good food, doing something you've never done before


Former Lab Members 

Position/graduated to:

Alice Burchett (UW Capstone Student) / Doctoral Candidate, University of Notre Dame Department of Bioengineering
Patrick Carlson (Research Technician/Lab Manager) / Juno Therapeutics
Sarah Crist (Graduate Student) / Postdoctoral Fellow, Rita Pelingeiro Laboratory, University of Minnesota
Jinxiang Dai (Postdoctoral Fellow) / Translational Medicine Scientist, Loxo Oncology
Arko Dasgupta (Postdoctoral Fellow) / Scientist, Adaptive Biotechnologies
Erica Goddard (Postdoctoral Fellow) / Lecturer, Oregon Health Sciences Uniersity
Marlowe Keller (Lab Aide) / Research Associate, Altius Institute for Biomedical Sciences
Jeanna Kim (Research Technician/Lab Manager) / Juno Therapeutics
Grant Klug (Research Technician) / University of Washington
Victoria Lawless (SURP Scholar) / MD-PHD Candidate, Rockefeller/MSK/Cornell Tri-I
Andrea Lim (MCB Graduate Student, NCI F99 Fellow) / K00 Postdoctoral Fellow, Steve Horvath Laboratory (UCLA)
Mani Moniri (Visiting Student) /University of Melbourne Medical School, Class of 2022
Laura Pisarsky (SNF.Mobility Postdoctoral Fellow) / Associate Principal Scientist, Boehringer Mannheim (Vienna)
Vera Schulte (Undergraduate Researcher) / UW Medical School, Class of 2021
Emma Schweitzer (Research Technician) / Rutgers University (Neuroscience PhD Program)
Ryann Shor (Research Technician/Lab Manager) / UW Medical School, Class of 2024
Lynn Symonds (Hematology-Oncology Fellow)/ Assistant Professor, University of Washington School of Medicine
Aiyedun Uzamere (Research Technician) / University of Pittsburgh Medical School, Class of 2026