People

Omer Gokcumen (he/him/his) – Assistant Professor of Biology. Here is his CV and here is his “UB Experts” page for the press.

Dr. Marie Saitou (she/her/hers) – Post-Doctoral Researcher, Astellas Foundation Fellow. A graduate of the University of Tokyo, she is leading on multiple projects in the laboratory. Here is her CV. A nice short video of her talking about her recent work is here.

Skyler Resendez (he/him/his) – Ph.D. Student, Presidential Fellow. Skyler is also a former member of the CLIMB program and received funding through the IMSD. He studies structural variants found in ancient hominin genomes with an emphasis on the Growth Hormone Receptor (GHR) gene, utilizing a transgenic mouse model.

Izzy Starr (they/them/theirs) – Ph.D. Student, Microsoft Ada Lovelace Fellow, Arthur A. Schomburg Fellow. They study host genome-skin microbiome co-evolution, focusing on the evolution of autoimmune skin disorders such as psoriasis. Their research utilizes machine learning and integrates network and ecology theories. Here is their website.

Petar Pajic (he/him/his) – Research Associate. Petar is a M.S. graduate of the Gokcumen Lab, and now conducts research in collaboration between the Gokcumen Lab and Ruhl Lab. His research focuses on gene duplication of salivary protein genes in the mammalian lineage.

Umair Syed (he/him/his) – Undergraduate Researcher. Umair is in the Honors College, majoring in Biological Sciences.

Megan Dwyer (she/her/hers) – Undergraduate Researcher, Provost Scholar. Megan is in the Honors College, majoring in Biological Sciences.
                                                                        

ALUMNI

Ph.D. Students

• Ozgur Taskent (Ph.D. 2019)
• Andre Campelo Dos Santos (Visiting, Ph.D. 2020) – Currently a Ph.D. student studying Archaeology at the Federal University of Pernambuco
• Yen Lung ‘Onta’  Lin (Ph.D. 2019) – Now a postdoctoral fellow in the Barreiro Lab at the University of Chicago
• Duo ‘Erica’ Xu (Ph.D., 2018) – Now a postdoctoral fellow in the Khurana Lab at Weill Cornell

Postdoctoral Fellows

• Eaaswarkhanth Muthukrishnan (Postdoctoral Fellow) – Group Leader at the Dasman Diabetes Institute – Kuwait

Master’s Students

• John Sebastiani (M.S., 2018) – Now a Ph.D. student at the University of Miami
• Justin Bradley (M.S., EEB Program) – Now at Fisher Scientific
• Petar Pajic (M.S., 2017) – Now a tech at UB Oral Biology
• Samantha Queeno (M.A., 2016) – Now a Ph.D. Student at the University of Oregon
• Brandon Mistretta (M.A., 2015) – Ph.D. Student at University of Houston

Undergraduate Researchers

• Therese Wild (B.S., 2021) – Now an undergraduate researcher in the Lin chemistry lab at UB
• Kirsten Dean (B.S., 2019) – Now a Research Scientist I at AMRI in Buffalo
• Alexa Bracci (B.S., 2017) – Now a Ph.D. student at Cornell at the Amnon Koren’s Lab at Cornell
• Lauren Boehnke (B.S., 2016) – Now a Ph.D. Student at the UB graduate program in Biomedical Sciences
• Sara-Ann Fox, (B.S., 2015) – Now a Medical Student at SUNY, Upstate Medical University
• Colin Flanagan (B.S., 2015) – Now a research assistant at Rockefeller University (with Dr. Ju Chen)
• Emilie Redwood (B.S., 2016) – Now at Med. School at SUNY, Stony Brook
• Sarah Schwartz (High School Intern) – Now a UB B.S. Student studying Computer Science