Former Lab Members
Graduate Students
Meenakshi Sundaram (Sundar) Kumar, Doctoral Thesis, "Insights into Nucleocytoplasmic Transport Decline in FUS-mediated ALS and Nanobody Biologics for SOD1-mediated ALS". Sundar is a Senior Scientist at AbbVie, Worcester, MA.
Salome Funes, Doctoral Thesis "Investigating Cell-Autonomous Mechanisms of Microglia Dysfunction in PFN1-ALS". Salome is a Scientist at Apellis Pharmaceuticals, Watertown, MA.
Eric Schmidt, Doctoral Thesis "Investigation of a Misfolded, Destabilized Profilin-1 Species as a Toxic Molecule in ALS Pathogenesis". Eric has returned to medical school to complete his MD-PhD
Dr. Yen-Chen (Nora) Lin, Doctoral Thesis "Lost in Nucleocytoplasmic Transportation: New Insights Into FUS-Mediated Neurodegeneration". Nora is a Scientist in Early Discovery Neuroscience at Bristol Myers Squibb, Cambridge, MA.
Dr. Maeve Tischbein, Doctoral Thesis "FUS and Excitotoxicity Cross Paths in ALS: New Insights into Cellular Stress and Disease". Maeve is a Research Project Manager at Dartmouth-Hitchcock, greater Boston area.
Dr. Sivakumar Boopathy, Doctoral Thesis "Investigating Structural and Functional Defects in ALS-causing Profilin 1 Variants". Siva is a post-doctoral fellow at Massachusetts General Hospital, Department of Molecular Biology, MA.
Dr. Melissa Rotunno, Doctoral Thesis "Identifying, Targeting, and Exploiting a Common Misfolded, Toxic Conformation of SOD1 in ALS: A Dissertation". Melissa is a Senior Scientist in Mass Spectrometry and Proteomics at Gritstone Bio, Worcester, MA.
Laura Kaushansky, Master's thesis "Investigating the Effects of Mutant FUS on Stress Response in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis: A Thesis". Laura is a Principal Data Scientist in Analytical Services at Sunovion Pharmaceuticals, Marlborough, MA.
Dr. Catherine (Ward) Douthwright, Doctoral Thesis "The Cellular Consequences of FUS/TLS Depletion: A Loss of Function Model for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis: A Dissertation". Cat is a Research Project Director at UMass Chan Medical School, Worcester, MA.
Dr. Reddy Ranjith Kumar Sama, Doctoral Thesis "FUS/TLS in Stress Response - Implications for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis: A Dissertation". Reddy is a Clinical Program Manager, Gilead Sciences, San Francisco Bay Area.
Post-Doctoral Fellows
Dr. Sanjay Kumar -
Dr. Ozge Yildiz - UMass Chan Medical School, Worcester, MA.
Dr. Kristin Boggio - Principal Scientist - Protein Mass Spectrometry at Pfizer, Inc., Greater Boston.
Dr. Jeanne McKeon - Senior Medical Writer at Envision Pharma Group, New York City Metropolitan Area.
Dr. Heather Yonutas - AAV Gene Therapy R&D Program Lead, Voyager Therapeutics, Inc. Cambridge, MA.
Staff
Hayden Gadd - former technician, current Technical Director (Five College Dance)
Katherine Gall - former laboratory technician, currently Senior Research Associate at Homology Medicines, Inc., MA.
Dr. Nathan Lemay - former laboratory technician, Family Medicine Specialist in Manchester, CT.
Dr. Desiree M. Baron - former Research Associate, Research Associate II at UMass Chan Medical School, Worcester, MA.
Summer/Undergraduate/post-Bac Students
Erika SerannoDiaz - Former post-bac PREP student, currently a graduate student at John Hopkins, MD.
Frank Trujillo - Former summer student researcher, currently a medical student at Albany Medical College in New York.
Jesus Frias - Former summer student researcher, currently attending University at Albany - SUNY, NY.
Victoria Botelho - Former undergraduate researcher, currently attending nursing school.
Kiera Sapp - Former summer student, currently a graduate student at MIT, MA.