Lab Members

Blerta Xhemalçe, PhD
PI / Lab head
PhD: Pasteur Institute, Paris, France
Post-Doc: Gurdon Institute, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom
Start date: September 1st, 2013

Turja Kanti Debnath, PhD
Postdoc
PhD: University of Tokyo, Japan
Start date: November 19th, 2018

Nathan Abell, PhD
Bioinformatician
PhD: Stanford School of Medicine 
Start date: September 1st 2014
[Full time Bioinformatician/Postbac Researcher from 09/01/2014 to 08/30/2015,
Bioinformatics consultant from 09/01/2015]

Sravan Kumar Devanathan
PhD student
B.Tech. Biotechnology, Sastra University, India
Start date: February 4th, 2019
[Lab manager from August 17th, 2016 to August 31st, 2018]

Brandon Chiou
PhD student
BS in Biological Sciences and Technology, National Chiao Tung University (NCTU), Taiwan
Start date: October 6th, 2021

Yi-Ru Li
Rotation PhD student
MS in Genome Sciences, National Yang-Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan
Start date: November 14th, 2022

Shilpa Rumalla
Undergraduate Researcher
BSA in Biology; BSA in Human Development and Family Sciences, Class of 2023
Start date: October 1st, 2019

Enrique Navedo
Research Engineer
BS in Biochemistry, University of Texas at Austin
Start date: September 1st, 2020

Ariana Silva
Research Assistant
BS in Mechanical Engineering, Class of 2024
Start date: August 25th, 2021

Marvin Mercado
Mass Spectrometry consultant
Master of Engineering, Major in Chemical Engineering, Iowa State University
(Full time Research Engineer from 09/16/2013-5/31/2016,
Mass Spectrometry consultant since 06/01/2016)

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Former Lab Members

Le Hoang
Research Assistant
BS in Biochemistry, Class of 2022
February 8th to December 8th, 2021

Alexia Harvey
Research Assistant
BSA of Public Health, University of Texas at Austin, Class of 2021
February 5th, 2018 to June 11th, 2021

Calder Reinsborough
PhD student
Master of Biomedical Sciences, Mount Sinai, New York
February 17th, 2015 to January 15th, 2021

Ellen Gouws
Lab manager/ Research Engineer
BS in Agricultural and Medical Biotechnology, University of Kentucky
August 20th, 2018 to August 19th, 2020

Hélène lpas, PhD
Postdoc
PhD: University of Grenoble, Grenoble, France
September 15th, 2014 to September 14th, 2019

Margot Gautier
Master student [Magistere of Genetics, Paris, France]
April 1st to August 31st, 2019

Sarah Adilla Shaker
Undergraduate researcher
BSA of Biology, University of Texas at Austin, Class of 2019
October 10th, 2018 to July 20th, 2019

Samantha Shelton, PhD
PhD student
BA: Molecular Biology, Scripps College, California
December 2nd, 2013 to January 16th, 2019

Paige Williams
LiveStrong Cancer Institutes Summer Fellowship Researcher
BS of Cell and Molecular Biology, Texas Tech, class of 2019
May 29th to August 3rd, 2018

Adam Sacks
Postbac Researcher
BSA of Neuroscience, University of Texas at Austin
January 3rd to July 18th, 2018

Christopher K Meilchen
Undergraduate Researcher (Biology/German Major, University of Texas at Austin)
October 1st to December 19th, 2017

Mélina Blanco
Master student [Magistere of Genetics, Paris, France]
April 1st to August 31st, 2017

Nakul Shah
Undergraduate researcher, class of 2015
January 17th, 2014 to July 10th, 2015

Solène Hervé
Master student [Magistere of Genetics, Paris, France]
April 1st to August 31st, 2014

Rotation Students

• Gary Kao (Winter 2014)
• Samantha B Shelton (Winter 2014)
• Kimberly Bowen (Spring 2014)
• Nathaniel Burkholder (Spring 2015)
• Calder Reinsborough (Spring 2015)
• Jason Ikkpat (Summer 2015)
• Ranjeet Kar (Spring 2016)
• Connor Park (Spring 2017)
• Sravan Devanathan (Spring 2019)
• Rosamaria Yvette Moreno (Fall 2019)
• Sidae Lee (Winter 2020)
• Ellen Gouws (Winter 2021)
• Cem Ozdemir (Spring 2022)
  
• Ruth Allard (Fall 2022)
  

Work Studies

• Khoi Bui (Summer 2015)
• Jesús Vasquez (September 2015 to August 2017)