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Prinicipal Investigator |
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David Traver, Ph.D. dtraver@ucsd.edu David received his bachelor's degree from the University of Washington in Cell and Molecular Biology. He then joined Irv Weissman's laboratory at Stanford University through the Program in Immunology. In his thesis work, he developed murine models of myeloid leukemia which ultimately led to an interest in normal versus neoplastic myeloid progenitors. David then went on to prospectively isolate the branchpoints at which multipotent hematopoietic precursors commit to the myeloid and erythroid lineages. For this work, David was awarded the Hugh McDevitt Prize. He then moved to Boston to pursue postdoctoral studies in Leonard Zon's laboratory. Here he initiated studies of hematopoietic stem cell biology in the zebrafish as a fellow of the Irvington Institute. The Traver laboratory was founded in the fall of 2004. We continue to study the biology of hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells using both the mouse and zebrafish systems. In addition, we have recently initiated studies on the ontogeny of innate immunity in the zebrafish. |
Laboratory Manager |
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Kerstin Richter kerichter@ucsd.edu Kerstin joined the laboratory in 2007 after having gained extensive experience as a research technician and laboratory manager at the Universities of Tuebingen and Kassel, Germany and at the VAMC, San Diego. She loves sausage and beer. And Duplo. And large mountain dogs. |
Postdoctoral Fellows |
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Julien Bertrand, Ph.D. jbertran@ucsd.edu Julien joined the lab in September 2005, after completing his PhD at the Pasteur Institute in Paris, France. His thesis work focused on the purification of hematopoietic precursors in the mouse embryo, under the supervision of Dr. Ana Cumano (http://www.pasteur.fr/recherche/unites/Devlym/en/welcome.html). In the lab, Julien is interested in the developmental processes leading to the establishment of the hematopoietic system from mesodermal precursors in the zebrafish embryo. Julien heads an efficient team in the lab including Jennifer Cisson and Albert Kim.
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Wilson Clements, Ph.D. wclements@ucsd.edu Wilson completed his degree in English from Williams College in 1991. He taught English in Japan from 1991 to 1992. He completed two years of post-baccalaureate work in Biochemistry at the University of Colorado at Boulder from 1995 to 1997, where he worked under the guidance of Dr. James A. Goodrich studying the physical mechanisms regulating activity of the immune system transcription factor, Nuclear Factor of Activated T-cells (NFAT), and was awarded an Undergraduate Research Opportunities (UROP) grant from the NIH. Wilson did his doctoral work at the University of Washington, where he worked with Dr. David Kimelman studying how the Wnt signaling pathway patterns early vertebrate embryos, using African clawed frogs and zebrafish as model systems. At UW, Wilson was the Graduate School Merit Award Scholar and also received the competitively awarded Molecular and Cellular Biology Training Grant. He received his doctorate in 2004. Wilson joined the lab in October, 2005 and has focused on how multiple signal transduction pathways integrate to regulate the specification and behavior of hematopoietic stem cells, and how their misregulation can lead to leukemia. He is also an amateur oenologist. |
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Geanncarlo Lugo, Ph.D. gelugo@ucsd.edu Geanncarlo started his journey in science at Southwestern Community College (Chula Vista, CA) in 1991. At this early stage, he was fortunate to be the recipient of a NIGMS “Bridges to the Future” fellowship (1993-1994) that ensured his transfer to San Diego State University (SDSU) in 1994. At SDSU, he received support from the NIGMS MARC honors program to perform undergraduate research in B cell development at the Scripps Research Institute under the mentorship of Dr. Ann J. Feeney. After obtaining his B.S. degree in Cell and Molecular Biology, Geanncarlo relocated to Bethesda, MD. to fulfill a one-year research-training commitment in Dr. Warren J. Leonard’s laboratory at NIH. In 1999, he entered the Immunology Ph.D. program at Harvard University under the supervision of Dr. Laurie H. Glimcher. His doctoral training was sponsored by a graduate research fellowship from the National Science Foundation. For his dissertation, Geanncarlo studied the role of the transcription factor T-bet in dendritic cell biology. He received his Ph.D. degree in the Spring of 2006. Geanncarlo joined the lab in the fall of 2006. He is interested in using the zebrafish to study the biology of antigen-presenting cells at the interface of hematopoiesis and imunoimaging. Overall, his research project intends to improve our current understanding of the molecular and cellular events that dictate the origin, lineage commitment, migration, maturation, proliferation and life span of antigen-presenting cells. |
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Buyung Santoso, Ph.D. bsantoso@ucsd.edu Buyung graduated with a degree in Molecular and Cell Biology from UC Berkeley in 1999. He earned his Ph.D. in Biology at the UC San Diego in 2005, working in the laboratory of Dr. Jim Kadonaga. His thesis project focused on the establishment of an in vitro reconstituted transcription assay using a chromatin template. Buyung received an Excellence in Teaching award from the Division of Biology at UC San Diego. Buyung was the first fellow to join the lab in 2005. His research interests include: the regulation of hematopoietic stem cells by Runx1 and c-Myb, and the development of a cell fate mapping system in the zebrafish. |
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David Stachura, Ph.D. dstachura@ucsd.edu David graduated in 2000 from Lehigh University with a B.S. in Molecular Biology. He then completed his Ph.D. at the University of Pennsylvania in 2006 with Dr. Mitchell Weiss. His research was focused on murine hematopoietic development. Specifically, David studied lineage commitment and specification by the hematopoietic transcription factor GATA-1. His research led to the discovery that GATA-1 is essential for the differentiation of megakaryocyte erythroid precursors (MEPs), and that dysregulation at this developmental stage has a role in leukemogenesis. This research was supported by an NIH cardiology training grant. David joined the Traver lab in April 2006, and is currently supported by a Cancer Research Prevention Foundation fellowship award to study leukemic initiation and progression in the zebrafish embryo. He is interested in hematopoietic stem cell biology in the developing embryo and the dysregulation of cellular processes in these progenitors important for oncogenic transformation. |
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Valerie Wittamer, Ph.D. vwittamer@ucsd.edu Valerie completed her Ph.D. at the University of Brussels (Belgium) with Pr. Marc Parmentier where she worked on the characterization of new receptors for chemoattractant molecules. She received the Galien Prize of Pharmacology in 2006. Valerie joined the lab in April 2006 with a fellowship from the Belgian American Educational Foundation (BAEF) and is now working as an EMBO fellow. Her research in the laboratory focuses on studying the ontogeny of the immune system. |
Graduate Students |
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Jennifer Cisson jcisson@ucsd.edu Master's student, UCSD BS./MS. Program, 2007-2008. Jennifer joined the lab in the winter of 2006 after she discovered the allure of becoming the quintessential "lab rat" and finding that she in fact loved the lab environment. Her work in an Embryology lab (BIPN 131) allowed her to discover a fascination with development, and an Immunology course (BICD 140) pointed her in the direction of blood cells and the immune system. Having found the Traver lab a perfect hybrid of her newly found interests she began working under the guidance of Postdoctoral fellow, Dr. Julien Bertrand. She is currently studying the Notch pathway and attempting to further elucidate expression patterns of notch target genes in the founding cells of the immune system. |
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Jason Reyes jrreyes@ucsd.edu Master's student, UCSD BS./MS. Program, 2007-2008.
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Jennifer Tamai jtamai@ucsd.edu Master's student, UCSD BS./MS. Program, 2007-2008. Jennifer began working in the Traver Lab in February 2006 as a lab assistant. As of Fall 2006, she started the integrated BS/MS Biology program consisting of 6 quarters of independent research. Jenn is currently pursuing her Master's degree with Valerie Wittamer and Patrick Gutschow in performing a screen for zebrafish embryonic myeloid cell markers. |
Research Associates |
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Albert Kim al.d.kim@gmail.com Master of Science, Biology, SRA 1 Albert joined the lab in the Winter of 2005, after becoming interested in developmental biology and taking BICD131 (which he later served as a teaching assitant for in 2006). Albert adapted cell biology techniques that David had pioneered for the use of characterizing hematopoietic cell populations. Albert's project includes purifying and fate mapping rare hematopoietic stem cells throughout zebrafish ontogeny. This exciting project helped convince Albert to pursue a Masters degree through the BS/MS program. Albert earned his Master's degree in the summer of 2006 and currently works as a research associate in the lab. Albert's interests include developmental and stem cell biology. |
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Karen Ong kong@ucsd.edu After graduating from UCSD with degrees in Biology and Visual Arts, Karen joined the laboratory in the Fall of 2006. Her previous research experience involves the evolutionary investigation of the calcification of vertebrates and invertebrates by a serum nucleator of type I collagen matrix.
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Patrick Gutschow pgutscho@ucsd.edu Master's student, UCSD BS./MS. Program, 2006-2007. Patrick joined the lab in 2006 as an undergraduate then entered the Master's Program in the fall upon earning his BS degree in Molecular Biology. Patrick is working closely with Valerie on the development of transgenic animals to mark each myeloid cell lineage with different fluorochromes. He is a rare San Diego native and even rarer person born in the 1980's who knows every word to every Beatles album. |
Undergraduate Students |
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Iris Chen irchen@ucsd.edu 3rd year, Human Biology Major Iris joined the lab in June of 2006 as a lab assistant. She chose to work for the Traver lab because of her interest in lab research and plans to do her own research later in undergraduate years. She loves to learn about new things and enjoys everything science related. |
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Vincent Lee vincentlee86@gmail.com 2nd year, Human Biology Major Vincent joined the laboratory in 2007 and currently works as a laboratory assistant. |
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Vicki Lin vclin@ucsd.edu 2rd year, Human Biology Major Juliana joined the laboratory in 2005 as a laboratory assistant. She has since entered the Biology 199 program and is performing research under the supervision of Buyung that is focused on the role of Runx proteins in hematopoetic cell development. |
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Shrey Purohit scpurohi@ucsd.edu 4th year, Human Biology Major Shrey joined the lab in the Summer of 2006 as part of a three quarter honors thesis program. He chose the Traver lab because of its work in hematological cancers. Shrey is assisting David Stachura in generating inducible constructs for leukemia models and maintaining cultures. He enjoys reading, eating and speaking about himself in the third person. |
Alumni |
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Emily Violette emily.violette@gsf.de Emily currently works as a research technician in the laboratory of Magdalena Götz at the GSF Institute of Stem Cell Research in Neuherberg, Germany. |
