UW Medicine

Current Trainees

Post-Doctoral:

Gavin Pharaoh

Dr. Pharaoh is a postdoctoral scholar studying aging and sarcopenia with a focus on mitochondrial physiology in the Marcinek laboratory. His research interests focus on the role of mitochondrial bioenergetics and superoxide release in aging. Dr. Pharaoh received his Ph.D. from the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center working with Holly Van Remmen to uncover…

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Annabel Beichman

Dr. Beichman is a postdoc in Dr. Kelley Harris’ Lab at UW Genome Sciences. Her research uses genomics to learn about mutation and demographic history in wild mammals that have experienced extreme demographic events or remarkable evolutionary transitions, including sea otters, bears, and whales. She received her Ph.D. from the University of California, Los Angeles…

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Brandon Berry

Dr. Brandon Berry is a postdoctoral researcher in the Kaeberlein laboratory. His research focuses on how aging and metabolism are linked. Brandon is interested in how mitochondria, the powerhouses of cells, contribute to and modulate aging. He uses novel tools to precisely control mitochondria to better understand the fundamentals of healthy aging and metabolism. Brandon…

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Arjune Dhanekula

Dr. Dhanekula is a current cardiothoracic surgical resident at UW and a postdoc in Dr. Marcinek’s lab. He is studying aging in the aorta; specifically, he seeks to understand the interplay between mitochondrial dysfunction, senescence, and pathology in the aging aorta. He received his MD from Wayne State School of Medicine in Detroit, MI.

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Matt Pomaville

Dr. Pomaville is a postdoc in Dr. Philip Abitua’s lab in the Department of Genome Sciences at UW. His research uses the extraordinarily short-lived African killifish to examine the mechanisms regulating the balance of apoptosis and senescence in aging animals. Matt is interested in using cell biology approaches and unique model organisms to explore multiple…

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Kristine Tsantilas

Dr. Tsantilas is a postdoctoral fellow in Michael MacCoss’ laboratory in the Genome Sciences Department. She completed her PhD in the laboratory of James B. Hurley in the UW Biochemistry Department, where she studied metabolic activity in young, healthy retinas and examined how aging affects these norms. Her research as a postdoctoral fellow uses different…

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Pre-Doctoral:

Kira Evitts

Ms. Evitts is a Bioengineering graduate student performing her Ph.D. thesis studies in the labs of Jessica Young and Ying Zheng.  Her thesis project is focused on developing a stem cell based model of the human neurovascular unit (NVU) to study neurovascular interactions in the brain and investigate neurovascular dysfunction in age-related neurodegenerative diseases. Her…

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Rene Coig

Mr. Coig is a graduate student in the M3D Ph.D. program performing his thesis work in the Promislow lab, studying variation in sexual dimorphism and aging phenotypes. His work is focused on understanding how sex differential pathways and mechanisms contributing to dimorphism in lifespan and healthspan are shifted by natural genetic variation and environmental influences,…

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Michael Kiflezghi

Mr. Kiflezghi is a graduate student in the M3D Ph.D. program and pre-doctoral trainee in the Biological Mechanisms of Healthy Aging Training Program. He is performing his Ph.D. thesis studies in the Kaeberlein Lab, where he has developed and applied novel technology for identifying small molecule inhibitors of the mechanistic target of rapamycin (mTOR). As…

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Luana Paleologu

Luana Paleologu is working in the Berg Lab on uncovering the signaling pathway of chitinase-like proteins, a class of proteins found to be upregulated in age-associated and inflammatory diseases. She works with fly eggs as a model system to test for genetic interactions and to image protein dynamics.

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Emily Teets

Emily Teets is studying the role of Parkinson’s Disease related genes on glia-neuron interactions in the Singhvi Lab.

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Lindsey Ulmer

Lindsey is a PhD candidate in the Bush lab. Her research involves developing novel crosslinking mass spectrometry methods and working with Rachel Klevit’s lab to apply these methods to the study of small heat shock proteins (sHSPs). sHSPs are chaperones that prevent aging associated protein aggregation. Using the reagent benzoylphenylalanine, she developed a targeted crosslinking method. She…

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