Meet Our Team
Arun Sethuraman
PI, Associate ProfessorDr. Sethuraman is an evolutionary computational biologist, who develops new statistical methods to study how genomes evolve in structured populations during divergence and speciation in response to natural selection and demography. Applications of his work include conservation, deciphering human evolutionary history, agriculture, and biological control. Outside the lab, he loves to work out, and spoiling his two cats Hobbes and Pepper.
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Margaret Wanjiku
Graduate Research Assistant (PhD)Margaret is a third year PhD student in the Evolutionary Biology joint doctoral program between SDSU and UCR. She holds a Masters degree in Bioinformatics from Pwani University, Kenya, working on population genomics of a rice blast pathogen, Magnaporthe oryzae in Africa. In the Sethuraman Lab, she is working on developing new computational methods for estimating population structure, and understanding missing genomic variation in human genomes. At UCR, she is co-advised by Dr. Kieran Samuk.
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Alexandra McElwee-Adame
Graduate Research Assistant (PhD)Alex is a third year PhD student in the Evolutionary Biology joint doctoral program between SDSU and UCR. She graduated with her bachelor's degree in Biology from SDSU in 2018 and her master’s degree in Evolutionary Biology again in 2021 under the supervision of Dr. Lluvia Flores-Renteria. She is interested in the application of genomics, bioinformatics, and evolutionary biology theory in plant conservation with a special interest in population genomics and molecular evolution/ecology. Outside of academia, she enjoys baking, houseplants, sports and outdoor activities. At UCR, she is co-advised by Dr. Kate Ostevik.
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Raya Esplin
Graduate Research Assistant (PhD)Raya joined the Sethuraman Lab in Fall 2023 as a PhD student in the Joint Doctoral Program in Evolutionary Biology. She holds a Bachelors degree in Bioinformatics from Bingham Young University, and has since worked as a Software Engineer at Smarty in Provo, Utah. At UCR, she is co-advised by Dr. Ellie Armstrong.
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Trevor Mugoya
Graduate Research Assistant (MS)Trevor joined the Sethuraman Lab in Fall 2023 as a Masters student in the BMI program. He hails from Uganda and holds a Bachelors degree in Biotechnology from Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology in Kenya. He thereon worked at the Uganda Virus Research Institute as a Bioinformatics intern prior to SDSU.
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Tamsen Dunn
Graduate Research Assistant (PhD)Tamsen is a sixth year PhD candidate in the EB JDP. She holds a master's degree in applied mathematics from UCSD. After 10 years as a bioinformatics scientist and doing habitat restoration in her vacations, Tamsen felt it was time to combine her research with her life-long passion for plants and conservation. In the Sethuraman Lab, Tamsen is developing new computational methods for the study of polyploidy and evolution. Tamsen enjoys rock climbing, capoeira and camping with her favorite research assistants, her twin daughters.
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Priyanshi Shah
Graduate Research Assistant (MS)Priyanshi is a third-year graduate student in the BMI program. She earned her bachelor's degree in biotechnology from St. Xavier's College in India. In the Sethuraman Lab, she will work on telomere length variation in modern humans. She is a proud plant parent who loves to paint in her spare time.
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Carter Sherrit
Undergraduate Research AssistantCarter is a Junior Cellular and Molecular Biology Major, with a Minor in Mathematics. In his free time, he likes to ski, work out, and spend time with friends.
Adrian Ortiz-Velez
Graduate Research Assistant (PhD)Adrian is a third-year PhD student in the joint doctoral program for Evolutionary Biology at SDSU and UCR. He holds a Master's degree in Bioinformatics from SDSU under the supervision of Dr. Scott Kelley, working on an algorithm to cluster phylogenies. He is being hosted in our lab while a part of Dr. Andrew Bohonak. He is developing models of ecological food webs, including genetic drift, to estimate the effects of climate change and habitat fragmentation communities. Outside of academia, he enjoys mountain biking with his dog, Chacha. Dr. Kurt Anderson co-advises him at UCR.
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Jackson Wolfe
Undergraduate Research AssistantJackson Wolfe is an undergraduate Biology major senior at San Diego State University. He joined the Sethuraman lab in Spring 2024, and is pursuing a graduate degree in evolutionary biology or genetics. In his free time, he likes to collect vinyl albums and spend time with close friends.
Reina Hastings
Graduate Research Assistant (MS)Reina is a first-year Master’s student in the Bioinformatics and Medical Informatics (BMI) Master’s program. She graduated Summa Cum Laude with a B.S. in Cellular and Molecular Biology and a minor in Chemistry from SDSU in 2024. She began her primary research project in the Sethuraman lab in the summer of 2024. Funded by the USDA, Reina’s work focuses on using machine learning models to predict phenotypic traits of hop plants based on genotypic data. Reina aims to apply her expertise in bioinformatics within the biotech industry. Outside of research, she enjoys skating, improv, and spending time with her two cats.
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Sathvika Musuvathy
Undergraduate Research Assistant
Sathvika is a third-year public health major with minors in statistics and interdisciplinary studies from the honors college. In the Sethuraman lab, she is working on telomere length variation and their association with the social determinants of health. She likes to go to the beach and try new food spots with her friends in her free time. Caden Mulligan
Undergraduate Research AssistantCaden Mulligan is a third-year biology student interested in perusing a career in the biotech industry. He grew up in San Antonio Texas and moved to San Diego in 2022 with intention to go to medical school. However, throughout his college experience, he has found a passion for research and hopes to continue pursuing it. In his free he enjoys cooking, spending time with any dogs, running, and the company of friends.
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Lab Alumni
Sofia Biddle
Sofia is a second-year Biology major with an emphasis in cellular and molecular biology and a minor in interdisciplinary studies. She joined the Sethuraman lab in Spring 2024 and is hoping to pursue a graduate degree in biotechnology. In her free time, she enjoys reading, working out, and spending time with friends. Christopher Morrissey
Christopher graduated with a MS in Bioinformatics and Medical Informatics in Spring 2024. Chris has worked in the genetics industry (Illumina) for almost a decade. He graduated from SDSU with a bachelor in science in biology after working for Dr. Clark’s lab focusing on the studies of predator/prey behavior and herpetology. Christopher is interested in creating tools and finding novel computational methods for understanding and deciphering biological datasets, with a focus on bacteria. Outside of lab, Chris enjoys skateboarding and snowboarding, and owns a wolf hybrid husky dog named Khaleesi.
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Brandon Fuller
Brandon graduated from SDSU majoring in Computer Science in Spring 2024. He joined the Sethuraman Lab in Fall 2023 and is planning on pursuing a graduate degree in the field of Bioinformatics. His hobbies include exploring hiking spots, playing games with friends, and finding new tasty places to eat. In Fall 2024, Brandon will commence a postbaccalaureate program at the NIH in Bethesda, MD.
Dimitri Krutkin
Graduate Research Assistant (PhD - Rotation)
Dimitri is a second year PhD student in the Cellular and Molecular Biology joint doctoral program with UCSD. He has an MS degree in Bioinformatics and Medical Informatics, and a BS degree in Cellular and Molecular Biology. Currently completing first year lab rotations, In the Sethuraman Lab, Dimitri’s main project is to help port the PopGen Pipeline Platform (PPP) to the Galaxy Project to be accessible by a wider range of users. Dimitri’s main interests include big data analytics, software/tool development, machine learning, and everything computational biology! In his free time, he enjoys hiking, traveling, and spending time with friends and family.
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Scott Monahan
Scott is a senior at SDSU majoring in Biology with an emphasis in evolution. He joined the Sethuraman lab in Fall 2021 and is planning on pursuing a graduate degree in conservation genomics to work in higher education. In his free time, he enjoys reading and taking care of his many pets. In Fall 2024, Scott will commence a PhD working with Dr. Chris Funk at Colorado State University.
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Khuyen Nguyen
Khuyen graduated with a Masters in the BMI program in Spring 2023. She graduated from UCSB with a Bachelor's degree in Biochemistry and currently work at Illumina in R&D working on optimizing different sequencing platforms and reagents. She is interested in population genetics developed an R package to estimate genetic relatedness in structured populations, called InRelate. Outside of the workplace and classroom, she enjoys taking film photography, reading, and taking part in outdoor activities.
Anais Aoki
Anais graduated with a Masters in the BMI program at SDSU in Spring 2023. She graduated with a Bachelors degree in Biology from CSU San Marcos in 2019, and worked in the biotech industry prior to joining the Sethuraman Lab. She is interested in conservation genomics, and her thesis work focused on a meta study of conservation genetics literature, and predictive modeling of IUCN status using machine learning. She commenced an NSF internship with Dr. Amy Vandergast at the USGS in August 2023, and is currently at General Atomics.
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Michael Kuzminskiy
Michael graduated with a Masters in the BMI program at SDSU in Spring 2023. He graduated with a Bachelors degree in Biology from CSU San Marcos in 2020 where he was a research assistant in the Eme Lab. He is interested in human population genomics, and worked on an extensive simulation study of ghost admixture into modern human populations. As of Summer 2024, Michael is a Computational Biologist at ProSci.
Mohammad Ali Shah
Ali graduated from SDSU in Spring 2023, majoring in Biology and joined the Sethuraman Lab in Fall 2022, working with Alex on genomics of domestication in Humulus lupulus l. He will commence a Masters in Public Health program at Johns Hopkins University in Fall 2024.
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Tamar Beridze
Tamar was a visiting PhD student who is currently in her third year of Doctoral work at Ilia State University, Georgia. Tamar holds a Bachelor of Ecology and a Masters degree in Applied Genetics from Ilia State University, which she completed in 2018. She is interested in conservation and population genetics, working on sturgeon species in the eastern Black Sea and Rioni River in Georgia. Tamar successfully defended her PhD in Spring 2024!
Adrian Kristan
Ian graduated from SDSU in Spring 2024, majoring in Biology with an emphasis in evolution. Ian joined the Sethuraman Lab in Fall 2021 and worked on understanding phenotypic plasticity and heritability of body morphology in Dinocampus coccinellae.
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Gavrila Ang |
Elijah Vogler |
Gavrila graduated with a Masters degree in the BMI program in Summer 2023. In the Sethuraman Lab, she worked on generating a high quality genome of the convergent lady beetle, Hippodamia convergens. Gav started a position as a Data Scientist in the Palmer Lab at UC San Diego in January 2024.
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Eli graduated from SDSU majoring in Microbiology in Spring 2024. In the Spring semester of 2023, he joined the Sethuraman lab and hopes to continue his education with a graduate degree in the future. Some of his hobbies include watching movies and spending time with friends.
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Andrew Zhang
NSF REU ScholarAndrew graduated from Indiana University, Bloomington studying biology. He was an NSF REU scholar in the Sethuraman Lab in Summer 2021 where he applied techniques in next-generation sequencing and analysis on Hippodamia convergens. In his free time, Andrew loves to lift weights, play video games, and read books. Andrew completed the prestigious postbaccalaureate program at the NIH in Fall 2023, and will commence medical school at Indiana University in Fall 2024.
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Robert Reyes
Undergraduate Research AssistantRobert graduated from CSUSM in Spring 2022 with a BS in Biology, with a concentration in physiology. He joined the Sethuraman lab in Spring 2021 and assisted in projects involving Dinocampus coccinellae and Hippodamia convergens. He hopes to work in the healthcare field after graduating CSUSM. In his free time, he enjoys spending time with friends and family.
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MJ Lee
Undergraduate Research AssistantMarianne (M. J.) Lee graduated from CSUSM in Spring 2022 with a Bachelors in Biology and concentration in Molecular and Cell Biology. She was born and raised mostly in Southern California, but also lived in various parts of the United States like Virginia, Texas, and Georgia. She is currently in the United States Navy and served over 12 years nationwide and overseas. She was part of the Sethuraman Lab for one year and hopes to continue genetic research in the future. M.J. was inducted into the prestigious United States Naval Officers Program in Fall 2024, where she will commence her Doctoral degree in pharmacy.
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Ryan DettmersRyan was an Undergraduate Research Assistant in the Sethuraman Lab, where he worked with Alicia on various D. coccinellae projects. He graduated with a Bachelors degree in Biological Sciences from CSUSM in Fall 2020. Ryan is currently a Chemist II at Werfen.
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Alexander RothenbergAl was an Undergraduate Research Assistant in the Sethuraman Lab where he worked with Bryce and Alicia on various D. coccinellae and H. convergens projects. He graduated with a Bachelors degree in Biological Sciences from CSUSM in Fall 2020.
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Timothy Skaggs
Tim was an undergraduate student at CSUSM and earned his Bachelors of Science in molecular and cellular biology in Spring 2021. He hopes to earn a Masters, and a PhD in Molecular Biology, then work in research or the industry after. Tim is currently a Research Technician at Cue Health.
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Walker Welch
Undergraduate Research AssistantWalker graduated with an undergraduate degree from CSUSM with a Bachelor of Science in Biology (Physiology Concentration). He joined the Sethuraman lab in Spring 2020, and was a Summer Scholar in Summer 2020. He was also a collegiate athlete on CSUSM’s Men’s Track and Field team. In his free time, he enjoys working out, spending time with family, and reading. Walker is currently a Clinical Research Coordinator at Artemis and began medical school at Virginia Tech in Fall 2023.
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Camila Arce, Michelle Ruben, Theresa BuckCamila, Michelle, and Theresa were Undergraduate Research Assistants in the Sethuraman Lab where they worked with Alicia on various D. coccinellae projects. They all graduated with Bachelors degrees in Biological Sciences from CSUSM in Spring 2021. Camila is a Scientist at Eurofins Lancaster Laboratories and Michelle at Kaiser Permanente.
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Alicia Tovar
Graduate Research AssistantAlicia was a graduate student who graduated with her Master's degree in Biological Sciences from CSUSM in Summer 2021. Her research focused on the evolutionary history, heritability of size in the parasitic wasp Dinocampus coccinellae. She graduated with a B.Sc. in Ecology, Behavior & Evolution from UCSD in 2017. In her downtime, Alicia enjoys going on adventures with her dog, Peach, and taking pictures. She was a Research Scientist at Purdue University in the lab of Dr. Laramy Enders, and then returned to San Diego as a Lecturer faculty at SDSU in Spring 2024.
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Tanairi MartinezTanairi graduated with a Bachelors degree in Biological Sciences from CSUSM in Fall 2019. In the Sethuraman Lab, she was involved in several behavioral and molecular projects, including population genomics of invasive lady beetles.
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Jack WangJack graduated with a Bachelors degree in Computer Science from CSUSM in Spring 2019. In the Sethuraman Lab, he was exploring machine learning methods in predicting speciation events from genomic data.
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Gwendalyn Wulf
Gwen graduated with a Bachelors degree in Biology from CSUSM in Spring 2020. While in the Sethuraman Lab, she was a Summer Scholar, analyzing the population genetics and morphometrics of loggerhead shrikes, in collaboration with the lab of Dr. Diego Sustaita. She is currently a Conservation Geneticist at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park.
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Roxane Saisho
Roxane graduated with an Undergraduate degree in Biotechnology from CSUSM in Spring 2020. In the Sethuraman Lab, Roxane was instrumental in managing our greenhouse experiments, assaying/conducting various population genomics projects in Dinocampus coccinellae, and analyzing life history differences in gene expression in lady beetles. Roxane tragically passed away in December 2022. Her incredible contributions to our lab and science will forever be etched in our memories.
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Jiali Tang
Jiali graduated with a Masters degree in Computer Science at CSUSM. Her research focused on data mining and machine learning. She likes hiking, sailing and traveling. But the thing she likes most is SPICY food!! She worked on parallelelization of MULTICLUST. She is currently a Software Development Engineer at Amazon.
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Ryan Cartmill
Ryan graduated with a Bachelors Degree in Biological Sciences from CSUSM in Spring 2020. While in the Sethuraman Lab, he was involved in a variety of projects, including population genomics of invasive lady beetles, and behavioral assays of the convergent lady beetle. Ryan aspires to apply for PhD Programs focusing on bioinformatics and entomology. He is currently a Clinical Data Analyst at TE Connectivity.
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Bryce Summerhays
Bryce graduated with his Masters degree in biology at CSUSM in Fall 2019, working in population genomics of predatory lady beetles. He graduated with a Bachelors degree in Biology in 2012 from UCSD, where he was a research assistant working with native and non-native, invasive species of ants. He is currently a Lab Manager at Cue Health.
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Dylan Steinecke
Dylan is a San Marcos native and graduated with a Bachelors degree from CSUSM in Spring 2020, majoring in Biological Sciences (Molecular & Cellular Concentration) and minoring in Mathematics and Computer Science. He also worked part time as a tutor on campus at the Math Lab. In his free time, he enjoys mountain biking and reading. As of Fall 2020, he began a PhD in Biomedical Informatics at UCLA.
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Jeff Jaureguy
.Jeff Jaureguy graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Biology and minor in mathematics from CSUSM in Spring 2020. He has completed over three years of research at CSUSM in a terrestrial ecology lab and now is focusing on bioinformatics-related research with an emphasis on programming and simulations in Dr. Sethuraman's lab. In his free time, he likes going to the beach or enjoys rock climbing in nature. He also loves traveling with his fiancé (now wife!) and two puppies. As of Fall 2020, Jeff began a PhD in Bioinformatics at UCSD, and was awarded the NIH F31 predoctoral fellowship in 2024!
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Stefany Nuñez-Zavala
Stefany loves watching sunsets, drinking coffee and listening to music. She is always looking for a good adventure and in her spare time, she enjoys playing piano and knitting. Stefany since graduated and pursued a post-baccalaureate program at Virginia Tech, following which she began a PhD program at UC Riverside.
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Nicolette Gonzalez
Nicolette Gonzalez was an undergraduate student studying Molecular and Cellular Biology at CSUSM. She plans to obtain her master's degree in Physical Assistant Studies at the University of California Davis.
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Khyati Kansagara
Khyati graduated with a B.S.in Biological Sciences, along with a Minor in Chemistry. Since graduating with honors from CSUSM, she started a position as a Lab Technician at Kyowa Kirin Pharmaceuticals Research Inc. She was a Graduate Student at Johns Hopkins University, and was recently featured on CSUSM news! Khyati is currently a PI Ops Specialist at Invitae.
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Christy Grenier
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Melissa Lynch
Melissa graduated with her Masters degree in biology at CSUSM in Summer 2019. She graduated with a Bachelors degree in Biology (major) and Computer Science (minor) in Spring 2017 from CSUSM. She loves coffee, traveling, and podcasts. Melissa worked on quantifying biases in evolutionary demographic analyses in the presence of unsampled "ghost" populations. Melissa has since begun a Scientist position at Rancho Biosciences.
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Nitesh Sabankar
Nitesh graduated with a Masters degree in Computer Science at CSUSM. He worked on developing a web-front, GUI, and tools as part of the PPP-Pop-Gen Pipeline Platform project. He is currently a Software QA Engineer at Zoox.
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Jerrika Scott
Jerrika graduated with a Bachelors degree in Biology at Benedict College in South Carolina. She was an NSF REU scholar in the Sethuraman Lab through Summer 2019.
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Jonathan Tedjo
Jon graduated with a Bachelors degree in Computer Science from University of California, Irvine, and interned with the Sethuraman Lab, working on the Galaxy front-end for the PPP project in Summer 2018. He has since started a Software Engineer position at General Atomics.
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Ken Mey
Ken graduated with a Bachelors degree in Molecular and Cellular Biology. Ken hopes to obtain his PhD in Molecular Biology and work within the field of conservation biology. At CSUSM, Ken served as the supplemental instructor for genetics and also works in the STEM center as a tutor. In his free time Ken enjoys meditating and enlightening his-self, volunteering time at the local animal sanctuary, and binge-watching anime. Ken recently returned from an NSF REU program at Brooklyn College, working on urban evolution, and has since taken up a position as a Chemist at Inova Diagnostics, and is currently at BioLegend.
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Michael Adrian Rubio
Michael graduated with a Bachelors degree in Biotechnology in Spring 2017. He also spends too much time playing video games, is a connoisseur of soda, and an artist at misplacing his keys. Warning: he will eat anything. Michael worked with Yumary in analyzing the evolutionary demography of three species of lady beetles - Hippodamia convergens, Harmonia axyridis, and Coccinella septempunctata, and on a meta-analysis of recent studies utilizing genomic data to inform conservation. Michael is currently a Research Technician at Zymo Research Corp.
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James Price
James graduated with a Bachelors degree in Biotechnology in Spring 2017. He enjoys hip hop, e-sports, and the company of his dog, Nacho. James worked with Shiori on quantifying the variation in lengths of telomeres across human populations. James is currently a Manufacturing Tech at Gilead Sciences.
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Shiori Takehara
Shiori graduated with a Bachelors degree in Biotechnology in Summer 2017. She interned in the laboratory of Dr. Knut Woltjen at the Center for iPS Cell Research and Application (CiRA), Kyoto University, Japan, where she initiated a disease modeling project using CRISPR gene editing. Besides research work, she enjoys drinking tea while watching movies with her dog, Bailey. Shiori worked on quantifying variation in telomere lengths across human populations. Shiori is currently a Quality Control Specialist at GenMark Diagnostics.
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Merielle Redwine
Merielle Redwine graduated in Spring 2018 with a Bachelors degree in Mathematics and Quantitative Biology at CSUSM. In the Sethuraman Lab, she worked on developing theory around the population genetics of interacting species. She loves being outdoors, rock climbing, and playing guitar. As of Summer 2024, she is a GIS Analyst at Hurricane City Offices.
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Apeksha Sukesh Kallur
Apeksha is an alumnus of CSUSM and graduated with a Masters degree in Computer Science in Spring 2017. She is a huge coffee lover and hobbies include writing poems and short stories. She worked on building a pipeline platform for easy development/implementation of complex workflows which is a part of PPP- Pop-Gen Pipeline Platform project. As of Fall 2023, she is a Senior Software Engineer at Nice North America.
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Hannah Vansant
Hannah graduated with a Bachelors degree in Biological Sciences in June 2018. She hopes to pursue a career in medicine following graduation. Personal interests include art, history and travel while academic interests include epidemiology and public health issues. In the Sethuraman Lab, Hannah worked with Yumary on the molecular and morphological diversity of Dinocampus coccinellae. As of June 2018, Hannah is a recipient of the prestigious NIH MHIRT fellowship, and pursued a summer post-baccalaureate program at Oxford University. She began Medical School soon in Fall 2021 at Touro University, New York City!
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Daniel Magnusson
Dan graduated with an Undergraduate degree in Biotechnology from CSUSM in Fall 2017. He was an international student from Iceland who has been living in the United states for about 4 years. As of Summer 2024, he is a Lab Manager at Alvotech in Reykjavik.
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Yumary Vasquez
Yumary graduated in Spring 2018 with a Bachelors degree in Biotechnology. At CSUSM, she was the CSM Representative for ASI, and worked as a STEM ambassador. In the Sethuraman Lab, Yumary worked on lady beetle demography and their applications to biological control, and also with Hannah Vansant on quantifying molecular and morphological diversity of Dinocampus coccinellae. She is currently finishing up her PhD in quantitative biology at UC Merced in the lab of Dr. Gordon Bennet. In Summer 2023, she began a postdoc at the the Joint Genome Institute, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. We are super proud of our lab's first PhD! Congrats Dr. Vasquez!
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If you are an undergraduate student in biology/biotechnology/computer science and interested in pursuing research opportunities in bioinformatics or population genomics, feel free to write to me about available opportunities. Include a brief bio, and why you want to pursue research in your email.