People

LeadershipFaculty TrainersCurrent TraineesFormer Trainees

Program Director

David C. Schwartz
GSTP Program Director
Chemistry / Genetics
Profile  
Chemistry and biology of single molecule systems with applications to genomic sciences.

Program Administrators

Karen Nafzger
Program Administrator
Louise Pape
Program Coordinator

Management Committee

Christina Kendziorski
Biostatistics and Medical Informatics
Profile  
Development and application of statistical methods for gene mapping and gene expression array studies.
Qiongshi Lu
Biostatistics and Medical Informatics
Profile  
Development of statistical methods for human genetics research
Megan McClean
Biomedical Engineering

Biological signal processing: signal specificity; determination of in vivo kinetics; transcription factor regulation; controllability.
Parmesh Ramanathan
Electrical & Computer Engineering
Profile  
Characterization of the temporal dynamics of networks of gene interactions; longer-term goal, creation of a virtual foundry for genomic circuits.
David C. Schwartz
GSTP Program Director
Chemistry / Genetics
Profile  
Chemistry and biology of single molecule systems with applications to genomic sciences.
Lloyd Smith
Chemistry
Profile  
Development and application of novel methods and approaches for the analysis and manipulation of biomolecules.

Faculty Trainers

Alan Attie
Biochemistry
Profile  
Molecular genetics of diabetes & insulin resistance; cell biology of lipoprotein assembly and cholesterol trafficking.
David Beebe
Biomedical Engineering
Profile  
Design, fabrication, and testing of novel micro fabrication techniques; microdevices and microsystems designed to facilitate advances in biology.
Emery Bresnick
Cell & Regenerative Biology
Profile  
Multidisciplinary approaches to understand stem/progenitor cell function, blood cell development, and vascular biology.
Karl Broman
Biostatistics and Medical Informatics
Profile  
Statistical problems in genetics, genomics and molecular biology.
Jason Cantor
Biochemistry; Morgridge Inst. for Research
Profile  
Studies how environmental factors impact metabolic regulation and requirements with relevance to cancer and immunology
Qiang Chang
Genetics; Waisman Center
Profile  
Integrated analyses of epigenetic regulation of brain functions
Joshua Coon
Chemistry
Profile  
Development and application of new technologies and instrumentation for automated, large-scale whole protein characterization.
Mark Craven
Biostatistics and Medical Informatics
Profile  
Development and application of machine-learning methods to inferring models of, and reasoning about, networks of interactions among genes, proteins, clinmical and environmental factors, and phenotypes of interest.
Colin Dewey
Biostatistics & Medical Informatics
Profile  
Algorithms and statistical models for genomics.
Huy Dinh
Oncology; Biostatistics & Medical Informatics
Profile  
Computational biology approaches to understand how the immune tissue microenvironment changes toward finding immunotherapeutic biomarkers and targets
Timothy Donohue
Bacteriology
Profile  
Studying synthesis and activity of proteins that function in critical energy generating pathways in Rhodobacter sphaeroides.
Corinne Engelman
Population Health Sciences
Profile  
Genetic epidemiology of Alzheimer’s Disease and Vitamin D deficiency.
Catherine Fox
Biomolecular Chemistry
Profile  
Genomic and computational analyses of chromsome replication in eukaryotes.
Thomas Friedrich
Pathobiological Sciences
Profile  
RNA virus evolution, transmission and pathogenetics
Audrey Gasch
Genetics
Profile  
The genomics of yeast responses to environmental stress and starvation.
Anthony Gitter
Morgridge Inst. for Research; Biostat. & Med. Informatics
Profile  
Development of computational approaches to reconstruct signally pathways and transcriptional regulatory networks from multiple types of high throughput data.
Jo Handelsman
Wisconsin Institute for Discovery
Profile  
Understanding diversity in microbial communities and their role in infectious disease.
Melissa Harrison
Biomolecular Chemistry
Profile  
Understanding of how information encoded in the genome is differentially interpreted during organismal development.
Chris Hittinger
Genetics
Profile  
Diversity and evolution of yeast carbon metabolism networks.
Aaron Hoskins
Biochemistry
Profile  
Elucidating biochemical mechanisms in eukaryotic RNA metabolism with chemistry, biology, and single molecule analysis
Christina M. Hull
Biomolecular Chemistry
Profile  
Molecular biology of human fungal pathogens.
Meyer Jackson
Neuroscience
Profile  
Studies of synaptic mechanisms at the molecular, cellular, and circuit levels
Sunduz Keles
Statistics; Biostatistics and Medical Informatics
Profile  
Understanding how the genome is regulated: a gateway to understanding developmental and disease mechanisms at a molecular level
Christina Kendziorski
Biostatistics and Medical Informatics
Profile  
Development and application of statistical methods for gene mapping and gene expression array studies.
Pamela Kreeger
Biomedical Engineering
Profile  
Systems biology, ovarian cancer, endocrine signaling.
Jason Kwan
School of Pharmacy
Profile  
Targeted drug discovery; analysis of complex communities of uncultured microorganisms
Carol Lee
Integrative Biology; Centert of Rapid Evolution
Profile  
Analysis of evolutionary responses to catastrophic environmental change.
Peter Lewis
Biomolecular Chemistry; WID
Profile  
Chromatin dynamics influence on gene expression during mammalian development and tumorigenesis.
Qiongshi Lu
Biostatistics and Medical Informatics
Profile  
Development of statistical methods for human genetics research
Megan McClean
Biomedical Engineering

Biological signal processing: signal specificity; determination of in vivo kinetics; transcription factor regulation; controllability.
Katherine McMahon
Bacteriology; Environmental Engineering
Profile  
Microbial ecology of both natural and engineered systems
Peter Muir
Surgical Sciences, School of Veterinary Medicine
Profile  
Comparative genomics of dogs and horses, investigating mechanisms that influence site-specific ligament and tendon degeneration, as well as late-onset polyneuropathy
Muhammed Murtaza
Surgery
Profile  
Analysis of circulating and cell-free tumor DNA and RNA for providing insights Into tumor genomes
Michael Newton
Biostatistics and Medical Informatics
Profile  
Developing statistical methods to address problems with the comparison of expression arrays.
Sean Palecek
Chemical and Biological Engineering
Profile  
Cellular engineering, intracellular signal transduction, cell and protein biosensors.
Bret Payseur
Genetics
Profile  
Population genetic processes that determine patterns and levels of variation throughout the genome, including natural selection, recombination, and mutations.
Francisco Pelegri
Genetics
Profile  
Analysis of cellular and developmental genetics in early vertebrate embryonic development and determination of the germ line
Caitlin Pepperell
Medical Microbiology & Immunology; Medicine
Profile  
Force that shape evolution of human pahogens; influence of infection diseases on human evolution; effect of environment on population level patterns of infectious disease.
Nicole Perna
Genetics
Profile  
Genome scale comparative analysis to identify the genetic elements that distinguish one complete genome from another.
Brian Pfleger
Chemical and Biological Engineering
Profile  
Synthetic biology, metabolic engineering, biotechnology, protein engineering, natural products.
John Pool
Genetics
Profile  
New inference methods for population genomic sequence data; genetic basis of parallel melanic evolution in Drosophila.
Srivatsan Raman
Biochemistry
Profile  
Systems and synthetic biology approach to understanding and designing biology at multiple scales - proteins, microbial pathways and microbiota.
Parmesh Ramanathan
Electrical & Computer Engineering
Profile  
Characterization of the temporal dynamics of networks of gene interactions; longer-term goal, creation of a virtual foundry for genomic circuits.
Federico Rey
Bacteriology
Profile  
Gut bacterial metabolism and human health; microbial cross-feeding.
Philip Romero
Bacteriology
Profile  
Protein engineering, computational biology, high-throughput technology
Sushmita Roy
Biostatistics & Medical Informatics
Profile  
Inference of structure and function of regulatory networks; Comparative analysis of expression modules across species.
Kris Saha
Biomedical Engineering
Profile  
Use of human stem cells together with emerging engineering methods in material science and synthetic biology to model human disease and advance personalized medicine.
Steven Schrodi
Genetics
Profile  
Human genomics of inflammatory diseases, statistical genetics, genetic architecture of diseases
David C. Schwartz
GSTP Program Director
Chemistry / Genetics
Profile  
Chemistry and biology of single molecule systems with applications to genomic sciences.
Eric Shusta
Chemical and Biological Engineering
Profile  
Development of an in vitro model of the Blood Brain Barrier (BBB);analysis of membrane proteome of the BBB.
Ahna Skop
Genetics
Profile  
Cytokinesis and cell cycle proteomics.
Lloyd Smith
Chemistry
Profile  
Development and application of novel methods and approaches for the analysis and manipulation of biomolecules.
Andre Sousa
Neuroscience
Profile  
Development of new algorithms for genomic analysis across species; analysis of human brain development and evolution
Rupa Sridharan
Cell & Regenerative Biology
Profile  
Epigenetics of cell fate change.
Garret Suen
Bacteriology
Profile  
Rumen microbiology; herbivore-associated microbial ecology; metagenomics; biofuels.
Michael Sussman
Biochemistry
Profile  
Signal transduction in eukaryotes, development of genomic technologies, plasma membrane receptors and ion transporters, Arabidopsis thaliana.
Daifeng Wang
Biostatistics and Medical Informatics; Waisman Center
Profile  
Development of machine learning approaches and bioinformatics tools to analyze multimodal data in complex brains and brain disorders
Donna Werling
Genetics
Profile  
Genetic risk for autism and other neuropsychiatric conditions, sex differences in neurobiology and risk for disease
John Yin
Chemical and Biological Engineering
Profile  
Developing experimental and theoretical approaches to study growth, adaptation, and inactivation of viruses.
Mostafa Zamanian
Pathobiological Sciences
Profile  
Neglected diseases and pathogens

Predoctoral Trainees

Nathan Anderson
Integrative Biology
Advisor: Aaron Ragsdale
Email  
Efficient demographic inference with background selection
Claire Boos
Chemistry PhD Program
Advisor: Lloyd Smith
Email  
Analysis of intact proteoforms by mass spectrometry for top down proteomic analysis
Eli Cytrynbaum
Cellular and Molecular Biology Graduate Program
Advisor: Megan McClean
Email  
Role and Regulation of Dispersal in an Opportunistic Pathogen, Candida albican
Chase Freschlin
Integrated Program in Biochemistry
Advisor: Philip Romero
Email  
Applying machine learning and incorporating protein structure into generative models for protein prediction
Zachary Harmer
Cellular and Molecular Biology Graduate Program
Email  
Christina Jurotich
Comparative Biomedical Sciences Graduate Program
Advisor: Emery Bresnick
Email  
Creation of a rapid and accurate system to predict mutation severity based on multiple parameters
Namita Khajanchi
Biomedical Engineering PhD Program
Email  
Hunter Krzysik
Integrated Program in Biochemistry
Email  
Daniel Nesbitt
Chemistry
Email  
Lia Serrano
Chemistry Graduate Program
Email  
Anna Tommasi
Biomedical Engineering Graduate Program
Advisor: Kris Saha
Email  

Postdoctoral Trainees

Ted Chavkin
Chemical and Biological Engineering
Advisor: Brian Pfleger
Email  
Developing novel tools for genome engineering
Alex Cheong
Wisconsin Inst. for Discovery
Advisor: Jo Handelsman
Email  
Genomic and Genetic Analysis of Resilience In a Model Microbial Community
Kirstan Gimse
Wisconsin Inst. for Discovery
Advisor: Sushmita Roy
Email  
Genome editing the brain: a cross-species comparison on different cell-types
Clayton Marcinak
Surgery
Email  
Delaney Miller
Medical Microbiology & Immunology
Advisor: Mark Mandel
Email  

Former Trainees

Name Department/Program Where are they now?
Daniel Abras
Adriana Alejandro-Osorio
Gene Ananiev

Alejandro Consulting Group, LLC
Brad Anderson

Senior Program Manager, Promega Corp.
Jennifer Apodaca
Ashley Baltes

Lecturer, Univ. Texas, El Paso
Michael Bassetti

Scientific Director, Just-Evotec Biologics
Brittany Baur

Senior Consultant, Evergreen Health Care Partners
Michael Benton

Bioinformatician, Univ. Wisconsin-Madison
Mark E. Berres

Seinor Data Scientist, Univ. Michigan
Mary Kate Bonner
Sarah Boutom Biomedical Engineering PhD Program
Dain Brademan

Professor and Chair, Chemical Engineering, Louisiana State Univ.
Katherine Buxton

Scientist, NIH
Yeng-Long (Robert) Chen

Postdoctoral Fellow, Morgridge Inst. for Research
Yongku Cho
Katie Clowers
Matthew Copeland
Jaime Cordova Genetics Graduate Program
Jesse Dabney
Amy Dapper
Theodorus deGroot
Drew Doering
Leslie Donato
Auguste Dutcher Genetics Graduate Program
Michael Engstrom
Jessica Fautch
David J. Finton
Gordon Freeman
Max Frenkel Cellular and Molecular Biology Graduate Program
Steven Giles
Luis Haddock-Soto Cellular and Molecular Biology Graduate Program
Larry Hendrix
Jill Herschleb
Ryan Hilger
Daniel Hinckley
Kimberly Huggler Integrated Program in Biochemistry
Edward Huttlin
Kaveh Jorabchi
Elenita I. Kanin
Moriah Katt Chemical and Biological Engineering
Julia Kennedy-Darling
Sid Kiblawi
Kelli Kline
Thomas A. Knotts IV
Samuel Krerowicz
Anna Kropornicka
Suzanne Kulevich
Justin Lack
Jason Lajoie
Jeremy Lavine
Ian Lewis
Matthew Lollar Genetics Graduate Program
Erin Ostrem Loss Biochemistry
Andrew Lynch Cellular & Molecular Pathology
Matthew MacGilvray
Joshua Mandir
Clayton Marcinak Surgery
Jason McCoy
Daniel R. McFarlin
Anna Merrill
Benjamin Minkoff
Benjamin Minkoff
Deborah Muganda-Rippchen
Omar Negrete
Jeffrey Nelson
Julia Nepper Wisconsin Inst. for Discovery
Mark Nolte
S. Joseph Ollar
Irene Ong
Tolulope Perrin-Stowe Wisconsin Inst. for Discovery
Trenton Peters-Clarke Chemistry Graduate Program
Douglas Phanstiel
Stefan Pietrzak Cellular and Molecular Biology Graduate Program
Mark Politz
Hugh Purdy
Alicia Richards
Tyler Roberts
DeElegant Robinson Microbiology Doctoral Graduate Program
DeElegant Robinson
Matthew Robison
Juan Diaz Rodriguez Biomedical Engineering Graduate Program
Jose Rodriguez-Martinez
Juan Rodriguez-Molina
Edward Sambriski
Timothy Schramm
Kelly Schwartz
Burr Settles
Nicholas Shera
Gloria Sheynkman
David Stern
Benjamin Steyer
Danielle Swaney
Kieran Sweeney
Christopher Tervo
Joshua Tietjen
Michael Toepke
Scott Topper
Anji Trujillo
Gene Tsvid
Leslie Turner
David Vereide
Elizabeth Waters
Jonathan Whitmer
Eamon Winden Genetics Graduate Program
Jamison Wolfer
John Wolters
Audrey Ynigez-Gutierrez Chemical and Biol. Engineering
John Zaborske