Current Graduate Student Research

Sushma Ambekar
Research Focus
My research focuses on uncovering the components of the evolutionarily divergent nuclear pore proteins of the malaria parasite, Plasmodium using proximity labeling and proteomics. I am also dissecting the functions of these proteins using conditional knockdown to understand the unique advantages they provide to the parasite.
Lab
Dr. Josh Beck


Real Datta

Research Focus
Characterization of  the SLO-1 K channel current responses to diethylcarbamazine and emodepside in isolated Brugia malayi muscle flaps and I hope that the effects of emodepside and diethylcarbamazine interact.

Lab
Wormlab, Dr. Richard Martin and Dr. Alan Robertson
 


Vojtech Gabriel

Research Focus
Vojtech is a Ph.D. student and research assistant in the SMART Lab. His expertise is in stem cell research and companion animal-derived organoid technology for applications in pathogenesis, personalized medicine, and reverse translational research. 

Lab
SMART Lab, Dr. Karin Allenspach & Dr. Jonathan Mochel


Zoe Lambert

Research Focus
My research uses the retina as a model to study the pathogenesis of prion diseases. With this work I hope to add to the body of knowledge about protein misfolding diseases as well as gain insight into the utility of the retina for identifying potential biomarkers of disease.

Lab
Dr. M. Heather West Greenlee


Nikhil Sanjay Rao

Research Focus
My research focuses on targeting the neuroinflammatory pathways in epilepsy and epileptogenesis through novel therapeutic interventional drugs in animal models of temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) and to study their efficacy at modifying the disease progression and neurodegenerative changes in the epileptic brain. 

Lab
Dr. Thimmasettapp Thippeswamy



Suraj Sundara Vasanthi

Research Focus
My research is focused primarily on the optimization of disease-modifying agents in organophosphate-induced epilepsy models.

Lab
Dr. Thimmasettapp Thippeswamy