
Principal Investigator
NAME: Dr. Sara Sawyer
HOMETOWN: Olathe, Kansas
PhD: Cornell University
INTERESTING FACT: My first career was working on offshore oil drilling rigs in the Gulf of Mexico.
2011 PECASE award
2018 NIH Avant Garde (DP1) award
Lab Manager
NAME: Vanessa Bauer
HOMETOWN: Des Moines, Iowa
DEGREES: M.S. Cornell University
INTERESTING FACT: I am an Empire State Games medalist in snowshoe racing.
Postdoctoral Research Fellows
NAME: Dr. Nick Meyerson
HOMETOWN: Houston, Texas
DEGREES: Ph.D., University of Texas Austin
INTERESTING FACT: I play the guitar and used to be in a band.
National Science Foundation Fellow,
Burroughs Wellcome PDEP Fellow
NAME: Dr. Cody Warren
HOMETOWN: Fountain Valley, California
DEGREES: Ph.D., U. of Colorado Medical School; Masters of Public Health, UC Berkeley
INTERESTING FACT: I used to play college baseball.
NIH HIV Postdoctoral Training Fellow,
NIH NRSA Postdoctoral Fellow
NAME: Dr. Arturo Barbachano-Guerrero
HOMETOWN: Torreón, México
DEGREES: PhD, SUNY Upstate Medical University; MSc, National Polytechnic Institute, Mexico
INTERESTING FACT: I used to capture wild sea lions and howler monkeys for research on microbiology.
Graduate Students
NAME: Alison Gilchrist
HOMETOWN: Saratoga, California
B.S. DEGREE: UC San Diego
INTERESTING FACT: I’m a member of the International Society of Tardigrade Hunters.
NIH Signaling and Cellular Regulation Training Grant Fellow
NAME: Qing Yang
HOMETOWN: Shanghai, China
B.S. DEGREE: University of Minnesota
INTERESTING FACT: I was stepped on by an elephant when I was 5.
NAME: Obaiah Dirasantha
HOMETOWN: Somasila village, India
B.S. DEGREE: Indian Institute of Technology
INTERESTING FACT: I like to sketch human faces
NAME: Sharon Wu
HOMETOWN: Foster City, CA
B.S. DEGREE: MIT
INTERESTING FACT:I used to be a lucid dreamer and could fully control my dreams every night.
NAME: Emma Worden-Sapper
HOMETOWN: Boulder, CO
B.S. DEGREE: University of Colorado Boulder
INTERESTING FACT: I once crocheted a model bacteriophage.
Staff Scientists
NAME: Will Fattor
HOMETOWN: Black Hawk, Colorado
B.S. DEGREE: University of Colorado Boulder
INTERESTING FACT: I am licensed to sail monohull boats
NAME: Kyle Clark
HOMETOWN: The Woodlands, TX
B.S. DEGREE: University of Colorado Boulder
INTERESTING FACT: I love listening to crime podcasts.
NAME: Camille Paige
HOMETOWN: Littleton, Colorado
B.S. DEGREE: University of Colorado Boulder
INTERESTING FACT: I’ve trained over 800 people in CPR.
Undergraduates
NAME: Danielle Swope
HOMETOWN: Longmont, Colorado
INTERESTING FACT: I became a published author in high school.
Lab Mascot
NAME: Douc Langur
HOMETOWN: Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos
LATIN NAME: Pygathrix nemaeus
NICKNAME: The Painted Monkey
INTERESTING FACT: Douc langurs show a hand preference when feeding, but this differs for each individual, some favoring the right hand, some using the left hand.
Lab Alumni
NAME: Joe Timpona, Ph.D.
POSITION IN SAWYER LAB:
Postdoctoral Fellow
CURRENT POSITION:
Scientist, Ring Therapeutics
NAME: Alex Stabell, M.D. Ph.D.
POSITION IN SAWYER LAB:
MD/PhD graduate student
NIH NIAID M.D. / Ph.D. Fellow (F30)
CURRENT POSITION:
Medical resident at Columbia University
NAME: Maryska Kaczmarek, Ph.D.
POSITION IN SAWYER LAB:
Graduate student
National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow
CURRENT POSITION: Postdoctoral fellow, Stapleford lab @ NYU
NAME: Dr. Emily Feldman, Ph.D.
POSITION IN SAWYER LAB:
Postdoctoral fellow
NIH NRSA Postdoctoral Fellow
CURRENT POSITION: Scientist, Inscripta
NAME: Scott Kerr, Ph.D.
POSITION IN SAWYER LAB:
Graduate student
CURRENT POSITION:
Global Product Manager, BioFire Diagnostics, Salt Lake City, UT
NAME: Jeff Hussmann, Ph.D.
POSITION IN SAWYER LAB:
Graduate student
CURRENT POSITION:
Damon Runyon Postdoctoral Fellow, UCSF
NAME: Paul Rowley, Ph.D.
POSITION IN SAWYER LAB:
Postdoctoral Fellow
CURRENT POSITION:
Assistant Professor, University of Idaho
NAME: Ann Demogines, Ph.D.
POSITION IN SAWYER LAB:
Postdoctoral Fellow
American Cancer Society Fellow
CURRENT POSITION:
Associate Director of Clinical Affairs, BioFire Diagnostics, Salt Lake City, UT
NAME: Dianne Lou, M.D. Ph.D.
POSITION IN SAWYER LAB:
MD/PhD graduate student
NIH NIAID M.D. / Ph.D. Fellow (F30)
CURRENT POSITION:
Medical resident at Vanderbilt University
NAME: Kyudong Han, Ph.D.
POSITION IN SAWYER LAB:
Postdoctoral Fellow
CURRENT POSITION:
Assistant Professor, Dankook University, South Korea
NAME: Aisha Ellahi, Ph.D.
POSITION IN SAWYER LAB:
Research technician
NSF Graduate Research Fellowship
CURRENT POSITION:
PhD from UC Berkeley
Scientist II at Zymergen, Inc, Berkeley, CA
NAME: Alysia East, D.V.M.
POSITION IN SAWYER LAB:
Research technician
CURRENT POSITION:
Veterinarian, Austin, TX