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 Pioneer) 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, Ph.D.
HOMETOWN: Houston, Texas
Ph.D.: University of Texas at Austin
INTERESTING FACT: I play the guitar and used to be in a band.
National Science Foundation Fellow,
Burroughs Wellcome PDEP Fellow
NAME: Dr. Emily Feldman, Ph.D.
HOMETOWN: Charlottesville, Virginia
Ph.D.: University of Florida
INTERESTING FACT: I was a gymnast for 10 years.
NIH NRSA Postdoctoral Fellow
NAME: Dr. Cody Warren, Ph.D.
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. Joe Timpona, Ph.D.
HOMETOWN: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Ph.D.: Harvard University
INTERESTING FACT: My college band opened for The Black Keys.
Graduate Students
NAME: Maryska Kaczmarek
PROGRAM: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
HOMETOWN: Dobbs Ferry, New York
INTERESTING FACT: I didn’t know my real name until I was 12 years old.
National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow
NAME: Alison Gilchrist
PROGRAM: Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology
HOMETOWN: Saratoga, California
INTERESTING FACT: I’m a member of the International Society of Tardigrade Hunters.
NIH Signaling and Cellular Regulation Training Grant Fellow
NAME: Qing Yang
PROGRAM: Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology
HOMETOWN: Shanghai, China
INTERESTING FACT: I was stepped on by an elephant when I was 5.
Staff Scientists
NAME: Ryan Fahy
HOMETOWN: Aspen, Colorado
B.S. DEGREE: Colgate University
INTERESTING FACT: I once dislocated my knee and tore my MCL while wearing one of those sumo wrestling fat-suits.
NAME: Will Fattor
HOMETOWN: Black Hawk, Colorado
B.S. DEGREE: University of Colorado Boulder
INTERESTING FACT: I am licensed to sail monohull boats
NAME: Obaiah Dirasantha
HOMETOWN: Somasila village, India
B.S. DEGREE: Indian Institute of Technology
INTERESTING FACT: I like to sketch human faces
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: Alex Stabell
POSITION IN SAWYER LAB:
MD/PhD graduate student
NIH NIAID M.D. / Ph.D. Fellow (F30)
CURRENT POSITION:
Medical student at U. of Colorado
NAME: Scott Kerr, Ph.D.
POSITION IN SAWYER LAB:
Graduate student
CURRENT POSITION:
BioFire Diagnostics, Salt Lake City, UT
NAME: Jeff Hussmann, PhD
POSITION IN SAWYER LAB:
Graduate student
CURRENT POSITION:
Damon Runyon Postdoctoral Fellow, UCSF
NAME: Paul Rowley, PhD
POSITION IN SAWYER LAB:
Postdoctoral Fellow
CURRENT POSITION:
Assistant Professor, University of Idaho
NAME: Ann Demogines, PhD
POSITION IN SAWYER LAB:
Postdoctoral Fellow
American Cancer Society Fellow
CURRENT POSITION:
BioFire Diagnostics, Salt Lake City, UT
NAME: Dianne Lou, 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
POSITION IN SAWYER LAB:
Research technician
NSF Graduate Research Fellowship
CURRENT POSITION:
Data Scientist at Twist Bioscience, Berkeley, CA | PhD from UC Berkeley
NAME: Alysia East
POSITION IN SAWYER LAB:
Research technician
CURRENT POSITION:
Veterinarian, Fort Collins, CO