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