Team
As of May 2023
J. Mauro CALABRESE, Ph.D.
Principal Investigator
Associate Professor and Director of Graduate Studies in the Department of Pharmacology
Twitter @calabrese_lab
Pronouns: he/him/his
Mauro received his B.S. from the University of Wisconsin in Madison in 2001 and Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2007, where he studied small RNA-mediated gene regulation under Dr. Phillip Sharp. In 2008, he moved to UNC Chapel Hill to study mechanisms of epigenetic regulation by long noncoding RNA as a post-doctoral fellow in Dr. Terry Magnuson’s laboratory. He began as Assistant Professor in the Department of Pharmacology at UNC in March of 2014.
Current Members:
Jackson B. TROTMAN, Ph.D.
Research Associate
Twitter @jbtrot
Pronouns: he/him/his
Jackson received his B.S. in chemistry and biology from UNC Chapel Hill in 2013, where he was introduced to RNA research working with Bill Marzluff. He studied gene regulation via RNA recapping with Dan Schoenberg at The Ohio State University, receiving his Ph.D. in biochemistry in May 2018. In August 2018, Jackson returned to UNC as a member of the Calabrese lab, where he is investigating the molecular mechanisms that enable lncRNAs to regulate expression of large portions of the genome.
McKenzie “Mickey” M. MURVIN
Graduate Research Assistant/Doctoral Candidate
NIH/NICHD F31 Fellow
(Former NIH MiBio T32 Fellow)
Pronouns: she/her/hers
Mickey received her B.S. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology in 2019 from the University of Richmond (UR). During her time at UR, she spent several years studying translation initiation and RNA helicases under the guidance of Dr. Angie Hilliker. She entered the BBSP program at UNC in 2019 to study RNA, and joined both the curriculum for Genetics and Molecular Biology and the Calabrese lab in the spring of 2020 to study lncRNA-mediated gene silencing.
Elizabeth W. ABRASH
Graduate Research Assistant/Doctoral Candidate
NIH Genetics T32 Fellow
Pronouns: she/her/hers
Elizabeth received her B.A. in molecular biology from Kenyon College in 2017, where she worked with Dr. Karen Hicks. She then spent two years working as a research technician at the Cleveland Clinic’s Lerner Research Institute under Dr. Angela Ting. There she studied the interplay between DNA methylation and RNA processing. She joined the curriculum for Genetics and Molecular Biology and the Calabrese lab in the spring of 2021.
Quinn E. EBERHARD
Graduate Research Assistant
Twitter @EberhardQuinn
Pronouns: she/her/hers
Quinn received her B.S. in Chemistry/Biochemistry from Bowling Green State University (2021) where she studied RNA sequence alignment and structural bioinformatics to identify conservation of ribosomal RNA-protein interactions in organisms with unknown structure. She came to UNC in 2021 and joined the BCB program to obtain a Ph.D. in Bioinformatics and Computational Biology with the Calabrese lab, where she studies the characteristics of repressive long non-coding RNA as of spring 2022.
Sam P. BOYSON
Graduate Research Assistant
NIH Genetics T32 Fellow
Twitter @SamBoyson
Pronouns: he/him/his
Sam received his B.S in Biochemistry from Colorado State University (2019) where he spent several years studying mRNA localization during C. elegans development under the guidance of Dr. Erin Nishimura. He then spent two years as a research technician working under Dr. Karen Glass to study the mechanisms of histone recognition by bromodomains. He joined the curriculum for Genetics and Molecular Biology and the Calabrese lab in the spring of 2022.
Shuang LI, Ph.D.
Bioinformatics Staff Scientist
Twitter @ShuangLi_UNC
Pronouns: she/her/hers
Shuang Li earned her B.S. in Biology from Nanjing Agricultural University in 2010, where she worked on weed control using fungi. She then boarded the US and studied single cell phenotypic non-genetic heterogeneity in yeast with Dr. Mark Siegal at New York University. She earned her Ph.D. in May 2017 and continued for another year with Mark as a postdoc. She then started her second postdoc session with Dr. Henrik Dohlman at UNC Chapel Hill in May 2018, studying multi-omics analysis of glucose signaling pathway in yeast. In May 2023, she joined the Calabrese lab, committed to investigating molecular mechanism of lncRNA function via sequence features and RNA-binding proteins.
Ryan T. SALCIDO
Graduate Research Assistant
Pronouns: he/him/his
Ryan received his B.S. in Biology from Biola University (2021), where he studied the influence of diet on gene expression and longevity in Drosophila under Dr. Jason Tresser. After graduating, he worked as an adjunct professor of Biology at Biola while concurrently working in the lab of Dr. Shahrdad Lotfipour at UC Irvine studying a human polymorphism associated with increased nicotine and opiate addiction. He joined the curriculum for Genetics and Molecular Biology and the Calabrese lab in the spring of 2023.
Former Members:
Post-doctoral Fellows
Nebibe, MUTLU, Ph.D. (2020-2021) – Associate Product Manager at Lonza
Graduate Students
Aki K. BRACEROS, Ph.D. (2018-2023) – exploring all the possibilities
Rachel E. CHERNEY, Ph.D. (2018-2023) – Scientist, BIOMILQ
Daniel SPRAGUE, Ph.D. (2016-2020) – Senior Scientist, Bioinformatics & Data Science at Gritstone bio
David M. LEE, Ph.D. (2013-2019) – Patent Agent at Dechert LLP
Megan D. SCHERTZER, Ph.D. (2013-2019) – Post-doctoral fellow (Dr. David Knowles lab) at New York Genome Center
Jessime M. KIRK, Ph.D. (2014-2018) – CEO, Founder at Lodestar Bio
Staff
Susan KIM – NIEHS
Kaoru INOUE – NIEHS
UNC PREP
Lindsey HERNANDEZ (2020-2021) – Pharmacology Ph.D. Student in the Raab lab at UNC-Chapel Hill
Kwame FORBES (2020-2021) – BCB Ph.D. Student in the Dominguez lab at UNC-Chapel Hill
Undergraduate Research Assistants
Zhiyue ZHANG – Computer Science Ph.D. Student at Princeton University
David WHITE
Allison BAKER, Ph.D. – Scientist II, gRNA Technology at Verve Therapeutics
Colby TUBBS – Ph.D. Student at Vanderbilt University
Maria MIGGS – Clinical Research Assistant at Austin Brain and Spine