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1993-1996
Deborah Nusskern
Debbie was the laboratory’s first tech. She subsequently participated in the human genome sequencing project spearheaded by Craig Venter at Celera Corp, and is now at Euclid Dianostics.
Jianping Song
1993-1996
Jianping Song

Jianping was the lab’s fist post-doc and is now Associate Director of Assay Development at Galenea Corp in Boston. During her time in the lab, Jianping studied the role of G protein myristoylation and palmitoylation in subunit binding and membrane localization.
Kathy Gillen
1995-1997
Kathy Gillen

Kathy completed her post-doc training and is now a professor at Kenyon College. Kathy’s project was to map the determinants within Gpa1 required for proper targeting to the plasma membrane.
Donald Apanovitch
1994-1998
Donald M. Apanovitch
A former postdoc, Don is now Head of Functional Genomics at Pfizer. While in the lab Don demonstrated that the RGS protein Sst2 functions as a GTPase accelerating protein for the G protein in yeast Gpa1.
Paul DiBello
1995-1998
Paul DiBello

A former postdoc, Paul later worked in the field of bioinformatics and information technology, now at Yale University. While in the lab Paul identified an RGS-insensitive mutant form of the G protein, which is now widely used to study the role of RGS-mediated regulation in animals and cell culture.
Tiffany Garrison
1995-2000
Tiffany Garrison

Tiffany received her PhD in Pharmacology from Yale and later post-doc training with Robert Lefkowitz. During her time in the lab, Tiffany used mass spectrometry to map sites of MAPK phosphorylation within the RGS protein Sst2. She is now Group Leader at Abbvie Corporation (formerly Abbott) in Chicago.
Ginger Hoffman
1995-2000
Ginger Hoffman

Ginger is now a professor at Saint Joseph’s University. Ginger received her PhD in the Interdepartmental Neuroscience Program at Yale. In an effort to further postpone a career decision she enrolled in yet another PhD program in Philosophy at MIT. We’re not sure what is more surprising, a second PhD or the existence of a philosophy department at MIT.
Scott Burchett
1999-2001
Scott Burchett

As a postdoc Scott pioneered the use of systems-level analysis of G protein signaling in yeast.
Kathleen Ehrhard
1996-2001
Kathleen Ehrhard

Kathleen received her PhD in Pharmacology from Yale and is now an attorney at Frommer Lawrence & Haug (YIKES!). While in the lab, Kathleen developed a new method to detect protein-protein interactions at the plasma membrane.
Louis Marotti 1999-2002
Louis Marotti

Lou earned his MD/PhD and then joined the Neurosurgery program at Yale-New Haven Hospital. Working together with the Rudi Aebersold lab, Lou was the first individual to use mass spectrometry to map a ubiquitination-site.
Paul Flanary 1998-2003
Paul Flanary

Paul received his Ph.D from the University of Hawaii. After moving off island, he has found more time to read (latest novel “Paradise Lost”) and to eat (raw fish wrapped in seaweed). Paul is now Director of R&D at Awareness Technology.
Stephanie 2002-2003
Stefanie Hueber

Stefi was a visiting Masters student and resident wunderkind from Germany, has since completed her PhD thesis research at Max Planck in Tubingen, and is currently a researcher in Applied Bioinformatics at University of Konstanz Germany.
Ming Guo
1998-2003
Ming Guo

Ming was a PhD student in the Interdepartmental Neuroscience Program at Yale. While in the lab Ming was the first to demonstate a positive signaling role for the yeast G protein alpha subunit Gpa1. He made other discoveries, but can’t find his data at the moment.
Yuh-lin Wu
2001-2004
Yuh-lin Wu

Yuh-Lin is now a tenured professor in the Physiology Department at National Yang-Ming University in Taipei Taiwan. While in the lab Yuh-Lin characterized a dominant-negative mutant of the G protein alpha subunit, Gpa1, currently being used to isolate new G protein binding partners.
Scott Chasse
2001-2004
Scott Chasse

A former postdoc, Scott pioneered genome-scale analysis of the yeast pheromone pathway. Having performed roughly 15,000 dose response assays, you can forgive his slightly dazed appearance. Scott has since relocated across the street where he is studying how the brain adapts to repetitive behaviors behaviors. Go Hokies.
Yuqi Wang
2000-2005
Yuqi Wang

Yuqi is now a tenured professor of biology at St. Louis University. While a postdoc in the lab, Yuqi was the first to show stimulus-dependent ubiquitination of a MAPKK protein (Ste7), and the first to show pheromone-regulated sumoylation of a mating pathway component (Ste12 and Tec1).
Christine Fraser 2001-2005
Christine Fraser
Christine was for many years the lab manager, and has since returned to the civilization of her native Australia, where she lives in harmony with her 35 cats.
Stephen Parnell 2001-2006
Stephen Parnell

Stephen is now a professor at KU Medical Center. As a postdoc Stephen studied regulation of pheromone siganling by MAPK phosphorylation. Known for his “explosive” personality, he will be remembered as the the lab source of shooting flaming balls with report. Light fuse and get away. Rock chalk Jayhawk. Go KU. For a closer look at what is coming out of Stephen’s nose, click here.
Nan Hao 2001-2006
Nan Hao

Nan is now a tenured professor at UC San Diego. Nan graduated with his PhD in the Biochemistry and Biophysics Department, did a brief post-doc with Tim Elston in the Pharmacology Department, and then with Erin O’Shea at Harvard University. While in the lab Nan pioneered the use of quantitative and computational biology to investigate pheromone signaling dynamics in yeast.
Corinne Zeller 2002-2007
Corinne Zeller

Corinne was a graduate student in Biochemistry and Biophysics. While in the lab she identified a signaling function for the atypical Gbeta protein Asc1. Her favorite number will always be 7. Her favorite letters will always be “W” and “D”. After 3 years teaching biology at Saint Augustine’s College, and a postdoc in Perry Blackshear’s lab at NIEHS, she is now Medical Science Liaison at Vaya Pharma. In her spare time she can be seen at local Monica Lewinsky lookalike contests.

Janna Slessareva

2003-2007
Janna Slessareva

A native of Moscow, Janna joined the lab as a postoc in 2003. Janna discovered a new signaling pathway linking G protein activation to phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase at endosome. Her work philosophy was simple: “throw P.I. in water and let him sink or swim.” Having mastered use of definite articles (including much baffling word “the”), Janna has joined ranks of mushrooming biotechnology industry here in Research Triangle Park.

Michael J. Lee

2003-2008
Michael J. Lee

Mike is now a tenured professor at UMass Medical School. At UNC Mike was a graduate student in Pharmacology, and then moved on to a postdoctoral fellowship at MIT working with Mike Yaffe. While in the lab Mike discovered a non-receptor activator of G protein signaling, called Arr4/Get3.

Jeffrey Duffy

2007-2010
Jeffrey Duffy

A native of North Carolina, Jeff received his BS in Biology from UNC in 2008. After graduating he spent two years grinding his teeth over protein purification, and has since headed to UNC’s School of Dentistry. Smile y’all.

Erin Heenan

2005-2010
Erin Heenan

A true Tar Heel, Erin was a graduate student in Biochemistry and Biophysics. Her project was to unmask the structure-function relationships of an atypical G protein beta/gamma complex (Vps15/Atg14) located at the endosome. After receiving her PhD Erin headed off to law school at George Mason University.

Laura Hall

2007-2010
Laura Hall

A native of Arizona, Laura was a member of the Molecular and Cellular Biophysics training program and graduate student in Biochemistry and Biophysics. Her Master’s thesis project was focused on the scaffolding function of the yeast RGS protein Sst2. Laura has since moved to the west coast to pursue new passions.

Steven Cappell

2005-2011
Steven Cappell
Steve was a graduate student in the Pharmacology Department. His project was to mine the “essential genome” for new regulators of G protein signal transduction. Steve then moved to the Tobias Meyer lab at Stanford University where he was a Damon Runyan fellow. He is now a Stadtman Investigator at NIH/NCI.
steven.cappell@nih.gov

2008-2011
Evan Lien

Evan was a UNC Chemistry/Biochemistry major and a Morehead-Cain scholar, working with Michal to identify new regulators of MAPK signal fidelity. Evan worked in the lab for 3+ years, attaining honorary grad student status. Evan earned his real PhD working with Alex Toker at Harvard Medical School and then a postdoc with Matt Vander Heiden at MIT. Evan is now on the faculty at Van Andel Institute.

Janice Jones

2006-2011
Janice Jones
Jan was a postdoc in the lab working with Alan Jones on a unique self-activating G protein from plant. She was later Assistant Professor in the department, then is now doing metabolomics research at Metabolon.

Michal Nagiec

2005-2012
Michal Nagiec
Michal was a graduate student in the Pharmacology Department working on signal coordination between the osmotic-stress and mating-pheromone pathways. After a brief postdoc he has moved to the John Blenis lab at Harvard Medical School and later Cornell Medical College. He is clearly delighted with his good fortune.

Matthew Torres

2007-2012
Matthew Torres, PhD

Matt was a grad student in the Biochemistry and Biophysics Department having worked with Christoph Borchers, and then joined the lab as a postdoc working on cell cycle regulation of G protein ubiquitination. Matt has since packed up his beloved desk ornament and a tenured professor of Biology at Georgia Tech.
2010-2012
Jillian Hurst, PhD

Jill is now Program Director, Children’s Health and Discovery Initiative, Duke University School of Medicine. Before that she was staff editor at the Journal of Clinical Investigation. She received her PhD from University of Georgia. While in the lab she worked on protein kinase ubiquitination and signal fidelity. Jill is now on the faculty at Duke University.
Sarah Westrick 2007-2013
Sarah T. Clement

Sarah was a graduate student in Biochemistry and Biophysics, and when not fighting crime as batwoman, or searching for a parking spot, she worked on signal coordination by the mating-pheromone and nutrient-sensing pathways. Sarah nows does clinical research at Parexel in nearby Durham.

Avital Parnas

2011-2013
Avital Parnas, PhD

Avital was postdoc interested in kinase scaffolds and essential genes that regulate MAPK signal intensity. Avital has returned to her native Israel.

Justin English

2008-2015
Justin English

Justin was a graduate student in the Pharmacology Department, working to investigate ultrasensitivity and signal fidelity in MAPK signaling. After doing postdoctoral research in the laboratory of Bryan Roth. Justin joined the biochemistry faculty at University of Utah.

Rachael Baker

2008-2014
Rachael Baker, PhD

Rachael was a graduate student in Biochemistry and Biophysics, working on a collaborative project with Sharon Campbell’s lab to investigate structure determinants and the functional consequences of G protein ubiquitination. She is currently a tenured professor at Calvin University.

Gauri Dixit

2008-2014
Gauri Dixit

Gauri was a graduate student in Biochemistry and Biophysics working on a joint project with Tim Elston’s lab investigating the role of noise in MAPK signaling. Originally from India, Gauri is truly one in a billion. Gauri has relocated to Boston where she is now Director of Medical Affairs at Sobi.
Vishwajith Sridharan 2011-2014
Vish Sridharan
Vish was a UNC Chemistry/Biochemistry major, working with Dan to identify new determinants of protein thermostability. Vish worked in the lab for 3+ years, attaining honorary grad student status. Vish recently earned his MD at Harvard Medical School.

Dan Isom

2010-2014 Postdoc
2014-2016 Assistant Professor
Daniel G. Isom, PhD

Dan received his PhD in Biophysics at Johns Hopkins University where he studied protein electrostatics with Bertrand Garcia-Moreno. Dan has been investigating how protein dynamics are regulated by cellular stress and changes in intracellular pH. As of 2016 Dan is a professor of Molecular and Cellular Pharmacology at University of Miami.

Josh Sheetz

2012-2015
Josh Sheetz
Josh was a UNC Chemistry/Biochemistry major, working with Josh Kelley to identify new F-box protein regulators of the pheromone pathway. This Josh worked closely with the other Josh for 3+ years, attaining honorary grad student status. This Josh earned his PhD with Mark Lemmon at Yale University and is now a postdoc at UC Berkeley.
sheetz@berkeley.edu

Josh Kelley

 

2010-2015
Joshua B. Kelley, PhD
Josh was a joint post-doc with Tim Elston’s group. Josh received his PhD in Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics at the University of Virginia, where he studied regulation of the RanGTPase and nuclear transport in the context of stress signaling. He now turns his attention to the regulation of chemotropic growth and gradient sensing. Josh is now tenured professor of biology at University of Maine.

 

Claire Gordy

2013-2016
Claire Gordy, PhD

Claire was a graduate student with You-Wen He at Duke University, and was later a SPIRE postdoctoral fellow working on cross talk between the autophagy and pheromone signaling pathways. She is now professor of biology at NC State University.

James Shellhammer

2013-2017
James Shellhammer

James was a graduate student in Pharmacology and working on the metabolic changes that underlie G protein phosphorylation. After a postdoc with Kenneth Dawson at University College Dublin, James has turned his efforts to the fermentation of barley, hops and malt – all for the betterment of humanity.

Anay Reddy

2013-2017
Anay Reddy

Anay earned his degree in Chemistry at UNC and after working as a tech in the lab he is now a graduate student at Stanford University.

Matthew Martz

2014-2017
Matthew Martz, PhD

Matthew was a graduate student with Phil Wedegaertner at Thomas Jefferson University. Matthew worked on noise and cross talk between the osmotic stress and pheromone signaling pathways.
Patrick McCarter 2012-2017
Patrick McCarter
Patrick was a joint graduate with Tim Elston, earning his PhD in the Bioinformatics and Computational Biology and in the Molecular and Cellular Biophysics training programs. While at UNC Patrick published four research papers bridging experimental and computational biology, and most notably a co-first author paper in Molecular Biology of the Cell. Read more about Patrick’s road to graduate school here.

Stephane Page

2016-2018
Stephani Page, PhD

2017-2018
Peter Cooke (UNC ’17)
Peter was a 2017 graduate of UNC, was for a year our lab manager, and is now a medical student at Icahn School of Medicine.

2018-2019
Matthew Begley
Matt was our lab manager. After graduating in 2012 from Juanita College Matt worked at University of Maryland and the ATCC before moving to UNC as our talented and energetic lab manager. Matt is now a grad student at UNC.

Sara Kimiko Suzuki

 

2016-2020
Sara Kimiko Suzuki McGirr 

Kimiko was a graduate of Johns Hopkins University and a joint graduate with Tim Elston‘s group, working on cross talk between the osmotic stress and mating pheromone pathways. After earning her PhD in Bioinformatics and Computational Biology she moved to a Senior Scientist and Mathematical Modeler position at Applied Biomath.
kimikomcgirr@gmail.com

Amy Pomeroy

2016-2020
Amy Allen Pomeroy

Amy was a graduate of NC State University and a joint graduate with Tim Elston‘s group, working on cross talk between the nutrient stress and mating pheromone pathways. After earning her PhD in Bioinformatics and Computational Biology she moved Adam Palmer‘s lab at UNC as part of the UNC SPIRE fellowship program.
Ranga Rajan 2016-2020
Ranga Rajan, PhD

Ranga was a chemistry graduate student with Jim Weisshaar at University of Wisconsin Madison. Ranga worked on several projects related to pheromone signaling and autophagy. He is now a consultant at ZS. nrangarajan@gmail.com
Kevin Knight 2016-2022
Kevin Knight

Kevin a native of Missouri, a Pharmacology graduate student, and equally skilled in pymol and volleyball. Kevin  studied the potential of G proteins a drug targets. He is now a Postdoctoral Researcher in the Martemyanov Lab, in Neuroscience, UF Scripps.
Natalie Hewitt Valentin 2017-2022
Natalie Hewitt Valentin

Natalie a native of Suriname, a native Dutch speaker, and a Pharmacology graduate student. Natalie studied the coordination of G protein-mediated signaling. She is now an Advisor in Receptor Pharmacology, Eli Lilly and Company.

Shuang Li

2018-2023
Shuang Li, PhD
Shuang earned her PhD at New York University and investigated metabolic regulation by the glucose-driven Gpa2 and Ras signaling pathways.

Sarah Alexandra Martin

2021-2023
Sarah Alexandra Martin
Sarah was our lab tech, a 2021 graduate of App State, who was working with Natalie.

Harry Wang

2020-2023
Harry Wang (UNC ’23)
Harry is native of China who was working with Shu.

Predoctoral student researchers
Over the years the Dohlman lab has hosted numerous college and high school researchers. One or two have actually decided to become scientists! If you are out there, drop us a line and let us know what you are up to!Maria Ines Esteller (UNC ’24) *Harry Wang (UNC ’23) *Emily Brinson (UNC ’22, then MD @ UNC)Jeanie (Ji Heon) Chung (UNC ’20, then DDS @ UNC)Lorena Dujmusic (UNC ’20, then MS @ Wisconsin)Colton Sanders (UNC ’20, then PhD @ UCSF)Ahnyah Phillips (Clark Atlanta ’20)Ishani Kapoor (UNC ’20, then MD @ Drexel)

Peter Drossopoulos (UNC ’19, then MD @ UNC)

Aribah Shaw (UNC ’17)

Joanna X. Cambell (Centre College ’17, then PhD @ Duke)

Lauren Askew (UNC ‘16, then MD/PhD @ Emory)

Sarah Ruiz (UNC Pembroke ’15)

Elizabeth Crenshaw (UNC ’16)

Trevor Henley (UNC ’14)

Ivan Kuznetsov (Johns Hopkins ’16, then MD/PhD @ UPenn)

Josh Sheetz (UNC ’15, then PhD @ Yale)

Vishwajith Sridharan (UNC ’14, then MD @ Harvard)

Holly Lien (UNC ’14, then PharmD @ UNC)

Everett Young (UNC ’13, then MD @ UNC)

Norman Pham (UNC ’12, then PharmD @ UNC)

Evan Lien (UNC ’11, then PhD @ Harvard)

Nathan Hedrick (UNC ’09, then PhD @ Duke)

Jeffrey Duffy (UNC ’08, then DDS @ UNC)

Justin Brewster (McGill ’08, deceased)

Christopher Broda (NC State ’07, then MD @ Wake Forest)

Jeffrey Brodin (St. Scholastica ’07, then PhD @ UC San Diego)

Davida Williams (RAP ’04)

Michael Dean (France, then MPH @ BU)

Chen Zhu (RAP ’02)

Lee Kiang (Yale ’01, then MD/PhD at MSK/Rockefeller)

Thomas Cantey (Yale ’99)

Maria Hernandez (Wiley College ’98)

Anuli Umeojiako (Delaware State ’97)

Houman Fardin (Yale ’97)

Tom Kraikit (Yale ’96)

Temiyabutr Surabhan (Yale ’95)

Thuan Bui (UC Berkeley ’94, then MD at UC Irvine)

* current student

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