2011 Zebrafish Course Student Bios


Rima Arnaout, Postdoctoral Fellow, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA
I am a cardiology fellow at the University of California, San Francisco. I am interested in studying early structure and function of the developing cardiovascular system as they pertain to human disease, and I'm excited about the zebrafish as a model system for answering questions in cardiovascuar genetics.

Philip Campbell, MD/PhD candidate, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New York, NY
I am a third year M.D./Ph.D. student at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in Dr. Florence Marlow's laboratory. My prior research experience has been in organic synthesis and in my graduate studies I will be using the zebrafish as a model system as I attempt to identify novel targets involved in hypoxia signalling using chemical genetic approaches. Identified targets will then be studied for their role in early development and CNS development in the zebrafish embryo.

Ravi Desai, Whitaker International Scholar, Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics, Dresden, Germany
I will be beginning post-doctoral research at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics in Dresden, Germany. Based on my Ph.D. in Bioengineering that focused on micropatterning vertebrate cells, I will investigate the segmentation clock in the developing embryo. We will use zebrafish as the model organism for our studies.

Stefan H. Fuss, Assistant Professor/Research Group Leader, Bogazici University (Bosphorus University), Istanbul, Turkey
I am a molecular neuroscientist and research group leader at the Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics at Bogazici University, Istanbul. My research focuses on aspects of development and function of the olfactory system using zebrafish as a primary research model. In particular, we study how olfactory sensory neurons get specified during early ontogenetic development through the exclusive and cell type-specific expression of olfactory receptor genes. We use molecular methods, including gene expression analysis and transgenesis, to understand how a given sensory neuron chooses to express only a single olfactory receptor from a much larger genomic repertoire. I am looking forward to participate in this course to gain more detailed and better practical expertise in critical and emerging technologies to expand the molecular and genetic toolbox that we can employ to study these phenomena in zebrafish.

Andrea Hamilton, PhD candidate, Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA
I am a second year graduate student in the lab Dr. Ingmar Riedel-Kruse at Stanford University. I use zebrafish as a model system to study the role of mechanical force during tissue patterning and early cell migration. I am particularly interested in zebrafish epiboly as an experimental system to study bulk cell movement and the transfer of force across a large, connected cell sheet.

Ellen Hoffman, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Yale University, New Haven, CT
I am a child psychiatrist currently pursuing my PhD in the laboratories of
Matthew State and Antonio Giraldez at Yale University. The goal of my research
is to develop a zebrafish model for the functional analysis of genes in
autism.I have generated zebrafish mutants of genes implicated in autism, and I look
forward to learning assays for evaluating zebrafish nervous system development
that I will apply to the analysis of these mutants.

Gabriela Ana Hortopang, Postdoctoral Fellow, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA
I am investigating seizures and epilepsy in immature zebrafish. By utilizing zebrafish models designed to mimic known single-gene mutations seen in children (pediatric epilepsies), we established the first epileptic zebrafish.  I aim to focus future studies  on development and have interest in understanding how genes control development in zebrafish. I plan continue to use and advance my knowledge of  behavioral, genetic, and imaging approaches in zebrafish to enhance my understanding of the neural mechanisms that underlie epilepsy.

Anna Kaufmann, PhD candidate, Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics (MPI-CBG), Dresden, Germany
I studied molecular biology and biophysics and I combine both these topics in my interdisciplinary research. During my PhD I want to create a 4D-atlas of the developing vasculature in zebrafish that also includes blood flow parameters. Having focused primarily on microscopy, now I am excited to learn various techniques in zebrafish for my studies.

Vanja Krneta-Stankic, PhD candidate, Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology, Tübingen, Germany
Animals use visual characteristic of body patterns for range of important functions, including camouflage and communication. I would like to understand how pigment cells assemble to form the striped pattern in zebrafish.

Pia Rengtved Lundegaard, PhD candidate, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, Scotland
I am a PhD-student with Dr. E.E. Patton at the MRC Human Genetics 
Unit, University of Edinburgh, UK. I am interested in rare, 
neurodegenerative disorders, and am hoping to use the zebrafish as a 
model organism to gain insight into the disease mechanisms associated 
with these kinds of disease. I am currently using chemical biology to 
try and mimic some of the changes in behavior that are often 
associated with disease progression.

Kurt Marsden, Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA
I'm a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Pennsylvania and I'm interested in understanding the neural circuits that underlie different behaviors and how they are modified, for example, during learning.  I am excited to use the zebrafish model system to identify and characterize genetic factors that are required for the formation and modification of these circuits.

Jamie McLeod, PhD candidate, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA
I am currently a third-year Ph.D. student in Robert Tombes’ lab at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU). The Tombes lab studies the role of calcium signaling proteins in cell cycle control, development and differentiation; primarily focusing on the protein kinase, calcium calmodulin-dependent protein kinase type II (CaMK-II). My current project focuses on CaMK-II’s role in cell motility during gastrulation and how it may be a target of non-canonical Wnt signaling during convergent extension necessary for embryonic axis formation. In continuing my project, I hope to use zebrafish to assess CaMK-II’s role in additional cell migratory events of development including neuromast migration, eye formation and germ cell migration.

Pari Müller, Postdoctoral Research Associate, King's College London - MRC Centre for Developmental Neurobiology, London, England
I have completed my D.Phil. studies, focused on the role of Flrt proteins in mouse heart development, in the laboratory of Prof. Elizabeth Robertson at the Sir William Dunn School of Pathology, University of Oxford. I have just joined Prof. Corinne Houart's group at the MRC Centre for Developmental Neurobiology and am particularly interested in exploring different model systems to investigate other aspects of development, organogenesis and the transcriptional regulators and signaling pathways which control these systems. The project I am about to embark on includes the use of zebrafish as a model for studying neurogenesis using bioinformatics tools, cellular and molecular techniques and the establishment of transgenic zebrafish lines.

Luyuan Pan, Postdoctoral Fellow, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, WA
I am currently a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Dr. Cecilia Moens at FHCRC. I am working on the zebrafish TILLING project, which is an effective reverse genetics approach to detect ENU induced point mutations in target genes. We are also trying to take the advantages of the next generation high-throughput sequencing, and develop a new approach that will enable more efficient identification of induced mutations in sequenced genes (Illumina Tilling).

Evgenia Salta, Postdoctoral Fellow, KULeuven-VIB, Flanders, Belgium
I am a junior post-doc in the Laboratory for the Research of Neurodegenerative Diseases of Bart De Strooper at the University of Leuven (KULeuven) and VIB. My work focuses on the role of microRNA dysregulation in Alzheimer’s Disease (AD). One of our goals is to establish the neuronal effects and the pertinent pathways involved in the regulation mechanisms of a series of miRNAs, whose expression is changing throughout the course of AD, using zebrafish as a model organism. I expect that the MBL training course through the lectures and the practical classes will empower my scientific background with all the theoretical and practical knowledge required to benefit from this advantageous model system. It would also allow me to bring back knowledge to our institute and to feed the ever growing local zebrafish community with new insights and techniques.

Tammy Stawicki, Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Washington, Seattle, WA
I am starting a postdoc in Dr. Raible's lab this fall and will be studying hair cell degeneration in response to cisplatin. My graduate work was in C. elegans and I am interested in zebrafish due to the fact that they are a vertebrate model system amenable to genetic screening.

Tamar Sztal, Postdoctoral Fellow, Australian Regenerative Medicine Institute, Monash University
I am a postdoc in Peter Currie's laboratory at the Australian Regenerative Medicine Institute, Monash University. I am interested in muscle development and investigating the aetiology of muscle detachment using zebrafish models of congenital muscular dystrophy. My focus in particular is on characterizing the role of laminin in mediating early muscle adhesion and in prolonging fibre survival and reattachment following muscle detachment.

Tamily Weissman, Assistant Professor of Biology, Lewis & Clark College, Portland, OR
This fall I will be starting my own lab at Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Oregon. Before this I was a post-doc in Jeff Lichtman's lab and am collaborating with Alex Schier's lab at Harvard. My post-doctoral and graduate training has been in rodents, but for a number of reasons I have chosen to turn to the zebrafish model system as I start my own lab. My research focuses on the development of synaptic connectivity in the cerebellum. I use multicolor labeling techniques to identify individual neurons and their progeny, and I use in vivo fluorescence imaging to visualize neuronal circuitry and interactions during development.

Tegan Williams, PhD candidate, University of Guelph, Canada
For my PhD, I am examining the corticotropin releasing factor (CRF) system in zebrafish. Many details of how the CRF system functions in mammals have been well studied, however much less is known in other vertebrate species. I will be examining the regulation of key genes and the role each one plays in signalling a variety of stressors. My work will also focus on how stress during development alters the CRF system and its long term function.

Christine Wittmann, PhD candidate, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Karlsruhe, Germany
My name is Christine Wittmann and I am a PhD student at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology. My research focuses on the regulation of an inflammatory response using the zebrafish as model organism. To this end I apply a chemical biology approach aiming at the identification of novel immune-modulatory bioactives and their respective function within inflammation Since the beginning of my PhD, I have been occupied mainly with establishing a high-throughput small molecule screen. At this time my project enters the second phase of functional investigations that will require a more in depth knowledge of adequate experimental techniques in the zebrafish model relevant to my research.