People

 

Current Members

Christopher de Graffenried
Associate Professor, MMI
B.A. in Chemistry, Carleton College, 1998
Ph.D. in Chemistry, UC Berkeley, 2004
Postdoctoral Fellow, Yale, 2004-2008
Senior Postdoc, Max F. Perutz Laboratories, University of Vienna, 2008-2013
christopher_degraffenried@brown.edu

 

 

 

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Laura A. Smithson
Postdoctoral research associate
BSc in Biomedical Sciences, Durham University, 2016
MSc in Biology and Control of Parasites and Disease Vectors, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, 2017
Ph.D. in Cellular and Molecular Biology, Oxford Brookes University, 2022
laura_smithson@brown.edu

Laura is currently working on the dynamics of the subpellicular microtubule array in Trypanosoma brucei using molecular biology and microscopy techniques. She is particularly interested in the localization of microtubule-associated proteins (MAPs), how microtubule inhibiting drugs affect the cell division process and how new microtubules are added and removed from the existing array.

 

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Caroline D. Keroack
Postdoctoral research associate
BA in Biological Sciences; BA in Chemistry, Smith College, 2014
MSc in Biological Sciences, Smith College, 2016
Ph.D. in Biological Sciences in Public Health, Harvard University, 2022
caroline_keroack@brown.edu

Caroline is currently working on developing new tools to study cellular differentiation in Trypanosoma cruzi, the etiological agent of American trypanosomiasis (Chagas’ disease).  She is particularly interested in identifying the expression signatures of parasites undergoing phases of differentiation and mapping how those gene regulatory networks contribute to key morphological changes in the parasite.

 

Emily Campbell
Research assistant
BS in Biology; BS in Neuroscience, Western New England University, 2023

Emily focuses on observing morphological changes in T. brucei, specifically the rearrangement of microtubule-associated proteins (MAPs) in the subpellicular array in their transition from healthy to skinny cells. Emily also aims to construct a self-assembling GFP system to assess interacting proteins during microtubule rearrangement.

 

Kevin Ramrattan
Research assistant
BS in Biology; BS in Geological Sciences, University of Miami, 2018
MS in Microbial Engineering, University of Minnesota, 2020
kevin_ramrattan@brown.edu

Kevin investigates proteins that associate with the microtubule array in T. brucei to better understand cellular organization and identify proteins that regulate morphology.

 

 

Sophie Marcus-Wade
Undergraduate researcher 
Major-ScB Biology; Brown University class of 2025
sophie_marcus-wade@brown.edu

Sophie works closely with Caroline, and is interested in the structural changes which occur during metacyclogenesis in T. cruzi.

 

 

 

 

Former members

Mabel Tettey, PhD
Postdoctoral research associate, 2022-2023

Paul Campbell, PhD
Graduate student, 2018-2023

Thomas Sladewski, PhD
Postdoctoral associate, 2017-2020
Currently: Research Assistant Professor, University of Connecticut

Amy Sinclair, PhD
Graduate student, 2015-2020
Currently: Postdoctoral Associate, Goode lab, Brandeis

Christine Huynh
Undergraduate researcher, 2018-2021; Technician, 2021
Currently: Technician, Morrow Lab, Brown University

Richard Muniz
Research assistant, 2017-2020
Currently: PhD program in Molecular and Cellular Biology, University of  Washington at Seattle

Holly Tran
Lab manager, 2015-2020
Currently: Research technician, Yale University

Jenna Perry, PhD
Graduate student, 2013-2018
Currently: Postdoctoral researcher with Amy Shuab Maddox, UNC Chapel Hill

Celina Hsieh
Undergraduate researcher, 2015-2018
Currently: M.D. program, Brown University

Nicholas Hilton
Research assistant, 2015-2017
Currently: Microbiology Ph.D. program, University of California, Davis

Zemplen Pataki
Undergraduate and research assistant, 2014-2017
Currently: M.D./Ph.D. program, Tufts University

Michael McAllaster
Research assistant, 2013-2015
Currently: Ph.D. program in Molecular Microbiology and Molecular Pathogenesis, Washington University