MEET THE LAB
Anne Carlson, Ph.D.
Principal Investigator
I received my Ph.D. from the University of Washington, and worked with Bertil Hille and Donner Babcock studying the preparation of sperm for fertilization. For my postdoctoral studies, I focused ion channel structure and function in the laboratory of William Zagotta. I am now interested in the earliest signaling events of fertilization as well as the regulation of Cl- channels including the Ca2+-activated Cl- channel TMEM16a. Recently, I received the 2018 Paul F. Cranefield Award from the Society of General Physiologists.
Joel Rosenbaum, Ph.D.
Research Assistant Professor
Joel received his Ph.D. in 2011 working with Dr. Rich Gardner at the University of Washington. His dissertation studies described a novel form of protein quality control specific to the nucleus. For his postdoctoral studies, he worked with Dr. Rachel Klevit at the University of Washington using NMR spectroscopy to study the structure and interactions of small heat shock proteins. He continued his postdoctoral work in a collaboration between Dr. Kara Bernstein and Dr. Andy Vandemark at the University of Pittsburgh to characterize interactions between DNA repair pathways. In his current position, he uses protein biochemistry and structural biology to study ion channels.
Kayla Komondor
Graduate Student
Kayla graduated from Robert Morris University in 2019 with a B.S. in Biology with a minor in Chemistry. Her undergraduate research focused on spermicide and HIV preventative medicine and were performed at Magee-Womens Research Institute. Kayla’s dissertation research is focused on applying biophysical techniques to study developmental biology. Kayla’s dissertation research is supported by an NIH-funded fellowship. Kayla was awarded an honorable mention for her NSF GRFP application. In 2022, Kayla received a travel award from the Society for the Study of Reproduction to attend their annual meeting in Spokane, Washington, and in 2024 she receieved a travel award from the Biophysical Society to attend their annual meeting in Philadelphia.
Crystal Lara-Santos
Graduate Student
Crystal graduated from the University of Puerto Rico in 2019 with a B.S. in Industrial Microbiology. After graduation, Crystal spent two years performing research on characterizing fungi associated with Boa constrictor skin in Puerto Rico. Crystal’s dissertation research is focused on understanding how lipids regulate the Ca2+-activated Cl- channel TMEM16A. Her dissertation studies are supported by the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP) and the Gilliam Fellows program from HHMI. Crystal received a travel award to attend the 2024 Annual Meeting of the Biophysical Society.
Jenny Miller
Graduate Student
Jenny graduated from Christopher Newport University with a B.S. in Neuroscience in 2016. She then got her MS in Forensic Science from Virginia Commonwealth University in 2018, where her thesis research focused on a novel approach for deconvoluting epithelial cell mixtures prior to STR profiling using fluorescence microscopy. After graduation, Jenny spent three years specializing in mitochondrial DNA analysis for the identification of human remains at the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory, and approximately one year performing Next Generation Sequencing on both clinical and research nuclear DNA samples in Pittsburgh. Jenny's dissertation research is focused on the conformational changes occurring in the TMEM16A channel upon PIP2 binding.