MERZ LAB - Key Persons
) Andrew received his B.S. in biochemistry from the University of Indiana, and worked in biotech in Southern California prior to joining our program. Andrew contributed to the characterization of HOPS and CORVET, and discovered a second Rab5-family GEF in budding yeast. This discovery paves the way to a better understanding of endosomal maturation.
Biochemistry of Sly1, SNAREs, and tethering factors in the early secretory pathway
Braden received his B.A. in Biochemistry from Whitman College. His biochemical studies of the CORVET and HOPS complexes revealed key information about the architecture and Rab binding activities of CORVET and HOPS subunits. His work on the SM-family protein Vps33 has led to genuine breakthroughs in our understanding of how Vps33 engages SNARE proteins and has set an agenda for our future work. Braden was a Postdoctoral Fellow in the von Zastrow Lab @ UCSF.
Job Titles:
- James S. McDonnell Postdoctoral Fellow, UC Berkeley LinkedIn
Caitlin worked closely with us as a grad student with the Keller Laboratory - Liquid- Liquid phase separation in the membranes of living cells
Job Titles:
- Scientist, Allen Institute for Cell Biology LinkedIn
Chantelle worked closely with us as a joint grad student with the Keller Laboratory - Liquid-Liquid phase separation in the membranes of living cells
Chris Brett, Ph.D. (postdoc) -Professor of Biology and Canada Research Chair II, Concordia University, Montreal. Chris is a Vancouver, B.C. native who received his Bachelor's (1996) and Master's (1999) degrees in Physiology at the University of British Columbia. He joined the lab in 2005 after completing a Ph.D. in Cellular and Molecular Medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, where he studied the global control of pH and the biology of the late endosomal sodium/hydrogen antiporter Nhx1p. In the Merz Lab, Chris had several projects centering on the regulation of Rab GTPase effectors in the late endolysosomal system. In 2010 he started his own lab at Concordia.
Job Titles:
- Senior Manager, Regulatory Strategic Writing, AbbVie LinkedIn
Cortney obtained her B.S. in Biochemistry from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2004. In Cortney's thesis work, she examined the role of the C-Vps/HOPS complex in AP-3-mediated transport to the yeast vacuole. Cortney's research was sponsored in part by the UW's CMB Training Grant, funded by the NIH.
Job Titles:
- Associate Professor of Biology, California State University, San Bernadino
) | Associate Director, Clinical Chemistry and Preanalytics, Geisinger Laboratories. | Margaret received her B.A. in Chemistry from Carleton College. Her biochemical studies of Rab small G-proteins pioneered rigorous and quantitative assays of vesicle tethering and revealed that a subset of the Rabs have an unexpected, intrinsic tethering activity. Margaret has also developed a new system for characterizing and selecting proteins and peptides with novel membrane-binding affinities.
Debra Sprague, B.S. (Biology), Ph.D. (English) (undergrad) - Research Scientist, UW Center for Clinical and Epidemiological Research. Debra joined our lab after returning to UW for a degree in Biology. In her project, which was sponsored by an HHMI undergraduate reseach fellowship, Debra worked with Rachael Plemel to define the C-Vps/HOPS interactome.
Job Titles:
- Data Scientist, Microsoft LinkedIn
Patch clamp electrophysiology of isolated yeast vacuoles (a joint effort with the Gordon Lab).
Erina Kitano, Ph.D. (visiting grad student) - Erina spent a year in the lab during her grad work, as an exchange student from the UW's sister school, the University of Kobe, Japan. Erina currently works in IT.
Job Titles:
- Science Teacher, Seattle Academy LinkedIn
Jerome worked closely with us as a grad student with the Ailion group - Biogenesis of dense core secretory granules.
) | Associate Director, Clinical Chemistry and Preanalytics, Geisinger Laboratories. | Margaret received her B.A. in Chemistry from Carleton College. Her biochemical studies of Rab small G-proteins pioneered rigorous and quantitative assays of vesicle tethering and revealed that a subset of the Rabs have an unexpected, intrinsic tethering activity. Margaret has also developed a new system for characterizing and selecting proteins and peptides with novel membrane-binding affinities.
Mary Morcos, M.D. (undergrad) - Physician, Sutter Health. Mary was an undergraduate researcher in the lab. She worked on the structure and functions of Vps-C complexes.
Genetic analyses of Sec1-Munc18 family proteins; development of novel probes for cell biology
Job Titles:
- Student ( UW Biochemistry - Davis Lab )
Job Titles:
- Visiting Scientist ( Tokyo Institute of Technology )