DRUBIN/BARNES LAB - Key Persons


Andrew Wong

Job Titles:
  • Undergraduate Student
I'm from the Central Valley in California. Currently, I am a freshman undergraduate student at UC Berkeley looking to major in Molecular and Cell Biology with an emphasis in genetics. In my free time, I like to play chess and try out new restaurants around Berkeley.

Arnold O. Beckman Postdoctoral

Job Titles:
  • Postdoctoral Fellow

Ayscough, Kathryn

Job Titles:
  • Field Application Scientist, Nanomedical Diagnostics, Inc

Belmont, Lisa

Job Titles:
  • Staff Scientist, University of Sheffield, UK

Buser, Christopher

Job Titles:
  • Director, Biology, IDEAYA Biosciences

Cail, Bob

Job Titles:
  • Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Pennsylvania

Carroll, Susheela

Job Titles:
  • Clinical Scientist Associate, Genentech

Cope, Jamie

Job Titles:
  • Associate Director, Precision for Medicine

Cormier, Anthony

Job Titles:
  • VP, Translational Medicine, Reset Therapeutics

Dehbia Bouaziz

Job Titles:
  • Intern
I have a master in reproductive physiology from the University of Algeria, an associate degree in biotechnology from Berkeley City College. Currently, I'm a CIRM intern at UC Berkeley in the Molecular and Cell Biology department. Under the mentorship of Sam Smith and Leanna Owen, I'm studying how HIP1 and HIP1R participate in mammalian endocytosis using CRISPR-Cas9 genome-edited in hiPSC. In my free time I enjoy doing yoga, cooking, and hiking.

Duncan, Mara

Job Titles:
  • Head, Discovery Genome Editing, GSK

Faust, Ann Marie

Job Titles:
  • Research Investigator, Synthetic Biology at Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research

Feng Yuan

Postdoctoral Scholar Feng obtained his bachelor's and master's degree in Materials Science and Engineering from Shanghai Jiao Tong University. He then performed his doctoral study in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin, where he was supervised by Dr. Jeanne Stachowiak to study the biophysical mechanisms of membrane remodeling driven by intrinsically disordered proteins. During his PhD, he discovered the ability of protein condensates to drive concave bending of lipid membranes. He also demonstrated the role of ubiquitin in catalyzing endocytosis. As a postdoc, he is currently exploring the role of protein condensates in clathrin-mediated endocytosis. Outside of the lab, he likes hiking and playing badminton. email: feng.yuan@berkeley.edu

Gean Hu

Job Titles:
  • Undergraduate Student
I am from Ontario, CA, and I'm currently a first year undergraduate student studying Bioengineering and (intended) Computer Science. Working with my mentor Yidi, I am studying protein interactions in yeast clathrin-mediated endocytosis. I'm excited about biology research and hope to continue research after graduation in graduate school or industry. Outside of school, I enjoy video games and making cover songs.

Goode, Bruce

Job Titles:
  • Global Director, Digital Health - Saffron Cognitive Group - Digital Health, Intel Corporation

Grace Donnelly

Job Titles:
  • Staff Research Associate
I'm from Monterey Bay, CA and I help Jonathan study kinetochore dynamics on microtubules using budding yeast, with some lab-managing on the side. I love all things biology, cooking (except when I have to), and art.

Hang Cheng

Job Titles:
  • Visiting Scholar
Hang, a joint visiting scholar in the lab of Holger Müller, obtained his graduate degree from the School of Life Sciences at Tsinghua University, where he was supervised by Prof. Hong-Wei Wang. His doctoral research centered on examining the hDicer-related complex's structure using the single particle method and developing multi-affinity graphene grids to prepare complex cryo-samples. Currently, Hang's focus lies in applying the Laser Phase Plate (LPP) in conjunction with other Cryo-Electron Tomography techniques to conduct in-situ studies on endocytosis at the cellular and mechanistic levels.

Hassinger, Julian

Job Titles:
  • Research Associate, Cell Line Engineering at Eikon Therapeutics

Hofmann, Christian

Job Titles:
  • Life Science Specialist, L.E.K. Consulting

Holtzman, Doug

Job Titles:
  • Director, Global Business Development - Neuroscience, Ophthalmology and Rare Disease at Roche

Houshmand, Pantea

Job Titles:
  • CSO, Icosavax

Jennifer Hill

Job Titles:
  • Graduate Student
Jennifer is an MCB graduate student studying clathrin-mediated endocytosis using the budding yeast S. cerevisiae as a model organism.

Jin, Meiyan

Job Titles:
  • Scientist, Counsyl

Johannes Schoeneberg


Jonathan Wong

Job Titles:
  • Specialist

Kishimoto, Takuma

Job Titles:
  • Research Group Leader, Research Institute of the FSU Jena / Institute for Biochemistry I, Germany Link

Kozminski, Keith

Job Titles:
  • Associate Professor, Hokkaido University Hokudai Institute for Genetic Medicine

Lasek, Amy

Job Titles:
  • Institute Director, University of Helsinki, Finland, Link

Le Clainche, Christophe

Job Titles:
  • Lecturer, University of California, Berkeley

Lee, Janet

Job Titles:
  • Life Sciences Consultant

Lee, Linda

Job Titles:
  • Group Leader, CNRS, Paris, France

Lewellyn, Eric

Job Titles:
  • Admissions Coordinator, University of British Columbia

Li, Rong

Job Titles:
  • Assistant Professor, St. Norbert College, Link

Liu, Jian

Job Titles:
  • Scientist - Translational Oncology, Celgene Corporation

Lu, Michelle

Job Titles:
  • Associate Professor, Johns Hopkins University, Link

Lu, Rebecca

Job Titles:
  • Senior Research Associate, Purdue University

Lynn Cai

Job Titles:
  • Undergraduate Student
I grew up in Liaoning, China and am currently a MCB undergraduate at Berkeley. I plan to do a double major in Applied Math. I work with Jennifer on modeling the clathrin-mediated endocytosis of yeast. I am considering graduate school because I want to be a biomedical researcher. I love singing and eating.

Machin, Nathan

Job Titles:
  • Scientist, EpiBiome

Madison Kao

Job Titles:
  • Undergraduate Student
I'm from Torrance, California and I am a current undergrad at UC Berkeley studying Molecular and Cellular Biology. Under the mentorship of Sam, I will be studying fast endophilin mediated endocytosis. My plan after graduation to attend graduate school. In my free time I enjoy spending the day at the beach, hiking, and painting.

Marks, Jessica

Job Titles:
  • CSO and Co - Founder, Novel Farms, Inc

Martin, Adam C.

Job Titles:
  • Associate General Counsel, Intellectual Property & Litigation, Amgen Inc

Max Ferrin

Job Titles:
  • Graduate Student

Nakajima, Yuko

Job Titles:
  • Vice President, Project Management, Aduro Biotech Inc

Nikhil Kulkarni

Job Titles:
  • Undergraduate Student
Nikhil grew up in San Jose, California and is currently an undergraduate at UC Berkeley studying Molecular and Cell Biology. Working with his mentor, Max, Nikhil is studying liquid-like protein interactions in endocytosis. After graduation, he plans to attend medical school. In his free time, Nikhil enjoys playing poker and keeping active.

Nix, David

Job Titles:
  • Group Leader, CNRS, Marseille, France

Pauly, Barbara

Job Titles:
  • Research Assistant Professor, Dept. Oncological Sciences, Co - Director Bioinformatics Shared Resource, Huntsman Cancer Institute and the University of Utah, Link

Pedersen, Ross

Job Titles:
  • Principal Scientist at Altos Labs

Pigula, Adrianne

Job Titles:
  • Postdoctoral Associate, Carnegie Institution for Science

Rodal, Avital A.

Job Titles:
  • Scientist, Intrexon Corporation

Ross Pedersen

Job Titles:
  • Graduate Student

Sam Smith

Job Titles:
  • Graduate Student

Schöneberg, Johannes

Job Titles:
  • Senior Scientific Researcher, Genentech

Sekiya-Kawasaki, Mariko

Job Titles:
  • Assistant Professor of Pharmacology and Chemistry & Biochemistry, UC San Diego, Link

Shang, Ching

Job Titles:
  • Research Scientist, Gilead Sciences

Stimpson, Helen

Job Titles:
  • Group Leader, IST, Austria, Link

Stirling, Peter

Job Titles:
  • Communications Consultant, Oxford PharmaGenesis

Stoops, Emily

Job Titles:
  • Scientist, Calico Life Sciences

Tiffany Li

Job Titles:
  • Undergraduate Student
I am from Shanghai, and I am currently an undergraduate student at UC Berkeley studying Molecular and Cell Biology and Business Administration (LSBE). Under the mentorship of Leanna and Sam, I am studying the expression of HIP1 gene in yeast. My current plan after graduation is going to graduate school. When I'm not doing work, I love working out at RSF, cooking, and singing.

Tom Pollard

Job Titles:
  • Visiting Professor
Thomas Pollard graduated from Pomona College in 1964 with honors in Chemistry and Zoology. At Harvard Medical School he began to investigate cellular motility. After a medical internship at the Massachusetts General Hospital, three years as a Staff Associate at the National Institutes of Health provided training biochemistry. As a faculty member at Harvard Medical School (1972-1978), Johns Hopkins Medical School (1978-1996), Salk Institute (1996-2001) and Yale University (2001-2021), his research group focused on the molecular basis of cellular motility and cytokinesis. His laboratory discovered and characterized proteins that produce forces for cells to move including the first unconventional myosin (myosin-I), Arp2/3 complex and capping protein, all originally isolated from Acanthamoeba. They combined microscopy, biochemistry, biophysics, molecular biology and mathematical modeling to provide the quantitative evidence required to formulate and test a detailed molecular explanation for how Arp2/3 complex stimulates the assembly of branched actin filaments that produce forces for cellular movements and endocytosis. They combined quantitative measurements of the time course of the appearance and disappearance of the participating proteins at site of endocytosis in fission yeast with mathematical modeling to confirm the molecular details and physics of the force-producing process.

Toret, Christopher P.

Job Titles:
  • Biological Data Scientist II, Eikon Therapeutics

Toshima, Jiro

Job Titles:
  • Research Specialist, University of California, Berkeley

Vinh, Dani

Job Titles:
  • Scientist I, Allen Institute for Cell Science, Link

Weiss, Eric

Job Titles:
  • Researcher, Tohoku University, Japan

Welch, Matthew

Job Titles:
  • Staff Scientist, University of Washington

Ye, Anna

Job Titles:
  • Scientist, Hexagon

Yidi Sun

Job Titles:
  • Specialist

Yui Iwamoto

Job Titles:
  • Graduate Student
Yui is a MCB graduate student and is also a joint student in the lab of Jim Hurley.

Zane Bergman

Job Titles:
  • Specialist