NARLA
LAB
ABOUT THE NARLA LAB
Dr. Goutham Narla, M.D., Ph.D., Principal Investigator
Goutham Narla, M.D., Ph.D., is the Division Chief of Genetic Medicine in the Department of Medicine at the University of Michigan.
Dr. Goutham Narla earned his BS in Biology and Economics from Santa Clara University in California and his MD and Ph.D. from Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York. He also completed his residency in Internal Medicine and fellowship in Medical Genetics at Mount Sinai. After finishing his fellowship, he moved to Ohio in 2012 to work at Case Western Reserve University (CWRU), where he later became an Associate Professor with tenure. In July 2018, he joined the faculty at Michigan Medicine to become the seventh Chief of the Division of Genetic Medicine since the division’s inception in 1977.
Dr. Narla has held several leadership positions, particularly focusing on education and training, both at Mount Sinai and CWRU. At Mount Sinai, he served as the Director of the Physician-Scientist Training Residency Program, Assistant Program Director of the Medical Scientist Training Program (MSTP), and was a member of the Medical School Admissions Committee. At CWRU, Dr. Narla sat on the MSTP Steering Committee and the Pharmacology Steering Committee. In 2012, he was named the first Harrington Distinguished Scholar (Early Career Award). He is currently the President of The Young Scientist Foundation, and a member of the American Association for Cancer Research and the American Society for Clinical Investigation. Currently, he serves as an associate director for the MSTP program at the University of Michigan.
Linda Howell, Administrative Specialist
Linda Howell, Administrative Specialist, joined the Division of Genetic Medicine in May 2018. Linda began her career at Michigan Medicine in May of 2001 as an Administrative Assistant Senior in the Division of Hematology/Oncology. When Dr. Narla joined the University of Michigan as the Chief of Genetic Medicine in May 2018, Linda became a valuable part of his team. Linda coordinates activity of the division and academically supports Dr. Narla.
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Dr. Caitlin O’Connor, Ph.D., Research Fellow
Caitlin O’Connor is a Research Fellow in the Narla Lab with a Ph.D. from the Pharmacology Department at Case Western Reserve University. She earned her undergraduate degree at Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota earning a B.A. in Biochemistry and Biophysics with a minor in Biology. After graduation, she worked as an Analytical Chemist at Pace Analytical Life Sciences where she worked in the raw materials group. Here, she performed a wide variety of testing for pharmaceutical products and served as a technical lead for the group. Caitlin joined Dr. Narla’s lab in December of 2013.
Dr. Stephanie Tseng-Rogenski, Ph.D., Associate Research Scientist
Stephanie obtained her B.S. degree from Taipei Medical University, Taiwan, majoring in Medical Technology. Subsequently, she graduated from The Ohio State University with a Ph.D. degree in Molecular Genetics. Her Ph.D. dissertation is composed of characterization of two RNA helicases in yeast. After graduating, she completed her post-doctoral fellowship and accumulated research experience in the fields of Tumor Immunology and Cancer Biology in the Department of Urology and Internal Medicine at the University of Michigan. She joined the Narla Lab in June 2023. Currently, her research focuses on delineating mechanisms behind drug resistant in lung cancer cell model.
Irene Peris Martínez, Ph.D., Postdoctoral Fellow
Irene previously joined the Narla Lab in 2021 from her lab at the Universidad de Navarra, in her hometown of Pamplona, Spain as a visiting scholar. Irene has experience in biomedical research, mainly focused on the study of acute myeloid leukemias (AML). She considers herself a proactive person with great observation and collaboration skills. She is interested in contributing to the expansion of knowledge in AML in order to provide new information that could improve the diagnosis and prognosis of patients with this disease.
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Dr. Jiang Hu, Ph.D., Lab Technician
Jiang Hu, Ph.D., is a Lab Technician in Dr. Goutham Narla’s laboratory. Jiang earned his doctoral degree from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, with a multi-disciplinary training both in Biomedical Science and Biomedical Engineering. Jiang finished his postdoctoral training at the Department of Biologic and Materials Sciences, University of Michigan Dental School. Jiang has extensive research experience in Regenerative Medicine and Cell Therapy.
Kaitlin P. Zawacki, B.S., Research Lab Specialist
Kaitlin received her BS in Biomedical Science from Grand Valley State University. Since then she gained six years of experience as a Technical Service Specialist in ULAM as well as an additional six years of experience designing and running animal research studies for labs. For the Narla Lab, Kaitlin leads in-vivo studies and manages the lab’s Transgenic Colony.
Matt Hinderman, B.S., Research Lab Specialist Intermediate
Matt is a Research Lab Specialist Intermediate in the Narla lab. He received his BS in Animal Science from the University of Wisconsin-Platteville. He began his career at the University of Michigan with the Unit for Laboratory Animal Medicine (ULAM) where he was a Supervisor of Animal Care for many years. While in ULAM he received certification as a Laboratory Animal Technologist through the American Association for Laboratory Animal Science. His current role within the lab is largely based on in vivo animal studies.
Gabrielle Hodges Onishi, B.S., Research Lab Specialist
Gabrielle earned her undergraduate degree at the University of Michigan in Biology and History. During that time she worked in Max Wicha's Breast Cancer Stem Cell Lab. Her interests include cancer, immunology, travel, and teaching.
Kelsey Barrie, B.S., Research Lab Specialist
Kelsey earned her undergraduate degree in Zoology from Michigan State University. After working for almost ten years in companion animal veterinary medicine, Kelsey spent four years working with the UofM Unit for Laboratory Animal Medicine including a year in the ULAM Breeding Colony. Her current roles include managing the Narla lab Transgenic colony and assisting in in-vivo studies.
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Brynne Raines, Graduate Research Assistant
Brynne is a Ph.D. candidate in the Cellular and Molecular Biology Program at the University of Michigan. She earned her undergraduate degree at the University of Michigan earning a B.S. in Cellular and Molecular Biology with a minor in Biological Anthropology. Following graduation, Brynne worked as a Lab Manager and Research Technician in Dr. Natalie Tronson's lab studying learning and memory. Brynne joined Dr. Narla's lab in January 2020. In the lab, she is focused on identifying mechanisms by which inactivation of protein phosphatase 2A (PPA) influences resistance to anti-cancer drugs, specifically those targeting the MAPK and PI3K/AKT pathways in KRAS-mutant cancers.
Terrance J. Haanen III, Graduate Research Assistant
Terrance is a Ph.D. candidate in the Cancer Biology Department at the University of Michigan. He earned his undergraduate degree at California State University, San Marcos in Biochemistry. After graduation, he applied to the University of Michigan through the Program in Biomedical Sciences. Terrance joined Dr. Narla’s lab in January of 2020. His thesis work seeks to decipher the functional role of recurrent PP2A A mutations on endometrial metastasis.
Brian Tran, Graduate Research Assistant
Brian Tran is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Pharmacology at the University of Michigan. As an undergraduate at the University of California, San Diego, he earned his B.S. in Biochemistry and Cell Biology. Upon graduating, Brian worked as a Research Associate at Viking Therapeutics, a small biotechnology company based in San Diego, CA where he worked with the chemistry, manufacturing, and controls team. After a few years in the industry, he joined the Narla Lab as a graduate student focusing on mechanisms by which PP2A can modulate N-Myc expression in N-Myc driven malignancies.
Alexis Harold, Graduate Research Assistant
Alexis Harold is a second-year Ph.D. Student in the Cancer Biology Program. She earned her undergraduate degree from the University of Pittsburgh earning a B.S. in Biological Sciences with minors in Chemistry and Mediterranean Art and Archaeology. In her undergraduate career, Alexis worked in labs researching Merkel cell polyomavirus-associated human Merkel cell carcinoma and breast cancer. She joined Dr. Narla’s lab in the Spring of 2021 and is currently researching the role of PP2A in hormone receptor positive breast cancer in response to SMAP treatment.
Charles Nino, Graduate Research Assistant
Charles Nino is a Ph.D. Candidate in the Cellular and Molecular Biology Program at the University of Michigan. He earned his undergraduate degree at the University of Michigan in Biochemistry. In his undergraduate career, Charles worked on the optimization and modeling of novel chemotherapeutic strategies in the lab of Dr. Brian Ross. After graduation Charles began his graduate studies in the Medical Scientist Training Program at the University of Michigan in 2018 and joined Dr. Narla's lab in August 2022. In the lab, Charles is focused on understanding the underlying biology behind recurrent and non-recurrent PP2A A mutations and their implications in human disease.
Sophie Boock, Research Assistant
Sophie Boock is from Los Angeles, California. She recently graduated from the University of Michigan, obtaining her B.S. in Biopsychology, Cognition, and Neuroscience. She joined the Narla Lab in 2021 and currently works alongside Terrance to decipher the functional role of recurrent PP2A Aa mutations on endometrial metastasis. Outside of the lab, Sophie volunteers at a local Ann Arbor elementary school as a tutor and enjoys hiking and yoga.
Amanda Dowdican, Research Assistant
Amanda recently graduated from the University of Michigan with a B.S. in Biochemistry and minors in Medical Anthropology and Music. She works in the lab with Alexis on her ER positive breast cancer studies and A alpha deep mutational screen. In the next few years, she hopes to pursue an MD-PhD to continue studying and treating cancer. Outside of the lab, she enjoys music and running.
Miranda Giambi, Undergraduate Student
Miranda is a sophomore at the University of Michigan majoring in Neuroscience and minoring in Medical Anthropology. She joined the Narla lab her freshman year through the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program and is currently working on a Transgenic Mouse Study to analyze PP2A related protein expression in Aa knockout mice. Outside of the lab, Miranda is a part of the Steering Leadership body of the nonprofit “Dance Marathon at the University of Michigan”, the Secretary of the University’s Delight Christian Ministry, and an active member of the Kappa Delta sorority.
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Erika Hanson, Clinical Research Coordinator
Erika has a BA in Biochemistry from Smith College. She assists in analyzing the clinical side of the data from the patient samples used in the lab. From that she looks at correlations between genetic mutations and outcomes, mutations and drug efficacy,and other data points to better understand the patient outcomes for our research.
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Anthony Ventura, Lab Manager
Anthony, the lab manager, comes from a non-science related background. He has several years of experience in customer relations, marketing, and management in various industries. By Anthony taking care of the day to day management of the lab, it allows lab members to be able to solely focus on their research. Bringing a unique outside perspective he has helped to implement processes that allow the lab to function in a smooth and efficient manner.