LAB ALUMNI
ELSA QUILLIN
Research Assistant
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Previous training: B.S., College of William and Mary. Elsa joined the lab in Summer 2023 as a research technician. Originally from Ocean City, MD, Elsa studied neuroscience and biochemistry at William and Mary and completed her honors thesis on the effects of scopolamine in a zebrafish model. In lab, she worked on many projects, including regualtion of extracellular matrix by astrocyte clocks. She joined the Neuroscience PhD program at UCSD in 2025.
MICHELLE LI
Undergraduate student
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Michelle is from Livingston, NJ and joined the lab in 2022 as a sophomore at Washington University. She studies computational biology and has worked on human circadian blood transcriptomics in Alzheimer's Disease in a collaboration with Dr. Laura Ibañez. She is currently working with Collin Nadarajah, investigating the effect of C4 knockout on neuroinflammation and AD pathology in mouse models. She graduated from WashU in 2025 and headed to NYC to work in a clinic while applying to medical school.
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GERRY KRESS, PhD
Former position: Instructor in Neurology
Current position: Assistant Professor, Dept. of Neurology, Washington Univ. School of Medicine
Gerry joined the lab after completing a successful post-doc in the lab of Dr. James Surmeier at Northwestern. In our lab, she published an important first-author J Exp Med paper showing that Bmal1 deletion alters amyloid-beta dynamics and plaque deposition. She received a K01 award from the NIA, and now has her own R01-funded lab at here at WashU.
JENNIFER LAWRENCE
Former position: Ph.D. Student- Neuroscience
Previous training: B.S., Univ. of Delaware. Jen joined the lab in Spring 2020 as a PhD student in Neuroscience. She grew up in Newport News, VA, and was a Fulbright Scholar and NSF GRFP awardee. She studied the blood-brain barrier (BBB) and neuroinflammation, and found that inflammatory BBB breakdown was highly dependent on light and time of day. She graduated from WashU in 2024 and is now working as a scientist at BPGbio in Massachusetts.
JIYEON LEE, PhD
Former Position: Postdoctoral Associate
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Previous training: Ph.D., Seoul National University. Jiyeon joined the lab in Spring 2019. She majored in Circadian biology and completed Ph.D training in Dr. Kyungjin Kim's laboratory at Seoul National University, and at Asan Medical Center. Her research is focused on a role of circadian molecules, especially REV-ERBα, in Alzheimer's disease. She discovered novel roles for microlgial REV-ERBs in the regulation of lipid droplets, and astrocyte REV-ERBs in controlling brain NAD+ levels. She completed her postdoc in 2024 and departed for a position at Ajou University Medical School in South Korea.
ASHA PATEL
Former position: Undergraduate student
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Originally from Hillsborough, NJ, Asha joined the lab as a sophomore in 2021. She worked with Jen Lawrence on projects related to the roles that glial cells and neuroinflammation play in the development of AD in mouse models. She graduated Washington University in 2024 and is headed to medical school in 2025.
SOPHIE JACOB
Former position: Undergraduate student
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Originally from Palo Alto, CA, Sophie worked in the lab as an undergraduate researcher from 2021-2024, when she gradauted from Washington University. She worked with Melvin King on microglia in synclein models. She is now headed to graduate school.
CELIA MCKEE
Former Position: Ph.D. Student - Neuroscience
Current Position: Postdoctoral Research, Merck
Previous training: B.A., Vassar College. Celia joined the lab in Spring 2018 as a PhD student in Neuroscience. As a tech at Duke University and the University of Virginia, she has studied retinal neurodegeneration, traumatic brain injury, and meningeal lymphatic function. As a PhD student Celia studied how astrocyte Bmal1 regulated amyloid-beta pathology and lysosomal function. In 2023 she graduated an took a research position at Merck.
ADYA DHULER
Former Position: Research Technician
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Previous Training: B.A., Washington University. Adya hails from India and attended Washington University for undergradute training, graduating in spring 2022. He joined the lab as a research technician in summer 2022 and worked with us for a year before heading off to medical school.
PATRICK SHEEHAN
Former Position: Ph.D. Student - Neuroscience
Current Position: Postdoctoral Fellow, Dori Schafer lab, UMass Chan School of Medicine
Previous training: B.S., Clarion University. Pat joined the lab in Spring 2018 as a PhD student in Neuroscience. Pat had previous research experience at Brandeis University and the NIH prior to coming to WashU. As a PhD student, Pat studied the effect of Bmal1 deletion on tau and alpha-synuclein pathology, and circadian transcrptional profiling of astrocytes and microglia in mouse AD and aging models. In 2022 he moved on to Dori Schafer's lab at UMass Medical School for his postdoctoral work.
MICHAEL KANAN
Former Position: Research Technician
Current Position: Medical Student, SLU School of Medicine
Previous training: B.A., St. Louis Univ. Michael worked in the lab as an undergraduate for two summers, studying the impact of Bmal1 deletion on alpha-synuclein pathology. He then joined the lab as a technician in August 2019. He grew up in Detroit and Chesterfield, MO. In 2022 he returned to St. Louis University, now as a medical student.
LUCY COHEN
Former Position: Undergraduate Researcher
Lucy hails from Clayton, MO, and worked an undergraduate student at Washington University from 2018-2020. She joined the lab as a sophomore, and has worked with Jacob Basak and Pat Sheehan on projects related to neuroinflammation. She graduated in 2021 and is now pursuing further research and plans to for graduate school.
SHIRLEY CAI
Former Position: Undergraduate Researcher
Originally from China, Shirley joined the lab as a sophomore at Washington University. She worked on astrocyte circadian clocks, first with Brian Lananna, and more recently with Celia McKee and Jen Lawrence. She graduated in 2021 and joined the lab of Dr. Dennis Selkoe at Harvard as a technician. In 2023 she started as a Neuroscience PhD student at Columbia.
PERCY GRIFFIN, PhD
Former Position: Ph.D. Student, Molecular Cell Biology
Current Position: Director of Scientific Engagement, Alzheimer's Association
Percy was the second PhD student to graduate from the lab, successfully defending his thesis in June 2020. His thesis work focused on regulation of neuroinflammation (Griffin P et al, PNAS, 2019) and microglial synaptic phagocytosis (Griffin P et al, eLife, 2020) by the circadian REV-ERB proteins. He was a recipient of an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship.
ASHLEY DODD
Former Position: Research Technician
Current Position: Psychometrics researcher, Hassenstab Lab, WashU
Ashley worked as a technician in the lab from early 2020 until summer 2021. She studyed the effects of novel therapeutic agents in mouse models of AD. She moved on to join Jason Hassenstab in the Kinght ADRC to pursue her interest in neuropsychology.
JACOB BASAK, MD, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow, Anesthesiology
Current position: Assistant Professor, Univ. of Colorado School of Medicine
Previous training: B.A., Univ. of Chicago; MD and PhD, Washington University MSTP, Residency in Anesthesiology, Barnes Jewish Hospital. Jacob joined the lab in Summer 2017, and spent 18 months in lab. His research interests focus on dementia and cognitive impairment after critical illness. He departed in Summer 2019 for a faculty position at the Univ. of Colorado. His work from the lab on experimental sepsis and amyloid plaque deposition was published in 2020.
BRIAN LANANNA, PhD
Former position: PhD student, Neuroscience.
Current position: Postdoctoral Fellow, Lab of Dr. Shin-Ichiro Imai, WashU.
Brian was the first graduate student to join the lab, and successfully defended in April 2019. His work demonstrated that Bmal1 regulates astrocyte activation (Lananna et al, Cell Rep, 2018), and that the AD biomarker Chi3l1/YKL-40 is clock-controlled and influences glial activation and AD pathogenesis in mice and humans (Lananna et al, STM, 2020). He stayed on at WashU to pursue post-doc training on his primary interest, aging, in the lab of Dr. Shin Imai. While in the lab, he was the recipient of the 2018 John E. Majors award from the Dept. of Biochemistry.
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MICHELLE CEDENO
Former position: Research Technician
Current position:Design Strategist Consultant, Boston Consulting Group
DAVID XIONG, MD
Former position: Research Technician
Current position: Dermatology Resident, Case Western Reserve University Hospitals
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LAURA QI, MD
Former position: Research Technician
Current position: Neurology Resident, Univ. of Missouri
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