Faculty and Staff

Faculty

Michael R. Garrett, PhD, MBA
Director, Mammalian Genetics and Genomics

Dr. Garrett has extensive experience in molecular biology, animal models of disease, and genetic and genomics techniques. As core director, he is responsible for meeting with research investigators, aiding in the design of experiments, providing oversight of technical staff and training, evaluating equipment needs, and conducting seminars to educate and promote core capabilities. Aside from his role as core director, he has an active research program involving studying the genetics of complex disease including hypertension, kidney disease, and diabetes

• Chair and Professor, Cell and Molecular Biology
• Director, Molecular Center for Health and Disease

D. Ashley Robinson, PhD
Associate Director, Microbial Genetics and Genomics

Dr. Robinson has extensive experience in molecular microbiology and bacterial population genetics. He leads an active research program that studies genetic and genomic variation in pathogenic staphylococci and streptococci. As core associate director, he consults with researchers on the design and analysis of projects that involve microbial sequencing, including whole genome sequencing, amplicon and transposon sequencing, and microbiome sequencing projects.

Staff

Isolation, Sample QC, and Genotyping Services

Eric aids researchers in the sample submission process, logging projects into the laboratory management system, isolation and quality control of nucleic acids (RNA and DNA), genotyping, performing quantitative real-time PCR, and assisting in NGS library preparation. In addition, Eric handles orders and supplies for the Genomics Core Facility.

Next Generation Sequencing Services

Ashley's duties include overseeing several genomic technology platforms in the MGCF and is experienced in performing multiple next-generation sequencing  (NGS) methodologies, including RNA sequencing, whole genome sequencing, amplicon sequencing/panels, methylation sequencing, single cell transcriptome analysis, and whole viral sequencing of SARS-CoV-2. Ashley also helps with consultations for multiple assays within the Genomics Core.

Wenjie's duties include performing quantitative real-time PCR and multiple next-generation sequencing  (NGS) methodologies, including RNA sequencing, small RNA sequencing, single cell transcriptome analysis, and whole viral sequencing of SARS-CoV-2.

Jackie Starrett, MLS(ASCP)
Researcher IV

Jackie's duties include aiding researchers in the sample submission process, logging projects into the laboratory management system, isolation and quality control of nucleic acids (RNA and DNA), genotyping, performing quantitative real-time PCR, and preforming NGS library preparation and sequencing on multiple instruments. Assay development and deployment along with consultation with investigators round out her duties.

Nikaela Aitken, MS
Scientist II

Nikaela's duties include aiding researchers in the sample submission process, logging projects into the laboratory management system, isolation and quality control of nucleic acids (RNA and DNA), genotyping, performing quantitative real-time PCR, and preforming NGS library preparation and sequencing. Assay development and investigator consultations are duties as well.

Clinical and Translational Services

Jake R. Johnston, MS, MB(ASCP)
Molecular Pathology Specialist

Jake's short-term responsibilities will be to update, establish, and document NGS applications and laboratory protocols and procedures to establish the MGCF as a high complexity CLIA (Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments) certified laboratory. Subsequently, the MGCF will implement select genetic tests that can aid in clinical patient care and translational research. He is experienced with clinical lab start up and development, along with developing and validating high complexity clinical assays.

Bioinformatics

Dr. Challagundla is involved in performing standard and custom bioinformatics analysis of large genomic datasets generated in the MGCF. She is experienced in multiple programming languages (R, Bash, Perl and Python), along with multiple analysis pipelines, including metagenomics, RNA sequencing, and data visualization of complex biological data.

Shanzida is responsible for performing bioinformatics analysis (Bulk-RNA sequencing, Single Cell RNA sequencing, Expression quantitative treat loci (eQTL) analysis,etc) of large genomic datasets generated in the MGCF. She is experienced in various programming languages including Python, R, Bash in addition to various data visualization tools such as Cytoscape and Tableau.

UNIX System Administration

Taylor Fleming, Comptia A+, Network+, Security+, CySA+, CASP+
UNIX System Administrator

Taylor is responsible for administering our on-site High-Performance Computing Cluster (HPCC) along with working hand in hand with our Bioinformatics team as they process through multiple projects. He is also experienced in Unix and Windows System Administration, as well as shell scripting.