Lab Members

Principal Investigator

  • David Sherwood

Lab Manager

  • Qiuyi Chi

Research Scientist

  • Laura Kelley

Postdoctoral Fellows

  • Ranjay Jayadev
  • William Ramos-Lewis
  • Sandra Vergara (visiting NIEHS fellow)

Graduate Students

  • Aastha Garde
  • Sara Payne
  • Dan Costa
  • Claire Gianakas
  • Isabel Kenny
  • Peter (Kieop) Park
  • Sandy Srinivasan
  • Aubrie Stricker (Honorary Grad Student)

Undergraduate Students

  • Ryan Sellers ’21
  • David Chan ’21
  • Delaney Graham ’22
  • Sebastian Ochoa ’23
  • Alina Feng ’23

High School Students

 

 

 

David Sherwood-Principal Investigator

David was an undergraduate at Illinois Wesleyan University and the University of Durham in England where he received a degree in Biology and worked on insect physiology.  He received his PhD from Duke University in lab of Prof. David McClay identifying and studying the role of the Notch receptor in early sea urchin development. He …

Qiuyi Chi-Lab Manager

Qiuyi graduated from the nursing program of Huai Ying Medical College in 1980.  She worked as a registered nurse for the next 15 years.  When she came to the US in 2001, she started her career as a research technician in Dr. Matsunami’s lab at Duke University studying chemosensation.  She became a member of the …

Laura Kelley-Research Scientist

Laura was an undergraduate at Chapman University in Orange, Ca, where she majored in exercise physiology before earning a MS degree from Cal State University, East Bay, in Kinesiology. She then completed her PhD at West Virginia University in the laboratory of Scott Weed where she studied the role of kinases in cancer cell invasion. …

Ranjay Jayadev-Postdoctoral Fellow

Ranjay graduated from the National University of Singapore with a B.S. in Life Sciences.  As an undergraduate, he spent two years in Maki Murata-Hori’s laboratory studying the regulation of alpha-actinin dynamics during mammalian cytokinesis.  Post graduation, he worked with Snezhana Oliferenko, gaining an appreciation for fission yeast genetics.  Ranjay entered Duke through the Cell & …

Sandra Vergara-Postdoctoral Fellow

Sandra obtained a B.S. in Microbiology and Cell Science with a minor in French from the University of Florida. While at UF, she worked in the laboratories of Dr. Stephen Gluck at Shands Hospital and Dr. Shannon Holiday at the School of Dentistry identifying interacting partners of yeast and mammalian V-ATPase subunits. She received her …

Will Ramos-Lewis-Postdoctoral Fellow

Will got his start in science studying mitotic spindle dynamics in Kerry Bloom’s laboratory at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he graduated with a B.S. in Biology.  He went on to join Andrea Page-McCaw’s laboratory at Vanderbilt University, where he characterized how epidermal basement membrane repairs in Drosophila. After earning his …

Aastha Garde-Graduate Student

Aastha received her B.A in Molecular & Cell Biology and Integrative Biology from the University of California Berkeley in 2015. As an undergraduate researcher in Ellen Simms’ lab, she studied the promiscuity in the symbiotic relationship between Nostocalean cyanobacteria and their Hornwort hosts. She was an Undergraduate student instructor and taught Human Anatomy lab with …

Sara Payne-Graduate Student

Sara graduated from Barnard College with a B.A. in Biological Sciences and a minor in Spanish and Latin American Cultures.  As an undergraduate, she spent two years in Krista McGuire’s laboratory evaluating the diversity and dynamics of soil fungi in urban ecosystems.  Upon graduation, she worked with Teresa Bowman as a research technician studying zebrafish …

Isabel Kenny-Graduate Student

  Isabel received her double major in Biology and Psychology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. During her time as an undergraduate, she worked in Shawn Ahmed’s lab studying C. elegans and Adult Reproductive Diapause, a form of suspended animation caused by starvation. After graduating, she worked for the company 23andMe, before …

Claire Gianakas-Graduate Student

Claire received her B.S. in Chemical and Biomedical Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University in 2017. As an undergraduate she worked in Dr. William de Groat’s lab at the University of Pittsburgh where she studied how ATP released from the urothelium contributes to the initiation of inflammatory responses in the urinary bladder during endotoxin-induced cystitis. After …

Dan Costa-Graduate Student

Dan received his BS in Biology with a minor in chemistry from SUNY Potsdam. As an undergraduate he worked with Gordon Plague’s lab studying how IS elements mediate evolution. After graduation Dan joined Duke’s CMB graduate program and affiliated with Cell Biology. Starting off, Dan’s efforts in the lab resulted in a transcriptome of the …

Sandy Srinivasan-Graduate Student

Sandy Srinivasan grew up in Chennai, India. She went to undergrad at UW Madison, where she studied Genetics and Computer Science. During her  undergrad, she studied the maintenance of chromatin modifications in Arabidopsis thaliana under Dr. Xuehua Zhong and CAR T cell CRISPR editing under Dr. Krishanu Saha. After graduation, she joined Duke with the …

Kieop (Peter) Park-Graduate Student

  Peter graduated from University of California, Berkeley in 2017 with a major in microbial biology. While at Berkeley, Peter worked as an undergraduate researcher in the laboratory of Dr. Krishna Niyogi. There, he studied the algaenan secondary wall of an algal species Nannochloropsis oceanica. After graduation, as a post-undergraduate researcher, Peter joined the laboratory …

Aubrie Stricker-Honorary Sherwood Lab Graduate Student

Aubrie graduated from the University of Kansas in 2019 with a BS in Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology. As an undergraduate, she worked in the lab of Dr. Erik Lundquist studying neuron development. After graduation, Aubrie entered Vanderbilt University through the Interdisciplinary Graduate Program and joined Andrea Page-McCaw’s lab, where her graduate work focuses on …

Alina Feng-Undergraduate Student

Alina is a sophomore originally from the Bay Area, California studying Biology and Statistics at Duke. She is currently studying the role of MMPs during cell invasion. Outside of the lab, she loves to read, hike, and explore new places!

Ryan Sellers-Undergraduate Student

  Ryan is a senior originally from Raeford, North Carolina. At Duke, he is a Rubenstein Scholar and is majoring in Biology with double minors in Neuroscience and Chemistry. He is currently writing his senior thesis on basement membrane-basement membrane interactions. When not in the lab, Ryan enjoys running with his dogs, playing soccer, and …

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