Lab Personnel
Ashley W. Seifert (PI)
Professor
awseifert@uky.edu
Brianda López-Aviña
PhD Student
brianda.lavina@uky.edu
Collaborators
Malcolm Maden (pictured left in photo with Paul Martin). Professor of Biology, Department of Biology, University of Florida. Malcolm served as my postdoctoral adviser, mentor, tennis partner, and is a renowned regeneration and developmental biologist. Malcolm and I collaborate intellectually on multiple aspects of regeneration. Paul Martin was instrumental in helping inform my early work with spiny mice and conducts wound healing and regeneration research across a broad array of animals.
Spiny mouse consortium. With more biologists adopting spiny mice to study regeneration, reproduction and behavior, a spiny mouse community has begun taking shape. With a genome sequencing project complete, (see resources page) we continue to expand our molecular toolbox and look forward to a lifetime of productive collaborations. An ever-expanding list includes over 50 researchers worldwide.
Stephen G. Kiama Vice Chancellor, University of Nairobi and Professor of Veterinary Anatomy and Physiology, Department of Veterinary Anatomy and Physiology, University of Nairobi. Dr. Kiama and I are collaborating (with Vanessa Ezenwa) on research that tests how biases in immunity impacts regeneration in African spiny mice. As a visiting professor in the Department of Anatomy and Physiology I advise graduate students with Dr. Kiama working on wound healing and regeneration in mammals. We are also working together to develop opportunities that can bridge the gap between biomedical research in East Africa and the United States.
Sarah Calve (pictured at left) Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering, UC Boulder. Dr. Calve and I share an interest in how the extracellular matrix can control cell behavior in the context of development, repair and regeneration. Sarah has been developing new methods to visualize the matrix in whole embryos and in different injury paradigms. We are currently exploring how the extracellular matrix may control the regenerative response in African spiny mice.
Vanessa Ezenwa Professor, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Yale University. Dr. Ezenwa and I collaborate (with Dr. Kiama) to examine how inflammation and immunity affect regenerative ability in wild populations of African spiny mice.
Adrian C. Stier (right) is an ecologist & marine biologist and Bret Pasch (center) is a mammalogist & vertebrate biologist. We've mastered the art of work and play together and collaborated on several projects since graduate school. Recently Adrian and I began working together to look at tissue repair and regeneration in stony corals.
Ajoy Aloysius
Research Scientist
aaloysius@uky.edu
Robyn Allen
Postdoctoral Scholar
robynsallen@uky.edu
Josh Sarli
Lab Coordinator
Joshua.Sarli@uky.edu
ALUMNI
Jennifer Simkin (postdoc 2015-18) - Current Position; Assistant Professor, Department Microbiology, Immunology & Molecular Genetics, Univ. of Kentucky
Adam Cook (MSc 2015) - Current Position; IT Security Specialist, Silver Springs, Maryland
Ebenezer Aryee
PhD Student
Ebenezer.Aryee@uky.edu
Thomas Gawriluk (postdoc 2014-18) - Current Position; Scientist Enepret Inc., Lexington Kentucky
Luc Dunoyer (PhD 2019) - Current Position; Assistant Professor, Wake Tech Community College, Raleigh, North Carolina
Sruthi Purushothaman (PhD 2020) - Current Position; Postdoctoral Scholar with Freda Miller, University of British Columbia
Joe Davis
Artist/Scientist
Honorary Lab Member
Sandeep Saxena (PhD 2021) - Current Position; Postdoctoral Scholar with Fabio Rossi and Freda Miller, University of British Columbia
Shishir Biswas (PhD 2021) - Current Position; Postdoctoral Scholar with Elizabeth Duncan, University of Kentucky
Renee Donahue
Research Scientist
renee.donahue@uky.edu
Emilio Oviedo Rivadeneira
PhD Student
e.oviedo.r@uky.edu
Brynn Martin
Undergraduate Researcher
Katarina Medger (postdoc 2020-22) - Current Position; Data Scientist
Fatemeh Safaee (MSc 2022) - Current Position - in transition
Brennan Riddell
PhD Student
blri233@g.uky.edu
Gia Figlioli
Undergraduate Researcher
(former graduate students and postdocs)
Harshini Sureshkumar (PhD 2023) - Current Position - Postdoctoral Associate with Anjelica Gonzalez, Yale University
Carla Rothlin and Sourav Ghosh are biologists of the highest caliber and co-direct a laboratory at Yale. Carla is the Dorys McConnell Duberg Professor of Immunobiology and Professor of Pharmacology and Co-Leader of Cancer Immunology at the Yale Cancer Center and Sourav is an Associate Professor of Neurology and Pharmacology at Yale. We share an interest in trying to better understand how the inflammatory response is regulated during injury to positively affect tissue repair and regeneration. Our collaborative work addresses this problem by studying macrophage behavior.
Luke Preston
Undergraduate Researcher
Ava Musarra
Research Technician
ammu266@g.uky.edu