Lab Members
Wet lab phone: (831) 459-1014
Sofie Salama
Acting Professor, Department of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology, Director of Genomics Institute Diversity committee
Scientific Director, UC Santa Cruz Genomics Institute, Scientific Co-Director, California Institute for Quantitative Biosciences (QB3)
Trainnees
Quinn Brail
“My research is focused on unveiling the interplay between pediatric brain tumors, and the patient’s developing brain. My main approach is through the development of organoid based models. In my free time I grow food, explore mountain ranges, and practice Qi Gong.”
Cesar Cortinas
undergrad
Kivilcim Doganyigit
Grad student
“I work on control systems and reaction ware to make highly parallelized cell culture without the constraints of bulky equipment and human labor. I am studying the effects of microglia-like cells in cerebral cortex organoids.”
Neil Doherty
Christopher Nguyen
Grad Student
“I am a first-year master’s student, and I primarily research organoid electrophysiology. I am interested in neuronal network states and behavior, like synchronous bursting or slow-wave oscillations. When I’m not in lab, I enjoy eating new foods.”
Ivana Pačar
PhD student
“First-year PhD student interested in using organoids as a model to investigate the complexities of stem cell behavior and how it interconnects with NOTCH2NL to influence human brain development. Outside the lab, I love everything related to sports, especially biking, and taekwondo.”
Yeison Samayoa
Undergrad
My name is Yeison and I am a third-year undergraduate in Molecular, Cell, and Developmental Biology. I work with Kristof on his research with retrotransposons. I enjoy playing soccer and take photos with my camera when I get the chance.
Starlet Sanchez
undergrad
Spencer Seiler
PostDoc
Ph.D. graduate student of Biomolecular Engineering in the Haussler-Salama Lab. Spencer specializes in microfluidic automation technologies specialized in supporting the growth and maintenance of human cerebral organoid cultures. Spencer is responsible for system designs and architecture, microfluidic fabrication, automation software, stem cell culture protocol development, RNA sequencing, and RNA bioinformatics. The projects Spencer is pursuing are: the development of multiplexed automated organoid control platforms (Autoculture), the generation of a non-disruptive exosomal liquid biopsy, the integration of microfluidics in electrophysiology recordings for drug studies, and optimizing the metabolic state of the cerebral organoid model.
Taylorlyn Stephan
PhD Student
“My advisosrs are Sofie Salama and Ed Green. My Project: Ancestral Cerebral Organoids: Genetic Editing of Neanderthal and Denisovan Alleles into Human Stem Cell Models”
Kateryna Voitiuk
PostDoc
Kateryna Voitiuk (Kate) is a Ph.D. candidate in Bioinformatics. She is curious about how the brain processes information from the bottom up. Kate engineers hardware, software, and microfluidic devices to study neural activity in 3D stem-cell-derived organoid and connectoid models.
Viktor Yurevych
Graduate Student
“Hi, my name is Viktor and I’m a graduate student at the Haussler-Salama Lab and Braingeneers. My work revolves around transcriptomics of the organoid systems we use in our research and development of liquid biopsy approaches to investigate cell differentiation and metabolism.”