Current Trainees
Aryana Razmara
VSTP, PhD3
amrazmara@ucdavis.edu
Graduate Group: Immunology
Major Professor: Dr. Robert Canter
VSTP Advisor: Dr. Sara Thomasy
Research Interests: Comparative Oncology, NK cell therapy, animal models, and clinical trials.
Lizzy Ashley
VSTP, PhD2
lashley@ucdavis.edu
Graduate Group: Epidemiology
Major Professor: Dr. Christine Kreuder Johnson
VSTP Advisor: Dr. Brian Bird
Research Interests: Marine ecosystem health, Quantitative disease ecology, Spatial epidemiology, Wildlife disease modeling, and Social-ecological systems.
Olivia Cords
VSTP, PhD3
ocords@ucdavis.edu
Graduate Group: Epidemiology
Major Professor: Dr. Christine Kreuder Johnson
VSTP Advisor: Dr. Brian Bird
Research Interests: Epidemiology, One Health, and Infectious Disease.
Jenn Cossaboon
VSTP, PhD5
jcossaboon@ucdavis.edu
Graduate Group: Integrative Pathobiology
Major Professor: Dr. Swee Teh
VSTP Advisor: Dr. Brian Leonard
Research Interests: Environmental Toxicology, Endocrine Disruption, Reproductive Health, Aquaculture Techniques, and Medaka.
Brittany Davis
VSTP, PhD1
bpdavis@ucdavis.edu
Graduate Group: Neuroscience
Major Professor: Dr. Pam Lein and Dr. Angie Gelli
VSTP Advisor: Dr. Danika Bannasch
Research Interests: Behavioral Neuroscience, Neurodevelopmental Disorders, Neuroendocrine System, Neuroinflammation, and Neuropharmacology.
Catherine Dombroski
VSTP, PhD1
cdombroski@ucdavis.edu
Graduate Group: Molecular, Cellular, and Integrative Physiology
Major Professor: Dr. Mark Huising
VSTP Advisor: Dr. Damian Genetos
Research Interests: Metabolic Disease, Diabetes, Nutrition, Genetics, and Translational Research.
Ashleigh Flores
VSTP, PhD3
asmflores@ucdavis.edu
Graduate Group: Integrative Pathobiology
Major Professor: Dr. Bart Weimer
VSTP Advisor: Renée M. Tsolis
Research Interests: Enterolithiasis, Small Animal Urolithiasis, the Microbiome, Equine Gastrointestinal Health and Disease, Urinary System Health and Disease
Chase Garcia
VSTP, PhD5
cagar@ucdavis.edu
Graduate Group: Molecular, Cellular, and Integrative Physiology
Major Professor: Dr. Gino Cortopassi
VSTP Advisor: Dr. Brian Leonard
Research Interests: Nutrition, Metabolic Disease, Age-related Disease, and Mitochondrial pathophysiology.
Sophie Gretler
VSTP, PhD2
srgretler@ucdavis.edu
Graduate Group: Pharmacology and Toxicology
Major Professor: Dr. Renée M. Tsolis
VSTP Advisor: Dr. Danika Bannasch
Research Interests: Host-pathogen interaction and host response to infection. Characterization of genes linked to the host specificity of Salmonella strains.
Katherine Griffin
VSTP, PhD5
khgriffin@ucdavis.edu
Graduate Group: Immunology
Major Professor: Dr. Kent Leach
VSTP Advisor: Dr. Aijun Wang
Research Interests: Immunology, Immune signaling, Tissue Engineering, and Orthopedic Surgery.
JuJu Hallum
VSTP, V2
jmhallum@ucdavis.edu
Graduate Group: Integrative Pathobiology
Major Professor: TBD
VSTP Advisor: Dr. Danika Bannasch
Research Interests: Histology, stem cells, hematopoiesis, cancer biology, embryology, comparative histopathology, and general pathology.
Erin Hisey
VSTP, PhD3
eahisey@ucdavis.edu
Graduate Group: Integrative Pathobiology
Major Professor: Dr. Brian Leonard
VSTP Advisor: Dr. Carrie Finno
Research Interests: Ocular surface pathology, lipid biology, gland biology, and Evaporative Dry Eye Disease (EDED).
Ash Jay
VSTP, V4 fall 2024
ashjay@ucdavis.edu
Graduate Group: Integrative Pathobiology
Major Professor: Dr. Wolf Heyer
VSTP Advisor: Dr. Jessica Morgan
Research Interests: Cancer biology, Genomic Instability, and BRCA2.
Daniela Jimenez
VSTP, PhD2
dajimenez@ucdavis.edu
Graduate Group: Immunology
Major Professor: Dr. Christine Toedebusch
VSTP Advisor: Dr. Sara Thomasy
Research Interests: Immunology, Cancer Immunology, Comparative Oncology, brain tumors, glioma associated microglia/macrophages.
Madison Luker
VSTP, PhD2
meluker@ucdavis.edu
Graduate Group: Immunology
Major Professor: Dr. Robert Rebhun
VSTP Advisor: Dr. Sara Thomasy
Research Interests: Comparative and translational oncology, immunotherapy, targeted therapy, cancer immunology.
Devan Murphy
VSTP, V3
devmurphy@ucdavis.edu
Graduate Group: Biochemistry, Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology
Major Professor: Dr. John Albeck
VSTP Advisor: Dr. Jessica Morgan
Research Interests: Signal transduction, live-cell imaging, ERK and NF-kB, Inflammation, and Lung Epithelium.
Raneesh Ramarapu
VSTP, PhD1
rramarapu@ucdavis.edu
Graduate Group: Integrative Pathobiology
Major Professor: TBD
VSTP Advisor: Dr. Carrie Finno
Research Interests: Stem Cell Therapeutics, Opthalmology, Clinical Developmental Biology.
Eleanor (El) Pressman
VSTP, PhD3
empressman@ucdavis.edu
Graduate Group: Animal Biology
Major Professor: Dr. Ermias Kebreab
VSTP Advisor: Dr. Brian Leonard
Research Interests: Environmental impact of animal agriculture, dairy farming, ruminant nutrition, enteric methane and methane-inhibiting feed additives, and mathematical modeling.
Makda Asrat
VSTP, PhD3
masrat@ucdavis.edu
Graduate Group: Integrative Pathobiology
Major Professor: Dr. Fauna Smith
VSTP Advisor: Dr. Carrie Finno
Research Interests: Immune characterization of sheep and goats, reproductive and developmental immunology, field research on novel approaches to prevention and management of infectious diseases of sheep and goats.
Victoria Tobin
VSTP, PhD3 CalTech
vrtobin@ucdavis.edu
Graduate Group: Biology
Major Professor: Dr. Michael Elowitz and Dr. Matt Thomson
VSTP Advisor: Dr. Renée M. Tsolis
Research Interests: Immunology, Comparative Medicine, Bioinformatics and Functional Genomics, CAR T cells, and Synthetic Circuits.
Raymond Zurich
VSTP, V1
rhzurich@ucdavis.edu
Graduate Group: TBD
Major Professor: TBD
VSTP Advisor: Dr. Damian Genetos
Research Interests: Animal Models of Human Disease, Development, Wound Healing and Regeneration, Infectious Diseases.
MJ Marshall
VSTP, PhD1
ejmarshall@ucdavis.edu
Graduate Group: Molecular, Cellular, and Integrative Physiology
Major Professor: Dr. Crystal Rogers
VSTP Advisor: Dr. Damian Genetos
Research Interests: Reproductive biology, developmental biology, environmental toxicology, regenerative medicine, analgesia and anesthesia, molecular biology, corticosteroids, endocrinology.
Matt Kramer
VSTP, V1
mlkramer@ucdavis.edu
Graduate Group: TBD
Major Professor: TBD
VSTP Advisor: Dr. Aijun Wang
Research Interests: Comparative Oncology, Bioinformatics, and Cancer Biology.