Lab Members
Jessica joined the Gayther Lab in March 2020.
Pei-Chen Peng, PhD, obtained her doctorate in computer science from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2018, and was advised by Saurabh Sinha, PhD. Peng holds a master’s degree (2013) and bachelor of science in computer science (2011) from National Taiwan University. Her research interest is in computational genomics. Peng uses statistical and machine learning methods to understand problems in molecular biology and cancer genomics. She received a Google Anita Borg Award in 2012 and a Grace Hopper Celebration Scholarship in 2016. In 2019, Peng joined the Center for Bioinformatics and Functional Genomics and works in the Gayther Laboratory under Michelle Jones, PhD.
Stephanie Chen has worked extensively in the ovarian cancer field, first at the University of Southern California (USC) with Susan Ramus, PhD. At USC, Chen used the Nanostring nCounter technology to detect gene expression and analyzed over 1,920 ovarian tumor samples from formalin-fixed paraffin embedded material for tumor profiling. She also performed targeted sequencing and loss of heterozygosity analysis of breast cancer cases with both BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations. In the Gayther Laboratory, Chen has taken on the position as lab manager and helps develop and perform functional genomic techniques including chromosome conformation capture methods (3C/4C) on breast, ovarian and prostate cancer lines. Chen also uses ChIPseq to identify transcription factor binding sites for key transcriptional regulators of ovarian cancer.
Kruttika Dabke completed her Masters in Molecular Pharmacology and Toxicology from the University of Southern California where she worked with Dr. Swenson in Dr. Markland’s lab on canine osteosarcoma. For her thesis project, she performed various assays to determine the efficacy of vicrostatin (a drug engineered in the Markland lab) against canine osteosarcoma. She worked in Dr. Kanska’s group in Dr. Gayther’s lab as a Research Associate II before joining the Graduate school of Biomedical Sciences at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in August 2018.
Brian Davis joined the Gayther Laboratory after working at the Molecular Genomics Core (MGC) at the University of Southern California (USC). At USC MGC, Brian oversaw library preparations to be run on Illumina’s Next-Generation Sequencing Systems, the NextSeq500 and MiSeq platforms. Along with sequencing, Brian is adept at single nucleotide polymorphism genotyping and gene and miRNA expression. He has experience with sample extractions and movement, using various liquid-handling Tecan robotics. Davis extracts and prepares all samples for the Gayther Lab’s ongoing transcriptome projects. He also oversees our epigenetic profiling (ChIPseq) projects, with the goal of establishing tissue ChIPseq for ovarian and breast cancer tumor analyses.
Amber DeVries graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles with a bachelor’s degree in Microbiology, Immunology, and Molecular Genetics. While at UCLA, she did research in conservation genomics, including working with ancient DNA to understand the population genetics of non-model organisms. As a graduate student at Cedars-Sinai, she has researched the role of the microbiome in the inflammation of adipose tissue in Crohn’s Disease and the impact of gut fungi on macrophage development in breast cancer models. She is currently rotating in the Gayther laboratory under Michelle Jones, studying genetic copy number variants (CNVs) and their contribution to ovarian cancer risk.
Alberto Reyes attended UCLA from 2012 to 2016, where he earned a bachelor of science in statistics. He served as an undergraduate research assistant under Jingyi Jessica Li, PhD, from 2013 to 2014. He participated in various projects involving RNA-seq and differential gene expression. Reyes was also an undergraduate research assistant in the Kosuri Lab under Sriram Kosuri, ScD, from July to December of 2016. While there, Reyes investigated underlying causes of dropout rate in multiplex gene synthesis. He joined the Center for Bioinformatics and Functional Genomics in January 2017 and works under Michelle Jones, PhD, Simon Gayther, PhD, and Benjamin Berman, PhD.
Subash Dhungana graduated with a master’s degree in microbiology from Miami University of Ohio. At Donald Ferguson Laboratory he worked on characterizing putative substrate transferases in anaerobic methanogens called Methanosarcina acetivorans. He also received a master’s degree in molecular biology from the University of Wyoming, and worked at the Jared Bushman Laboratory developing localized immunotherapy in peripheral nerves on allografted rats using purified immune cells. After graduation, he joined the Daniel Lu Laboratory in the Department of Neurosurgery at UCLA as a research associate in 2018, where he worked on clinical trials of spinal cord-injured patients undergoing magnetic therapy. In 2020, he joined the Center for Bioinformatics and Functional Genomics and currently works at the Gayther Laboratory.
Nicole joined the Gayther Lab in October 2020.
Jasmine Plummer, PhD, completed her HonBSc in biology and chemistry at the University of Toronto, Canada, where she worked with J.J.B. Smith, PhD, on sensory circuitry. Plummer joined the Department of Physiology and BioPhysics at Dalhousie University (Halifax, Canada) in the laboratory of Roger Croll, PhD. She completed her master of science in neuroscience, specializing in comparative neurobiology and neurodevelopment. In her doctoral work, under the supervision of Joseph Culotti, PhD, at Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute, Mount Sinai Hospital, Toronto, Plummer took a genetic approach to identifying new genes that regulate the development of the nervous system. She moved to the laboratory of Pat Levitt, PhD, at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles for her postdoctoral work. Plummer’s postdoctoral fellowship focused on systems biology approaches to understanding genetic risk of neurodevelopmental disorders. As an Autism Speaks postdoctoral fellow, her research focused primarily on the discovery and function of gene regulatory networks involving autism risk genes. Her research also broadened to include and interrogate other neuropsychiatric disorder loci, including schizophrenia, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, bipolar disorder and major depressive disorder. In 2016, Plummer joined the Center for Bioinformatics and Functional Genomics to lead the Functional Genomics and GWAS team together with Simon Gayther, PhD.
Alberto Reyes attended UCLA from 2012 to 2016, where he earned a bachelor of science in statistics. He served as an undergraduate research assistant under Jingyi Jessica Li, PhD, from 2013 to 2014. He participated in various projects involving RNA-seq and differential gene expression. Reyes was also an undergraduate research assistant in the Kosuri Lab under Sriram Kosuri, ScD, from July to December of 2016. While there, Reyes investigated underlying causes of dropout rate in multiplex gene synthesis. He joined the Center for Bioinformatics and Functional Genomics in January 2017 and works under Michelle Jones, PhD, Simon Gayther, PhD, and Benjamin Berman, PhD.
Saeideh joined the Gayther lab in September 2018.
Contact the Gayther Lab
8700 Beverly Blvd.
Steven Spielberg Building, Room 155
Los Angeles, CA 90048