| Who | Bio |
|---|---|
Beth Apsel Winger, MD, PhD | Dr. Beth Apsel Winger is a physician-scientist in Pediatric Hematology/Oncology and Clinical Pharmacy at UCSF. She is committed to using precision medicine to improve therapeutics and outcomes for children with cancer and other blood diseases. Her research has two main focuses: 1) understanding mutations in kinases so that we can expand the use of targeted therapies and match the right drug to the right patient, and 2) developing precision dosing strategies to give every patient the right amount of drug for their body. |
Lisa Pulianmackal, PhD | Lisa graduated from the University of California, Davis with a bachelor’s degree in Microbiology. Here, she worked with Dr. Andreas Baumler to study the impact of inflammation on Salmonella pathogenesis. She later received her PhD from the University of Michigan, where she worked with Dr. Anthony Vecchiarelli to investigate the mechanisms underlying subcellular organization in bacteria. In the Winger lab, Lisa seeks to characterize kinase mutations found in cancer patients to further develop targeted therapeutics. Outside of the lab, Lisa can be found biking around, hiking near waterfalls, or digging in the mud. |
Melissa Plata | Melissa earned her B.S. in Pharmaceutical Sciences from UC Irvine, where she worked in Dr. David Mobley’s lab benchmarking small molecule force fields for molecular dynamics simulations. Currently, Melissa is a graduate student in the Apsel Winger lab investigating how gatekeeper mutations in KIT confer resistance to inhibitors and studying the role of ROS1 fusions in vascular anomalies. Outside of the lab, Melissa enjoys trail running, weightlifting, and discovering new matcha spots. |
Kelly Anne Folwell | Kelly is a current undergraduate student at UC Berkeley studying molecular environmental biology on the pre-med track. As a biology lover from a young age, she is thrilled to be able to assist in such exciting research here at the Winger lab! |
Zuriah Meacham | Zuriah attended UC Berkeley, obtaining her Bachelor’s degree in Molecular and Cell Biology. She continued at Cal as a lab tech in Nick Ingolia’s lab before transitioning to the biotech startup world, where she helped develop treatments for genetic diseases using genome editing. As a PSPG graduate student in the Winger lab, Zuriah is working on characterizing how VEGFR mutations drive disease in patients. In her free time, she enjoys dancing across many genres, particularly Scottish, Irish, and pole dance, as well as spending quality time with her rescue pit bull and obsessively following F1 racing. |