Gladstone Institutes & UCSF
Seth shipman
Associate Investigator
gladstone institute of data science and biotechnology
Gladstone Institute of Virology
Gladstone Institute of Neurological Disease
Associate professor
Bioengineering & therapeutic sciences, ucsf
Weill Institute for Neurosciences
Health Innovation via Engineering (HIVE)
Bakar Aging Research Institute
CZ Biohub, SF
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Seth received his BA in from Wesleyan University and PhD in Neuroscience from UCSF, where he worked with Roger Nicoll. He completed his postdoc with George Church and Jeffrey Macklis at Harvard Medical School. In 2019 he opened his lab in the Gladstone Institutes.
Quinn Cowan
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Quinn grew up in Honolulu and received his BS in Biochemistry from the University of Southern California. He completed his PhD in Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics at UC San Diego with Alexis Komor. Currently, he is a joint postdoc with Bruce Conklin and is interested in improving genome editing tools to treat dominant disease. Quinn also enjoys surfing, skating, and music.
2024 CIRM Fellow
quinn.cowan@gladstone.ucsf.edu
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Postdoc (joint with Conklin Lab)
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Rebecca Fang
Graduate Student
Neuroscience
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Rebecca graduated from Columbia University with a BA in Neuroscience. Prior to joining the Neuroscience PhD program at UCSF, she studied gut-related disorders at Kallyope, a gut-brain axis therapeutics start-up. Outside the lab, she enjoys making and eating heaps of food in the kitchen, tending to her plants, and playing cello.
2021 Hillblom/Bakar Aging Research Fellow
2021 UCSF Discovery Fellow
rebecca.fang@gladstone.ucsf.edu
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Alejandro González Delgado
Postdoc
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Alex graduated from Universidad of Salamanca (Spain) with a BS in Biology. He did his PhD work at the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) in Granada (Spain), where his main focus was studying Reverse Transcriptases associated with CRISPR-Cas systems. During his postdoc, he is keen on exploiting prokaryotic RTs as novel biotechnological tools. As a frustrated football player, outside the lab he enjoys outdoor activities, playing different sports and tasting craft beers.
2023 CIRM Fellow
alejandro.gonzalez@gladstone.ucsf.edu
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Jihoon Han
Postdoc
Jihoon graduated from Boston College with a B.S. in Biochemistry. He did his Ph.D. work at Sungkyunkwan University in Korea, where his main focus was developing an exosome-based photoinducible protein delivery system for CRISPR/Cas-based epigenome editing in Alzheimer’s disease. During his postdoc, he is interested in studying the fundamental biology of retron and developing diverse retron-based tools that are not limited to gene editing. As a music minor, he enjoys listening to music, playing piano, and watching sports (NFL, NBA, MLB, EPL, UFC).
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Kazuo Nakamura
Undergraduate
Kazuo grew up in the Bay Area and is a bioengineering major at UC Berkeley. His research interests include exploring retron biology and developing better genetic engineering tools, potentially using retron editors. He is also interested in bioinformatics and applying it to understand genetic systems. Outside of the lab, Kazuo enjoys playing soccer and chess and learning new judo techniques.
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kazuo.nakamura@gladstone.ucsf.edu
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Ramya Paravastu
Research Associate
Ramya grew up in the Bay Area and graduated from UCLA with a B.S. in Microbiology, Immunology, and Molecular Genetics. At UCLA, she was involved with virology research, studying the evolution of MPOX virus and its interactions with the innate immune system. Outside the lab, she enjoys practicing music, hiking, and baking.
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ramya.paravastu@gladstone.ucsf.edu
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Darshini Poola
Research Associate
Darshini is pursuing an integrated BS-MS at IISER-Pune and has joined the lab for her master's thesis project. Her previous research endeavors revolved around investigating the epigenetic mechanisms regulating the progression of cancer cells. Beyond her academic commitments, she enjoys reading novels, taking long walks, and solving sudoku puzzles.
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darshini.poola@gladstone.ucsf.edu
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Nikolaos Poulis
Postdoc (Joint with Srivastava Lab)
Nikolaos graduated from the University of Thessaly in Larissa and completed his master's degree in the Netherlands at Utrecht University. He completed his PhD at the University of Zurich (Hoerstrub Lab), focusing on the development of human tissue-engineered heart valves for minimally invasive implant delivery and remodeling. He is interested in cell lineage tracing and mapping cell fate decisions of cardiac cell populations in congenital heart disease development. Outside the lab, he is an avid photographer and DJ who enjoys exploring nature during motorbike and bicycle road trips.
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nikolaos.poulis@gladstone.ucsf.edu
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Trevor Simmons
Postdoc
Trevor graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with his B.S. in Chemical Engineering. He then received his Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin, where his researched focus on understanding and engineering post-transcriptional regulatory networks in bacteria. Currently, he is interested in mitochondrial function and how mutations to their DNA play a role in disease. Outside of the lab, Trevor enjoys playing tennis, coffee, being outside, and spending time with his 25 lb cat.
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Rini Shah
Staff Research Scientist (Joint with Ramani Lab)
Rini obtained her PhD from the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) in Pune, where she investigated the mechanisms governing transcriptional regulation of human XIST. Prior to joining the Gladstone Institutes, she was a postdoc in the lab of Dr. Elphege Nora at UCSF, focusing on 3D genome folding and with Prof. Frederick Alt at the Boston Children’s Hospital, focusing on the molecular aspects of antibody class-switch recombination. Her broad research interest is to understand long range gene regulation. When not thinking about Science, Rini enjoys reading books, watching sports, exploring restaurants, running, and hiking.
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Pallavi Raj Sharma
Postdoc
Pallavi received her Ph.D. in Bioengineering from the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, with an expertise in biomaterials-based drug delivery for infectious diseases. Specifically, she engineered inhalable microparticles for bacteriophage delivery into mammalian cells and mice lungs. In the Shipman lab, she is interested in engineering bacteriophages for various applications. She enjoys reading and playing board games in her spare time.
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pallaviraj.sharma@gladstone.ucsf.edu
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Linhan Wang
Postdoc
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Linhan received her Ph.D. from Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences in Biochemistry and Cell Biology, where she studied the mechanism of membrane proteins degradation from the ER in mammalian cells. During her postdoc, she is interested in developing and applying new gene editing tools into human cells. Outside the lab, she enjoys playing the Chinese zither, doing yoga and watching NBA games.
2024 CIRM Fellow
linhan.wang@gladstone.ucsf.edu
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David Wen
Graduate Student (Joint with Theodoris Lab)
Developmental and Stem Cell Biology
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David graduated from the University of Southern California with a BS in Quantitative Biology and a minor in Computer Science, where he studied bone repair and zebrafish heart development. He is currently in the Developmental and Stem Cell Biology PhD program at UCSF. Joint with the Theodoris Lab, he is interested in creating new molecular and computational tools for studying gene regulation during development. In his free time, he enjoys cooking, playing video games, and doing outdoor activities.
2022 NSF Graduate Research Fellowship
2024 UCSF Discovery Fellow
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Phillipe Wiederkehr
Research Associate
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Phillipe graduated with a B.S. in Bioengineering from UC Berkeley in 2024. His undergraduate research focussed on microbiological genetics, and he is excited to help build new gene editing tools while at the Shipman lab. He enjoys thrift shopping, exercising, and watching the Lakers in his spare time.
phillipe.wiederkehr@gladstone.ucsf.edu
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Karen Zhang
Graduate Student
Bioengineering
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Karen graduated from the University of Washington in 2021 with a BS in Biochemistry and a BS in Microbiology. She is currently part of the joint Bioengineering PhD program at UC Berkeley and UCSF. Her research interests involve engineering bacteria and viruses to create novel biotechnological tools. Outside of lab, she enjoys exploring fictional worlds in movies, books, and video games.
2021 NSF Graduate Research Fellowship
2023 UCSF Discovery Fellow
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Lab Alumni
Postdocs
Christina Palka, HIVE Fellow (2019-2021) - Principal Scientist, Ohalo Genetics
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PhD Students
Sierra Lear, BioE, NSF Fellow (2019-2023) - Patent Agent, Morrison Foerster
Santiago Lopez, BioE, Berkeley Graduate Fellow (2020-2024) - Postdoc, UC Berkeley (Doudna Lab)
Kate Crawford, BioE, NSF/Discovery Fellow (2019-2024) - Postdoc, UW (Baker Lab) ​
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Research Associates
Santi Bhattarai-Kline (2019-2022) - MD/PhD Program, UCLA & Caltech
Chloe Fishman (2020-2023) - PhD Program in Biosciences, Rockefeller University (Marraffini Lab)
Asim Khan (2022-2024) - PhD Program in Biological Sciences, Columbia University
Matías Rojas Montero (2022-2024) - PhD Program, Tetrad, UCSF
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Summer Students
Pemba Sherpa (2021, PUMAS) - Research Associate, Stanford University (Pfeffer Lab)
Sofia Arreola (2022, PUMAS)
Evelyn Kwong (2022, PUMAS) - Master's Program in Public Health, University of Michigan
Jose Nunez (2022, UCSF SRTP) - Research Associate, Integrated Biosciences
Kelechi Onwuzurike (2023, UCSF SRTP) - Research Assistant, National Institute on Aging (Gorospe Lab)
Yumie Lee (2023, UC LEADs) - PhD Program in Bioengineering, UCSD
Kazuo Nakamura (2023, 2024) - Undergraduate, UC Berkeley
Adriann Brodeth (2024, UC LEADs) - PhD Program in Bioengineering, UCSF/UC Berkeley
Kea Kyle (2024, PUMAS) - Undergraduate, San Francisco State University
Our Science is possible because of generous support from:
Program for Breakthrough Biomedical Research
Morgenthaler Family Foundation
