Principal Investigator: Geoff Abbott, Ph.D.
PROFESSOR OF PHYSIOLOGY AND BIOPHYSICS
University of California, Irvine
Bioelectricity Laboratory
Abbott Lab Alumni
Many of the people who have trained in the Abbott Lab have gone on to great things.
Here are some of their profiles.
Marie Anand, B.A.
Marie was the first employee in the Abbott lab after the move west to University of California, Irvine. Marie was instrumental in setting up the new lab and in applying mouse genetics and functional assays to help discover new ion channel functions and molecular correlates. Marie is currently studying for her Masters in Quantitative Genetics at Harvard.
Zhaoyang Hu, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Zhaoyang made some exciting discoveries as an extremely productive post-doc in the Abbott lab at UC Irvine, including that Kcne2 deletion causes a multisystem syndrome, and that Kcne3 deletion leads to an adrenal autoimmune syndrome. Zhaoyang now heads her own lab as an Associate Professor in the Translational Neuroscience Center, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, China.
Ritu Kant, M.S.
Ritu was an Assistant Specialist in the Abbott lab at UC Irvine. Ritu established the transcriptomics microarray technology within the lab. This powerful technique has enabled us to profile effects of genetic, pharmacologic or surgical manipulations on the entire transcriptome, in some cases diagnosing entirely unexpected pathologies. Ritu is currently a Research Associate Scientist with Centrillion Bioscience's R&D team in Palo Alto, CA.
Anthony Lewis, Ph.D.
Senior Lecturer
Tony was a Postdoctoral Associate in the Abbott lab at Weill-Cornell whose work helped uncover the combinatorial complexity of KCNE regulation of Kv1, Kv2 and Kv3 potassium channels. His meticulous studies advanced our understanding of how KCNE subunits modulate channel gating and trafficking. Tony now heads his own lab researching potassium channels at University of Portsmouth, UK, where he has already risen to the rank of Senior Lecturer.
Gianina Panaghie, Ph.D.
Gianina did her Ph.D. thesis research in the Abbott lab at Weill-Cornell, during which time she had 9 papers published on her findings. This impressive body of work included studying the molecular basis for KCNE-pore interaction and the voltage dependence of activation and inactivation in various KCNQ1-KCNE complexes. Gianina currently holds the prestigious position of Senior Scientist, Oncology at PTC Therapeutics, Inc and famously appeared on the Nasdaq building in Times Square when PTC Therapeutics went public (see above).
Torsten Roepke, M.D.
P.D. Dr. med
Torsten had an incredibly successful stay as a Postdoctoral Associate in the Abbott lab at Weill-Cornell, and was the driving force in discovering novel roles for KCNE2 in the heart, thyroid and choroid plexus. He now runs his own lab studying KCNE-based potassium channels and their essential roles in the cardiovascular system and other tissues, in the Max Delbruck Center for Molecular Medicine, Berlin, Germany. He also finds the time to be a cardiologist at Charite, Berlin.
Earl Gordon, Ph.D.
Earl was one of the first graduate students in the Abbott lab at Weill-Cornell, where he had a productive stay culminating in a Ph.D. in Pharmacology. In the course of his thesis work, Earl determined the mechanism of action of a novel class of potassium channel-modulating small molecules, and elucidated how endogenous expression system KCNE subunits shape the ion channel recordings we make in Xenopus oocytes, and how KCNE2 mutations can cause lethal arrhythmias. Earl has continued to pursue his passion for pharmacology in various drug discovery ventures, and is currently an Ion Channel Biologist at Jubliant Drug Discovery and Development.