GUSTAVO ARRIZABALAGA, Ph.D.,  PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Dr. Arrizabalaga obtained his B.S. in Chemistry and Biology from Haverford College and his Ph.D. in Biology from M.I.T. His doctoral work focused on translational regulation during embryonic development under the mentorship of Dr. Ruth Lehmann. From 1999 to 2004, he was a post-doctoral fellow at Stanford University in the laboratory of Dr. John Boothroyd where his work focused on Toxoplasma gondii egress. He is currently an Associate Professor in the departments of Pharmacology and Toxicology and Microbiology and Immunology at Indiana University School of Medicine.

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RAJ GAJI, Ph.D. M.V.S.,  Assistant Research Professor

Dr. Gaji received his Ph.D. under the mentorship of Dr. Dan Howe from the University of Kentucky. His doctoral thesis work focused on the parasite Sarcocystis neurona. Dr. Gaji was a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Michigan in the laboratory of Dr. Vern Carruthers until 2012 when he joined the laboratory of Dr. Arrizabalaga.

Raj is investigating the function of TgCDPK3 during egress.

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Irene Heredero Bermejo, Ph.D.,  POST DOCTORAL FELLOW

Irene received her Ph.D. in Health Sciences from the Universidad de Alacalá in Spain. Her doctoral work focused on isolation and characterization of new Acanthamoeba isolates and in the development of new methods of targeting pathogenic amoebas. 

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Irene is defining and characterizing the "interactomes" of autophagy related proteins in Toxoplasma gondii

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KAiCE LAFAVERS, M.P.H., DOCTORAL STUDENT

Kaice received her bachelor's degree in Biochemistry and Microbiology in 2009 from Purdue University, where she worked on the alphavirus Sindbis in the lab of Dr. Richard Kuhn.  She received her Master's of Public Health in Epidemiology from Indiana University School of Medicine in 2012.  She joined the Indiana University School of Medicine Biomedical Gateway Ph.D. program in 2012 and the Arrizabalaga lab in 2013.

Kaice is investigating the role of parasitophorous vacuole proteins in egress and calcium signaling. She is the recipient of a pre-doctoral fellowship from the American Heart Association.

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Moses Darkey, iPREP fellow

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Moses is investigating the role of the Calcium Dependent Protein Kinase 2a in the lytic cycle of Toxoplasma

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UNDERGRADUATE INTERNS:

Hannah Alvear

UROP intern, IUPUI

Emily Simpson

LHSI intern, IUPUI

Chunlin Yang, Ph.D.,  POST DOCTORAL FELLOW

Dr. Chunlin Yang recieved a masters degree in Molecular Evolution and Bioinformatics from the Chinese Academy of Sciences. He recieved a Ph.D. in Biochemistry, Genetics and Evolution from East Carolina University where he worked in the laboratory of Dr. John Stiller. His doctoral work focused on the evolution and regulationg of the RNA polymerase II. Dr. Yang joined the Arrizabalaga laboratory in the summer of 2015.

Chunlin is investigating the rol of TgCDPK3 in virulence and the function of phosphatases during the lytic cycle of Toxoplasma.

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Will Blakeley, DOCTORAL STUDENT

Will graduated from Will obtained a B.S. degree from Kutztown University of Pennsylvania majoring in both Chemistry and Biochemistry.  As an undergraduate under the co-mentorship of Dr. Matthew Junker and Dr. Carsten Sanders, he worked on a research project pertaining to the heme attachment maturation mechanism of human cytochrome c.  During this time, Will also participated in the NSF Research Experience for Undergraduates summer research program at UC Irvine in the lab of Dr. Matthew Law.  In the Law lab he helped a group researching development of novel inexpensive electrode materials for a water-splitting solar cell.  After graduation from Kutztown University, he worked in the pharmaceutical industry a short while before joining the IBMG program at the IU School of Medicine in 2015.

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Will is investigating calcium signaling and phosphotases in Toxoplasma. 

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KYLIE JACOBS, DOCTORAL STUDENT

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Kylie graduated from Hope College with a B.S. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology in 2016. She also worked in Dr. Joseph Stukey’s lab studying functions of unfamiliar phage genes and cytotoxic resistance. Kylie also participated in neuropathology research at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine’s Summer Undergraduate Research Program under the mentorship of Dr. Clayton Wiley and Dr. Stephanie Bissel, where she investigated the function of YKL-40 in neural and glial cells. She joined the Indiana University School of Medicine IBMG program in 2016 and the Arrizabalaga lab in 2017.

Kylie is investigating mitochondrial function and respiration in Toxoplasma gondii.

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