Lab Members

Shawn Bratton, Ph.D.
Associate Professor

Education:
B.S., Molecular Biology, The University of Texas at Austin, USA
B.S., Medical Technology, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, TX, USA
Ph.D., Pharmacology and Toxicology, The University of Texas at Austin, USA
Postdoctoral Fellow, Medical Research Council-Toxicology Unit, Leicester, England

Miao-Der (Sophie) Chen, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Fellow

Education:
B.S., Animal Science, National Pingtung University of Science and Technology, Taiwan
M.S., Animal Science, National Pingtung University of Science and Technology, Taiwan
Ph.D., Pharmaceutical Sciences, The University of Texas at Austin, USA

My project is focused on determining whether cytosolic acidification and cathepsin release, following heat shock-induced ELMP, is important for caspase activation and cell death following heat shock.

Youngeun Choi, Ph.D.
Current Position: Following a postdoctoral fellowship at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute/Harvard Medical School with Dipanjan Chowdhury, I became a Senior Scientist, Oncology Platform, with EMD Serono, Billerica, MA
My project focused primarily on understanding how two related inhibitor of apoptosis proteins, cIAP1 and cIAP2, suppressed apoptosis through their distinct interactions with the effector caspases 3 and 7.

Farhana Haque, M.S.
Current Postition: Public Health Laboratory Scientist, Maryland Department of Health
My project was to extend our lab’s discoveries in the molecular regulatory mechanism of apoptosis to in-vivo systems such as mouse models.

Sunhee Lee, Ph.D.
Current Position: Research Fellow at Samsung Economic Research Institute, Korea
My research project was to elucidate regulatory mechanisms of caspases by IAPs and IAP antagonists during cell death in Drosophila.

Indra (Mahajan) Newman, Ph.D.
Current Position: Scientific Writer/Grant Editor, Clinical and Translational Science Institute, Wake Forest Baptist Health. 
I investigated the molecular players that regulate heat shock-induced apoptosis using cells derived from various knock-out mice, as well as cancer cell lines.

Madhavi Malladi, Ph.D.
Current Position: Associate Director at MedPace, Dallas-Forth Worth Metroplex.
My research was primarily focused on understanding the mechanisms by which inhibitor of apoptosis (IAP) proteins and their antagonists regulate caspase activation using Drosophila a model system.

Srinivas Malladi, Ph.D.
Current Position: After continuing my studies as a fellow with Joan Massague at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, I am now an Assistant Professor, UT Southwestern Medical Center.
My project in the Bratton lab was focused on understanding the mechanisms of caspase 9 processing and activation within the apoptosome.

Jaekyoung Son, Ph.D.
Current Position: Tenure-Track Assistant Professor at the University of Ulsan College of Medicine, South Korea
I investigated the intracellular mechanisms responsible for TRAIL resistance in human prostate cancer cells, with a particular focus on the role of p38 MAPKs in this process.

Shankar Varadarajan, Ph.D.
Current Position: Principal investigator, Institute of Translational Medicine, The University of Liverpool, UK
I worked on two different research projects; one project dealt with the role of p38 MAPKs in regulating autophagy and lysosomal biogenesis, while the other project involved TNFR1 signaling and receptor trafficking mechanisms.

Daric Wible, Ph.D.
Current Position: Scientist II, Cancer Biology - CRISPR models at Monte Rosa Therapeutics, Boston Massachussetts.
I worked to define the molecular mechanisms that regulate autophagy and how autophagy affects prostate tumorigenesis and progression.

Chu-Chiao (Crystal) Wu, Ph.D.
Current Position: After spending time as a postdoctoral fellow and working as a scientist at Samumed, I am now a Scientist,  in vivo tumor biology, at Vividion Therapeutics, Inc., in San Diego, CA.
My project in the Bratton lab was focused on the stoichiometry and dimerization/conformational status of caspase-9 within the Apaf-1 apoptosome complex and its activation mechanism in vivo using a novel caspase-9 knock-in mouse model.

Ting-Chun Yeh, Ph.D.
Current Position: Senior Medical Writer, FibroGen, Inc, Dallas, TX
I worked on understanding how Grim, an endogenous inhibitor of apoptosis (IAP) antagonist in Drosophila, induces IBM-independent apoptosis.