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.

Daric Wible, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Fellow

Education:
B.A., Biochemistry & Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology, University of Colorado, Boulder, USA
Ph.D., Cell and Molecular Biology, The University of Texas at Austin, USA

I am researching the molecular mechanisms that regulate autophagy and how autophagy affects prostate tumorigenesis and progression.

Youngeun Choi, Ph.D.
Current Position: Postdoctoral fellow, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute/Harvard Medical School; Advisor: Dipanjan Chowdhury
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.

Indra Mahajan, Ph.D.
Current Position: Research Fellow, Division of Pharmacology and Toxicology, College of Pharmacy, UT Austin; Advisor: Casey Wright 
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: Clinical Research Coordinator at New York Hospital - Queens
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: Postdoctoral fellow with Joan Massague at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
My project 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: Tenure-Track Research Fellow in the Institute of Translational Medicine at 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.

Chu-Chiao (Crystal) Wu, Ph.D.
Current Position: Postdoctoral Fellow with Robert Krug at the University of Texas Austin
My project 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: Medical Writer, AROG Pharmaceuticals, Dallas, TX
I worked on understanding how Grim, an endogenous inhibitor of apoptosis (IAP) antagonist in Drosophila, induces IBM-independent apoptosis.

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.

Farhana Haque, M.S.
My project was to extend our lab’s discoveries in the molecular regulatory mechanism of apoptosis to in-vivo systems such as mouse models.