OUR TEAM

François St-Pierre, Ph.D.

Principal Investigator & Chief Protein Hacker

Associate Professor & McNair Scholar

Baylor College of Medicine Department of Neuroscience

Adjunct Assistant Professor

Rice University Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering

Mail

StPierre@bcm.edu

Research Scientists

Wafa Hassen, Ph.D.

Laboratory Manager

Baylor College of Medicine Department of Neuroscience

wafa.hassen@bcm.edu

Xiaoyu Dong

Senior Research Assistant

Baylor College of Medicine Department of Neuroscience

Xiaoyu.Dong@bcm.edu

Justine Angela Salazar

Research Technician I

Baylor College of Medicine Department of Neuroscience

justine.salazar@bcm.edu

Tanmayee Torne, Ph.D.

Research Associate

Baylor College of Medicine Department of Neuroscience

tanmayee.torne@bcm.edu

Anish Zute

Senior Scientific Programmer

Baylor College of Medicine Department of Neuroscience

anish.zute@bcm.edu

Shujuan Lai

Senior Research Assistant

Baylor College of Medicine Department of Neuroscience

Shujuan.Lai@bcm.edu

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Beatriz Campillo, M.S.

Research Assistant II

Baylor College of Medicine Department of Neuroscience

Beatriz.CampilloMinano@bcm.edu

Mona Thorat, M.S.

Research Assistant II

Baylor College of Medicine Department of Neuroscience

mona.thorat@bcm.edu

Haixin Liu, Ph.D.

Senior Scientific Programmer

Baylor College of Medicine Department of Neuroscience

Haixin.Liu@bcm.edu

Postdoctoral Researchers

Matthew Shorey, Ph.D.

Postdoctoral Associate

Baylor College of Medicine Department of Neuroscience

Matthew.Shorey@bcm.edu

Novel cancer therapeutics and neuro/synbio

2023 NeuralCODR postdoctoral fellowship

Michelle Ann Land, Ph.D.

Postdoctoral Researcher

Baylor College of Medicine Department of Neuroscience

Michelle.Land@bcm.edu

Development of fast and photostable genetically encoded voltage indicators for two photon detection of voltage dynamics in vivo

2023 Welch Conference -Poster Presentation Award
2023 TPDA for Neuroscience
2022 U.S. underrepresented minorities travel grant to attend the ASCB 2022
2022 Trainee Highlight Award for 8th Annual BRAIN Initiative
2021 TPDA for Neuroscience
2020 - 2022 Diversity Supplement apart of NIH U01NS113294: “Designing and deploying an expanded color palette of voltage indicators engineered for multiphoton microscopy”; Postdoctoral Trainee.

Jihwan "James" Lee, Ph.D.

Postdoctoral Associate

Baylor College of Medicine Department of Neuroscience

Jihwan.Lee@rice.edu

Building smart autonomous microscopes to accelerate biological research and engineering

NSF I-Corps
RiceU Innovation Fellowship
RiceU SSPB Research Award
SLAS2020 Travel Award

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Alex James McDonald, Ph.D.

Postdoctoral Associate

Baylor College of Medicine Department of Neuroscience

Alex.McDonald@bcm.edu

Development of next generation GEVIs for voltage imaging
Optimization of opsins for use in neuronal silencing

Anastasia Mamontova, Ph.D.

Postdoctoral Associate

Baylor College of Medicine Department of Neuroscience

anastasia.mamontova@bcm.edu

Development of novel genetically encoded voltage indicators with improved response, brightness and photostability

Moscow State University Scholarship 2013
E.S. Severin Award 2013
Moscow Government Scholarship 2015

Nima Bavili, Ph.D.

Postdoctoral Associate

Baylor College of Medicine Department of Neuroscience

nima.bavili@bcm.edu

Maintain new optical systems for high-throughput screening

Graduate Students

Shuyuan Yang

Graduate Student

Rice University Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering

sy51@rice.edu

Development of next generation GEVIs for 2-photon image in vivo

2023 Trainee Highlight Award for the 9th Annual BRAIN Initiative Meeting

Adrian Lankenau

Graduate Student

Rice University Department of Systems, Synthetic and Physical Biology

adrian.lankenauahumada@bcm.edu

Development of novel genetically encoded voltage indicators using synthetic biology tools

Anh Pham

Graduate Student

Rice University Department of Bioengineering

ap121@rice.edu

Development of enhanced genetically encoded voltage indicators

Undergraduate Students

Nathan Nguyen

Undergraduate Student

Rice University

nan3@rice.edu

Developing software algorithms for autonomous microscopy

2023 RUNS (Rice Neuroscience Undergraduate Symposium) Poster Presentation winner

Arunima Jaiswal

Undergraduate Student

Rice University

asj5@rice.edu

Developing software algorithms for image processing and microscopy viewing

ALUMNI

Xiaoyu Lu, Ph.D.

Allen Institute

Seattle, WA

Date: 2017 - 03/2024

Role in the St-Pierre Lab: Graduate Student in Systems, Synthetic and Physical Biology - Rice University

Shaminta Hamidian

Associate Scientist at SpectraWAVE

Bedford, MA

Date: 08/2021 - 12/2022

Role in the St-Pierre Lab: Research Technician

Hala Safi Abdallah

Sales Representative at VWR

Houston, TX

Date: 08/2021 - 09/2022

Role in the St-Pierre Lab: Laboratory Technician

Chelsey Cooper

Sociology Professor

Sam Houston State University, Houston, TX

Date:

Role in the St-Pierre Lab: Laboratory Manager

Seyed "Amir" Safaei, M.S.

Software Engineer Futo.org

Austin, TX

Date:

Role in the St-Pierre Lab: Master Student

Alessandro Groaz

Neuroengineering Graduate Student

Chen Institute at California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA

Date:

Role in the St-Pierre Lab:

Kevin Colbert

Medical Student & Masters of Engineering Student

Texas A&M School of Medicine ENMED Program, Houston, TX

Date:

Role in the St-Pierre Lab: Scientific Programmer

Yueyang Gou

Neuroscience Graduate Student

Baylor College of Medicine Department of Neuroscience, Houston, TX

Date:

Role in the St-Pierre Lab: Research Assistant

Harvey Yang

Bioengineering Graduate Student

Massachussetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA

Date:

Role in the St-Pierre Lab:

Tensae Assefa

Medical Student

NYU Grossman School of Medicine, New York, NY

Date:

Role in the St-Pierre Lab: Research Assistant

Michael George

Medical Laboratory Scientist

MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX

Date:

Role in the St-Pierre Lab: Research Assistant

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Johan Widmann

Software Engineer

Vivaldi Capital Management

Date: 08/2016 - 03/2017

Role in the St-Pierre Lab: Research Assistant

Zhuohe Liu, Ph.D

Postdoctoral Associate at Yinyin Yuan's lab MD Anderson Cancer Center

Houston, TX

Date: 05/2017 - 07/2023

Role in the St-Pierre Lab: Graduate Student in Electrical Engineering

Raegan Banks

Sales Representative at VWR

Houston, TX

Date: 08/2021 - 12/2022

Role in the St-Pierre Lab: Laboratory Technician

Elsayed Zaabout

Houston, TX

Date: 01/2021 - 06/2023

Role in the St-Pierre Lab: Research Assistant

Jared Reiling

Graduate Student at Michigan State University

Date: 06/2022 - 08/2022

Role in the St-Pierre Lab: SMART Summer Student

Moshe Baruch, Ph.D.

Senior Scientist at Pana Bio, Inc.

Houston, TX

Date: 09/2020 - 10/2021

Role in the St-Pierre Lab: Postdoctoral Researcher

Jack Ahrens

Biomedical Engineering Graduate Student in the Mirkin Group

Northwestern University, Evanston, IL

Date:

Role in the St-Pierre Lab:

Gedeon Pil

Computer Science Undergraduate Student

Rice University, Houston, TX

Date:

Role in the St-Pierre Lab: Research Assistant

Kshitij Rai

Systems, Synthetic, and Physical Biology Graduate Student in the Bashor Lab

Rice University, Houston, TX

Date:

Role in the St-Pierre Lab:

Sihui Asuka Guan

Medical Writer

Sanofi-Aventis, Beijing, China

Date:

Role in the St-Pierre Lab: Research Assistant

Peter Suzuki

Bioengineering Graduate Student

Stanford University, Stanford, CA

Date:

Role in the St-Pierre Lab: Undergraduate Student

Daniel Zollinger, Ph.D.

Senior Manager, Research and Development

Foundation Medicine, San Diego, California

Date: 11/2016 - 03/2017

Role in the St-Pierre Lab: Postdoctoral Associate

Hussam Ibrahim, Ph.D.

Graduate Student at Iowa State University

Date:

Role in the St-Pierre Lab: Research Assistant