THE TEAM
François St-Pierre, Ph.D.
Principal Investigator & Chief Protein Hacker
Assistant Professor & McNair Scholar
Baylor College of Medicine Department of Neuroscience
Adjunct Assistant Professor
Rice University Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering
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Alex James McDonald, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Associate
Baylor College of Medicine Department of Neuroscience
Alex joined the lab in 2020.
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Michelle Ann Land, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Researcher
Baylor College of Medicine Department of Neuroscience
Michelle joined the lab in 2020 shortly after receiving her Ph.D. in Pharmacology from the University of Texas Medical Branch.
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Matthew Shorey, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Associate
Baylor College of Medicine Department of Neuroscience
Matthew joined the lab in February 2022 shortly after receiving his Ph.D. in Neurobiology from Penn State University.
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Jihwan "James" Lee, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Associate
Baylor College of Medicine Department of Neuroscience
In 2022, James received his Ph.D. in Systems, Synthetic, and Physical Biology from Rice University — making him the first student to graduate from the St-Pierre Lab.
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Zhuohe "Harry" Liu
Graduate Student
Rice University Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Harry is one of the first students to join the lab in 2016. He created an interactive software to display spatial and temporal properties for cell selection in SPOTlight, our single-cell high-throughput screening platform. He also designed a motorized electrode system to induce voltage changes in cells to screen for better GEVIs, which led to the next generation two-photon compatible voltage indicator JEDI-2P. Fun fact: did you know he created the GEVI wikipedia page?
His expertise in programming, hardware control, and microscopy help us to push the frontier of biosensor engineering, and advanced smart microscopy.
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Xiaoyu "Helen" Lu
Graduate Student
Rice University Institute of Biosciences and Bioengineering
Xiaoyu joined the lab in 2017. She is currently a 5th-year student in the Systems, Synthetic, and Physical Biology (SSPB) Ph.D. Program at Rice University.
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Shuyuan Yang
Graduate Student
Rice University Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
Shuyuan joined the lab in 2019. She is currently a 3rd-year graduate student at Rice University.
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Shujuan Lai
Research Assistant II
Baylor College of Medicine Department of Neuroscience
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Xiaoyu Dong
Research Assistant II
Baylor College of Medicine Department of Neuroscience
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Elsayed Zaabout
Research Assistant I
Baylor College of Medicine Department of Neuroscience
Elsayed obtained his B.Sc. in Biotechnology from Ain Shams University in 2012. then, He earned his M.Sc. in biotechnology from Dokuz Eylul University in Turkey in 2019. Elsayed joined St-Pierre lab as a research assistant in December 2020, and his research focused on developing the next generation of genetically encoded voltage indicators. Currently working on optogenetics.
Beatriz Campillo Miñano, M.S.
Research Assistant I
Baylor College of Medicine Department of Neuroscience
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Chelsea Cooper
Research Technician III
Baylor College of Medicine Department of Neuroscience
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Shaminta Hamidian
Research Technician II
Baylor College of Medicine Department of Neuroscience
Shaminta joined the lab in August 2021. Her current work involves improving methods for ultra-high-throughput multi-parameter screening of fluorescent proteins and indicators.
Hala Safi Abdallah
Laboratory Technician I
Baylor College of Medicine Department of Neuroscience
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Raegan N Banks
Laboratory Technician I
Baylor College of Medicine Department of Neuroscience
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