Trainees

Research Statement: Dawson graduated from UW-Madison in spring of 2023 with a B.S. in Biochemistry. He joined the Cellular & Molecular Pathology PhD program in fall of 2023 and is doing his thesis research in Dr. Wei Guo’s lab in the department of Animal and Dairy Sciences. His focus is on developing methods of regulating exon usage and manipulating alternative splicing patterns in cardiac sarcomere proteins as a potential therapeutic approach to different cardiac pathologies

Faculty Trainer: Wei Guo, PhD, Assistant Professor, Animal & Dairy Sciences

Research Statement: Elsa received her B.S. in Biology from the University of Puget Sound in 2020 and began her doctoral research in Dr. Valentina Lo Sardo’s lab in 2021. Her work focuses on 9p21.3 risk locus, the most impactful genetic risk factor for Coronary Artery Disease. She uses human induced pluripotent stem cells to derive vascular cells and observe what impact the 9p21.3 region exerts upon them with the aim of uncovering how this risk factor acts to influence disease susceptibility.

Faculty Trainer: Valentina Lo Sardo, PhD, Assistant Professor, Cellular and Regenerative Biology

Research Statement: Janay received her B.S. in Human Biology from the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay before joining the Cell and Molecular Pathology PhD program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2024. Her current research focuses on using in vitro iPSC-derived cardiac tissue units for modeling Lamin-associated arrhythmogenic cardiomyopathy with the specific aim of discovering early biomarkers of disease.

Faculty trainer: Lee Eckhardt, MD, MS, Professor, Medicine

Research Statement: Sarean received her B.S. and M.S. in Exercise Science at Appalachian State University in 2018 and 2020. She then joined Dr. Jill Barnes’s laboratory in the fall of 2021 to begin her doctoral work in Exercise Physiology with a focus on systemic and cerebral blood flow regulation. Her current research focuses on sex differences in cerebral hemodynamics with age (e.g., cerebral pulsatility), and how cerebral hemodynamics relate to autonomic function/dysfunction and overall brain health.

Faculty Trainer: Jill Barnes, PhD, Professor, Kinesiology

Research Statement: Alex received his B.S. in Neuroscience from Brigham Young University in 2017 and was subsequently accepted into the Neuroscience Doctoral Program at the Medical College of Wisconsin. Under the mentorship of Dr. Cheryl Stucky, his doctoral research investigated how non-neuronal skin cells contribute to innocuous and painful touch sensation. After completing his Ph.D., Alex joined the laboratory of Dr. Zachary Campbell at the University of Wisconsin–Madison in fall of 2024, where he is studying mechanisms of translational control in neuronal and non-neuronal cells to better understand chronic vascular and neuropathic pain.

faculty Trainer: Zachary T. Campbell, PhD; Associate Professor, Anesthesiology

Research Statement: Daniel received his B.S in Genetics and Biochemistry from UW – Madison in 2015. After two years with the Center for Dairy Research in Madison, he was accepted into the Molecular and Cellular Pharmacology Graduate Program at UW – Madison and joined the Glukhov lab in 2018. In his Predoctoral studies, he utilized tissue engineering to study the effect of cardiac stretch. During his postdoc period, Daniel has shifted his focus towards identifying mechanisms of exercise-induced cardiomyopathy.

Faculty Trainer: Alexey Glukhov, PhD, Associate Professor, Medicine

Research Statement: Jeanne received her B.S. and M.S. degrees from National Taiwan University and her Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Minnesota. Her doctoral research focused on using gene-edited human iPSC-derived cardiomyocytes (iPSC-CMs) to model hypertrophic cardiomyopathy in vitro. In 2024, Jeanne begins her postdoctoral training under Professor Kamp’s supervision, studying inherited arrhythmia disease models using both iPSC-CMs and animal models.

Faculty Trainer: Timothy Kamp, MD, PhD, Professor, Medicine

Research Statement: Kyle received his B.S. in Biochemistry from Northern Michigan University and Ph.D. in Biochemistry from UW–Madison. His thesis work focused on understanding how extracellular nutrient availability influences the behavior of blood cancer cells, particularly with respect to drug sensitivity and gene essentiality. During his postdoctoral training, Kyle is investigating the metabolic underpinnings of cardiac muscle regeneration in zebrafish.

Faculty Trainer: Kenneth Poss, PhD, Professor, Cell & Regenerative Biology

Research Statement: Max received his B.S. degree in Applied Physics from UW-River Falls and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Medical Physics from UW-Madison. His predoctoral work focused on carotid ultrasound, utilizing machine learning alongside Lagrangian strain techniques to segment carotid artery features and assess cardiovascular risk.  Starting in 2025, Max will work with Dr. Mitchell to utilize machine learning and other computational algorithms to identify features and progression of abdominal aorta aneurysms using ultrasound images.

Faculty Trainer: Carol Mitchell, PhD, ACS, RDMS,RDCS,RVT,RT(R), FASE, FSDMS, Associate Professor, Medicine

Research Statement: Bella got her B.S. in chemistry at Indiana University. She is a second-year graduate student in the Ying Ge lab. She is interested in using native top-down to better understand mechanisms behind cardiovascular disease. In her free time she enjoys hiking, rock climbing, and playing guitar.

Faculty Trainer: Ying Ge, PhD, Professor, Cell & Regenerative Biology

Research Statement: Logan received his B.S. In Human Physiology from Gonzaga University in 2022 before joining Dr. William Schrage’s laboratory in 2023 to pursue a master’s and PhD in Exercise Physiology. His research interests include understanding the mechanisms governing vascular function and blood flow regulation in response to exercise and gaseous stressors as well as how biological sex, hormonal status, or metabolic health may impact these mechanisms.

Faculty Trainer: William Schrage, PhD, Professor, Kinesiology

Research Statement: Saba received her BS and MS degrees in Bioinformatics and her PhD in Computational Sciences and Engineering from the National University of Science and Technology, Pakistan. In her doctoral research, Saba developed and validated a computational pipeline that can predict hERG blockers in the early phase of drug design and development. In 2021, Saba began her postdoctoral training under Professor Eckhart’s supervision, studying the structural-functional relationship of clinically reported KCNJ2 mutations to identify druggable targets.

Faculty Trainer: Lee Eckhardt, MD, MS, Professor, Medicine

Research Statement: Dr. Vladislav Leonov is an electrophysiologist and postdoctoral research associate in the laboratories of Dr. Timothy Kamp and Dr. Alexey Glukhov at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. His research combines cardiac electrophysiology, stem cell biology, and regenerative medicine to investigate mechanisms of excitation, conduction, and repair in the heart. He applies advanced electrophysiological techniques—including patch-clamp, optical mapping, and multielectrode array recordings—across experimental models ranging from human induced pluripotent stem cell–derived cardiomyocytes to mouse, pig, and human cardiac tissues, with the goal of advancing translational strategies for cardiac regeneration and disease modeling.

Faculty Trainer: Alexey Glukhov, PhD, Associate Professor, Medicine