Trainees

Research Statement: Callyn received her B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Minnesota State University, Mankato. She joined the Biomedical Engineering Department as a Ph.D. student in Fall 2021. Her current research focuses on developing a computational model of the pulmonary arteries to investigate how growth and remodeling is affected by pathology specifically, pulmonary artery stenosis.

Faculty Trainer: Colleen Witzenburg, PhD, Biomedical Engineering

Research Statement: Holden received his B.S. in Chemistry and B.A. in Mathematics from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, before joining the Chemistry PhD program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2021, where he has since earned his M.S. His current research focuses on the development and application of mass spectrometry (MS)-based top-down proteomics methods to characterize proteins that are critical to cardiac function and disease.

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

Research Statement: Mitchell received his B.S. and M.S. in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, before joining the Biomedical Engineering PhD program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2023. His current research focuses on engineering in vitro iPSC-derived cardiac tissues for the modeling of maturation and disease progression. Specifically, he is interested in how the interactions between cardiomyocytes, cardiac fibroblasts, and their environment influence myocyte mechanical and electrophysiological function

Faculty Trainer: Wendy Crone, PhD, Biomedical Engineering

Research Statement:Sarean received her B.S. and M.S. in Exercise Science from Appalachian State University in 2018 and 2020, respectively. She began her doctoral work in Exercise Physiology under the mentorship of Dr. Jill Barnes within the Department of Kinesiology in Fall 2021. Her current research focuses on understanding how the regulation of cerebrovascular and cardiovascular function (e.g. the baroreflex) changes throughout the adult lifespan in health and disease, and how the dysregulation of cerebrovascular and cardiovascular function can contribute to the risk of cerebrovascular, cardiovascular, and related diseases

Faculty Trainer: Jill Barnes, PhD, Professor, Kinesiology

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. In 2024, Daniel is continuing within the Glukhov lab as a postdoctoral researcher, studying the effects of Lamin mutations on cardiac function and fibrosis.

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: Taylor received a B.S. in Biology from Truman State University in 2016, and her PhD in Pharmacology and Toxicology from the University of California, Davis in 2023. She joined the Robertson lab as a postdoctoral fellow in 2023. Her research focuses on the role of translational control of cardiac ion channels to ensure electrophysiological balance. 

Faculty Trainer: Gail Robertson, PhD, Neuroscience

Research Statement: Yi obtained her M.D. and Ph.D. degrees from Nanjing Medical University and completed her residency training at Zhongda Hospital Southeast University. Her doctoral research focused on elucidating the role of protein kinase-phosphorylation substrate regulatory networks in mammalian heart regeneration. In 2024, Yi began her postdoctoral training under the supervision of Professor Ahmed, studying the reprogramming of adult mammalian heart metabolism to regulate heart regeneration.

Faculty Trainer:Ahmed Mahmoud, PhD, Assistant Professor, Cell & Regenerative Biology

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: Dakota received his B.S. in Genetics, Genomics & Biotechnology at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah as a first-generation student. He joined UW-Madison’s Genetics PhD program in Fall 2022. His research focuses on using single-nucleus sequencing to define the transcriptional and epigenetic mechanisms that drive heart tissue regeneration

Trainer: Ahmed Mahmoud, PhD, Assistant Professor, Cell and Regenerative Biology

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