Lab Team
Sladjana Skopelja-Gardner, PhD
Principal Investigator
Sladjana received her bachelor's degree in biochemistry from Dartmouth College in 2011. She then spent a year at the biotech company Celdara Medical in Lebanon as a research assistant before joining the Immunology graduate program at Dartmouth. She earned her Ph.D. from the lab of Dr. William Rigby in 2017, studying the development of autoimmunity in chronic lung infection diseases. Sladjana then moved to Seattle, WA where she trained as a fellow with Dr. Keith Elkon in the rheumatology division at the University of Washington. Her postdoctoral work focused on defining innate immune mechanisms involved in the pathogenesis of lupus, including kidney disease and photosensitivity. Here, she continues to pursue these questions using relevant disease models and in studies of human primary tissues.
Lindsay Mendyka
Scientist
Lindsay received her bachelor's degree in Animal Science from the University of Arkansas in 2013. She then relocated to Dallas, TX, where she began her career in biomedical research at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. She worked with many labs providing technical services for their research projects. She became very interested in pediatric cancer research and joined Dr. James Amatruda's lab in 2017, where she began studying various types of childhood cancers involving Dicer1 mutations. In 2019 when Dr. Amatruda moved to California, Lindsay joined Dr. Kenneth Chen's lab, where she continued her work with Dicer1. After 2 years, her family decided to move away from Texas to New Hampshire, where she found an interest in Lupus research under Dr. Sladjana Skopelja-Gardner. Here, Lindsay manages the in vivo studies involving type 1 interferon response and photosensitivity, and provides mentorship to the graduate and undergraduate students in the lab.
Zachary Peters
MCB Graduate Student
Zack received his bachelor’s degree in Molecular Biology and Biochemistry from Middlebury College in 2019, where he completed a thesis on metal ion regulation and the virulence of Streptococcus mutans. He then joined the laboratory of Dr. Raif Geha at Boston Children’s Hospital as a research assistant, where he helped investigate the mechanisms of several primary immune deficiencies. With a newfound passion for immunology, Zack began his PhD in the Molecular and Cellular Biology Program at Dartmouth, where he joined the Skopelja-Gardner lab. Currently, he is studying the role of the immune checkpoint, Vista, in regulating Type-I interferon production in the context of lupus disease. When not in the lab, Zack enjoys playing basketball, music and hiking the wilds of New Hampshire.
Angelique Cortez
MCB Graduate Student
Angelique received her B.S. in Biological Sciences at the University of California, Irvine. She was born and raised in California and has only recently experienced seasonal weather in New Hampshire. Over the course of her undergrad career, she became a recipient of several NIH grants; Maximizing Access to Research Careers (MARC), Initiative for Maximizing Student Development (IMSD), and Broadening Research Achievement in Neuroscience (BRAiN) for a Diverse Workforce. In her time in undergrad, she conducted research in a neurobehavioral lab investigating nicotine addiction and in a Developmental and Cell Biology lab investigating the chromatin states in Alzheimer’s derived microglia. She is currently a second-year graduate student and has an interest in genomic research aimed at investigating autoimmune diseases. Her current role in the Skopelja-Gardner lab, is to define kidney cell populations injured by neutrophils at a single-cell level in Lupus nephritis, as response to skin UV exposure.
Himanshu Goswami
MCB Graduate Student
Himanshu received his bachelor's degree in Biotechnology from Manipal Academy of Higher Education, India in 2018, where he studied how mitochondrial dysfunction in neutrophils leads to delayed wound healing in diabetic individuals. This experience kickstarted his love for immunology research. He then received a Master's degree in Molecular Biology and Biotechnology from Tezpur University, India, in 2020, where he worked on identifying immunogenic epitopes for constructing vaccine candidates against SARS-CoV-2 for his thesis. Thereafter, he worked as a research assistant at the Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati, where he studied non-canonical estrogen signaling in breast cancer. He is happy to join the MCB community at Dartmouth and continue his passion for immunology research in the Skopelja-Gardner lab. Currently, he is studying mechanisms of kidney injury in people with cystic fibrosis, with a special focus on myeloid cells, using both biological and computational approaches. In his downtime, he likes going hiking in the Upper Valley, exploring new towns, and experimenting with food recipes.
Grace Crossland
MD/PhD Student
Grace received her bachelor’s degree in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from Dickinson College, where she worked under Dr. Michael Roberts to complete a thesis on the role of cyclin-CDK inhibitors in the reprogramming of leukemia cells. She then joined Dr. Tyler Jacks’ lab at MIT as a research technician, where she studied antigen dominance hierarchies using genetically engineered mouse models of lung cancer, sparking her initial interest in immunology. After completing the first two years of medical school, Grace joined the Skopelja-Gardner lab where her graduate studies focus on evaluating the role of mucosal-associated invariant T (MAIT) cells in lupus skin disease. In her free time Grace enjoys hiking, running, pickleball, and baking
James Whitley
Clinical Research Coordinator
James received his bachelor's degree in Biological Sciences from The University of Vermont in 2020, where he completed a thesis on dairy-derived fatty acids impact on rat pancreatic cell insulin production. After graduation, he taught English in Taiwan through the Fulbright before joining Dartmouth Health as a clinical research coordinator. At Dartmouth, he helps manage a variety of studies in Emergency Medicine, Pulmonology and Rheumatology. In the Skopelja-Gardner lab, he plays a role in recruiting lupus and dermatomyositis patients and processing patient samples. Outside of being a coordinator, James enjoys running, volunteering and outdoor activities such as hunting and beekeeping.
Zoe Chafouleas
Undergraduate Research Assistant
Zoe is a freshman at Dartmouth College and is studying Biology and Women and Gender Studies. She is originally from Connecticut and shadowed at a Comparative Genomics lab at UConn before coming to New Hampshire. Zoe is currently interning at the Skopelja-Gardner Lab for the summer of 2021 through the Work Readiness Institute that Dartmouth-Hitchcock offers. She hopes to continue conducting research in the lab throughout her time at Dartmouth. In addition to her studies, Zoe throws discus and hammer for the Dartmouth Track and Field team.
Former Members
Lais Osmani, MD
Lais graduated from Boston University with a bachelor’s degree in Biology in 2010. After college, he worked on the COMBREX (Computational Bridges to Experiments) project which is dedicated to accelerating the biochemical annotation of microbial genes through the collaboration of both computational and experimental biologists. He graduated from the University of Illinois School of medicine in 2015, where he studied maspin expression in uveal melanoma. Afterwards, he completed an anatomic pathology residency at Johns Hopkins Hospital, during which time he was involved in research on biomarkers in non-small cell lung cancer as well identifying the antigen specificity of the monoclonal immunoglobulin in patients with Schnitzler syndrome. He is currently finishing up his internal medicine residency at DHMC, after which he will pursue a rheumatology fellowship. He is currently investigating the role of neutrophils in lupus nephritis and examining the regulation of type I interferon in lupus and dermatomyositis.
Brenna Kerin
Clinical Research Coordinator
Brenna received her B.S. in Health Sciences and Nutrition from the University of Vermont in 2022 where she was an ROTC and Presidential Scholarship recipient. Upon graduating, she commissioned into the Vermont Army National Guard as a 2nd Lieutenant in the Medical Services Corps. She completed her Basic Officer Leader Course at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, TX. Brenna’s interest in research was ignited during her study abroad at The Island School and the Cape Eleuthera Institute where she investigated Black Soldier Fly larvae as an alternate protein source for the Nile Tilapia that fertilized the aquaponics system. Brenna is excited to join the Dr. Sladjana Skopelja-Gardner laboratory team where she will be conducting research on Rheumatic Diseases Biomarkers (RDB) and the Regulation of the Type I Interferon Response to Ultraviolet Light. Outside the lab, she enjoys running, cross country and downhill skiing, triathlons, reading, and photography.
George Shan
Undergraduate Research Assistant
George is a sophomore at Dartmouth College originally from Shanghai, China. He is currently studying biology and mathematics. He has previously worked as a research assistant in a neurology lab studying Alzheimer’s Disease at Harvard medical school and interned at a biotechnology venture capital. Despite being a writer at the Dartmouth Undergraduate Journal of Science on campus, he is also an analyst in an investment club, a pro-bono STEM consulting organization, the treasurer of Dartmouth Math Society, and an engineer in the Dartmouth formula racing team. In his spare time, George enjoys playing guitar, soccer, and exploring trails!
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