PI: Michelle A. Digman
- Professor, Department of Biomedical Engineering, UCIrvine
- William J. Link Chair of BME, UCIrvine
- Joint Professor, Dept.of Dev.& Cell Bio., UCIrvine
- Joint Professor, Beckman Laser Institute
- Director, Laboratory for Fluorescence Dynamics (LFD)
- Allen Distinguished Investigator
3103 Natural Sciences II
University of California Irvine
Irvine, CA 92697-2715
Tel: (949) 824-3255
Email: mdigman@uci.edu
Complete CV
Biography: Michelle Digman is William J. Link Chair and Professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at the University of California Irvine. She is currently the Director of the Laboratory for Fluorescence Dynamics and Director of W.M. Keck Nanoimaging Lab. She served as Co-equity advisor for the Henry Samueli School of Engineering for 5 years and BME Associate Chair for Graduate Affairs for 3 years. She received her MS and PhD in Chemistry from University of Illinois at Chicago and did her postdoctoral work at the University of Illinois, Urban-Champaign in the Department of Physics.
Dr. Digman is a Scialog Fellow and has won several awards including the NSF-CAREER award, the Hellman Fellowship, the Fluorescence Young Investigator Award from the Biophysical Society, the Faculty Innovation in Teaching award and has received the Henry Samueli Career Development Chair. She has coauthored over 90 peer reviewed manuscripts and 6 book chapters. Her current research interest focuses on quantitative spatial and temporal correlation spectroscopy, protein dynamics during cell migration, characterizing metabolic alterations in cells and tissues, and developing novel imaging technologies. In addition to research and teaching, Dr. Digman is passionate about community outreach. She initiated the outreach program for minority community college students and outstanding high school students called Undergraduate Student Initiative for Biomedical Research (USIBR), which has been in operation since 2011. Her goals are to continue with a strong, collaborative and productive laboratory engaging in growth and development of her research group through targeted teaching, mentoring and aiding in the strategic growth of the University though service, increase diversity initiatives and collaboration.
Senior Scientists
Francesco Palomba, Ph.D.
Title: Associate Project Scientist
Email: fpalombaatuci.edu
Lorenzo Scipioni, Ph.D.
Title: Associate Project Scientist
Email: lscipionatuci.edu
Postdocs
Belen Torrado, Ph.D.
Title: Postdoctoral Scholar
Email: btorradoatuci.edu
Ph.D. STUDENTS
Angel Balam Benitez Mata
Title: BME Ph.D. Graduate Student
Email: abbeniteatuci.edu
Karen Lopez
Title: BME Ph.D. Graduate Student
Email: kllopez2atuci.edu
Song Zhu
Title: BME Ph.D. Graduate Student
Email: songnizatuci.edu
Ashley Noemi Urrutia Avila Ashley
Title: BME Ph.D. Graduate Student
Email: ashleynuatuci.edu
Co-mentored by: Dr. Tim Downing
MASTER’S STUDENTS
RESEARCHERS
Giulia Tedeschi
Title: Assistant Specialist.
Email: gtedesch@uci.edu
UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS
HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS
VISITING SCHOLARS
FORMER STAFF, STUDENT, POSTDOCS & VISITING STUDENTS
Ph.D. GRADUATES (Former Members):
Yu-Kai (Ken) Huang, Ph.D., 2023
Current Position: Ellison Institute of Technology Graphic. Microscopy Engineer.
Austin Lefebvre, Ph.D., 2021
Current Position: Data Scientist at Calico Life Sciences
Ning Ma, Ph.D., 2019
Current Position: Team Lead for NPI & Remote KOL Support, Akoya Biosciences, Inc.
Andrew Trinh, Ph.D., 2018
Current Position: Postdoctoral Fellow, Cambridge University, UK
Michael Murata, P.h.D., 2018
Current Position: Project Scientist, Cedars-Sinai, Los Angeles
Emma Mah, Ph.D., 2018
Current Position: Staff ScientistThe Lawrence J. Ellison Institute for Transformative Medicine of USC
Sara Sameni, Ph.D., 2018
Current Position: Ph.D. Health Program Specialist, NINDS Small Business Program at NIH
Dean Nguyen (2019)- graduate Graduated Master’s Program, BME
Xiantong Yang (2018)-graduated Undergraduate BME program
Gabrielle McGahey (2018)-graduated Undergraduate BME program
Stephanie Pascua (2018) – graduated Undergraduate BME program
Run Zhang (2018) -Graduated 2018 Master’s Program, BME
Jenu Chacko (2017) -Postdoc in the Eliceiri/LOCI lab at University of Wisconsin
Jim Kalassery – Graduated Master’s Program, BME 2016
Tracie Tran (2016), UC Irvine Alumn, Microbiology and Immunology.
YuanTing Huang (2016), UC Irvine, M.S. Student, Biotechnology Management
Brian Cai – Hired at Allergan 2015
Hongtao Chen
Swathi Bagilthaya – Graduated 2015 Master’s Program, BME
Ramon Rocca – Graduated 2015 Master’s Program, BME
Mehrnaz Mehrabi – Graduated 2015 Undergraduate Program, BME
Cecilia Kim – Accepted at Boston University, Undergraduate Program
Claire Goul – Accepted at MIT, Undergraduate Program
Sohail Jahid (2015)- Course Coordinator, Center for Complex Biological Systems, UCI
Elizabeth Gordon (2013), Associate Scientist, Biogen, Cambridge, Massachusetts
Former UCI Undergraduates: Freddie Adame, Minjuan Li, Kalyan NathTiffany Chien, Daniel D. Tran, Yingkai Su, Shinnosuke Fukazawa, & Thai Nguyen, Ivy Le, Siddharth Verma, Daniel Wong, Ginny Wu
Former High School Students:
Linghao Kong 2015-2018 Rabi Scholar; Columbia University.
Kalyan Nath 2015-2018 2nd place award OC Science Fair UCIrvine
Justin Wang 2014-2017 Chapman Young Innovator Award, Stanford University
Hari Garg 2011-2016 Blue Medal OC Science Fair, UCBerkeley
Cecelia Kim 2015-2016 Syracuse University
Claire Goul 2015-2016 Intel Science Talent Search (Intel STS) SemiFinalist, MIT
Bryan Villamil Summer 2017 St. Margaret’s Episcopal School
Justin Wang – Accepted at Stanford University, 2017
Andrew Rosenblatt – Accepted @ undergraduate program Cornell University 2016
Hari Garg – Accepted @ undergraduate program, UCBerkeley, 2016
William Rosenthal, St. Margaret’s Episcopal School
Michael Rubenacker, St. Margaret’s Episcopal School
Former Visiting Scholars:
2018 Dora Luz Flores, Autonomous University of Baja California
2018 Daniel Hadraba, Department of Biomathematics, Institute of Physiology, Czech Republic
2017 Francesco Paloma, University of Bologna
2017 Giulia Tedeschi, University of Genova
2017 Luca Digiacomo, University of Rome
2016 Lukas Rottschäfer; Technische Universität Braunschweig, Germany
2016 Estella Rao; Ph.D., Università di Palermo, Sicily, Italy.
2015 Carmine Di Rienzo; Università di Piza, Piza, Italy
2014 Belinda Wright; University of Western Sydney, Hawkesbury, Australia