Leandro Velez
Yerba mate connoisseur
My enthusiasm for science began at an early age reading science magazines from my older brothers (who, along with my parents, also inspired my passion for rock music). At that time I was fascinated by the new inventions in space engineering, the latest advances in medicine and molecular biology, and the diversity of nature. Finally, I decided to study biology, and then start a scientific career in which I focused on studying the impact of major metabolic diseases on physiology, and recently incorporating integrative physiology along with systems genetics approaches.
Carlos Henrique Viesi do Nascimento Filho
So caffeinated… yet so calm
I grew up in a very cosmopolitan city (São Paulo, Brazil). Countering it, I developed a love for nature and science by exploring my grandparent’s house. As an old construction with a big yard with trees and plants, pass-by small animals, many books, and full of memories were fuel for a child’s creativity. Time flies, and today – as long as I have a cup of coffee! – my curiosity and love for nature and science keep stirring me. My research interests are deep-dive into the biology of cross-tissue interactions using systems genetics approaches.
Maggie Myers
Memphis Math Maven
Hi! I’m Maggie! I love plants, dad jokes, feeling helpful, DIYs, and spreading positivity. I’ve been described as “Chicken Soup for the Soul, but in human form”. Most likely to put a meme in a presentation. I grew up and went to college in Memphis, TN, majoring in Biomathematics at Rhodes College, a small liberal arts school. I equally love science, math, and coding, and my research background is math modeling. I moved to California in 2019 to begin a PhD in Mathematical Computational and Systems Biology (MCSB) at UC Irvine, and I love it so much! I want to do something that makes an impact, so I’ve always been drawn to disease modeling. I’m ecstatic to be a part of the Seldin and Lowengrub labs, researching cancer microenvironment with math models informed by genetic analyses.
Cassandra Van
Feline cafe flaneur
Hi, I’m Cassandra! I’m a PhD student under the interdisciplinary Mathematical, Computational, and Systems Biology Program. I’m interested in cell-tissue/tissue-tissue signaling, and the apparent disconnect between omics technologies. I worked for a few years before this, spanning foundational, translational, and manufacturing work. I love singing, puzzles, and board games in my free time, and I’m an aspiring cat mom. If you have a cat or can point me to a cat café, I will be your friend for life.
Ian Tamburini
The perfect blend of chickens and epoxy
Hello, I’m Ian! I’m a PhD student from the CMB program generally interested in using ‘omics to characterize how various metabolites are exchanged in the body, genes interactions that determine their metabolic fates, and ultimate consequences for systemic physiology. Before UCI, I was working in Boston where I studied how the unique metabolic repertoire of the gut microbiome in agricultural animals can be leveraged to improve host health and benefit sustainable animal husbandry. In addition to science, I also get my thrills from playing jazz saxophone, biking (road and mountain!) and experiencing the many beautiful sights and sunshine that SoCal has to offer.
Casey Johnson
Knower of things
Casey invented pants, is a world-class cat juggler and can fabricate diamonds using #2 pencils, a microwave and dynamite.
Timothy Pham
Tim is a 199 student in the lab who likes to eat Pop-Rocks and Coke in order to show his stomach who’s boss.
Take that alimentary canal!
Katie Do
Katie is a 199 student in the lab who, in her free time, likes to casually delve into quasiconformal mapping.
She’s always joking about how if you let f : D → D′ be an orientation preserving homeomorphism between open sets in the plane and if f is continuously differentiable, then it is K-quasiconformal if the derivative of f at every point maps circles to ellipses with eccentricity bounded by K.
It always get a chuckle!
Marcus Seldin
El Jefe… le Grande Fromage
Im mostly interested in deep sea marine biology, but endocrine metabolism and systems genetics are nice side-gigs. I find this to be a very fun and rewarding job and could not imagine doing anything else. It’s a good life!
Lab alumnus/alumna… Where are they now?
Lily Mott
Lily has entered into a PhD program at UC Davis and is growing to love all bovine-related olfactory experiences.
Isoo Yoon
Isoo was a 199 student in the lab. I tried very hard to convince her to open an igloo store called, Isoo’s Igloos. Unfortunately, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, about 20% of U.S. small igloo businesses fail within the first year. So, Isoo decided to go to medical school instead.
Farheen Bibi Dustagheer
Farheen was a 199 student in the lab. She is from an island off the coast of Africa. No, not Madagascar… you were thinking Madagascar, weren’t you? She is from Mauritius. Take a moment to think about how many people you know that are from Mauritius… go ahead, I’ll wait. Well, you can now add 1 to your list, which brings your list to a grand total of 1.
Ghassan Filimban
Ghassan is a 199 student who likes to spend their free time having staring contests with cats.
Daryn Chau
Daryn is very interested in machine learning, so he can better understand our future mechanical overlords.
Diana Quach
Diana loves all things mice-related and can go ballistic with a Kendo sword at the drop of a hat.