Marie-Sophie is visiting the Conrad Lab for three months from the University of Brest - Brittany. She is doing a PhD in biostatistics at the INSERM UMR 1078 Genetics Functional Genomics and Biotechnologies lab, under the supervision of Emmanuelle Génin and Gaëlle Marenne.

Priscila joined the Conrad Lab as a computational biologist in April 2022. She has experience in bioinformatics, developing analytical pipelines to mine and integrate genetic data generated from a variety of high throughput technologies.

She has masters degree in Behavioral Ecology and in Bioengineering from the University of Sao Paulo and Oregon State University respectively

In 2004 she started working in the field of bioinformatics at OHSU. Most of her work has been related to the genetics of substance addiction in animal models at the Portland Alcohol Research Center (PARC – OHSU – Department of Behavioral Neuroscience).

She joined the Oregon National Primate Research Center in 2019, collaborating in projects on the epigenetics of alcohol addiction, and neuroendocrine mechanisms related to females after menopause.

Muhammad Riaz joined the Conrad Lab in March 2023 as a visiting scholar from the University of Malakand in Pakistan where he is doing a PhD in Biotechnology with a research focus on the genetics of male infertility. He comes to OHSU through the International Research Support Initiative Program (IRSIP) Higher Education Commission of Pakistan (HEC).

In the Conrad Lab Muhammad Riaz will be working on the GEMINI project, specifically learning about whole genome sequencing, using bioinformatics tools and data analysis. He also hopes to gain experience in manuscript writing. He will be visiting the Conrad Lab for six months.

Muhammad Riaz received his BS and M.Phil in Biotechnology from the University of Malakand, Pakistan.

Outside the lab Muhammad Riaz enjoys learning about new science, reading and exploring new places in Portland.

Clement joined the Conrad Lab in March 2023 as a visiting scholar from the University of Rouen - Normandy where he is a masters student in Bioinformatics and Statistical Modeling. He is part of a special program for students who already have a degree in biology called Complementary Skills in Bioinformatics for Biology and Biomedical Sciences.

In the Conrad Lab he will be working on building a machine learning model to learn expression signatures of special testis cell types from scRNA-seq data. He hopes to gain experience in computational biology and statistics mainly using R language. He will be in the lab for six months.

Clement obtained is bachelors degree from Sorbonne University in Paris in life sciences. He then received a masters degree in molecular and cellular biology, also from Sorbonne University. During his first year, Clement had the opportunity to do an internship in the Sattlegger Lab at Massey University in Auckland, NZ. There he worked with yeast DNA to decipher the function of a particular amino acid in a protein interaction. He then did another internship at I-Stem under the direction of Christian Pinset where he worked on elucidating the function of embryonic dystrophin as part of Duchenne Muscular Disease (DMD).

After his masters degree, Clement worked at the Brain Institute (ICM) in Paris, first working on using CRISPR-Cas9 to modify genes, and then working with Philippe Ravassard and Benjamin Galet to develop an Alzheimer's disease brain organoid model from patients ipsc to study differential gene expression and lncRNA within the disease. 

Outside of the lab, Clement loves to cook (and eat), go on hikes, play video games, boulder and play tennis or practice pretty much any sport. He loves spending time with his girlfriend who lives in Portland.

Daniel attends Colorado College and is majoring in Computer Science with a minor in Statistics. He first joined the Conrad Lab as a summer intern in 2020 and then was hired as student worker in February 2021. He works on the computational side of the lab on a variety of projects including investigating the role of splice variants in NOA, single-cell RNA-sequencing of Leydig Cells, and spatial transcriptomics of the testis.

Daniel's previous research experience includes public health study on HIV transmission and prevention at the Demond Tutu HIV Foundation in Cape Town, SA.

Outside of the lab, Daniel enjoys anything outside including biking, skiing, mountaineering, and soccer. He also enjoys learning about and participating in blockchain technology.

Jacob is a graduate student in the Program in Biomedical Sciences (PBMS). He joined the Conrad lab as a rotation student in January 2023, where he characterizes germline mutations in rhesus macaques to study the history of spermatogenic cell lines.

Jacob earned a BS in Biology and a BA in Psychology at the University of Portland (UP) in 2018, and believes that his psychology background helps him understand biology. During his studies at UP, Jacob helped isolate antimicrobial compounds from the Oregon grape with Dr. Angela Hoffman.

After finishing his undergraduate education, Jacob worked as a research assistant at the Oregon National Primate Research Center (ONPRC) for four years. Under the direction of Dr. Oleg Varlamov, Jacob helped research the effects of a high-calorie diet on both the hematopoietic system and adipose tissue. Jacob developed novel methods of characterizing the morphology of white adipose tissue.

Outside of the lab, Jacob likes to read about psychology and anthropology, play computer games with his cousins, or play board games with his friends.

Alex joined the Conrad lab as a senior research assistant in November 2019, where she is spearheading the technical aspects of several sequencing projects, including validating variants found in the GEMINI population. Coming to the lab with an ecology background, Alex is excited to learn more about molecular biology and human genetics.

She received her BA in Environmental Studies from Dartmouth College where her research focused on arctic ecology. She completed a senior thesis analyzing the biology and biodiversity of insects and spiders in Greenland in the laboratory of Dr. Ross Virginia. 

Outside of work, Alex enjoys cooking, going to the gym, playing board games, and spending time with family.

Ieva is a Ph.D. student at the Lithuanian University of Health Sciences where her thesis research focuses on genetic alterations related to mitochondria in different types of cancer. She joined the Conrad Lab in August 2021 as a recipient of the Baltic-American Freedom Foundation (BAFF) scholarship for an 11-month professional internship in the US.

In 2020, Ieva was a visiting researcher in the Almstrup lab in Copenhagen University Hospital (Rigshospitalet), Denmark, where she learned sequencing of small RNA and native DNA using the CRISPR/Cas-9 mediated Nanopore approach. There, she also gained valuable knowledge in the field of reproduction and male infertility. 

In the Conrad Lab Ieva hopes to augment her molecular biology expertise by gaining knowledge in computational biology, specifically in sequencing data analysis and interpretation.

Outside of the lab, Ieva enjoys traveling and exploring nature, hiking, reading books and spending time with her family and friends. She is also an animal and plant person!

Rytis is a graduate student of Biology science at the Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, Neuroscience Institute, Laboratory of Molecular Neurooncology. He joined the Conrad Lab in August 2021 as a recipient of the Baltic-American Freedom Foundation (BAFF) scholarship for an 11-month professional internship in the US.

Rytis' PhD thesis is focused on the expression of microRNAs in glioblastoma and their prognostic value estimating the patient outcome. In addition, he is working on identifying m6A modifications in glioma in order to better understand the complex heterogeneity of astrocytic brain tumors. His goal in the Conrad Lab is to strengthen his knowledge in RNA-seq analysis and expand his scientific view of male infertility and its genetic causes.

Rytis gained expertise on mRNA/microRNA expression and CpG methylation at the Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, Kaunas, Lithuania. In 2019 he evolved an interest in the male reproductive system and its molecular biology during a 9-month traineeship in the Almstrup Lab in Copenhagen, Denmark, were he had the chance to join the PNLDC1 study, investigate small RNAs in testicular cancer and gain experience in small RNA and Nanopore sequencing experiments.

Outside of the lab Rytis is an active person who enjoys a variety of sports and outdoor activities: playing basketball, soccer, table tennis; enjoying the view while mountain skiing, hiking; or just throwing a football with friends in the backyard.

Dharani is a DMIC student at OHSU in the MS program in Bioinformatics and Computational Biology. She joined the Conrad Lab in September of 2021 where she works on detecting aneuploidies from DNA sequencing data in macaques.

Dharani received her B.Tech from Tamil Nadu in India. For her thesis she developed an immersive video game which was controlled by the flexion/relaxation of the bicep muscle. A logistic regression classifier was used to classify these signals from the muscles. After her undergraduate degree, she worked at Nine Point Medical in Bedford, MA as a Machine Learning Intern and at Malum Terminus Technologies Inc. In Coralville, IA a s a Computer Vision Engineer.

Outside of work Dharani loves to play badminton, go on hikes, cook, read books.

Liina joined the Conrad lab as a post-doctoral fellow in January 2015 and has had a long-standing passion for the field of disease genetics. 

In a transition away from her wet lab roots, Liina's research in the Conrad lab focuses on computational biology and male infertility. The genetic factors that cause spermatogenetic failure have remained poorly described and rare genetic aberrations are now the new suspects. In order to unveil this elusive spectrum of genetic variation, an ambitious multi-center project, called GEMINI, was initiated. This project aims to exome sequence thousand(s) of infertile men and Liina serves as its primary study coordinator.

Liina received her PhD from the University of Tartu, Estonia under the mentorship of Dr. Maris Laan and worked with Dr.Ilpo Huhtaniemi at Imperial College, London, UK. During these positions she investigated the various aspects of genetic predisposition to recurrent miscarriages.

Besides research, she enjoys hiking, sports and trips to different corners of the world.

Benson is a DMICE student at OHSU in the MS program in Bioinformatics and Computational Biology. He joined the Conrad Lab in September of 2021 where he works on creating predictive models to classify stages in spermatogenesis using scRNA-Seq expression data. 

Benson received his BS in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at Penn State. He then joined Dr. Wayne Curtis' lab in the Chemical Engineering Department to work on a selective gene therapy system for mature plants.

Outside of school/work, Benson likes biking, climbing, and producing music.

Nicole joined the Conrad lab as a graduate student in August 2016 in the Computational and Systems Biology program at Washington University in St. Louis (WashU). Nicole’s thesis is on generating and analyzing spatial-temporal maps of postzygotic mutations in mammals.

Nicole received her B.S. from WashU, majoring in biomedical engineering and mathematics. After undergrad, Nicole worked for three years as a bioinformatician at the Genome Technology Access Center, a NGS sequencing core at WashU.

In her free time, Nicole enjoys fostering kittens and running half marathons. Nicole’s life goal is to become a genetics professor at a primarily undergraduate institution.

Brian joined the Conrad lab as a research assistant in June 2019. Brian's work in the Conrad Lab focuses on the GTEx project.

Brian received his B.S. in Cellular and Molecular Biology from Western Washington University in Bellingham, WA. His undergraduate research focused on analyzing RNA-Seq data to study the function and biological impact of noncoding sRNAs in the research laboratories of Drs. Suzanne Lee and Dan Pollard. 

Outside of work Brian enjoys going to the gym, cooking, hiking, and playing ultimate frisbee with friends.

Triona is a graduate student in the Program in Molecular and Cellular Biosciences (PMCB). She joined the Conrad lab as a rotation student in March 2020, where she works to understand the underlying mechanisms of male (in)fertility from a variety of perspectives.

Triona received her BS in Biochemistry from the University of Portland in 2018. While there, she worked on several research projects including Modeling the Spread of the Zika Virus during the 2016 Olympics with Dr. Hannah Highlander and Isolating a Natural Insecticide from Yew Trees with Dr. Angela Hoffman. She is passionate about interdisciplinary research and is excited to learn more about the exciting fields of genomics and male infertility.

When she is not in the lab, Triona can be found on one of Oregon’s many hiking trails, playing tabletop games with her friends, or spending time with her cat.

Kevin is a graduate student in the Program in Molecular and Cellular Biosciences (PMCB). He joined the Conrad Lab as a rotation student in February 2020, where he is learning how to detect aneuploidies from single-cell data and fine-map somatic mutations from bulk RNA-seq.

Kevin received his BS in Cell and Molecular Biology and Philosophy from Tulane University in 2014, followed by his MS in cell biology from Tulane the following year. In 2015, Kevin joined J. Michael Cherry's lab at Stanford University, where he served as a biocuration scientist for the Saccharomyces Genome Database (SGD) project until 2019. Learning about genome annotation and bioinformatics at SGD fostered Kevin's present-day research interests in single-cell technology, "omics", and precision medicine. Today, as a rotation student in the Conrad lab, Kevin is eager to gain experience in computational biology and genomics.

Outside of the lab, Kevin enjoys listening to music, going to the gym, motorcycling, martial arts, and spending time with friends in PMCB.

Wu-Lin joined the Conrad lab as a post-doctoral fellow in August 2016.

Her projects in the Conrad Lab focus on developing bioinformatic tools: (1) Integration of the functional information of proteins from the STRING database to a previously established PSAP (population sampling probability), which are p-values that evaluate the likelihood that the genotype observed in a single patient is causative. (2) Renewal of the original simulated PSAP values with an analysis-based model with several different variant functional annotation systems and population databases.

Wu-Lin received her PhD at Baylor College of Medicine in Developmental Biology and then worked as a postdoctoral associate in Dr. James R. Lupski's lab in the Department of Molecular and Human Genetics at Baylor College of Medicine. There, she focused on Mendelian genomics related projects to explore novel disease genes via whole exome sequencing (WES) and performed multiple functional assays to test the pathogenicity of variants identified from WES analyses.

Min joined the Conrad lab as a graduate student in April 2015. Her project focuses on the application of single-cell RNA-sequencing technologies to dissect gonadal defects in male infertility models. 

Min received her B.S. in Clinical Laboratory Sciences at Stony Brook University. Her undergraduate research focused on developing a novel method to synchronize yeast meiotic cells to study chromosomal behaviors and recombination events in Dr. Nancy Hollingsworth’ s lab.

Outside of lab, Min enjoys running and baking, especially macarons. Her recent obsession has been playing with kittens that her roommate recently adopted and also policing them to keep them out of trouble! 

Eloise is working as an intern in the Conrad lab for the summer of 2019.

Eloise is currently a student at the University of Wyoming where she studies Chemical Engineering with a focus in Biomedical Engineering. She is also pursuing minors in Honors and Anthropology. At UW, she also works with various microfluidic devices in Dr. John Oakey’s lab.

Outside the lab, Eloise loves the outdoors. She enjoys hiking, backpacking, paddle boarding, skiing, etc. She also loves to travel and has been to 14 different countries. She has spent time living in France and in Italy.

Chengran is a graduate student jointly supported with Jo Dougherty.