THE EMERLING LAB TEAM
Brooke M. Emerling
Principal Investigator
Brooke received her BA from the University of California, Santa Cruz and her PhD from Northwestern University. As a PhD student in the laboratory of Navdeep Chandel, Brooke identified and characterized novel signaling pathways that regulate the transcription factor hypoxia inducible factor-1. Upon completion of her PhD, Brooke joined the laboratory of Lewis Cantley at Harvard Medical School. There she discovered that the loss of function of the PI5P4Ks resulted in synthetic lethality with p53 loss and began to elucidate the role of the PI5P4K family of enzymes in cancer metabolism. After she completed her postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard Medical School, Brooke became an Instructor of Cancer Biology in Medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine where she continued her research on lipid kinase signaling and cancer metabolism. In August 2016, Brooke joined the faculty at Sanford Burnham Prebys as an Assistant Professor.
Lavinia Palamiuc
Staff Scientist
Lavinia received her master's degree in Biotechnology from the University of Iasi, Romania (2010) and her PhD in Neuroscience from the University of Strasbourg, France (2014). Her PhD research focused on pre-symptomatic metabolic alterations in muscle tissue in a mouse model for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Before joining the Emerling Lab, she was a post-doc at The Scripps Research Institute where she studied fat metabolism and neuroendocrine signaling in C.elegans in Dr. Srinivasan's lab. Currently she is studying the role of PI5P4K enzymes in metabolic homeostasis and pathology. In her free time, Lavinia enjoys reading, photography, learning new languages, and hiking.
Gurpreet Arora
Postdoctoral Associate
Gurpreet received her PhD in Cell and Molecular Biology from The University of Rochester. Before joining the Emerling lab, she was a postdoc at UT Southwestern Medical Center where she worked on identifying and characterizing factors that drive cancer cachexia, with the focus being on adipose wasting. Currently her research aims at understanding the biology of PI5P4K enzymes in cancer metabolism. Gurpreet enjoys photography, traveling and playing sports during her spare time.
Ryan Loughran
Graduate Student
Ryan received his BS in Biology from the University of Pittsburgh. Before joining the Emerling lab in 2016, Ryan was a research technician in the Cantley Lab at Weill Cornell Medicine. As a graduate student in the Emerling lab, he is currently focusing on uncovering the mechanism by which the PI5P4K enzymes act as compensatory metabolic sensors in p53 mutant cancers. In his spare time, he enjoys golf, tennis, and attempting to write the next Hugo award winning sci-fi novel.
Taylor Anderson
Laboratory Coordinator
Taylor received her BS in General Biology from the University of California, San Diego in 2022. Before joining the Emerling lab, she was an undergraduate researcher and research associate in the Department of Medicine at UCSD studying immunology. She joined the Emerling lab to gain experience in cancer research with an interest in metabolism. In her free time, Taylor likes to grow plants and visit botanical gardens.
Alicia Llorente Lope
Postdoctoral Associate
Alicia received her BS, MS and PhD in Biomedicine from the University of Barcelona. Alicia completed her PhD studies in the laboratory of Dr. Roger Gomis at the Institute for Research in Biomedicine of Barcelona. Her research focused on unraveling the molecular mechanisms that drive bone metastasis in estrogen receptor-positive breast cancer cells that overexpress the MAF transcription factor. Currently, her research aims to understand how the PI5P4Ks sustain tumor growth and metastasis in the context of triple negative breast cancer. In her free time, Alicia enjoys scuba diving, playing padel, traveling and playing the piano.
Kyanh Ly
Research Assistant
Kyanh received his BS in Human Biology from the University of California, San Diego in 2022. With plans to go to medical school, he joined the Emerling lab to learn more about cancer metabolism and biomedical research. He enjoys watching movies, reading, and traveling in his free time.
Sophia Crabtree
Research Assistant
Sophia earned her BS in Molecular and Cell Biology from the University of California, San Diego in 2022. Her biology coursework revealed a passion for research—particularly within the realm of molecular biology. With this, Sophia currently plans to pursue a doctorate degree. Sophia joined the Emerling lab to gain practical research experience, specifically within the context of cancer biology. Sophia grew up on the central coast of California. In her free time Sophia enjoys boxing, cooking, and all things neuroscience.
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Sinead King
Administrative Assistant
Sinead received her bachelor's degree in Microbiology and minor in Chemistry at California State University Long Beach. Prior to joining SBP, she worked in an organic chemistry research lab and a diagnostics company. Sinead grew up between the US and Ireland and in her free time, she enjoys embroidery, hiking, pilates, and taking any dance classes she can find.
E
ALUMNI
Ann Pham (Research Assistant, 2017-2018) : Senior Research Associate, Fate Therapeutics
Oscar Donosa (Undergraduate student, 2017) : Graduate Student, Stanford University
Vivien Tieu (Research Assistant, 2019-2021) : Medical Student, California University of Science and Medicine
Archna Ravi (Postdoctoral Associate, 2017-2021) : Scientist, Berg
Wei-Shan Huynh (Research Intern, 2021) : Undergraduate Student, UC Berkeley
Mujeeb Qadiri (Research Assistant, 2021-2022) : Graduate Student, Northeastern University
