Current Lab Members

Tom Clandinin

Professor, Neurobiology

Jesse Isaacman-Beck

Postdoctoral Fellow

Jesse received his B.S. in Chemistry from Haverford College in 2004. After a brief stint teaching Chemistry with Peace Corps Tanzania, he worked with Dr. Ronald Collman at the University of Pennsylvania to define the cell and molecular mechanisms underlying HIV transmission and associated pathogenesis in the brain. In graduate school at the University of Pennsylvania, he changed focus to work with Dr. Michael Granato to determine how nerves regenerate in vivo. He spent hours/days/weeks/years mesmerized in front of the microscope staring at larval zebrafish as their nerves (sometimes) regrew. In the Clandinin lab, Jesse currently uses the exquisite genetic tools available in Drosophila to define the molecular mechanisms governing neural circuit stability. Jesse also loves to teach and mentor, and he advocates for Stanford Postdocs with the Stanford Postdoc Association. When he needs to get away, he hops on his bicycle and tries to chase younger guys like John and older guys like Tom up mountains – usually he can’t keep up.

Kevin Mann

Postdoctoral Fellow

Kevin received his B.S. in biochemistry and molecular biology from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 2004. There he studied calcium regulation of Nitric Oxide Synthase under Dr. Susan Smith and Dr. John Salerno. He then switched fields and began studying Drosophila courtship behavior with Dr. Claudio Pikielny at Dartmouth. He performed his PhD research in the lab of Dr. Kristin Scott at UC Berkeley, where he worked on the regulation of feeding behavior and behavioral hierarchies in Drosophila. Kevin currently studies Drosophila magnetosensation and functional network architecture in the Drosophila brain in Dr. Thomas Clandinin’s lab. In his other life, he manages a team that builds and displays neural network-inspired art installations and blows stuff up.

Irving Wang

Postdoctoral Fellow

Irving received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in biology from Johns Hopkins University. For graduate school, he joined the lab of Peter Reddien at MIT and the Whitehead Institute where he studied the regenerative mechanisms of the flatworm Schmidtea mediterranea. Currently, Irving is interested in the adaptive evolution of the visual system within the Drosophila clade and is investigating the divergence of transcriptional regulation programs among various fruit fly species. In his free time, Irving likes to draw comic strips in Adobe Illustrator.

Luke Brezovec

Graduate Student

Luke received his B.S. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from Penn State in 2015, and started his PhD in the Stanford Neurosciences program in 2016. He was attracted to neuroscience by its exciting molecular and cellular questions, and is now also exploring systems neuroscience. Currently, he hopes to use in vivo calcium imaging and virtual reality to ask questions about late stage visual processing in Drosophila. Luke's other passion is landscape and architecture photography; he earned a B.A. in Integrative Arts at Penn State and now enjoys photographing the California landscape.

Jonathan C.S. Leong

Graduate Student

Theresa Logan-Garbisch

Graduate Student

Theresa graduated from San Jose State University in Spring 2013 with a B.S. in Molecular Biology and started the Neuroscience PhD program at Stanford that fall. Her undergraduate work got her interested in the interplay of genetics and environment during development, which heavily influenced her choice of primary research project in the Clandinin lab. Theresa is looking at the effects of miniaturization on the nervous system - specifically, how does a brain with fewer and smaller cells get wired?

Michelle Pang

Graduate Student

Michelle is interested in understanding sensory processing at the cellular and molecular level. Currently, she is using in vivo two-photon imaging, genetically-encoded indicators of neural activity, and cell type-specific genetic manipulations to study neurons in the early Drosophila visual system. Prior to graduate school, Michelle received her B.A. in Molecular and Cell Biology (Neurobiology track) and Linguistics from UC Berkeley in 2013, and she studied magnetotactic bacteria in Dr. Arash Komeili's lab at Berkeley. Outside of lab, Michelle likes learning new languages and working with kids.

John Vaughen

Graduate Student

John first fell for flies as an undergraduate in the Horne-Badovinac lab (University of Chicago), using Drosophila to probe organ morphogenesis. He then fled the country for a 1.5-year research stint with the Igaki lab (University of Kyoto), where he continued abusing flies while uncovering genetic programs governing cell-cell competition and epithelial tumorigenesis. John is now captivated by the exquisite, extreme cell biology exemplified by the morphologically spectacular neuron and is broadly interested in the intersection of genetic and cellular regulation of behavior in the fly visual system. Hobbies outside of lab include: biking, biking, hiking, cooking Japanese food, and more biking.

Carl Wienecke

Graduate Student

Carl joined the Clandinin lab in 2016. He uses in vivo, 2-photon imaging of genetically-encoded voltage and calcium indicators to study circuit mechanisms of direction selectivity in the Drosophila visual system. When he's not looking at flies looking, Carl likes to spend time with his wife and their dog, both of whom have visual systems.

Helen H. Yang

Graduate Student

Helen received her B.A. in Molecular and Cellular Biology from Harvard University in 2011, where she worked in Michael Greenberg’s lab studying proteins that interact with MeCP2, a transcriptional regulator that is mutated in Rett Syndrome. After coming to Stanford, Helen joined the Clandinin lab in 2012. Currently, in collaboration with Michael Lin (Stanford) and Francois St-Pierre (Baylor and Rice), she uses in vivo, two-photon imaging of genetically encoded voltage and calcium indicators to study information processing in the early Drosophila visual system. She is also interested in dissecting the circuit and molecular mechanisms by which this neural circuit performs computations. Outside of lab, Helen enjoys karate and hiking.

Allan Borrayo

Lab Manager

Allan is currently studying Business Management at San Jose State University. In the Clandinin lab, he takes care of making solutions, purchasing, contract services, inspections, and inventories.

Leland Owens

Technician

Leland received his Bachelor of Science at the University California, Santa Cruz in 2013, majoring in Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology. He previously worked with Professor John Tamkun at UCSC, studying chromatin remodeler binding dynamics in Drosophila with confocal microscopy. After completing his undergraduate project, he joined the Clandinin lab in 2014 and is currently generating and characterizing new enhancer trap fly lines for the InSITE Project (Gohl et al. 2011). Outside of the lab, Leland enjoys playing basketball, gardening, and exploring the local music, hiking, and culinary scenes.

Kristine Paik

Technician

Kristine graduated from Brandeis University in 2017 with a B.S. in Biology and minor in Chemistry. At Brandeis, she studied Drosophila olfactory learning and memory with regard to a specific set of dopaminergic neurons. Kristine is currently aiding with developing sparsening construct and recombinant flies.

Sabera Talukder

Undergraduate Researcher

Sabera Talukder is a rising senior at Stanford University pursuing a double major with honors in electrical engineering and biochemistry. She is culminating research on designing an electrostatic precipitator to reduce respiratory death in rural environments, and is currently working on how to implant visual memories into fruit flies. In the past, Sabera created the largest hardware model of the brain using neurogrid, and designed, built and deployed sub-$25, solar powered, water purification systems in daycares for street children in Dhaka. Sabera’s scientific explorations have afforded her the opportunity to be 1 of 5 international Google Science Fair finalists, to present her work to science icons like Vint Cerf, and to be a guest on Science Friday with Ira Flatow. Sabera also enjoys singing and dancing, and played the role of Nina in the musical production of In The Heights at Stanford in the spring, and was a part of Los Salseros de Stanford, the Stanford salsa dancing group, during her sophomore year.

Marjorie Xie

Technician

Marjorie is curious about how sensory perception arises. How do innate structures capture regularities in the world? How does an organism's experience and internal state alter perception? In the Clandinin Lab, Marjorie currently investigates the molecular and cellular basis of computations in the early visual system of Drosophila. In collaboration with Helen Yang, she is conducting experiments using two-photon imaging and genetic manipulations. Prior to joining the Clandinin Lab, Marjorie did her undergraduate thesis in Professor Mala Murthy's lab at Princeton, where she studied sensorimotor behaviors in Drosophila courtship. Marjorie received a B.A. in computational neuroscience and a certificate in Applications in Computing in 2015. Outside of neuroscience, Marjorie enjoys studying philosophy and history of science, swimming fast, and concocting new sorbet flavors.

David Zimmerman

Undergraduate Researcher

David is a physics major (with a minor in classics), and he intends to pursue a career in basic science. He is studying the transcriptional response to activity in the fly brain.