Former Graduate Students
Mariann Gabrawy
Ph.D., Biological Sciences, 2018
Chia-Hua Lue
Ph.D., Biological Sciences, 2017
Amanda Lo
Masters, Biological Sciences, 2017
Adam Rybczynski
Masters, Biological Sciences, 2016
Mary Durham
Ph.D., Biological Sciences, 2013
Theresa Delaney
Ph. D., Biological Sciences, 2012
Tashauna Felix
Ph.D., Biological Sciences, 2010
Adrienne Starks
Ph. D,, Biological Sciences, 2010
Karen Lesser
Masters, Biological Sciences, 2006
Undergraduate Researchers
Mervat Ali
Undergraduate Research/Research Technician
B.S. / Biology
Amanda Reamy
Undergraduate Researcher
Amanda worked in the lab for 2 years. She did an honors thesis on the effects of the gene Dscam on the immune response to parasitoid wasps.
Luz Catherine Tello
B.S. / Biology
Luz was a double major, earning a B.S. in Biology and a B.A. in Psychology. After graduation Luz worked as a technician in the lab for a year. She was involved in numerous projects from field work on the parasitoid wasp/Drosophila community to mapping genes affecting life span. Oh, and she also kept the laboratory running like a well oiled machine.
Leanne Foster
B.S. / Biology
Leanne worked on the genetic basis of life span and immunosenescence. In her typical way, this was Leanne’s first posting for this site “My name is Leanne Foster, I am currently in med school. I have no life. Don’t go to med school.” After a break, here was her more heartfelt offering: “Hi my name is Leanne Foster. I worked in Dr. Jeff Leips’ lab for three glorious years in which he, and every other member of the lab, helped me grow intellectually and personally. I graduated from UMBC in May of 2006 with a B.S. in Biological Sciences.
Hir Dalwadi
B.S. / Biology
Hir worked in the lab as an undergraduate and as a technician and pretty much has helped out in all of the research projects at some point.
Anna Cruz
B.S. Biology, UNC Chapel Hill
Anna was a senior at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill who worked on an independent research project in the summer of 2003. She was adopted as an official lab member at that time. She is originally from Staten Island, New York and is pursuing a double major in Biology and Exercise and Sport Science. Anna is involved in various other activities at UNC-Chapel Hill including ACL injury research, Psychology research, and volunteering at the NC Children’s Hospital.
Jo Zitur
B.S. / Biology
Jo worked as an undergraduate doing research on the genetic basis of variation in life span. She was famous for working the midnight shift and generally keeping everyone on their “intellectual toes” in lab meetings.
Dawn Lopez
M.S. / Applied Molecular Biology
Dawn was a member of the AMB Program and did her thesis work in our lab looking at the effect of expression variation in genes in the catecholamine pathway on life span. She is currently a laboratory technician at U.S. Department of Agriculture,
Syed Ahmed
B.S. / Biology
Syed was one of the few males that survived the Leips laboratory, probably because he had a good sense of humor. He did two years of field work on the parasitoid project and was also working on the genetic basis of larval foraging behavior. He is currently an MD specializing in endocrinology.
Katharine Mast
B.S. / Molecular Biology
Katharine spent a summer as an EMBARC student doing research on the genetic basis of variation in the effects of caloric restriction and age-specific immune response. She has also been formally adopted as a lab member and will be forever remembered for her bread pudding. Here is an update from Katharine on her status: “I graduated with a B.S. in Molecular Biology from Grove City College in 2005.
Kate Laskowski
B.S. / Biology with Honors
Kate initiated our work on the importance of parasitoid wasps as an agents of selection on larval behaviors of Drosophila. Kate earned several awards for her work in the lab including an Undergraduate Research Award from UMBC and Best Student Poster at the IX International Workshop on Parasitoids held in Wales, UK. Of note, Kate was the ONLY undergraduate in attendance. She got her PhD from the University of Illinois Champagne-Urbana in Alison Bell’s lab and is currently a research fellow at the Leibniz-Institute of Freshwater Ecology & Inland Fisheries (IGB). Kate was also recognized in 2017 as an Outstanding Alumna in the Natural and Mathematical Sciences at UMBC.
Kathy Tran
B.S. Biology
Kathy worked on fine mapping genes regulating age-specific fecundity and also helped with the age-specific immune response experiments.
Gina Hilton
B.S. / Biology, Chemistry Minor
Gina worked on a number of projects in the lab including sorting and identifying thousands of flies and wasps from our field work. Her research project was focused on understanding parasitoid host choice.
Ruth Cho
Undergraduate Researcher
Ruth worked in the lab for 2 years and helped with a variety of projects. Her own project was focused on understanding the role of the gene syndecans in producing natural variation in life span.
Irene Cho
Undergraduate Researcher
Irene worked for over two years in the lab, and completed an Honor’s Thesis in Biology on her research examining the role of natural variation in the gene S6kinase in age-specific immune response. She is finishing her residency at the University of Michigan Dental School.
Sameen Raza
Undergraduate Researcher
Sameen worked closely with my graduate student Adrienne Starks for a year in the lab. As far as I can tell she kept Adrienne’s project running while she was here.
Gwendolyn Gregory
B.S. / Biology
Gwen worked in the laboratory for two years, the first year as an undergraduate researcher and the second as a research technician (she completed a B.S. in Biology at UMBC in the Spring of 2006). Gwen was primarily involved in our research to understand the genetic basis of variation in age-related changes in the immune response and fecundity. She also kept the lab running smoothly and even designed the logo for our laboratory t-shirt!
Ruby Jackson-Atogi
Undergraduate Researcher
Ruby worked on the role of learning in parasitoid host choice for two years as an undergraduate our lab.
Won Woo
Undergraduate Researcher
Won worked on a genome wide association project to identify SNPs affecting age-specific immunity.
Xin Ma
Undergraduate Researcher
Xin worked on a variety of projects with Mary Durham in our laboratory. She is currently running her own business.
Willis Ochieng
Undergraduate Researcher
Willis worked with Mary Durham on many aspects of her work.
Mara Laslo
Undergraduate Researcher
Mara graduated in December 2009 and will soon start a post bac at NIH working on dietary influences on aging in her favorite model organism, the fruitfly (well, maybe second favorite, horses being her real favorite).
Keisha Clay
Undergraduate Researcher
Keisha was a visiting student in our lab in the summer of 2009 and worked on the combined effects of diet, age and genotype on age specific immune response.
Chris Ferguson
Undergraduate Researcher
Chris was helping Adrienne Starks on her project studying the genetic basis of age-related changes in life history, metabolic and immune response traits. He also did independent research mapping genes affecting age-specific immunity.
Mike Topper
Undergraduate Researcher
Mike helped Adrienne Starks on her project studying the genetic basis of age-related changes in life history, metabolic and immune response traits. He also did independent research mapping genes affecting age-specific immunity.
Hamsa Gowda
High School Researcher
Hamsa was a high school student from Centennial High School who worked with me for two years. Her project examined the influence of diet on age-specific immunity. Hamsa is currently an undergraduate Meyerhoff Scholar at UMBC majoring in Biology.
Kimia Sohrabi
Undergraduate Researcher
Kimia worked with Mara Laslo and Theresa Hodges on mapping genes affecting larval immune defenses against parasitoid wasps.
Arunkumar Junuthula
Undergraduate Researcher
Arunkumar worked with Adrienne Starks to characterize the genetic influence on age-specific life history, metabolic and immune response traits. He also worked on an independent project to identify the genetic basis of age specific immunity.