Research Assistant Professor
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Dr. Jason Presnell is a developmental biologist who loves marine invertebrates. He is our resident CRISPR expert and knows all things Ctenophores.
Hailing from North Carolina, he got his BS/MS from UNC-Greensboro, PhD from University of Miami, and did postdoctoral work at Oregon State University. He recently was a Senior Research Associate in the Human Genetics Department at the University of Utah. - New Faculty Development Award 2024 |
Graduate Students
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Syeda Begum - PhD student in the Molecular, Cell and Developmental program. Joined Spring 2025. She had a Bachelors and Masters from Chittagong University in Bangeladesh, having worked previously on the role of genotype-phenotype in relation to arsenic exposure + cardiovascular disease in humans. Outside of the lab, she enjoys cooking and playing games with her friends.
Project: Elucidating molecular pathways associated with hypoxia acclimatization using Zebrafish |
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Zach Opoka - PhD candidate in the Biophysics & Biochemistry program. Joined Spring 2025. He has a Bachelors of Physics from the University of Missouri-Kansas City. He had previously worked on code to help aid in ice neutrino detection. Currently, he is interested in how early animal genomes were affected by the oxygenation of the Earth.
Project: Evolution of oxygen homeostasis mechanisms in a basal metazoan (Ctenophores) |
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Lane Anaya - PhD student in the Molecular, Cell and Developmental program. Joined in Spring 2026. They have a Bachelors from the University of Kansas where they had worked with Drosophila, after graduation they participated in the KU BioGems Postbaccalaureate Program where they worked with Monkeyflowers.
Project: TBA (Drosophila) |
Other members
Jackson Wuderlich - Research Assistant. Graduated from KU with a degree in microbiology and computer science. He joined the lab as an undergraduate student in Spring 2025 and worked on various projects, including building pipelines for analysis of publicly available data. Will be helping the lab this summer on various bioinformatic oriented projects.
Ollie Wood - KU REU Fellow. A undergraduate at Ohio State University, majoring in biology. They will be working with Lane on a project looking at how certain odorant receptors in Drosophila affect their hypoxia tolerance.
Ollie Wood - KU REU Fellow. A undergraduate at Ohio State University, majoring in biology. They will be working with Lane on a project looking at how certain odorant receptors in Drosophila affect their hypoxia tolerance.
Undergraduate Students (note: photos are statues on the campus of KU)
----> Limited availability for Fall 2026<---
Postdoctoral Fellows/Graduate Students/Postbaccs/Undergraduate Students
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This space is waiting for someone wonderful like you to fill it with information!
What will you work on? What are your interests? Where are you from? Where to you want to "go"? |
