Lab Alumni


Roger Vogelmann

Former Postdoctoral Researcher

Current Position: Associate Medical Director at Universitätsmedizin Mannheim, Heidelberg University

Roger worked on how H. pylori affects epithelial cell polarity and the apical-junctional complex.

Fabio Bagnoli

Former Postdoctoral Researcher

Current Position: Project Leader at GSK Vaccines (Siena, Italy)

Fabio investigated how the H. pylori virulence factor CagA perturbs epithelial cell differentiation and polarity.

Mickey Pentecost

Former Graduate Student

Current Position: Chief Executive Officer at Diadem Biotherapeutics

Mickey studied how the bacterium Listeria monocytogenes invades the intestinal epithelium. He discovered that Listeria utilize breaches in cell polarity to access its receptor E-cadherin for invasion.



Elizabeth Joyce

Former Research Scientist

Current Position: Associate Adjunct Professor at UCSF

Elizabeth explored whether Yersinia enterocolitica has a similar mode of invasion of the intestinal epithelium as what we have previously shown for Listeria monocytogenes.

Lee Shaughnessy

Former Postdoctoral Researcher

Current Position: Scientist at Stratatech Corporation (Madison, WI)

Lee investigated how the intestinal pathogen Yersinia enterocolitica is able to access its host receptor B1 integrin when it is normally not exposed to the apical surface in polarized epithelia.

Shumin Tan

Former Graduate Student

Current Position: Assistant Professor of Molecular Biology & Microbiology at Tufts University School of Medicine

Shumin elucidated how H. pylori utilizes the cell surface as a replicative niche, and how H. pylori's virulence factors CagA and VacA directly benefit the bacterium by usurping host cell polarity and iron trafficking to enable colonization.



Michael Howitt

Former Graduate Student

Current Position: Assistant Professor of Pathology at Stanford University School of Medicine

Mike worked on chemotaxis regulatory mechanisms uniquely present in H. pylori and other Epsilonproteobacteria, and the role of chemotaxis in H. pylori colonization of the gastric glands.

Josephine Lee

Former Graduate Student

Current Position: Senior Scientist at 10X Genomics

Josephine developed a mouse model of H. pylori infection to look at the effects of the bacterial virulence factor CagA in vivo. Using this model, she also characterized host and bacterial factors that determine H. pylori localization in the stomach.

Renee Kwok

Former Research Assistant

Current Position: Clinical Laboratory Scientist at UCSF Mission Bay - Chemistry

Renee assisted Josephine Lee in characterizing a mouse model of H. pylori infection.



Diane Houben

Former Postdoctoral Researcher

Current Position: Project Manager/Scientist at Abera Bioscience

Diane used electron microscopy to visualize the interface of H. pylori's Type IV secretion system with the host cell surface.

Ryan Honaker

Former Postdoctoral Researcher

Current Position: Director of Microbiology at NomNomNow

Ryan studied H. pylori's response to epithelial cell adherence, and was developing a primary murine organoid gastric cancer model to study H. pylori infection.

Michael Sigal

Former Postdoctoral Researcher

Current Position: Fellow at Charite University Berlin, and Investigator at the Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology

Michael used a mouse model of H. pylori infection to discover that bacteria can colonize and activate gastric epithelial stem cells.



Julie Huang

Former Graduate Student

Current Position: Scientist at Caribou Biosciences

Julie studied the mechanisms that H. pylori uses to sense key signals in the stomach to find a specialized niche in the gastric epithelium where it can survive.

Lauren Popov

Former Graduate Student

Current Position: Scientist at Novome Biotechnologies

Lauren investigated how components of the host cellular adherens junctions control susceptibility to the Staphylococcus aureus virulence factor, α-toxin.

Connie Fung

Former Graduate Student

Current Position: Postdoctoral Researcher at Stanford University School of Medicine

Connie developed novel tools to visualize how gland-associated H. pylori populations establish, spread, and persist within the gastric mucosa, and found that the gland niche is important for chronic colonization.



Julia Co

Former Postdoctoral Researcher

Current Position: Scientist at Geltor

Julia developed reversed polarity human enteroids as a new model to study epithelial infections by microbes including Salmonella enterica and Listeria monocytogenes.