Roddy O'Sullivan Ph.D.
DR. Ragini BHargava Ph.D
Dr. ANNE WONDISFORD PH.D (kinda MD)
DR. RAY (Wes) BOWMAN PH.D
BAYLEE SMITH
Takoda Zuelke
Roddy is the PI. Trained in Trinihty College Dublin, IMP Vienna and Salk Institute Vienna. His favorite movie is Jaws while his favorite pastimes are cycling, running, soccer, finding new music and performing chores for his two corgis. The things that Roddy loves most about Pittsburgh are Frick Park, The Cathedral of Learning, the bookshops and record stores in Squirrel Hill and cycling the steep streets of Pittsburgh (yikes!).
Roddys main job in the lab is to find new and novel ways of keeping folks busy. Always eager to chat with interested students and postdocs. He can be reached at osullivanr@upmc.edu.
Ragini grew up in Mumbai, India and did her graduate work in the lab of Jeremy Stark at the City of Hope, where she focused on delineating the distinct repair outcomes mediated by canonical non-homologous end joining. She loves to cook and bake, especially during times of high stress. When asked for a weird trait Ragini disclosed having an abnormally large, ever-growing collection of soft toys. She spends her free time going to concerts, watching Broadway musicals, online shopping, trying new restaurants, and watching movies. Though she claims to only watch high minded intellectually stimulating TV, Ragini really prefers WWE and Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. Ragini is working on everything and anything to do with telomeric chromatin dynamics in ALT cancer cells
Dr. Anne Radovick Wondisford is an MSTP student. This means she is not to be trifled with. Having successfully navigated her way through the mean back-alleys of the University of Pennsylvania, where she incidentally contributed to seminal work from Dr. Roger Greenbergs lab, Anne found her way to Pittsburgh. She just showed up one day and said “I’m here to do some BrdU-IPs”. That was that. She was in!! In the lab, Anne is working on PARP. This also means she is not to be trifled with.
Anne is the proud owner of a very cute, but for sure confused, dog named Wiener (He is a Yorkie!). Anne is an expert shopper, sensing bargains everywhere, seasoned angler and a semi-professional baker of Serbian breads.
Wes grew up in the farm country outside of Somerset, PA. He earned his undergraduate degree from Seton Hill University and spent four years as a high school Biology teacher in Loudoun County, VA before returning to PA for grad school as a member of Allyson O’Donnell’s lab at the University of Pittsburgh, using a yeast model system to identify novel regulatory mechanisms for the alpha-arrestin protein trafficking adapters.
Wes spends most of his free time being a dad, but also loves to garden, is an avid football (Indianapolis Colts!!) and basketball fan, and is more than happy to spend long hours playing overly complicated board games. Wes’ new work is focused on the role of ADP-ribosylation in maintaining genome stability.
Baylee works as the lab manager - keeping the show on the road. Originally from Perrysburg, Ohio, Baylee graduated with an M.S. in chemistry from the University of Toledo where she worked on the mitochondrial protein Msp1. She moved to Pittsburgh a few years ago to work with Matthew Wohlever in the Department of Cell Biology at Pitt.
Outside of the lab, she enjoys rock climbing and reading.
Newly minted member of the newly minted Oncology Graduate Program (OGP), Takoda Zuehlke (62), brings pleasant North Western Seattle-ness to the lab! His comfort in moderate rainy climates makes him a natural fit in the labs Irish environment! At the College of Wooster in Ohio, Takoda earned his Bachelor in Biochemistry. However, this may have been secondary to his endeavors as “center-middie" AKA “The Guv’nor” on the renowned Wooster soccer (football) team. Presently accustoming himself to the lab and this exciting new stage of his training in science, Takoda has immersed himself in a variety of projects relating to the ALT mechanism. The new few years will be exciting for sure!
Outside of the lab, Takoda continues his soccer (football) endeavors with his fellow OGP trainees while also working on his culinary creations. He loves to snowboard and keep up with his interests in manga and anime.
LAB ALUMNI
Michelle Lynskey - former grad student now postdoc with Kavitha Sarma at Wistar in Philadelphia.
Sandra Schamus-Hayes - former lab manager now happily retired & enjoying the good life!
Jean-Baptiste Ouriou - visiting student from Uni. Strasbourg, France.
Oliver Freund - Pitt undergradate research assistant
Laura Garcia Exposito - former postdoc now research specialist at Universidad de la Laguna, Tenerife, Spain
Jonathan Barosso Gonzalez - former postdoc now PI at Universidad de la Laguna, Tenerife, Spain
SongMy Hoang - former graduate student now a field application scientist at Lumicks, Cambridge MA.
Nicole Kaminski - former graduate student now a research specialist at Moma Therapeutics, Cambridge MA.
Marco de Vitis - visiting scientist from Uni TRE Roma, Italy.
Justin Roncaioli - former research assistant now doing a postdoc at Striepen Lab at Penn.
