Members – Hockemeyer Lab

Principal Investigator

Dirk Hockemeyer

Associate Professor of Cell and Developmental Biology

Molecular and Cell Biology, UC Berkeley

Postdoctoral Fellow in Genetics (2007-2012)

Advisor: Dr. Rudolf Jaenisch, Whitehead Institute

Ph.D. in Molecular and Cell Biology (2002-2007)

Advisor: Dr. Titia de Lange, Rockefeller University

B.S. and M.S. in Biochemistry (1998-2002)

Advisor: Dr. Alfred Nordheim, Eberhard Karls University Tuebingen

Staff Research Associate

Yogendra Verma

Bachelor’s degree in Biotechnology

Shoolini University, India

M.S in Biotechnology

California State University, Channel Islands

Research Interests:

I am interested in studying the use of cell pluripotency and genome editing techniques in generating effective and relevant degenerative disease models, for further investigating their etiology.

E-mail address:

Johannes Schabort

MSc in Veterinary Biomedical Science

Seoul National University

BS in Biochemistry

The University of Tampa

Research Interests:

My research in the lab is currently focused on the ALT process and the role it plays in cancer.

E-mail address:

Graduate Students

John Boyle

Ph.D. Candidate in Molecular and Cell Biology

University of California, Berkeley

B.A. in Molecular and Cell Biology

University of California, Berkeley

Research interests in the lab:

Telomere length plays an integral role in both cancer and aging. My project investigates the effects of telomere length dynamics in tumorigenesis.

E-mail Address:

Sara Seunga Choo

Ph.D. Fellow Hellman Fellow 2015-2018

University of California, Berkeley

B.A. in Molecular and Cell Biology

University of California, Berkeley

Research interests in the lab:

I study the mechanism of telomere length homeostasis in human embryonic stem cells and its disruption in Dyskeratosis Congenita

E-mail address:

Rebecca Bartke

Ph.D. Candidate in Molecular and Cell Biology

University of California, Berkeley

B.S. in Cellular and Molecular Biology

University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

Research interests in the lab:

I am investigating the roles of nucleases in telomere maintenance.

E-mail address:

Annika Martin

Ph.D. Candidate in Molecular and Cell Biology

University of California, Berkeley

B.S. in Biophysics

Bringham Young University

Research interests in the lab:

I am developing new methods to pair telomere length analysis with single-cell lineage tracing to investigate high-resolution telomere dynamics during cellular differentiation.

E-mail address:

Jesse Dunnack

Ph.D. Student in Molecular and Cell Biology

University of California, Berkeley

B.S. in Molecular and Cell Biology

University of Connecticut

Research interest in the lab:

I am interested in the use of engineered stem cells to model disease states, particularly using human cerebral organoids. I hope to apply these methods to study the functional interactions between mutations associated with Parkinson’s Disease.

E-mail address:

Shayan Hosseinzadeh

Ph.D. Student in Molecular and Cell Biology

University of California, Berkeley

B.S. in Biochemistry

University of California, Santa Barbara

Research interest in the lab:

I am interested in developing genome editing methodolgies to interrogate cis-regulatory element structure in human embryonic stem cells.

Anneloes Keijzer

M.S Cancer, Stem Cells and Developmental Biology

Utrecht University

B.S in Biomedical Sciences

Utrecht University

Research interest in the lab:

During this eight month internship, I will utilize CRISPR screening to identify regulatory elements of TERT, the telomerase reverse transcriptase.

E-mail address:

Postdoctorals

Antonio Maffia

Ph.D. in Genetics, Molecular and Cell Biology

Institute of Molecular Genetics , University of Pavia, Italy

M.S. in Molecular and Cell Biology

University Of Pavia, Italy

Research interest in the lab:

Replicating telomeres can become a challenge for cells. My work will help understand the different strategies employed to overcome this challenge.

E-mail address:

Khaja Mohieddin Syed

Ph.D. in Stem Cell Biology

Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Biotechnology, Kerala

Integrated M.Sc in Biotechnology & Bioinformatics

Yogi Vemana University

Research Interests in the lab:

In the Hockemeyer lab, (joint with Bateup lab) Khaja is interested to understand Parkinson’s
Disease (PD) risk genes using functional genomics tools in human brain organoid models.

E-mail address:

Hanqin Li

Siebel Stem Cell Fellow

Postdoctoral Associate at the Innovative Genomics Institute

University of California, Berkeley

Ph.D. in Nueroscience

State University of New York, Buffalo

B.S. in Life Sciences

Nanjing University

Research interest in the lab:

My project studies the functions of genomic elements using high-throughput methods.

E-mail address:

Undergraduate Researchers

Gabriella Pangilinan

B.S. in Molecular Environmental Biology

University of California, Berkeley

A.S. in Biotechnology

Berkeley City College

Research interest in the lab:

During this internship, I am interested in using human stem cells to establish isogenic mutant cell lines that can be used for Parkinson’s disease modeling.