Jay Parrish   Principal Investigator jzp2_at_uw_dot_edu  

After ~15 years of training in molecular and cellular neurobiology (undergraduate degrees from Vanderbilt University in Molecular Biology, English Literature; PhD in cell and developmental biology from University of Colorado; postdoctoral work in neuroscience at UCSF), I joined the Department of Biology in 2010. Work in my lab focuses on the development and function of somatosensory neurons in insects (Drosophila, Aedes mosquitos), with a focus on understanding roles that skin cells play in shaping sensory neuron function.

Federico Tenedini   Postdoc tenedini_at_uw_dot_edu  

Federico is a Postdoc with a multinational background and broad scientific interest. He completed his PhD in molecular Neurobiology at the University of Hamburg, Germany after a successful MSc in Inmmunology and Molecular Life Sciences. Fascinated by complex systems, he previously worked on autism related sensory network crosstalk, inhibitory networks and sensory discrimination. In the Parrish lab Federico studies roles for neuron-glia interactions that support axon maintenance and are likely deregulated in disease. He has expertise in confocal imaging, statistics and figure design and further occupies his mind with comparative genomics, computational analysis or how to improve his pizza dough recipe.

Former Staff

Graduate Students and Postdocs

Melissa Eng  Clinical Research Coordinator, FHCRC

Jiae Lee  Postdoctoral Fellow, Kwon Lab, UW

Ann Lin Postdoctoral Fellow, Winslow Lab, Stanford

Nan Jiang Associate Director, Cytogenetics and Molecular Pathology, Cedars-Sinai

Kory Luedke

Yun Peng  Assistant Professor, Sun Yat-Sen University

Claire Williams Data Scientist, NanoString Technologies

Jing Xu Graduate Student, Computer Science, Georgia Institute of Technology

Research Associates  

Jonathan Ahn, Samuel Bloomsburg, Jesse Dalton, Gabe de la Rosa, Jihad El-Saadoun, Hui Li, Keegan McElligot, Nicole Morrison, Marvin Nayan, Jourdain Roberts, Miki Stoddard, Quynh Tu, Connie Yan

Undergraduate Researchers

Jonathan Ahn, Shyam Ajudia, Paige Almond, Samuel Bloomsburg, Katerina Bomke, Diana Cha, Alison Cunningham, Andrew Curtright, Jesse Dalton, Braden Doane, Jihad El-Saadoun, Julie Erlemeier, Ashlyn Giddings, Sean Grabinski, Melissa Hartley, Lisa Huang, Joanne Hsu, Philip Huang, Ranee James, Hannah Lampert,  Ashley Lau, Charissa Lau, Hui Li, Keegan McElligot, Nicole Morrison, Marvin Nayan, Elizabeth Ostos, Susan Pham, Derek Sanford, Abe Shouse, Miki Stoddard, Cara Tseng, Sahej Walia, Kimberly Voelker, Tiffany Vuong, Connie Yan, Daniel Yang, Zixian Wang

Jessica Huang   Research Tech jehuang2_at_uw_dot_edu  

Jessica grew up in Honolulu, HI and earned her bachelor's degree in Molecular, Cell, and Developmental Biology from the University of California, Los Angeles. Upon graduation, she moved to Seattle, WA and discovered her passion for research and neuroscience while working as a technician in the Parrish Lab. Jessica is excited to be studying the role of glia cells in axon development and hopes to take her interests to graduate school in the future. Her hobbies include video games, snowboarding, and pretending to like golf to not hurt her boyfriend's feelings.

Chang Yin   Postdoc changyin_at_uw_dot_edu  

Chang is a postdoc in the lab, and she joined the lab in Dec 2019. Before that, Chang received her doctoral degree at the National Institute of Biological Science, Beijing (NIBS). Her Ph.D. work focused on stem cell proliferation, cell fate determination, and cell diversity by using the Drosophila intestine as the study system. She is involved in several single-cell RNA-seq-related projects now and trying to understand neuron types diversity in both Drosophila and mosquito nervous systems. In her spare time, she enjoys embroidering and crocheting.

Amy Platenkamp   PhD student aplatenk_at_uw_dot_edu  

Amy is a graduate student in the Biology Department at the UW Seattle. She comes to UW from Reed College in Portland, OR where she studied the virulence mechanism of enteropathogenic Escherichia coli for her undergraduate thesis. After graduating with a Bachelors of Arts in Biology, she worked as an academic research associate and lab manager. She became interested in cell shape changes in studying the regulation of non-muscle myosin in S2 cells, and now is interested in heterocellular physical interactions of nociceptors, the shape changes they undergo in development, and how these changes affect sensation. She has served on a number of Biology department committees, including the diversity and equity committee, the undergraduate program committee, and the research committee. She is a peer-advisor to new graduate students through the “Bio-buddies” group and does outreach at Sanislo elementary school in Seattle, where she works together with a team of graduate students to introduce 5th graders to STEM topics as part of the UW Science Explorers program. When she’s not in the lab she prefers to go mountain biking or climbing in the lush PNW.

Jiro Yoshino  Postdoc

jiroy1_at_uw_dot_edu