Former Lab Members
Former Lab Members
Laurel Pearson – Researcher and Lecturer
Laurel is a lecturer at Penn State University. After completing her B.A. in Anthropology from Louisiana State University, she worked as a research assistant in the College of Tropical Agriculture at the University of Hawaii – Manoa and in the Department of Nutrition at the University of Tennessee – Knoxville. Her research focused on the complex interplay of diet to disease, such as metabolic disturbances associated with antiretroviral drug therapies and tumorigenesis associated with cancer. Currently, her research focuses on the genetics of preterm birth among African American women as well as the genetic basis of human dental variation.
Julie White – Graduated Ph.D. Student
Julie graduated from Penn State with a Ph.D. in Anthropology in 2019. She is currently a postdoctoral IRTA fellow at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences in Durham, NC. She is primarily interested in integrating multiple ‘omics’ datasets using bioinformatics to better understand human health. Her current research project focuses on studying the genomic, epigenomic, and environmental factors contributing to lung health
Tomas Gonzalez – Graduated Ph.D. Student
Tomás graduated from Penn State with a Ph.D. in Anthropology and Bioethics in the summer of 2020. He is currently a postdoctoral scholar at the Hall lab at Penn State. His work intersects the building of computational tools to integrate multi-omics datasets to understand the environmental and genetic effects of complex diseases and their sex/gender differences. He is currently working on sex/gender differences in the impact of the exposome on blood phenotypes, and the integration of genomic and metabolomic data to predict Alzheimer’s disease progression.
Di (Bruce) Chen – Graduate Student
Bruce graduated from Penn State with a Ph.D. in Genetics Fall 2020. During his tenure with us, he studied the dynamics of Transposable Elements (a.k.a. Jumping genes) in humans and their influences on genome architecture and evolution. Bruce has a long-standing passion for improving human health with life sciences research and technology, he is currently pursuing a career in strategy consulting.
Sarita Greer – Former Study Coordinator / Lab Manager
Sarita W. Greer graduated from Penn State University with a B.S. in Biological Anthropology in 2015. During her undergraduate studies, she worked as a research assistant on the ADAPT, ADAPT2, and Mexican Variation projects under Dr. Mark Shriver and Dr. Laurel Pearson. Post-graduation she worked in the administration of various biochemistry and molecular biology research labs before returning “home” to Shriver Lab. Sarita coordinated the many ongoing research projects in the lab, managed the undergraduate researchers, and overall ensured the smooth progression of lab activities.
Emily Bramel – Former Study Coordinator / Undergraduate Research Assistant
Emily was a Study Coordinator for the Shriver lab. She graduated from Penn State with an undergraduate Honors degree in Biological Anthropology and Genetics and Developmental Biology. Her undergraduate research in the Shriver lab focused on the diversity of human scalp hair morphology and is summarized in her thesis titled “Quantifying the Phenotypic Effects of Genes, Ancestry, and Sex on Human Scalp Hair Morphology. She is now pursuing a Ph.D. in Human Genetics at Johns Hopkins University.
Nathaniel Tal – Former Study Coordinator
Nathaniel Tal is a recent graduate from Penn State with a bachelor of science in Psychology with a Neuroscience focus and a minor in Biology. His research interests include prenatal genetics and reproductive/women’s health.
Kendall Routch – Former Study Coordinator/Lab Manager
Kendall Routch is a recent graduate from Penn State with a bachelor of science in Biological Anthropology, with a focus in Forensic Anthropology. Her research interests are in biological forensic science, anatomy, and genetics. Kendall plans to attend IUPUI for a master’s in forensics science after a two-year break to travel.
Duneshka Cruz – Former Undergraduate Research Technician
Duneshka Cruz is a recent graduate of Penn State University with a BA in Biological Anthropology and a Minor in Psychology, as well as completing pre-med requirements. Her research interests include forensic science with a focus on DNA and biological evidence, human osteology, paleoethnobotany, and the genetic variability of populations. Currently, Duneshka was our lab protocol team lead for our hair morphology project. She assisted with the preparation of hair samples, imaging, microscopy, and embedding of samples for our ongoing hair variation projects as well as the training of other undergraduate research assistants on her team.
Jacob Vandever – Former Data Processing Technician
Jacob is a recent graduate of Penn State University with a bachelor of the arts in anthropology. Jacob was an undergraduate research assistant with Shriver Lab for two years before graduating and worked as a Data Processing Tech and sampling supervisor for four months post-graduation. He will be attending Kent State University starting in the Fall of 2019 to pursue a Master’s in Digital Science. His research interests include primatology and data sciences. Jacob’s job duties primarily involved oversight of data processing, particularly of the lab’s many 2D and 3D photos and he specialized in working with the Canfield VECTRA software. Jacob’s duties also involved running sampling events and managing the participants and volunteer researchers at these events.
Yesenia Hill – Former Undergraduate Research Technician
Yesenia was a student at Penn State University and majored in Biology. She would like to attend medical school in the future and specialize in emergency medicine. Her research interests include exploring genetic facial and hair variations that contribute to the uniqueness of each person. Yesenia assisted with the preparation of hair samples, imaging, microscopy, and embedding of samples for our hair variation projects. She is also lead our team for data processing and supervised sampling events for our ADAPT4 project. Yesenia is currently working as an EMS in Houston Texas while working on a post-baccalaureate in anatomy and physiology.
Alexis Rollins – Former Undergraduate Research Technician
Alexis majored in Forensic Science, chemistry track, with a minor in psychology at Penn State. In the future, she hopes to work in a forensic laboratory as a forensic pathologist, specifically in either a military or federal lab. Alexis assisted with the preparation of hair samples, imaging, microscopy, and embedding of samples for our hair variation projects. Alexis also supervised ADAPT4 sampling events and was team lead for 3D photo processing. She is currently working at the CDC on a one-year research fellowship.
Serena Lang – Former Undergraduate Research Technician
Serena Lang majored in Developmental Biology and Genetics with special interests in reproduction and genomics. Her career goals include working in embryology and infertility focusing on IVF techniques. Serena completed DNA extractions from saliva via the salting-out method for the ADAPT4 study. She is currently working as a laboratory technician in a fertility clinic.
Johanna Vallejo- Former Undergraduate Research Assistant
Johanna majored in Biological Anthropology with a minor in Philosophy. Her research interests include genetics, human osteology, and Andean anthropology. Johanna was part of the Data Processing Team, ran the anthropometrics station during lab sampling sessions, and previously worked with hair curvature. She is currently pursuing an EMS certificate and later hopes to pursue graduate studies in Biological Anthropology.
Bryel Frasch – Former Undergraduate Research Assistant
Bryel Frasch majored in Genetics and Developmental Biology with a Smeal Business Certificate Minor. In the future, she hopes to pursue a career in Genetic Counseling. Bryel assisted with the preparation of hair samples and imaging samples for the ongoing hair variation projects. Bryel also ran the 3D video portion of the ADAPT4 sampling events for Disney Research. Currently, she is working for Geisinger Medical as a genetic counseling assistant.
Amy Mook- Former Undergraduate Researcher
Amy Mook graduated from Penn State with a bachelor’s degree in Genetics and Developmental Biology with a special interest in human genetics. In the future, she hopes to work as a genetic counselor especially through the use of telemedicine. Amy completed DNA extractions from saliva via the salting-out method for the ADAPT4 study. She also is worked on an independent research project based on the extraction of DNA from strawberries. She is now getting a master’s degree in genetic counseling and public health from the University of Michigan.
Lizzie Begley- Former Undergraduate Researcher
Lizzie was a Schreyer Honors Scholar who graduated with a BA in Anthropology and a minor in History. For her honors thesis, she worked on analyzing data in comparing skin reflectance and race identity among humans; then, going on to research the social effects of this perceived race, particularly in the US. She is now pursuing a master’s in museum studies from Johns Hopkins University.
Soham M. Bhide – Former Undergraduate Researcher
Soham Bhide graduated in the Spring of 2021 with degrees in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, with a focus in Biochemistry. His research interests include the study of human evolution, genetics, and cell biology. Soham interned in the regenerative medicine department at Reliance Life Sciences as well as IPCA Laboratories in their biotech research department in Mumbai India. He worked with the Shriver Lab on establishing the effects of ancestry and a person’s geographical location on their oral microbiome. Soham completed DNA extractions from saliva via the salting-out method for our ongoing ADAPT4 study. He now attends the University of Delaware MS Biological Sciences program for a concentration in Molecular Biology and Genetics. He is a part of Dr. Ethna Fidelma Boyd’s research group focusing on Vibrionaceae organisms and how they survive and proliferate in high salinity, the role of mobile genetic elements in their evolution, and the biosynthesis of nonulosonic acids. He wishes to pursue a Ph.D. and work in academia as a researcher and a professor.