Laboratory

Kiran Bhaskar, Ph.D.

Dr. Bhaskar obtained his Ph.D. in Neuropathology from the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS) in Bangalore, India in December 2002. He joined Dr. Lamb’s laboratory as a Research Associate in 2006. Dr. Bhaskar is currently working as a Project Staff Scientist in the Department of Neurosciences, where his major research focus is on understanding the role of microglial neuroinflammation in Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) as it relates to tau pathology. Additionally, Dr. Bhaskar is also exploring the role of neuroinflammation in the induction of aberrant neuronal cell-cycle events, which is one of the neuropathological hallmarks of AD, in mouse models of AD.

Olga N. Kokiko-Cochran, Ph.D.

Dr. Kokiko-Cochran earned her B.A. from Mount Union College in 2003.  She then went on to obtain her M.A. from East Carolina University in 2005.  She pursued graduate school at Virginia Commonwealth University studying biological psychology, more specifically behavior in rats afflicted with traumatic brain injury, and earned her Ph.D. in 2008.  She joined the Lamb Lab in September of 2008 as a Postdoctoral Fellow and Manager of the new Rodent Behavioral Core here at the LRI.  Her work primarily focuses on management of the behavioral core and assisting investigators at the Cleveland Clinic with all aspects of behavioral testing in both rats and mice.  In the Lamb Lab, her research has been to examine the role of brain injury as it pertains to neuroinflammation in different mouse models of Alzheimer’s disease. 

Crystal Miller, Ph.D.

Dr. Miller received her B.S. from Muskingum University in 2004. She then pursued her doctorate at Case Western Reserve University working on the role of matrix metalloproteinases in axon guidance using Drosophila as a model system. She completed her Ph.D. in 2011 and joined Dr. Lamb's laboratory in October as a Research Fellow. Her research focuses on the relative contributions of microglia and monocytes in tauopathies.

Guixiang Xu, M.D.

Dr. Xu received her M.D. degree from Jilin College of Medical Science in China in 1997.Guixiang joined the Lamb laboratory in 2005 where she is currently a Research Technologist. In the lab, she works on analyzing mouse genetic backgrounds and their contributions to Alzheimer’s disease pathology as well as performing studies on the ‘humanized’ mouse model of Alzheimer’s disease. She is also responsible for some animal husbandry, genotyping assays, ELISA assays, cell culture models and immunohistochemical studies of various mouse models of Alzheimer’s disease.  She helps to manage the day to day running of the lab.

Nicole Maphis, B.A.

Nicole received her B.A. from Miami University in 2006.  She joined the Lamb Lab in the summer of 2007.  Currently, she is working as a Research Technologist in the lab, where she carries out animal husbandry, genotyping, cell culture work, and various immunohistochemical studies on different mouse models of Alzheimer’s disease.  She also assists other investigators with various tasks.

Sungho Lee, B.A.

Sungho received his B.A. from the University of Chicago in 2006 and is currently an M.D./Ph.D. student at Case Western Reserve University.  He joined the Lamb laboratory in 2008, and has been investigating the role of chemokine signaling pathways in Alzheimer’s disease pathogenesis utilizing various genetic mouse models.

Yutaro Komuro, B.S.

Yutaro received his B.A. from Harvard University in 2008 and is currently a Ph.D. student at Case Western Reserve University.  He joined the Lamb laboratory in 2010 and has been investigating the role of tau in regulating adult neurogenesis in a mouse model of tauopathies.

Mike Veenstra

Mike is a Visiting Scientist in Dr. Lamb's lab.

Previous Laboratory members:

Megan Konerth

Megan Konerth earned a dual B.A. in Equine Pre-veterinary Medicine and Molecular Biology from Otterbein College in 2007. She joined the Lamb Lab in June 2007 as a Research Technician.  In the lab, she primarily conducts behavioral studies, qRT-PCR gene expression assays, FACs, adaptive transfer, and immunohistochemistry in several mouse models of Alzheimer’s disease.  She is planning to attend Marietta College in June 2010 to obtain a Masters as a certified Physician Assistant.

Nicholas Varvel

Nick Varvel received his B.S. in Biology from the University of Dayton and was a Graduate Student in the Department of Neurosciences at Case Western Reserve University, obtaining his PhD degree in 2009. Nick worked on a collaborative project between the Lamb laboratory and Karl Herrup’s laboratory at Rutgers University on the role of neuronal cell cycle alterations in Alzheimer’s disease pathogenesis as well as the potential of neuronal cell cycle alterations as a unique biomarker for assessing Alzheimer’s disease therapeutics using the mouse as a model when he was a student in the Lamb Lab.  He is currently studying Alzheimer’s disease in the Jucker lab in Tubingen Germany on a Humboldt post-doctoral fellowship.

Davis Ryman

Davis Ryman obtained his B.A. from the University of California at Berkeley and was an M.D., Ph.D. Student in the Department of Genetics at Case Western Reserve University.  He joined the Lamb laboratory in 2003 and he worked on several genetic mapping experiments to identify genetic loci that regulate the production and deposition of beta-amyloid in the mouse. In addition, Davis conducted experiments to examine the effect of dietary manipulations on beta-amyloid metabolism in different genetic backgrounds mouse models of Alzheimer’s disease.  He graduated in 2007 and is currently a Neurology resident at Washington University.

Stefanie Schrump

Stefanie received her B.A. in Biology from the University of Minnesota and was a Graduate Student in the Department of Genetics at Case Western Reserve University. Stefanie joined the Lamb laboratory in 2005 and has been working on identifying the pathways that regulate steady-state levels of beta-amyloid in different transgenic mouse models of Alzheimer’s disease studied in the lab.  More recently she has begun targeting specific consomic strains of mice to understand how genetic backgrounds regulate beta-amyloid deposition and metabolism.