People
Reuben Shaw
Professor
William R. Brody Chair
Reuben grew up in rural upstate New York, went to Cornell for undergraduate school where he did his thesis work with Rick Cerione. He then went to MIT for graduate school and did his PhD work in Tyler Jacks’ lab at the MIT Cancer Center where he focused on neurofibromatosis. Reuben did his postdoctoral work across the river at Harvard Medical School with Lew Cantley. The rest is in the screenplay.
Stephanie Curtis
Graduate Student
Stephanie grew up in San Diego. She completed her B.Sc. in Cell, Molecular, and Developmental Biology at UC Riverside and went on to work at TriLink BioTechnologies in mRNA biology. Stephanie joined the Shaw lab in 2017 and is currently working towards her Ph.D. studying nuclear translocation events driven by changes in cellular energy status.
Lillian Eichner
Sr. Research Associate
Lilly obtained her bachelor’s degree in Chemistry from Northwestern University in Illinois, after which she worked as a research associate at the Institute for Systems Biology back in her hometown, Seattle. She received her Ph.D. from McGill University in Montréal, Canada, where she studied the role of the PGC-1/Estrogen-Related Receptor pathway in the regulation of cancer metabolism in the lab of Dr. Vincent Giguère. She continues to study cancer metabolism, and its intersection with epigenetic modifiers, as a post-doc in the Shaw lab.
Hector Galvez
Graduate Student
Hector received his B.S. in Biological Sciences from California State University, San Marcos. His research focused on characterization of essential genes crucial for the pathogenesis in Ambystoma tigrinum virus. During his time as an undergraduate, he became interested in researching the metabolic changes of cancer, and how they can potentially serve as therapeutic targets. In 2016 he entered the Biological Sciences Ph.D. program at UCSD, and subsequently joined the Shaw lab in early 2017. He studies the role of de novo lipogenesis in cancer.
Nazma Malik
Postdoctoral Fellow
Nazma grew up in Durham in the North East of England, where she initially studied Medicine (MBBS) for 3 years but later decided to complete her undergraduate as a BSc(Hons) in Biology. She subsequently did a Masters in Research (MRes) in Medical and Molecular Biosciences at the University of Newcastle, UK, followed by a PhD in Biochemistry in the laboratory of Prof Dario Alessi at the MRC PPU in Dundee, UK. Her PhD work was focused on understanding the regulation and function of the SGK3 kinase, a component of the PI3K signaling network. After completion of her PhD, she joined the Shaw lab as a postdoc in early 2018 to study AMPK signalling.
Jan Pencik
Postdoctoral Fellow
Jan Pencik is originally from Brno, Czech Republic (the city, where Gregor Mendel, the father of modern genetics, invented his famous Mendelian’s laws). Jan completed his B.S. and M.Sc. in Biochemistry at Palacky University in Olomouc, Czech Republic. Right after graduation, he joined the lab of Prof. Stephan Nussberger, Stuttgart, Germany to study mitochondrial proteins and their cellular signaling networks. He received his Ph.D. from Medical University of Vienna, Austria in the lab of Prof. Lukas Kenner. His graduate work was focused on a novel role of IL-6/STAT3 signaling in regulating senescence, cancer and metastatic progression in prostate cancer. Jan joined the Shaw lab in January 2019 and his current work explores the biochemical aspects of LKB1 and autophagy signaling in cancer immunotherapy.
Elijah Trefts
Postdoctoral Fellow
Elijah grew up in Maine and completed his B.S. in Biochemistry at Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts. He went on to work as a Research Associate at Brigham & Women’s Hospital in the lab of Dr. Luminita Pojoga elucidating signaling mechanisms related to salt-sensitive hypertension. He received his Ph.D. from Vanderbilt University in the lab of Dr. David Wasserman. His graduate work utilized in vivo metabolic flux techniques to discern connections between ECM-integrin signaling and metabolic physiology. Elijah Joined the Shaw lab in May of 2019. His current work focuses on mechanisms linking AMPK to mitochondrial biology as a means to understand the metabolic underpinnings of obesity, cancer, and aging.
Alan Tung
Volunteer
Alan Tung was born in New Taipei City, Taiwan, and later moved to San Diego, CA. He is a senior at Revelle College, UC San Diego, majoring in molecular biology. He joined the Shaw Lab in April 2018 as an undergraduate researcher. He is broadly interested in the metabolic and biochemical basis of various diseases, such as cancer, diabetes, and neurodegenerative diseases. In the Shaw Lab, his project focuses on understanding how AMPK modulates mitophagy. Alan loves cooking, singing, playing tennis, and watching baseball, soccer among many other sports. You can also find him tweeting at @alanshtung.
