Boyle Lab University of Pittsburgh
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People in the Boyle Lab
Current Lab Members:

PictureJon Boyle, Ph.D.
Jon did his postdoctoral work with John Boothroyd at Stanford University, and joined the department as an Assistant Professor in 2008.  He was promoted to Associate Professor with tenure in 2015.  Link to Jon's CV.

PictureSarah Sokol Borrelli, PhD
Sarah got her PhD in our lab in 2021 and is now working as a Postdoctoral fellow to finish up her work. She is working on understanding the genetic bases for differences in pathogenesis between Toxoplasma gondii and Hammondia hammondi.

PictureHisham Alrubaye
Hisham joined the lab in May, 2020 and is a member of the MCDB PhD program. He studies Toxoplasma effectors and how they manipulate the host cell to promote T. gondii pathogenesis.

PictureNyJaee Washington
NyJaee joined the lab in May, 2021 and is a member of the MCDB PhD program. He studies how Toxoplasma gondii senses changes in its environment using the Toxoplasma/Hammondia hammondi system.

PictureLeah Cabo
Leah joined the lab in May, 2020 and is a graduate student in the MCDB PhD program. She studies Toxoplasma-placenta interactions with a focus on how this parasite might manipulate differentiation and development in this critical organ.

PictureSarah Reilly
Sarah Reilly joined the lab as a Research III technician in May of 2021. She is working on a number of projects in the lab, including understanding how Toxoplasma factors influence stage conversion. 

Lab Photos:
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Dinner celebrating Sarah Sokol Borrelli's PhD defense! Jon, Sarah Sokol Borrelli, NyJaee Washgington, Leah Cabo, Sarah Reilly and Hisham Alrubaye.
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We went to the Imaginarium escape room in Pittsburgh for Abby Primack's going away party on July 1, 2017. We escaped, but barely.

Lab Alumni:

PictureElizabeth Rudzki
Elizabeth was a research technician in our lab from June, 2016-August, 2018. She studied how T. gondii alters chemokine production in host cells and identified the T. gondii effector that specifically induces production of the chemokine CCL22 from human and mouse placental cells.

PictureStephanie Ander
Stephanie was a PhD student in Carolyn Coyne's lab in the department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics.  We collaborated with her on Toxoplasma/Placenta interactions.

PictureSarah Post
Sarah was an undergraduate in the lab and worked with Elizabeth English on the role of MAF1 and Toxoplasma pathogenesis. She left our lab to pursue her graduate studies at Cornell!

PictureRachel Coombs, PhD
Rachel finished her PhD studies in our lab in 2020 when she studied differences in the host response to closely-related parasites like Toxoplasma gondii and Neospora caninum. She is now a Postdoctoral Fellow in Ellen Robey's Lab at Berkeley. 

PictureMatt Blank, PhD
Matt was a graduate student in the MCDB PhD program and graduated in March, 2020.  He worked on understanding T. gondii manipulates host mitochondria and identified multiple host mitochondria associated proteins that were required for this process.  

PictureSheen Wong, Ph.D.
Sheen got her PhD at the University of Queensland in Chemical and Biological Sciences.  She was in the lab as a postdoc from January, 2017-December 2020 and studied differences in the host response between Toxoplasma gondii and Hammondia hammondi.

PictureNicolas Gutierrez-Melo
Nicolas was a visiting research scholar from Bogata, Colombia.  He worked with Rachel on Neospora/Toxoplasma comparisons and gene duplications.

Other Lab Photos:

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Lab dinner to say Goodbye to Sethu Nair, and Hello to Elizabeth Rudzki and Alyssa Laguerta. May of 2016. Elizabeth Rudzki, Sarah Post, Matt Blank, Abby Primack, Jon Boyle, Sethu Nair, Rachel Coombs, Sarah Sokol, Colin Montessano, Alyssa Laguerta
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Postdoctoral Fellow Sethu Nair and Dr. Jitender Dubey at his USDA lab in August of 2016
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Another photo from the Imaginarium escape room
Taken at a going away party for Greg Wier, Jon Harper and Krystal Flakes.
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Front Row: Jon Harper, Greg Wier, Jeff Danielson; Row 2: Germine Alfonse; Row 3: Abby Primack, Krystal Flakes, Emily Klonicki; Back Row: Jon Boyle, Elizabeth English, Rachel Coombs.
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Front Row: Jon Harper, Greg Wier, Jeff Danielson; Row 2: Germine Alfonse; Row 3: Abby Primack, Krystal Flakes, Emily Klonicki; Back Row: Jon Boyle, Elizabeth English, Rachel Coombs
boyle lab photo
Left to Right: Rachel Coombs, Jeff Danielson, Elizabeth English, Greg Wier, Emily Klonicki, Jon Boyle, Abby Primack, Jon Harper, Germine Alfonse and Krystal Flakes.
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Greg Wier proudly shows off his custom Toxoplasma-infected plate.
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Lab photo in the February, 2015 at a lab potluck hosted by Abby Primack. From left: Krystal Flakes, Olivia Boyle (Front), Jon Boyle (Back), Abby Primack, Elizabeth English, Greg Wier, Preethi Sankaran and Germine Alfonse. In abstentia: Jeff Danielson (he left moments before this picture was taken), Jon Harper.
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Lab photo in the Summer, 2014 at a going-away picnic for Ananth Srinivasan (now a PhD student at Penn) and Adair Borges (now a PhD student at UCSF). Front row, from left: Jeff Danielson, Jon Harper, Ananth Srinivasan, Adair Borges, Germine Alfonse, Elizabeth English, and Olivia Boyle. Top: Jon Boyle, "The Spirit of American Youth" statue (Sculptor: Daniel Chester French), and Greg Wier.
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Lab Photo at a going-away lunch for Katelyn Walzer. From Left: Hannah Wand, Mark Brown, Ananth Srinivasan, Greg Wier, Rachel Dam, Adair Borges, Katelyn Walzer, Elizabeth English, Edwin Kamau, Jon Boyle and Yaw Adomako-Ankomah.
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Lab photo at our BBQ circa 2010 to bid farewell to Tracy Meehan. From left to right: Heather Ross, Tracy Meehan, Yaw Adomako-Ankomah, Katelyn Walzer, Jon Boyle, Edwin Kamau, Matt Fair, Greg Wier, Mark Brown and Jessica Coblentz (Jessica was rotating in the lab at the time. She joined Kirill Kiselyov's lab).
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Our first Lab photo!!! January 2010. From left to right: Inaugural PhD student Yaw Adomako-Ankomah, Jon Boyle, Tracy Meehan, Andrew Knappenberger, Edwin Kamau, Katelyn Walzer, Gargi Bhattacharrya and Suman Sajjan.
Other Lab Alumni:

Name

Position

Start/End Date

Subsequent Positions (current listed last)

Tracy Meehan

Undergraduate

Jan. 2009-Aug. 2010

PhD, Boston College; Postdoctoral Fellow Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center

Gargi Bhattacharyya

Postdoctoral Fellow

Aug. 2009-June 2010

Research Fellow, Utah State University

Suman Sajjan

Undergraduate

Aug. 2009-May 2010

M.S., Johns Hopkins University; Research Analyst, U.S. Army.

Heather Ross

Undergraduate

May 2010-May 2012

Medical Student

Katelyn Walzer

Undergraduate and Research II Technician

Aug. 2011-June 2012

Ph.D. Student, Duke University

Edwin Kamau

Research II Technician

Oct. 2008-Jan. 2013

Ph.D. Student, NYU University

Mark Brown

Research II Technician

Feb. 2010-March 2013

Research III Technician, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine

Rachel Dam

Undergraduate

May 2011-April 2013

Research Technician, Baylor College of Medicine; PhD Student, University of Washington

Hannah Wand

Undergraduate

Jan. 2012-June 2013

Research Technician, Stanford University School of Medicine; M.S. Student, Johns Hopkins/NIH Joint Program in Genetics Counseling

Yaw Adomako-Ankomah

Graduate Student

May 2009-Dec., 2013

Postdoctoral Fellow, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, NIH.

Adair Borges

Undergraduate

May 2012-Aug. 2014

Ph.D. Student, University of California-San Francisco

Ananth Srinivasan

Undergraduate

Jan. 2011-Aug. 2014

PhD. Student, University of Pennsylvania

Greg Wier

Graduate Student

May 2010-May 2015

Applying for Teaching/Research Positions

Jon Harper

Undergraduate

Sept. 2013-May 2015

Emergency Medical Technician

Elizabeth English

Graduate Student

May 2012-January 2017

Postdoctoral Fellow, Boris Striepen’s Lab, University of Pennsylvania

Preethi Sankaran

Undergraduate

Jan. 2015-May 2017

 

Emily Klonicki

Undergraduate

May 2015-Dec. 2015

Undergraduate, University of Pittsburgh

Sethu Nair

Postdoctoral Fellow

Jan. 2016-Sept. 2017

Postdoctoral Fellow, Johns Hopkins University.

Colin Montessano

Undergraduate

Sept. 2015-April 2017

Deceased

 

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