Carrie Partch (CV) 

Principal Investigator
Email Address: cpartch@ucsc.edu
Superpower: Prolific consumption of caffeinated beverages
 

I graduated from the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill with a Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Biophysics, where I worked with Aziz Sancar to study the molecular basis of circadian rhythmicity. I went to the 'dark side' for my postdoctoral fellowship, training in biophysical techniques including solution NMR spectroscopy at UT Southwestern Medical Center. I worked with Kevin Gardner to identify novel structural regulatory motifs on the hypoxia-inducible transcription factor, HIF, and with Joe Takahashi, to study the related bHLH-PAS transcription factor that drives circadian rhythmicity, CLOCK:BMAL1. In our lab, we strive to address these questions: How do animals measure time and use it to control biology on a daily basis?

Isabella Aldama

Undergraduate research assistant  |  NIH MARC Program

Superpower: Precognition––I am good at predicting things that will happen and acting accordingly! 

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Priya Crosby

EMBO Long-Term Postdoctoral Fellow

Ph.D., MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology

Email address: prcrosby@ucsc.edu

Superpower: I have an encyclopedic knowledge of 'The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy'

I graduated from St. Catharine's College, Cambridge in 2013 with a BA in Natural Sciences (Pharmacology). I subsequently completed my PhD - entitled 'Metabolic regulation of circadian timekeeping' - at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, also in Cambridge, under the supervision of Dr. John O'Neill. Having decided that there were far too many interesting questions in circadian biology to stop quite yet, I joined the Partch Lab in 2018.

Alfred Freeberg

Undergraduate research assistant

Superpower: Orchestrating elaborate venmo payments

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Crystal Garcia

Undergraduate research assistant  |  California Alliance for Minority Participation (CAMP) Scholar

Superpower: If it's not labeled, it will be once I get my hands on it

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Ray Harold

Graduate student

Superpower: Whipping floppy protein tails into line

I graduated from the University of Montevallo with a B.S. in Biology and a minor in Chemistry.

Gian Carlo Parico

Graduate student |  HHMI Gilliam Fellow

Superpower: Screening for circadian rhythms drugs for Batman can work the (K)night shift

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I graduated from UC San Diego with a B.S. in Bioengineering. After spending a few years in the biotech industry working on intrinsically-disordered proteins, it only felt natural to go back to school and study protein structure. In 2017, I joined the Partch lab to research how protein-protein interactions lead to 24-hour timekeeping in the cell.

Jon Philpott

Graduate student

Superpower: Woodworking / carpentry

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I finished my undergraduate degree up in beautiful northern California, where I studied biochemistry and applied statistics at Humboldt State University. I joined the Partch lab because I am fascinated by how structural biology and biochemistry can inform our understanding of emergent phenomena such as circadian rhythms.

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David Segal

Undergraduate research assistant  

Superpower: I can dig myself holes regardless if the terrain be earth or social atmospheres 

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Diksha Sharma

Graduate student

Superpower: A passion for PAS domains!

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Becca Spangler

Joint graduate student with Jordan Ward's lab

Superpower: Making it all look so easy...

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I graduated from San Jose State University with a B.S. in Biochemistry and a minor in Biology. In 2019, I joined the Partch lab to study the similarities between different biological time-keeping mechanisms. 

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Jeff Swan

Graduate student

Superpower: Kinetics, kinetics and more kinetics!

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B.S. Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Michigan State University

M.S. Chemistry, University of Colorado at Boulder

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My scientific career up to this point has focused primarily on structural kinetics and the enzymology of phosphoryl transfer. In the Partch lab, I am interested in understanding how the coordination of these processes is transduced into biological rhythmicity. To this end, I will be studying a (relatively) simplified circadian clock derived from cyanobacteria.

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Megan Torgrimson

Graduate student

Superpower: Bringing order to chaos​

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Daniel Wruck

Undergraduate research assistant

Superpower: Meticulously curating Spotify playlists ​

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Noelle Yaitanes

Undergraduate research assistant

Superpower: If you name it, I'll bake it