Stacey L. Hanlon
Principal Investigator
Assistant Professor, Genetics and Genomics
Member, Institute for Systems Genomics
Email: stacey.hanlon@uconn.edu
After graduating from Texas A&M University with a B.S. in Biology, Dr. Hanlon attended the University of California, San Francisco to obtain a Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. Her extensive molecular training in league with her interests in chromosome biology led Dr. Hanlon to pursue the unknown biology of B chromosomes in the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster during her postdoctoral studies at the Stowers Institute for Medical Research. Dr. Hanlon’s work has launched the field of B chromosome biology in D. melanogaster and exposed exciting new directions about how these chromosomes move, form, and evolve. The Hanlon Lab will continue to explore the B chromosomes using both classic genetic and modern genomic approaches.
Kaylah Samuelson
Predoctoral Graduate Student
MCB Ph.D. Program
Email: kaylah.samuelson@uconn.edu
Kaylah attended the University of Northern Colorado for her undergraduate career, where she studied Cellular and Molecular Biology. During her time at the University of Northern Colorado, she studied cell pathway interactions in the adult stem cell niche in the testes of Drosophila melanogaster. Kaylah joined the lab in Spring 2021 and is interested in the meiotic drive of the B chromosomes.
Mengjia Michelle Lin
Predoctoral Graduate Student
MCB Ph.D. Program
Email: mengjia.lin@uconn.edu
Michelle obtained her undergraduate and master’s degrees from CUNY Queens College, studying Biochemistry. During her time at Queens College, she studied interstrand crosslinks (ICLs) in S. cerevisiae. ICLs are among the most toxic forms of DNA damage. After completing her master’s degree, she worked as a research assistant at The College of New Jersey focusing on RNA splicing and RNA processing in S. cerevisiae. Michelle joined the lab in Spring 2022 and is interested in the dynamics of the B chromosomes during the meiotic divisions in females.
Shania Kalladanthyil
Predoctoral Graduate Student
MCB Ph.D. Program
Email: shania.kalladanthyil@uconn.edu
Shania earned her undergraduate degree from Kennesaw State University in Georgia, where she focused her Biology studies in Molecular and Cell Biology. Shania was a part of the Bryanstev Lab where she led and presented her work on intranuclear protein trafficking in Drosophila melanogaster. After entering into the Molecular and Cell Biology Ph.D. program at UConn, Shania joined the Hanlon lab in Spring 2023 and is interested in studying the composition and origin of the B chromosomes to understand more about the birth of new chromosomes and how genomes evolve.
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Edward Russell
Predoctoral Graduate Student
MCB Ph.D. Program
Email: edward.russell@uconn.edu
Suparna Dutta
Suparna Dutta
Predoctoral Graduate Student
MCB Ph.D. Program
Email: suparna.dutta@uconn.edu
Suparna completed her undergraduate and master’s degrees at the University of Calcutta, India. During her time there, she focused on the quantitative interpretation of microscopic images for the early diagnosis of cervical cancer. After earning her master’s degree, she worked as a project trainee at Ballygunge Science College, where she investigated the role of bZIP transcription factors in regulating cell morphology and metabolism in Schizosaccharomyces pombe. Suparna joined the lab in the spring of 2024 and is interested in exploring the impact of B chromosomes on the segregation of essential chromosomes.
Annette St. Jacques
Undergraduate Student
Class of 2026
Email: annette.st._jacques@uconn.edu
Hanlon Lab Alumni
Ryan Gado
Undergraduate researcher, Class of 2024
SURF Recipient, Summer 2023
First post-lab position: Ph.D. student at NYU Vilcek Institute of Graduate Biomedical Sciences
Allie Gardner
Current position: Professional Masters Program in Applied Genomics, University of Connecticut, entering class of 2023
Research Assistant, Class of 2022
Shell Chen
Current postion: Predoctoral student, Brandeis University, entering class of 2023
Undergraduate Researcher, Class of 2023
Ayushi A. Patel
Undergraduate researcher, Class of 2023
Lt. Paul L. Drotch Undergraduate Biology Scholarship Recipient, 2022
Honors Program
Paulo Belato
Current Position: graduate student, Duke University, entering class of 2022
Undergraduate researcher, Class of 2022
GSA Victoria Finnerty Undergraduate Travel Award Recipient, 2022
2021-22 McNair Scholar
Paulo graduated as a Molecular and Cell Biology major who joined the Hanlon Lab in the summer of 2021 as a McNair Summer Scholar. In the Hanlon Lab, Paulo investigated how the presence of B chromosomes influences gene expression in the male germline in Drosophila melanogaster by performing RNA-seq experiments on testes extracted from males that do or do not carry B chromosomes.