Research Staff

Randal Anselment

Chemist II

Education:

Metropolitan State College, BS Biology, 1995

Background:

Randal started at National Jewish Health in 1997 as a chemist in the Molecular Resource Center where he continues to synthesize and purify Oligonucleotides. His primary duties to date are operating and maintaining the ABI Sanger sequencers in both the MDx lab and the Genetics Core, working with Dr. Farias-Hesson on 454 Roche next gen projects and assisting Dr. LaFlamme.

Rebecca Davidson, PhD

Bioinformatics Analyst III

Education:

Background:

Dr. Davidson has a broad background in plant disease diagnostics, molecular biology and host-microbe interactions. After completing both wet-lab and computational projects during her PhD, she pursued a postdoctoral fellowship in Plant Genomics and Bioinformatics at Michigan State University where she gained extensive training in various programming languages and bioinformatics tools. Her past projects include analysis of next generation sequencing data, transcriptomic and metabolomic studies, SNP discovery and comparative genomics. Dr. Davidson joined the Strong Lab in late 2011 and provides bioinformatics support for Mycobacterium genomics projects and the NTM Center of Excellence.

Lesly De Arras

Lab Researcher

Education:

Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, BS, Biochemistry and Horticulture, 2008

Background:

Lesly graduated from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in 2008 with bachelor's degrees in biochemistry and horticulture. While there, she researched phospholamban, a small phosphoprotein that regulates the Ca-ATPase in the heart. Lesly currently works as a Lab Researcher II in the Alper Lab studying the cell signaling pathways within macrophage cell lines.

Dan LaFlamme, PhD

Senior Scientist - Genomics

Education:

University of Maine, BS, Biochemistry, 1985
University of Maine, PhD, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, 1991

Background:

Dan received his B.S. in Biochemistry (1986) and Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (1991) from the University of Maine at Orono. As a post-doctoral fellow at Texas A&M University he studied the role of transcriptional control in the development of chloroplasts. At the University of Colorado in Boulder, he investigated the molecular organization of the plant Golgi apparatus.

Making a shift to industry in 1994, Dan moved to STA Laboratories, Inc. in Longmont, Colorado where he developed a program using PCR-based methods for the detection of seed-borne pathogens in vegetable crops.  This program was expanded to include molecular techniques for hybrid seed quality, detection of genetically-modified crops, and applications in plant breeding, and identification of plant varietals. In 2007, he left the world of agriculture to build and manage a genotyping facility in Aurora, CO for Sciona, Inc. As the first company to offer direct-to-consumer genetic testing, Sciona maintained a CLIA accredited laboratory to process all clinical samples using Illumina’s Veracode technology and RT-PCR methods.

Recently, Dan joined the staff at the Integrated Center for Genes, Environment, and Health at National Jewish Health in 2010 as a Senior Scientist. His expertise in genotyping, microarrays, DNA sequencing, and high-throughput liquid handling laboratory robotics helps to make these cutting-edge technologies accessible to the National Jewish Health and University of Colorado Denver Research community and collaborators at research institutions in the Denver metropolitan area.

Roland Marcus

Lab Researcher IV

Education:

University of Nebraska, BS, Economics and Biology, 1996

Background:

While an undergraduate, Roland worked in the fermentation facility and completed a research projectfocusing on protein purification and antibody development for the Department of Defense. That work led to positions in industry that furthered his experience with human therapeutic proteins. From there, he moved into multiple facets of academic research while at Washington University-St.Louis and the University of Colorado Medical School, utilizing a rich platform of protein, molecular
biology and flow cytometry-based techniques. Areas of research include toxin trafficking, viral
latency & reactivation, and HIV immunity within research and clinical trial settings. Currently,
Roland is working with Dr. O’Connor to investigate epigenetic mechanisms of immune cells and their relationship to several disease states.

Francisco Ramirez-Victorino

Pre Doctoral Trainee

Education:

University of Colorado Denver, MS, Biology

Background:

Francisco received his BS and MS at the University of Colorado Denver campus in biology. He is a current graduate student in the Integrated Department of Immunology. He is doing his thesis work in Dr. Alper’s lab and is studying the mechanism of regulation in innate immunity by novel proteins.

Andrew Schaumberg

Systems Software Developer

Education:

Background:

Andrew's background includes years of experience in the high performance computing industry, with
prior stints as a controls engineer in a laser processing company developing simulation software and as a guest researcher at the National Institute of Standards and Technology investigating information-seeking behavior. At National Jewish Health, he provides architectural recommendations, optimizes software pipelines, and functions as a system administrator of high performance computing resources. Other recent work here has included analysis of murine T-cell receptor RNA, data mining of dbSNP and 1000genomes for population-specific Haploview analysis, and tuberculosis gene enrichment investigations involving DAVID and KEGG.

Leah Teeter

Lab Researcher IV

Education:

Background:

Leah graduated from the University of Akron in Ohio with a bachelor’s degree in Biology. For two
years she worked as a Research Biologist doing product safety toxicological research for a private
contract research organization. In 2006 she moved to Massachusetts working for IPSEN Corp.
doing endocrinology research focusing various areas of hormone therapy and Acromegaly. In 2010, she moved to Colorado and joined the National Jewish Health research team. Currently, her areas of focus are running the Integrated Center for Genes, Environment, and Health Core FlexiVent equipment for National Jewish Health scientists and conducting translational genetic research of lung diseases.

Cydney Urbanek

Lab Researcher IV

Education:

University of Florida, BS, Biology, 2007

Background:

Cydney graduated from the University of Florida with a bachelor’s degree in Interdisciplinary Studies: Biology. For two years, she worked in the University of Florida’s Department of Urology doing prostate cancer research. In 2009, Cydney moved to Colorado to work for the University of Colorado Denver doing Renal Disease & Hypertension research. Her research now is focused on translational genetics of lung diseases. Currently, she is working with Dr. Seibold to understand how genetic variation in the MUC5B promoter contributes to the variation in MUC5B gene expression observed between healthy subjects and those with pulmonary fibrosis.