Contact:

Email: ryo.sanabria@usc.edu

Ryo Sanabria, PhD

Gilberto Garcia

Research Scientist

Hometown: Los Angeles, California
Hobbies: Running, Crocheting, Homebrewing
Favorite Movies: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, 28 Weeks Later
Favorite Quote: “Trying is the first step towards failure.” – Homer Simpson
Research Interests: Understanding the contribution of inter-organelle contacts and communication to cellular health.

Naibedya Dutta

Postdoctoral Fellow

Hometown: Bankura, West Bengal, India
Hobbies: Photography, Cooking
Favorite Movies: The Apu Trilogy, Nayak: The Hero
Favorite Quote: “Strength is Life, Weakness is Death. Expansion is Life, Contraction is Death. Love is Life, Hatred is Death.” – Swami Vivekananda
Research Interests: Understanding aging with a focus on heat shock factor 1 and its noncanonical functions.

Maxim Averbukh

PhD Candidate

Hometown: Moscow, Russia
Hobbies: Hiking, Traveling
Favorite TV show: Doctor Who
Favorite Quote: “Hard work never killed anybody, but why take a chance?” – Edgar Bergen
Research Interests: Understanding the role stress response mechanisms play in aging.

Adam Hruby

PhD Candidate

Hometown: Lake Crystal, Minnesota
Hobbies: Studying Japanese, reading, video games
Favorite TV show: Neon Genesis Evangelion
Favorite Quote: “Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.” – Carl Sagan
Research Interests: Understanding the role bioelectric signaling between non-neuronal cells plays in tissue and organismal aging.

Aeowynn Coakley

PhD Candidate (joint with Mullen lab)

Hometown: Bay Area, California
Hobbies: Walking to coffee shops, trying new restaurants, reading
Favorite Movie: Interstellar
Favorite Quote: “Life need not be easy, provided only it is not empty.” – Lise Meitner
Research Interests: Understanding how inter-organelle interaction may contribute to the disruption of cellular homeostasis in aging and disease states

Daniel Hicks

PhD Candidate (joint with Phillips lab)

Hometown: Simi Valley, California
Hobbies: Reading, swimming, video games
Favorite TV Shows: BoJack Horseman, Revolutionary Girl Utena
Favorite Quote: “For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong.” – H. L. Mencken
Research Interests: Studying the contribution of neuronal actin function to cellular health and longevity

Juri Kim

PhD Candidate

Hometown: Busan, South Korea
Hobbies: movies, concerts, music, watching random puppy videos
Favorite TV Shows: Friends, Modern family, The Normal People, Stranger Things
Favorite Quote: “You’re a shoe! You’re a shoe! You’re a shoe! But what if I don’t wanna be a shoe anymore?” – Rachel Green
Research Interests: Understanding the role of nuclear actin in aging and the role of proteostasis in extending lifespan

Shivay Parihar

PhD Graduate Student

Hometown: Jodhpur, Rajasthan, India
Hobbies: Speed Chess, table tennis, and writing
Favorite TV Show: Better Call Saul
Favorite Quote: “3.6 roentgen – not great, not terrible”– Anatoly Dyatlov in
Chernobyl
Research Interests: Identifying the changes in actin protein structure and interactions with aging and stress.

Athena Alcala

Research Technician

Hometown: California, United States of America
Hobbies: Sewing, Trying new food, Traveling, Playing with my dog
Favorite TV Shows: Community, Hunter x Hunter, Nature documentaries
Favorite Quote: “What? Like it’s hard?” – Elle Woods after getting into Harvard Law
Research Interests: Understanding the role actin plays in stress and aging.

Tiffany Wang

Undergraduate Researcher

Hometown: Temple City, California
Hobbies: Baking, hiking, and trying new foods
Favorite Movies: SpongeBob SquarePants, Friends, Up, Tuesdays with Morrie
Favorite Quote: “The most important thing in life is to learn how to give out love, and let it come in” – Morrie Shwartz
Research Interests: How stress activates the body’s inflammatory and immune response, and its link to various age-related diseases

Daniella Suh

Volunteer Researcher

Hometown: Chicago, Illinois
Hobbies: Figure skating, crocheting
Favorite Movies: EEAAO, The Good Bad Mother, Doctor Who
Favorite Quote: “What can be said at all can be said clearly, and what we cannot talk about we must pass over in silence” – Ludwig Wittgenstein
Research Interests: Stress mechanisms and cellular aging; age-related changes in noradrenaline and attention control; the intersection of ethnicity, asylum status, and women’s health outcomes

Rebecca Aviles Barahona

Undergraduate Researcher

Hometown: Los Angeles, California
Hobbies: Crocheting, Hiking, Avid coffee searcher, Rock climbing
Favorite Show and Book: Bones, Legends by Marie Lu
Favorite Quote: “The success of every woman should be the inspiration to another. We should raise each other up. Make sure you’re very courageous: be strong, be extremely kind, and above all, be humble.” — Serena Williams
Research Interests: Understanding stress responses and the impact of aging on a cellular level.

Veronica Kuo

Undergraduate Researcher

Hometown: Irvine, California
Hobbies: Watercoloring, Piano
Favorite Show: Jeopardy
Favorite Quote: “In certain seasons, we may be nourished by the idea of the carrot more than the carrot itself.” -Gabrielle Zevin
Research Interests: Stress biology and cellular mechanisms of aging.

Camilla Pearson

Undergraduate Researcher

Hometown: Houston, Texas
Hobbies: cafe-hopping, journaling, reading, playing video and board games!
Favorite Movies: Perfect Blue, Look Back, Oldboy, La La Land
Favorite Quote: “Fill your mind with knowledge – it’s the only kind of power no one can take away from you.” — Min Jin Lee
Research Interests: Examining how stress impacts the aging process on a molecular and cellular level.

Anna Entin

Undergraduate Researcher

Hometown: Los Angeles, California
Hobbies: Skiing, Dancing, Piano
Favorite Movies: Gifted, The Greatest Showman, Ocean’s 8
Favorite Quote: “You’re braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.” – Winnie The Pooh
Research Interests: The impacts of stress on age-related diseases including Parkinson’s Disease.

Melissa Peruch

Undergraduate Researcher

Hometown: Reseda, California
Hobbies: Baking, creative writing, reading, running
Favorite Movies: Coraline, Spirit, Insidious series
Favorite Quote: “If I’m going to die, I’d like to actually live first” -Rachael Lippincott
Research Interests: How environmental stress can biologically impact aging mechanisms.

Hunter Nelson

Undergraduate Researcher

Hometown: Bay Area, California
Hobbies: Music Production, Mario Kart
Favorite TV Shows: Barry, Better Call Saul, The Walking Dead
Favorite Quote: “Keep your eyes to the sky, never glued to your shoes” – Mac Miller
Research Interests: Understanding the genetic mechanism that drives premature aging phenotypes.

Kyle Jong

Undergraduate Researcher

Hometown: Irvine, California
Hobbies: Pickleball, Skiing, Navigating escape rooms, Dungeon Master of D&D campaigns
Favorite Movies: Avengers: Endgame, Back to the Future, Your Name, Toy Story 3
Favorite Quote: “Human knowledge is never contained in one person. It grows from the relationships we create between each other and the world, and still, it is never complete.” – Paul Kalanithi
Research Interests: Investigating critical cellular factors (e.g., the actin cytoskeleton) involved in aging and their responses to stress, as well as developing potential therapeutic strategies targeting these components to prevent the degenerative effects of aging.

Austin Suvunnapaph

Undergraduate Researcher

Hometown: Fontana, California
Hobbies: Snowboarding, Raving, Fashion, Cafe Hopping and Collecting Smiski’s
Favorite Movies/TV Shows: Violet Evergarden, Crazy Rich Asians, Modern Family, and Young Sheldon
Favorite Quote: “Who’s going to love you if you can’t even love yourself.” – My mother
Research Interests: Examining the cellular pathways and molecular components that drive aging and stress responses. Also exploring how stress affects a range of species.

Mark Jin

Undergraduate Researcher

Hometown: Shanghai
Hobbies: Surfing, snowboarding, hiking, eating and exploring the world
Favorite TV Show: Inventing Anna
Favorite Quote: “Pain + Reflection = Progress.” – Ray Dalio
Research Interests: How cells maintain resilience under stress, particularly as we age. Exploring what organisms can teach us about longevity and how we can potentially apply these insights to human health.

Willie Duckworth III

Undergraduate Researcher

Hometown: Harvey, IL
Hobbies: Cooking, playing video games, and fashion
Favorite Movies: Ready Player One, Sinners, and Step Up 2
Favorite Quote: “Music is the framework around the silence” – Miles Davis
Research Interests: Understanding how stress factors impact aging and potential pathways of minimizing these effects.

Jonas

Lab Mascot

Hometown: California, United States of America
Hobbies: Sleeping, Eating, Wrestling, Tug of War
Research Interests: Performing large-scale unbiased screens of matter to identify novel edible material.

Stefan Homentcovschi

Jenni Durieux

Sarah Tronnes