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Kelly Monk, Ph.D.

Senior Scientist and Principal Investigator

monk(@)ohsu.edu

Kelly Monk is the co-director of the Vollum Institute. She received her B.S. in Biochemistry from Elmira College & her Ph.D. in Cell Biology from University of Cincinnati/Cincinnati Children's Hospital where she studied neuron-glial interactions in development & disease models. Kelly performed postdoctoral studies at Stanford University from 2006–2010. In 2011, she joined the Department of Developmental Biology at Washington University School of Medicine and was promoted to associate professor with tenure in 2016. Kelly joined the Vollum Institute in 2017 as a senior scientist. She was named director of the Vollum/OHSU Neuroscience Graduate Program in 2018.

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Suhail Akram

Senior Research Assistant

Suhail was born and raised in the valley of Kashmir. He came to Oregon for college and received his B.A. in Biology with a concentration in Neuroscience from Lewis & Clark College. During his undergraduate time, he worked in Dr. Tamily Weissman-Unni's lab where he explored the impact of alpha-synuclein aggregation on mitochondrial movement along the zebrafish spinal cord. Suhail joined the Monk lab in June of 2024. Outside of lab, Suhail loves photography, hiking, cooking, and riding motorbikes.

bushab(@)ohsu.edu

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Saul Bello Rojas, Ph.D.

Postdoctoral Fellow

Saul received a B.A. in Neuroscience from Lake Forest College in Illinois. He next joined the Post-Baccalaureate – PREP program at Northwestern University working with Dr. David McLean, studying the innervation patterns of motor neurons in larval zebrafish. He then earned a Ph.D. from Washington University in St. Louis while working with Dr. Martha Bagnall, studying the developmental and connectivity patterns of spinal interneurons in the larval zebrafish spinal cord. Saul is now studying the impact of astrocytes on locomotor circuits in the Monk lab.

callc(@)ohsu.edu

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Abby Bush

Graduate Student

Abigail received her B.S. in Biology with a concentration in Plant Biology from the University of Texas at San Antonio in 2019. After completing her undergraduate studies, she moved to Baltimore where she worked in the lab of Dr. Dwight Bergles at Johns Hopkins University. It was here that she first developed a passion for neuroscience and worked on projects elucidating oligodendrocyte dynamics across the mouse lifespan. During this time, she also worked in the Neuroscience Imaging Core where she maintained core microscopes and assisted neuroscientists with imaging experiments. Excited to continue her studies, she joined the Neuroscience Graduate Program at OHSU in 2024 where she explored different models to investigate glia biology before joining the Monk lab. She hopes to continue exploring oligodendrocyte development utilizing genetic and imaging tools in zebrafish models.

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Cody Call, Ph.D.

Postdoctoral Fellow

Cody received a B.S. in Psychology and Biology from Florida State University working primarily with Dr. Richard Hyson on activity-dependent neuron survival in the developing auditory system. He next earned a Ph.D. in Neuroscience from Johns Hopkins University under the mentorship of Dr. Dwight Bergles, where he investigated the dynamics and specificity of cerebral cortex remyelination using two-photon in vivo imaging in adult mice. Cody is now studying glia-glia interactions regulating myelination in the zebrafish as a postdoctoral fellow in the Monk lab.

Armani received a B.S. in Biology from Arizona State University working primarily with Dr. Cassandra Gipson-Reichardt on synaptic plasticity in nicotine addiction. He then earned a Ph.D. in Neuroscience from the University of Minnesota. During his Ph.D., under the mentorship of Dr. Eric Newman, Armani investigated the role of astrocyte calcium signaling in neurovascular coupling and capillary dilations of the awake, behaving mouse. He also studied the impact astrocyte β-adrenergic receptor signaling had on influencing pyramidal neuronal NMDA receptor activity in the medial prefrontal cortex, and revealed that increasing astrocyte volume with β-adrenergic receptor agonists reduces the recruitment of neuronal extrasynaptic NMDA receptors. Armani joined the Monk lab in July 2023 to study astrocyte morphogenesis and how their physiology influences neuronal circuits in the developing brain.

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Armani Del Franco, Ph.D.

Postdoctoral Fellow

estesr(@)ohsu.edu

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Raja Estes

Graduate Student

Bad Bitch

Raja received her B.S. in Physiology from the University of Washington, Seattle in 2020. During that time she worked as an undergraduate research assistant in Matthew Kaeberlein's lab studying the link between aging and onset of Alzheimer's Diseases by performing high throughput drug screenings on C.elegans. She continued work in neurodegeneration by establishing Astrocyte cultures derived from human Induced Puripotent stem cells isolated from Parkinson's Disease patients. This work supported the investigation of the role of GBA in the spread of alpha-synuclein from neurons to glia in Marie Davis's lab at the Veterans Association Hospital in Seattle. She plans to continue her interest in astrocytes by implementing zebrafish and mice models to understand astrocytes role in neurovascular coupling from development to disease with co-mentorship by Anusha Mishra.

heo(@)ohsu.edu

Hawa Jagana

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Kyla Hamling, Ph.D.

Senior Research Associate

IT girl

hamlingk(@)ohsu.edu

Kyla received a B.A. in Biology from Lewis & Clark College in 2014. As an undergraduate, she fell in love with the zebrafish model system while studying cerebellar development in the lab of Dr. Tamily Weissman-Unni. Kyla then joined Dr. Scott Baraban’s lab at UCSF, where she worked to identify novel anti-seizure drugs in genetic epilepsy models. In 2023, she earned a Ph.D. in Neuroscience from New York University under the mentorship of Dr. David Schoppik, where she investigated the development of vestibular circuits that promote posture stability in the larval zebrafish. Excited to venture into the world of glia, Kyla joined the Monk lab in September 2024.

miramota(@)ohsu.edu

reyesad(@)ohsu.edu

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Dongeun Heo, Ph.D.

Postdoctoral Fellow

Dongeun received her B.S. degree in Neurobiology from Georgetown University, where she first developed her interest in glial cells in the lab of Jeffrey Huang. She earned her Ph.D. in Neuroscience from Johns Hopkins University, where she studied oligodendrocyte lineage cells using a diverse set of transgenic mouse lines in the lab of Dwight Bergles. Dongeun joined the Freeman and Monk labs in September 2021 and is interested in investigating the development and function of astrocytes using both fruit fly and zebrafish models.

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Tania Miramontes

Graduate Student

Tania received her B.S. in Cellular and Molecular Biochemistry with a minor in Biomedical Engineering from The University of Texas at El Paso in 2019. She was a BUILDing SCHOLAR and explored various research topics throughout her undergraduate years. Her undergraduate thesis work focused on understanding the mechanisms that promote sex differences in the reinforcing effects of nicotine. Tania joined the Neuroscience Graduate Program in 2019 and the Monk lab in 2020. She is interested in using the zebrafish model to understand neuron-glia interactions and glial development through various genetic and imaging techniques.

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Tia Perry

Research Assistant 2

Tia Perry received her bachelor’s degree in Zoology from Oregon State University in 2012. Prior to joining the Monk Lab at OHSU as a research assistant, she worked at the Oregon Zoo as the Oregon Silverspot Butterfly Program Coordinator. The Oregon Silverspot Butterfly is a federally threatened species, and she helped collect eggs from wild caught gravid females and raised the larvae for release on historical and newly created habitat. Tia also helped the Oregon Zoo Butterfly Conservation Lab raise and release federally endangered Washington Taylor’s Checkerspot butterflies. Before leaving the Oregon Zoo she participated in the first successful zoological breeding of the Oregon Silverspot Butterfly, which produced over 300 larvae that were released back into the wild. Tia joined the Monk lab in December 2020.

senatore(@)ohsu.edu

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Adriana Reyes

Research Associate

Melanie Piller, Ph.D.

Medical Student, OHSU

Amy Herbert, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor, University of Chicago

Adriana Reyes graduated with a B.S. in Animal Science from West Virginia University in 2014. She started off in the research field working for Charles River Laboratories at Janelia Farms in Ashburn, VA as a study support associate for various labs mainly on rodent studies. Soon after she moved to New York City to work at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center where she gained most of her zebrafish knowledge. After a couple of years in NYC, Adriana made her way to Pittsburgh, PA to work at the University of Pittsburgh. There she was able to work with a variety of species such as rodents, livestock, amphibians and non-human primates. Outside of work Adriana loves to travel and trying new food spots around the city.

Breanne Harty, Ph.D.

Staff Scientist,

Washington University School of Medicine

Graduate Student, UCSF

Graduate Student, Johns Hopkins University

bellorojas(@)ohsu.edu

perryti(@)ohsu.edu

Nicholas Sanchez, Ph.D.

Scientist III, Merck

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Amanda Senatore

Graduate Student

Amanda received her B.S. in Psychological Science and M.S. in Pharmacology from the University of Vermont. She first developed an interest in mechanobiology during her master's where she worked with Dr. Alan Howe studying the regulation of focal adhesions by PKA. Prior to beginning graduate studies at OHSU, she worked as a research technician with Dr. Osama Harraz and helped to define a role for Piezo1 as a mechanosensor in brain capillary endothelial cells. Amanda joined the Monk and Murthy labs in 2023 where she plans to combine electrophysiology, zebrafish, and mouse model systems to investigate the role of mechanically activated ion channels in myelination.

Past Members and last known positions:

Mitchell D’Rozario, Ph.D.

Jiaxing Li, Ph.D.

Hannah Collins, Ph.D.

Professor, Medical University at South Carolina

Postdoctoral Fellow, Vanderbilt University

Amit Mogha, Ph.D.

Scientist, Esai Pharmaceuticals

Sarah Petersen, Ph.D.

Andrew Benesh, Ph.D.

Associate Professor, Kenyon College

Adam Coombs Ph.D.

Postdoctoral Fellow, Cedars-Sinai

Ryan Doan Ph.D.

Licensing Associate

University of Colorado Anschutz

Medical Science Liaison, Genentech/Roche

Rory Morgan, Ph.D.

Staff Scientist, OHSU

akram(@)ohsu.edu

Rebecca Cunningham, MD Ph.D.

Internal Medicine Residency, Washington University

Saheli Singh

Tyrell Simkins, D.O., Ph.D.

Associate Medical Director/Physician Scientist, Cytokinetics

Jiakun Chen, Ph.D.

Austin Forbes

Aquatics Operational Manager, Emory University

Professor, UNC- Chapel Hill

Sarah Ackerman, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor, Washington University School of Medicine

Emma Brennan

Senior Analyst, eviCore Healthcare

Medical Student, OHSU

Allison Taylor

delfranc(@)ohsu.edu

jagana(@)ohsu.edu

Hawa received an AA in pre-nursing from Highline Community College in 2017 through her high school Running Start program in Seattle. She then earned a B.S. in biology from Emory University in 2021. After undergrad, she worked as a research scientist at Seattle Children’s Research Institute under Drs. Siobhan Pattwell and Myron Evans’ guidance. With a desire to expand her knowledge in neuroscience, she began her studies in the Neuroscience Graduate Program at OHSU in 2025. Now that she has joined the Monk lab, Hawa is eager to explore glial cell interactions in development and disease using zebrafish as a model system.

Graduate Student

Gabe Cruz Fabian

Research Assistant

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cruzfabian(@)ohsu.edu

Gabe received his B.A. in Psychology with a concentration in cellular and molecular biology from California State University, Fullerton. Throughout his undergrad he worked in the Fibromyalgia and Chronic Pain center as a research assistant and worked his way up as lab manager, investigating the role of Fibromyalgia (FM) and Chronic Pain conditions in aging adults, evaluating their cognitive and physical wellbeing in a longitudinal study. With a passion for neuroscience, he then joined the Cuajungco Lab at CSUF where he explored the role of transmembrane receptor 163 (TMEM163), a zinc transporter protein, in mice models to further our understanding of its role in neuron myelination processes. With the goal of pursuing a Ph.D., Gabe joined the Monk Lab in August of 2026, where he is currently learning the wonders of genetic and cellular tools in zebrafish models! In his free time, he enjoys spending time with his dog, Apollo, reading, running, and hiking.