Lab Members
Lichao Zhang
Scientist I
Chan Zuckerberg Biohub
Email
Lichao received her bachelor's degree in Chemistry from Nankai University in China, and PhD in Chemistry from University of Virginia. During her PhD studies she worked on characterization of protein phosphorylation and analysis of therapeutic antibody using mass spectrometry. In the Elias Lab she works on a variety of collaborative projects focusing on protein identification and quantification using mass spectrometry. She also manages the operation and maintenance of mass spectrometers.
Marlene Louise Heberling
Graduate Student
Chemical and Systems Biology
Email
Marlene got her undergraduate degree from Vanderbilt University where she studied Molecular and Cellular Biology as well as Spanish. She joined the Elias lab after her first year at Stanford to use proteomics translationally for cancer therapeutic design. More specifically, she is interested in understanding neoantigen presentation by tumor cells. Her current research focuses on profiling the MHC immunopeptidome in normal cells, primary tumors, and cancer cells lines. Her goal is to translate this work into small molecule and cell-based therapies while learning the ins and outs of mass spectrometry and computational proteomics. In her spare time, she enjoys drawing, painting, and spending time with her nieces and nephew.
Patrick McAlpine
Life Science Research Professional
Stanford School of Medicine
Email
Patrick received his Bachelor of Science degree from the University of California, Santa Barbara. He joined the Elias lab in 2019 to work on mass spectrometry based proteomics projects. His focus is the MHC immunopeptidome and neoantigen presentation on tumor cells.
Brian C. DeFelice
Scientist – Metabolomics
Chan Zuckerberg Biohub
Email
Prior to joining CZ Biohub, Brian worked in Prof. Fiehn’s metabolomics lab, where he had been practicing mass spectrometry-based metabolomics since 2011. At CZ Biohub he is collaborating with investigators from Biohub’s Microbiome Initiative to expand the metabolomics platform. To this end, Brian is developing novel methods of quantifying metabolites relevant to gut-host interactions and applying untargeted techniques to identify previously unknown microbial metabolites. Ph.D.: University of California, Davis, Pharmacology and Toxicology (2019)
B.S.: University of California, Davis, Cell and Molecular Biology (2012)
Juan Moises Sanchez
Sr. RA
Chan Zuckerberg Biohub
Email
Juan holds a Bachelor’s degree in Chemistry and a Master’s degree in Biomedical Engineering, both from the University of Texas at El Paso. He began his career working as a Project Manager for two environmental engineering firms. As a Project Manager he provided consulting services to both industry and governmental agencies. In 2017, Juan joined Intrexon corporation and transitioned over to Synthetic Biology, with a focus on Stable Isotope Labeling (SIL) enabled metabolomics. Juan left Intrexon in 2020 to join the Chan Zuckerberg Biohub at Stanford University and evolve his passion for metabolomics to the next level.
Kavya Swaminathan
Staff Scientist
Stanford Medicine
Email
Kavya received her PhD from the University of Sydney in Australia. During her PhD she developed and applied mass spectrometry based approaches to study antiviral binding to influenza virus antigens and monitor the emergence of antiviral resistance. She joined the Elias lab to explore the host-immune responses to viral infections. Her current research focuses on identifying viral and host antigens that are differentially presented upon infection both in vitro and in vivo, in the context of the dynamic proteome. These studies will enable identifying immunologically relevant targets for the design of efficacious vaccines and therapeutics against a range of devastating infectious diseases such as Dengue, TB, Malaria and Zika.
