Meet Our Team

Teresa Nicolson, PhD
Edward C. and Amy H. Sewall Professor of Otolaryngology — Head & Neck Surgery

Bio

After receiving her B.S. in Biochemistry at Western Washington University, Teresa Nicolson was a graduate student in Dr. William Wickner's laboratory and received her Ph.D. in Biological Chemistry in 1995 from the University of California, Los Angeles. She then trained as a post-doctoral fellow in Dr. Christiane Nuesslein-Volhard's laboratory at the Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology in Tuebingen, Germany. In 1999, Teresa became an independent Group Leader at the same institute. In 2003, she was appointed as an assistant professor to the Oregon Hearing Research Center (OHRC) at OHSU with a joint appointment in the Vollum Institute. She was promoted to associate professor in 2005 and professor in 2014. Teresa was an HHMI Investigator from 2005 to 2013. In 2019 she then joined the Research Division of Otolaryngology - Head & Neck Surgery as a professor at Stanford University.

Anna Shipman, PhD

Postdoctoral Fellow

Anna received her PhD in Molecular Biology and Biochemistry at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. Anna’s thesis focused on regulation of cell growth and proliferation in Drosophila. Anna is currently studying central auditory/vestibular deficits in the raumschiff mutant.

Yan Gao, PhD

Postdoctoral Fellow

Yan received her PhD in Biology at Nanjing University. Yan characterized Krueppel-mediated embryonic patterning in Xenopus. Yan is currently studying central auditory/vestibular deficits in the starliner mutant.

Peng Sun, PhD

Postdoctoral Fellow

Peng received his PhD degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Macau (UM) — Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech) Joint PhD Program. Peng’s PhD thesis focused on behavioral assays for evaluating the hearing/balance function in zebrafish larvae. For a deeper understanding of the mechanism of hearing/balance, Peng is currently exploring the role of the Tmc1/2 proteins in inner ear hair cells.

Sivan Brodo-Abo, BS, BA

Research Technician

Sivan graduated from Dominican University of California with a BS.in Cell and Molecular Biology and a BA in Music. As an undergraduate, Sivan worked with Asellus aquaticus crustaceans and genetic associations behind pigmentation. She also was involved in optimizing parameters of phage immunoprecipitation sequencing.

Zoha Fatima Syed

Stanford Undergraduate Student

Zoha is an international undergraduate student from Pakistan majoring in Psychology with a focus on neurocomputation and on the pre-medical track. She is particularly interested in studying hearing loss, both on a molecular level in the lab and in the context of Deaf cultures across the world. Zoha is studying the molecular basis of hearing loss in the raumschiff mutant.