Principal Investigator

Assistant Professor of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology

Adrianna is thrilled to be continuing her life-long pursuit of curiosity by opening her lab at Duke in 2024! She is fascinated by questions at the intersection of human genetics, epigenetics, and stem cell and tissue biology. She is passionate about scientific communication, outreach to the local community, and creating spaces in science where everyone feels like they belong. In her spare time she dabbles in flower farming.

email | CV | twitter

Research Technician

Molly is excited to return to her alma mater as the first member of the San Roman Lab! She looks forward to contributing to research that will help improve health outcomes across the spectrum of sex. She is also interested in how genetic sex differences, compared to gendered health behaviors, play a role in human health outcomes. In her free time, Molly performs on national tour with her comedy troupe and paddles on her affordable, yet surprisingly durable, second inflatable kayak... Feel free to contact her below to find out what happened to the first one.

email

Postdoctoral Associate

Maike got her bachelor's degree in Biomedical Sciences at the University of Marburg in Germany before moving to Sweden to study for her Masters degree at the University of Linköping. She ended up staying in Linköping to pursue a PhD degree studying DNA methylation in healthy and malignant T-cells in the group of Colm Nestor. Maike is fascinated by the complex mechanisms that make us humans who we are and is happy to continue her quest for knowledge by exploring the details of our sex chromosomes. She is especially excited about applying her experience in epigenetics to study inactivation of the X-chromosome in complex systems and how this process affects sex differences.

Rotating Graduate Student

Amanda Fuenzalida was born in Santiago, Chile and moved to Naples, FL when she was 5 years old. She recently graduated from Davidson College with a BS in Biology. Throughout her undergraduate, Amanda worked in Dr. Debbie Thurtle-Schmidt’s lab, focusing on transcriptional regulation of NHR-25 and EOR-1 in C. elegans. Prior to beginning her Ph.D. journey in the Molecular Genetics and Microbiology program at Duke, Amanda also participated in UCLA’s Bruins in Genomics program and Harvard’s Systems Biology Internship. Amanda is excited to begin her 3rd rotation in the San Roman lab, studying how sex chromosome copy number impacts gene expression. Outside of lab, Amanda loves studying languages, crocheting, and dancing.

Rotating Graduate Student

Anabelle is a first-year MGM student rotating in the San Roman Lab. She recently graduated from LSU with a degree in biochemistry and is super excited to explore Duke and Durham more! During her undergrad, she had lots of fun working with honey bees and studying epigenetics using S. cerevisiae. Outside of research, Anabelle has many hobbies, including hiking, crocheting tiny stuffed animals, and playing the ukulele!

Undergraduate Research Assistant, MGM SURE Fellow

Ariella is a Duke undergraduate majoring in Biology with minors in Chemistry and Psychology. She is interested in learning more about how genetic sex differences can affect the expression of certain genes. In her free time, Ariella likes reading, swimming, and going on road trips.

Undergraduate Research Assistant

Vivian is a Duke undergraduate majoring in Chemistry and Chinese. She is very excited to learn about the molecular relationship between biological sex and health outcomes. In her free time, Vivian enjoys reading, playing piano, and going on walks in rainy weather.

Post-baccalaureate Researcher

Nelanne is currently a PRIME-PREP scholar at Duke University, pursuing her research interest in engineering genetic technologies. She earned her Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering with a concentration in Bioengineering from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) in May 2024. As part of her post-baccalaureate project, Nelanne is continuing the work of Erin Huggins, focusing on developing cell models for multi-gene editing using CRISPR/Cas technology. In her free time Nelanne bakes, dances, and recently started rollerblading!

We are actively recruiting students and postdocs to our team!