Lab Members

Shortly after high-school, Taylor began to work in the lab of the late Andreas Doncic at UT Southwestern Medical Center where she quickly discovered and began to develop a deep love and interest in research. Taylor went on to complete a B.Sc. in Biochemistry at UT Dallas where she was awarded a research fellowship through the Cecil and Ida Green Foundation. Taylor came to North Carolina State in February of 2022 as a research technician working in computational image analysis and then began her PhD to focus on studying the mechanisms regulating quiescence in yeast. Taylor enjoys exploratory walks, listening to music, good food, and art.

 Nika Tadić, originally from Split, Croatia, began her journey in the United States after securing a tennis scholarship upon high school graduation. She pursued and completed her B.Sc. in Computer Science at Shaw University as student-athlete. Following her undergraduate studies, Nika joined North Carolina State University as a Ph.D. student in Bioinformatics. After a year of exploring different research laboratories at NCSU, she joined Miranda’s lab in August 2022. Her research now focuses on the development of innovative computational tools aimed at enhancing image-based detection and quantification systems. Alongside her Ph.D. studies, Nika is also pursuing a bachelor's degree in Statistics. Nika enjoys playing sports and spending time with family and friends. 

Bryn Merritt, local North Carolinian, completed her B.S. in E.E.E. (Ecology Evolution, and Environmental Biology) at Appalachian State in 2022. She then joined the NCSU community as a technician at the Miranda Lab to gain lab experience. She enjoys sketching and hanging out with friends and family during her down time. 

Sandhya Neupane was raised in Nepal. After completing her bachelor’s degree in agriculture sciences, she started studying for a master's degree in plant Pathology in Nepal. Her master’s degree research focused on studying the interaction of major diseases of directly seeded upland and rainfed transplanted lowland rice in the mid-hills region of Nepal. Then, she joined the Ministry of Agricultural Development in Nepal where she worked as an Agriculture Extension Officer and Senior Horticulture Development Officer for about nine years. In August 2019, she moved to the United States to pursue her PhD at Tennessee State University, Nashville, Tennessee in Biological Sciences with Plant Pathology as her major research area. Her thesis focused on the identification and integrated management of diseases caused by some soil-borne pathogens in ornamental nurseries. In January 2023, she joined Miranda's lab at North Carolina State University where she is studying the biology of quiescence exit in filamentous fungi.

“Nearly everything is really interesting if you go into it deeply enough.” – Richard Feynman

Shreya Ramakanth, originally from Bengaluru, India, holds a B.E. in Telecommunication Engineering from R.V. College of Engineering. It was during her undergraduate years that she discovered her passion for studying the physical world as a sequence of numbers.

Currently, Shreya is pursuing her Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering at NC State University, focusing on Signal Processing and Computational Intelligence. In her research, she applies simple algorithms to decipher complex datasets. At Miranda Lab, she works with imaging data to help discover the secrets of microbial biology, one pixel at a time.

Beyond her academic interests, Shreya engages in volunteering activities and enjoys meeting new people. In her leisure time, she finds joy in music and reading. 

A North Carolinian computational wizard, after working at the Buchler and Miranda Laboratories, Berk has now moved now to California, where he continues to grow his promising career as a sophomore at Stanford, studying math and computer science. He is one of the masterminds behind the development of Yeastivision: a GUI-based framework that deploys deep-learning models and tracking algorithms for microscopy analysis of full microbial life cycles.  

During his time at the Miranda lab, Taevon worked a as research aid contributing to the labeling cell images for training microscopy computational models, which he confirmed by molecular tests such as DNA electrophoresis and PCR.  Taevon Roach is now an undergraduate at UNC-Chapel Hill studying Nutrition, Health, and Society (BSPH). He is conducting gastrointestinal-oriented research with Dr. Heather McCauley. 

Orlando Argüello-Miranda grew up in Costa Rica. After receiving a B.Sc. from the National University, he moved to Germany to pursue a PhD in cell biology at the Max Planck Institute for Cell Biology and Genetics in Dresden and the Max Planck Institute for Biochemistry in Munich. His thesis described the regulatory protein network that controls specialized forms of cell division, such as meiosis. Orlando joined the laboratory of the late Andreas Doncic at UT Southwestern in Dallas, Texas for his postdoctoral work, where he earned a K99 Pathway to Independence Award from the National Institutes of Health (NIH-GMS) under the supervision of Gaudenz Danuser. In August 2022, Orlando started his laboratory at the department of Plant and Microbial Biology at North Carolina State University. Orlando likes to spend time writing fiction and studying languages.