Lab Members

Lab Members

Sandy Bowers

 Study Coordinator/Project Manager, Birnbaum Lab

Sandy graduated from the University of Minnesota - Twin Cities with a BA in Economics. She has worked with this group of researchers for many years.  Sandy is involved in several projects as the Study Coordinator/Project Manager. She focuses mainly on subject recruitment, data collection and management, and regulatory requirements. Away from work, you can find her enjoying spending time with her husband, 4 kids and 3 dogs, chilling with a book, or hanging out with friends and extended family.

Current Students

Charul Avachat

Experimental & Clinical Pharmacology Ph.D. Student

Charul is a fourth year Ph.D. student in Experimental and Clinical Pharmacology advised by Dr. Angela Birnbaum. She graduated with a Bachelor of Pharmacy degree from University of Pune, India. She graduated in the top 1% of the university and was awarded the 'Best Outgoing Student' in the year 2015. Charul moved to the US to pursue her Masters in Pharmaceutical Sciences at Northeastern University where her work was primarily focused on developing liposomal formulation encapsulating BDNF plasmid for delivery to neuronal cells. After graduating from Northeastern she was working at Agios Pharmaceuticals as a Research Associate in the Drug Metabolism and Pharmacokinetics department.

Her primary area of interest is Clinical Pharmacology and Pharmacometrics. In her free time, she likes to travel and explore different cuisines.

Jessica Barry

Experimental and Clinical Pharmacology Ph.D. Student

Jessica graduated from the University of Minnesota in 2018 with a degree in Biomedical Engineering. She is currently pursuing a PhD with interests in pharmacometrics, PBPK modeling, and pharmacokinetics, while also working in the lab with HPLC and LCMS analysis. In her free time, you can find her biking, birding, playing board games, and exploring nature.

Yuhan Long

Experimental & Clinical Pharmacology Ph.D. Student

Yuhan is a PhD graduate student pursuing a degree in Experimental and Clinical Pharmacology with a minor in Statistics. He received a BS in Mathematics summa cum laude and a BSChE in Chemical Engineering (Computer Science minor) summa cum laude from University of Kentucky in 2020. While there, he worked with research in computer vision and drug solubility/crystallizability. His current research interests include pharmacometric methodology and mathematics. What especially intrigues him are the mechanistic modeling of nonlinear systems and the assumptions used in their simplification. Regardless of practicality, he aims to bring more mathematics to pharmacology and more pharmacology to mathematics.

 

His interest in models expands to physical models with respect to his hobby of scale model building. Other reclusive joys of his include computers, video games, and fountain pens. If you want to be inundated with information, feel free to ask him about any of his interests. In conclusion, by proof through counting, this is sentence number a.



Xintian Lyu

Experimental & Clinical Pharmacology Ph.D. Student

Xintian received her bachelor's degree from the University of Minnesota in 2020, majored in Chemistry, and minored in Statistics. Currently, she is a third-year Ph.D. student in Dr.Birnbaum's lab. Her research interests are pharmacometrics, PBPK modeling, and clinical pharmacology. So far, her projects are mainly about medical cannabis, including data analysis and bioanalysis. In her free time, she likes playing the piano, dancing, and playing with her two cute cats and her dog named Cookie. 

Jason Sriwijaya

Experimental & Clinical Pharmacology Ph.D. Student

Jason is a second-year Ph.D. student in Experimental and Clinical Pharmacology (ECP) advised by Dr. Angela Birnbaum. He earned his Bachelor’s degree in Medicine from Hasanuddin University Medical School and completed his Clinical Pharmacology residency training from University of Indonesia. During his residency training, his research focused on detection of cardiotoxicity effects of antimalarial drugs. After graduation, he served as a lecturer in pharmacology and therapeutics department at Hasanuddin University Medical School. He has a deep interest in pharmacokinetics-pharmacodynamics modeling and simulation as well as therapeutic drug monitoring. Therefore, he joined as a graduate student at ECP, University of Minnesota. 


In his leisure time, he loves playing music, writing a song, and exploring cafés in Minneapolis and St. Paul area. 

Jennifer Vigliaturo

Experimental & Clinical Pharmacology M.S. Student

Jenny is a first-year M.S. student in Experimental and Clinical Pharmacology (ECP) advised by Dr. Angela Birnbaum. She earned a Bachelor's of Science in Microbiology from the University of Minnesota. After graduation, She worked in a molecular epidemiology lab of Dr. Ajay Israni performing SNP genotyping.  Thereafter, she worked in the laboratory of Dr. Paul Pentel and carried out behavioral studies of vaccines for opioid addiction. She currently works with Dr. Michael Raleigh assisting with opioid vaccine clinical studies with a focus on LCMS/MS quantification.  

In her free time, she likes to spend time with her family, garden, watch movies and walk her dogs. 

Mason Hamar

College of Science and Engineering, BChE Student


Mason is a third year student pursuing a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering and a minor in sustainability. He is interested in sustainable chemical processes and green chemistry. In his free time, you’ll find him playing for the UMN’s men's ultimate frisbee team, playing chess, and exploring the Cities area.

Lin Boemer

College of Biological Sciences, Neuroscience Student


Lin is a fourth-year student pursuing a Bachelor's Degree in Neuroscience, with a minor in Pharmacology. Their research interests include Neuropharmacology and the study of psychiatric drugs. In their freetime, Lin enjoys playing board games, spending time with their cat, Charles, and acrylic painting.

Research Associate

Sílvia M. Illamola, PharmD, PhD 

After completing a Fellowship in the Division of Clinical Pharmacology at the University of Utah, Dr. Illamola joined the Department of Experimental & Clinical Pharmacology at the University of Minnesota as Research Associate. Her research is focused on the clinical pharmacology and pharmacometrics in special populations. Of special interest is the influence of growth and development of often used medication on the pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics in newborns, children and infants, and the clinical pharmacology of medications during pregnancy and lactation.

Visiting Scholars/ Students

Angela K. Birnbaum, PhD, Professor 

University of Minnesota College of Pharmacy, Dept. of Experimental & Clinical Pharmacology 

Room 463, 717 Delaware St., SE 

Minneapolis, Minnesota 55414 

Phone: (612) 624-3158, Fax: (612) 626-0148 

E-mail: birnb002@umn.edu 

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