West Lab Alumni Spotlight
Past West lab members have gone on to prestigous positions, working on neurodegenerative diseases, in both academia and industry. This page spotlights a few of these amazing researchers.
Zhiyong Liu, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Cell Biology
Univ. of Al. Birmingham
West lab post-doctoral fellow 2018-2023
Zhiyong earned a K99/R00 fellowship in the West laboratory for his work on vesicle traffic and LRRK2 function, and now runs an NIH-funded laboratory focused on Alzheimer's disease research at the Univ. of Alabama at Birmingham
Mark Moehle, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Pharmacology
Univ. of Florida
West lab graduate student, 2011-2015
Columbia University School of Medicine
Mark earned a K99/R00 fellowship and runs a laboratory focused on circuit changes that unerlie dystonia, Parkinson's disease, and different dementias
Kaela Kelly, Ph.D., Senior Research Scientist
Arvinas Therapeutics,
West lab graduate student, 2015-2020
Kaela leads a research team focused on the development of PROTAC drugs to degrade proteins related to neurodegenerative diseases.
Nicole Bryant, Ph.D., Principle Scientist
Vividion Therapeutics,
West lab graduate student, 2018-2022
Nicole runs a research team in the Early Discovery Group, using novel chemoproteomic platforms to inform new drug targets for therapeutic interventions.
Kyle Fraser, Ph.D., Principle Scientist
Biogen IDEC
West lab graduate student, 2012-2017
Kyle runs a research team focused on biomarkers and drug responses in neurodegenerative disease.
Hisham Abdelmotilib, MD/PhD, Clinical Fellow of Neurology
Mass Gen. Hospital, Harvard Medical School
West lab graduate student, 2013-2018
Hisham is a practicing neurologist at one of the most prestigous neurology departments in the country and specializes in neurodegenerative disorders.
Ketty Bai
West lab, 2019-2021
Columbia University School of Medicine
Ketty was an undergraduate reseracher in the West lab and is currently pursuing an MD at Columbia University's Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons
Lyndsay Hastings
West lab, 2020-2021
NIH IRTA Fellow
Lyndsay was an undergraduate reseracher in the West lab and is a recipient of the National Institutes of Health's Post-baccalaureate Intramural Research Training Award, and pursuing graduate school
Allison Chang
West lab, 2018-2020
University of Minnesota Graduate School
Allison was a Post-Bac researcher in the West lab and is pursuing a graduate degree in Neuroscience at the University of Minnesota
Shijie Wang, PhD
West lab, 2017-2021
Post-doctoral researcher, UCSF
Shijie graduated with a PhD in the West lab and focuses on biomarkers and pathways in Parkison's disease.
Joshua Li
West Lab, 2018-2022
Medical student at Emory
Josh was a post-bac researcher in the West laboratoroy currently in medical school.
Valentina Krendelshchikova
West lab, 2016-2021
Scientist at Astra Zeneca
Valentina was a West lab manager and now works in Industry for protocol optimization and laboratory operations.
Nicole Malpeli
West Lab, 2018-2022
Meta Platforms, Inc
Nicole was an undergraduate computer science reseracher in the West laboratory and currently works for Meta in Manhattan as an engineer.
Julia Ziaee
West lab, 2019-2022
Salesforce, Inc.
Julia was an undergraduate researcher in the West laboratory and currently is a software engineer at Salesforce in San Franscisco.