Youngeun Choi, Ph.D.
Graduate Student
College of Pharmacy

Email:toyoung@gmail.com
Current Position: Postdoctoral fellow; Dana-Farber Cancer Institute / Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA; Advisor: Dipanjan Chowdhury

As a grad student in the Bratton Lab, my project focused primarily on understanding how two related inhibitor of apoptosis proteins, cIAP1 and cIAP2, suppressed apoptosis through their distinct interactions with the effector caspases- 3 and -7.

Education:
B.S.: Pharmacy (Sookmyung Women's University, Seoul, South Korea)
M.S.: Analytical Pharmaceutics (Sookmyung Women's University, Seoul, South Korea)
Ph.D.: Pharmacy (The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX)

Madhavi Malladi, Ph.D.
Research Associate
College of Pharmacy

Email: mm3895@columbia.edu
Current Position: Postdoctoral fellow; Columbia University, New York, NY; Advisor: Riccardo Dalla-Favera

Caspases are activated in response to various cell death stimuli and inhibitor of apoptosis (IAP) proteins can bind and inhibit caspases. My research was primarily focused on understanding the mechanisms by which IAPs and their antagonists regulate caspase activation using Drosophila a model system.

Education:
B.S.: Agricultural Sciences (A. N. G. R Agricultural university, Hyderabad, India)
M.S.: Plant Sciences (Texas A&M - Kingsville, Dr. Robert Morgan)
M.S.: Biology (Texas A&M - Kingsville, Dr. Rafael Perez-Ballestero)
Ph.D.: Cell and Molecular Biology (The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX)

Srinivas Malladi, Ph.D.
Graduate Student
Cell and Molecular Biology

Email: MalladiS@mskcc.org
Current Position: Postdoctoral fellow; Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY; Advisor: Joan Massague

During stress-induced apoptosis, mitochondrial outer membrane permeabilization results in the release of cytochrome-c into the cytosol, leading to the formation of a large caspaseactivating complex, termed the "apoptosome". My project was focused on understanding the mechanisms of caspase-9 processing and activation within the apoptosome.

Education:
B.S.: Agricultural Sciences (A. N. G. R Agricultural university, Hyderabad, India)
M.S.: Agri-Business Management (Texas A&M - Kingsville, Dr. Donald Nixon)
M.S.: Biochemistry (Texas A&M - Kingsville, Dr. Gonzalez-Garcia)
Ph.D.: Cell and Molecular Biology (The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX)

Jaekyoung Son, Ph.D.
Graduate Student
College of Pharmacy

Email: mr2710@hotmail.com
Current Position: Postdoctoral fellow; Dana-Farber Cancer Institute / Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA; Advisor: Alec Kimmelman

My project focused on TRAIL, a member of the TNF receptor superfamily. I invested the intracellular mechanisms responsible for TRAIL resistance in human prostate cancer cells, with a particular focus on the role of p38 MAPKs in this process.

Education:
B.S.: Biology (Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, South Korea)
M.S.: Molecular Biology (Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, South Korea) Ph.D.: Pharmacy (The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX)

Shankar Varadarajan, Ph.D.
Graduate Student
Cell and Molecular Biology

Email: shankar.varadarajan@gmail.com
Current Position: Postdoctoral fellow; Medical Research Council - Toxicology Unit, Leicester, UK; Advisor: Gerald M. Cohen

As a grad student in the Bratton Lab, I worked on two different research projects; one project dealt with the role of p38 MAPKs in regulating autophagy and lysosomal biogenesis, while the other project involved TNFR1 signaling and receptor trafficking mechanisms.

Education:
B.S.: Pharmacy (The TN Dr.MGR Medical University, Chennai, India)
M.S.: Biotechnology (Birla Institute of Technology and Sciences, Pilani, India)
Ph.D.: Cell and Molecular Biology (The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX)