Our lab is made up of a team of enthusiastic and highly skilled scientists who work together collaboratively to understand the basic mechanisms of airway cell biology and gain new insights into the pathophysiological mechanisms underlying chronic rhinosinusitis, cystic fibrosis, and other airway diseases.
Current Lab Members
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| Rob Lee Principle Investigator Assistant Professor of Otorhinolaryngology (primary) and Physiology (secondary) Email: rjl [at] pennmedicine.upenn.edu Research topics: All things calcium and nitric oxide in airway cells, mechanisms of epithelial fluid secretion and ion transport, intracellular signaling [More Info] |
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| Maureen Victoria Lab Manager/Research Specialist Research topics: Taste receptor expression in airway cells Keeping the lab from descending into chaos Notable hobby: Beekeeping |
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| Derek McMahon Postdoctoral Fellow Research topics: Sub-cellular localization of taste receptors and signaling to the nucleus, bitter agonist-induced apoptosis Notable hobbies: Teaching yoga, eating cookies  Indiwari (Indi) Gopallawa Postdoctoral Fellow Starting June 2018 Research topics: TBD Notable hobbies: Bikram yoga |
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| Jenna Freund Research Specialist Research topics: Taste receptors in airway innate immunity Notable quote: "Pennies aren't Mentos." Notable hobbies: Making furniture out of mannequins, going off to grad school (Einstein Neuroscience) Summer 2018 |
Lab Alumni
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| Ben Hariri Year-out post bac student (2015-2016) Research: Effects of natural products on airway pathogens, antibacterial effects of flavonoids, Wogonin Notable quote: "Well, they do say that wheat is the devil's food." Currently: GW Univ. Med Student |
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| Alan Workman Part-time lab member (2015-2016) University of Pennsylvania Med Student Working with Noam Cohen Research: Mechanisms of airway cell cilia regulation Currently: Harvard Otorhinolaryngology resident |
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| Ryan Carey Part-time lab member (2015-2016) University of Pennsylvania Med Student Working with Noam Cohen Research: Mechanisms of airway cell nitric oxide production Currently: Penn Otorhinolaryngology resident |
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| Andrew Hart University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine Immunology Graduate Group Rotation Student (Spring 2017) Research: Regulation of T2Rs and TLRs in Airway Cells Notable extracurricular activity: Kung Fu |
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| Maddie Johnson Part-time undergraduate Student (Summer 2016) Currently: University of Pittsburgh Bioengineering Undergrad Research: Airway cell cancer proliferation and metabolism Notable extracurricular activity: Pitt Women's Lacrosse |
Supriya Saxena
Part-time lab member (independent study project 2017)
University of Pennsylvania Biotechnology Masters Student
School of Engineering and Applied Sciences
Research: Tagging T2R constructs for visualization
Paige Johnson
Part-time lab member (Summer 2017)
Notre Dame Undergraduate Neuroscience Student
Research: Immunoprecipitation of T2R receptors
Notable extracurricular activity: Notre Dame Women's Lacrosse
Some of our friendly colleagues & collaborators:
Penn Rhinology Research Lab
Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Monell Chemical Senses Center
