Members

Chuong lab members

The Chuong lab is dedicated to promoting an inclusive and welcoming environment for scientists from all races and backgrounds. To inquire about openings, please email Ed.

Principal Investigator

Edward Chuong

Assistant Professor • he/his

BioFrontiers • MCDB

Ed grew up in sunny Southern California, and studied Bioinformatics at the University of California, San Diego from 2003-2007. There, he worked with Dr. Hopi Hoekstra exploring the evolution of genes involved in maternal-fetal genetic conflict. He next pursued a PhD at the Stanford University from 2007-2013, in the lab of Dr. Julie Baker . There, he discovered that ancient retroviruses were a major source of regulatory elements in the...

edward.chuong@colorado.edu

Research Staff

Holly Allen

Lab manager/Staff Scientist • she/hers

BioFrontiers

Holly grew up in the suburbs of London, UK, but spent most of her adult life in the North of England. Here, she received an undergraduate and a master’s degree in Biology from the University of Sheffield, where she studied the symbiosis between fungi and wheat. Moving west, she completed a PhD in Plant Sciences from the University of Manchester, where, under the supervision of Simon Turner, she studied the...

holly.allen@colorado.edu

Atma Ivancevic

Postdoc • she/hers

BioFrontiers

Atma was born in Serbia but raised by the sandy beaches of South Australia. Her scientific career began at the University of Adelaide Australia, where she completed an undergraduate degree in applied maths and genetics, and a PhD in computational biology. Following her PhD, she moved into medical research, studying the genetic basis of neurological disorders as a bioinformatician at the Adelaide Medical School. In late 2018, Atma moved to...

atma.ivancevic@colorado.edu

Giulia Pasquesi

Postdoc • she/hers • Sie Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow

BioFrontiers

Giulia was born and raised in Milan (northern Italy). In 2008 she moved to Tuscany to study ethology and neurobiology (BS) at first, and then population and conservation genetics (MS). In In 2015 she left Italy to join Todd Castoe’s snake genomics lab in Texas (USA). Under his mentorship, Giulia focused on the characterization of transposable elements (TEs) in squamate reptiles in order to understand broad patterns of vertebrate genome...

giulia.pasquesi@colorado.edu

Grad students

Carmen Buttler

Grad student • she/hers

MCDB

Carmen grew up in the Colorado Front Range, and attended the University of Denver as an undergraduate, where she received a BS degree in molecular biology, with a secondary major in anthropology. During her time there, she worked in the lab of Schuyler Van Engelenburg, studying viral assembly during HIV infection. After graduating, she stayed in Dr. Van Engelenburg’s lab to earn her MS degree in cell and molecular biology...

carmen.buttler@colorado.edu

Adam Dziulko

Grad student • he/his

MCDB/IQBio

Adam grew up in southeast Iowa, and attended Iowa State University as an undergraduate, where he received a BS degree in genetics. There, Adam studied peripheral nerve regeneration in Donald Sakaguchi’s lab. Once graduated, Adam moved to study distal enhancer specificity at the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab for Axel Visel. Adam then moved to work for Sasha Levy, bioengineering massively parallel human protein-protein interactions in yeast. Adam is now a...

adam.dziulko@colorado.edu

Olivia Joyner

Grad student • she/hers

MCDB

Olivia is a California native who has a passion for outreach and inclusivity. She received her AS degree in Biotechnology at MiraCosta College in 2018 and BS degree in Biotechnology at the California State University, San Marcos in 2021. Her background includes stem cell research, with an emphasis in hippocampal neuron development, and yeast strain engineering, including the synthesis of carotenoids and cannabinoids. Olivia joined the Chuong Lab in Summer...

olivia.delletorri@colorado.edu

Lily Nguyen

Grad student • she/hers

MCDB/MSTP

Lily spent her formative years in the beautiful and western part of Michigan, but most of her childhood was spent along the Missouri River in Nebraska. She graduated from the University of Michigan (Go Blue!) with a BS in Molecular Cellular and Developmental Biology. After undergrad, she spent a few years on the east coast enjoying good food, watching Broadway shows, and studying the molecular underpinnings of fatty liver disease...

lily.nguyen@colorado.edu

Andrea Ordonez

Grad student • she/hers

MCDB

Andrea was born and raised in Quito, Ecuador, where she was inspired by the ecological and human diversity that surrounded her to pursue the study of molecular biology and genetics. She graduated in 2015 with a BA in Molecular and Cellular Biology from the University of California, Berkeley. This led to a year of research in metastatic breast cancer as part of Dr. John Park’s lab at the University of...

andrea.ordonez@colorado.edu

Undergrads

Keala Gapin

Undergrad • she/hers

ChBE

Undergrad (Class of 2024), 2021 BSI Scholar, 2022 BSI Scholar, 2022 & 2023 UROP Scholar, Dept of Chemical and Biological Engineering Keala grew up in Colorado and is now a junior at the University of Colorado Boulder studying chemical and biological engineering. She is both on the pre-med track and is minoring in leadership studies and computational biology. Previously, she worked in a biomedical research lab under Dr. James Scott-Browne...

keala.gapin@colorado.edu

Stella Haskins

she/her

Stella was born and raised in Boulder, Colorado. She is pursuing a BS in MCDB at University of California, Santa Barbara, and will be a junior in the Fall of 2023. Her love for biology ignited during her sophomore year of high school, and she has been fascinated in pursuing a career in the field ever since. She is hoping to continue on in either research or Physicians Associate School...

stellahaskins@ucsb.edu

Abigail Jeong

Undergrad • she/hers

MCDB

Abigail was born and raised in Colorado and continues to experience the beauty of this state as she attends CU Boulder! She has always loved science growing up and is now pursuing a double major in MCDB and Spanish. While these two areas of study may seem to differ from each other, Abigail is excited to utilize both in her future in the medical field. In her free time, she...

abigail.jeong@colorado.edu

Tania Lara

she/hers

Tania was born in El Salvador and moved to Colorado at age of 10 years old. She obtained in 2023 an associate in biology and is currently perusing a bachelors in biology and a minor in criminalistics. She is working in the Chuong lab over the summer of 2023 through the "Bridges to the Biosciences" program funded by a HHMI Inclusive Excellence grant. Eventually she would like to give back...

larapaola007@gmail.com

Kevin Veno

he/his

Computer Science

Kevin was born and raised in Massachusetts. Undergratuate class of 2024, pusrsuing a degree in computer science with a minor in compuptational biology. In his freetime he enjoys hiking, skiing, hockey, and reading.

kevin.veno@colorado.edu

Alumni

Yazmyn Chavez

Undergrad

Now a Medical Assistant at Injury Solutions.

Alex Hirano

Undergrad

MCDB

Now a technician at Massachusetts General Hospital.

alexander.hirano@colorado.edu

Bella Horton

Undergrad

ChBE

Now doing her MD/PhD at University of Maryland.

Isabella.Horton@Colorado.EDU

Doreen Idonije

Undergrad • she/hers

Biochemistry and Neuroscience

Doreen was born and raised in Nigeria (West Africa). She is a junior pursuing a double major in Biochemistry and Neuroscience on a pre-med track at the University of Colorado, Boulder. Despite the workload, she loves to knit, cook and read a lot of Danielle Steele novels.

doid3761@colorado.edu