Shelby O’Connor: Professor in Pathology and Laboratory Medicine
Shelby grew up in St. Louis, MO. She earned her undergraduate degree in the Biology Honors program at UIUC. She then obtained her PhD in Dr. Shigeki Miyamoto’s lab at UW-Madison. After grad school, she spent one year at the UW School of Pharmacy setting up labs for first year pharmacy students. Then, she worked in David O’Connor’s lab as an Assistant Scientist from 2006 until 2011, when she obtained independent funding and began her own lab. In addition to research, Shelby is also the Faculty Director for the Biocore program.
While Shelby likes doing experiments, she almost never gets to touch a pipet anymore. So sad….so very sad. Instead, she tries to live vicariously through everyone else. She also likes parkrun, riding her bike, and walking her dog. While she likes fruit and vegetables, she is also a huge fan of cookies with a lot of frosting.
Shelby’s favorite ice cream: Cookie Dough
Amy Ellis: Associate Scientist
Amy grew up in LaCrosse, WI. She stayed in LaCrosse for undergrad, earning two undergraduate degrees in Biochemistry and Cellular/Molecular Biology. She obtained her PhD in Dr. Janet Mertz’s lab at UW-Madison in the Cancer Biology program. After grad school, Amy studied Ebola and influenza in our neighbor’s lab, Dr. Yoshi Kawaoka. She decided to move across the parking lot to our building, which is where she has been for the past 9+ years.
Amy likes cloning in the lab. She thinks it is fun! She also has trained in the martial art of aikido for about 10 years, and she once worked for the USGS where she got to wear hip waders and collect mud samples.
Amy’s favorite ice cream: Chocolate Shoppe Zanzibar
Alexis (‘Lexie’) Balgeman: Research Specialist
Lexie grew up in Lyle, MN, which is on the MN/IA border. Lexie describes it as a very very very very small town. She went to Drake University and earned her undergraduate degree in Biochemistry, Cell, and Molecular Biology. Lexie has worked in the lab for ten years, and she thankfully takes care of a lot of stuff for all of us, which is why she has earned the name, “Lab Mom” at the young (very young) age of…..
Lexie came straight to the lab after graduating. In college, she studied abroad in Egypt and England. She claims she doesn’t have a ‘favorite thing’ in lab, so I’ll assume that means she likes everything. She is an avid reader, and she likes hot yoga and dogs.
Lexie’s favorite ice cream: Zanzibar chocolate or Salted caramel
William Gardner: Associate Research Specialist:
Will grew up in Sacramento, CA and attended the University of California, Davis. He earned his undergraduate degree in Bioinformatics in 2022. Will spent 2 years doing agronomy research in drought resistant crops before transferring into a computational biology lab during his final year. Will enjoys how dynamic his job is as one day he could be performing a viral sequencing run and another he is building a bioinformatic pipeline.
Will’s favorite hobby is surfing which is why he moved closer to the Great Lakes. Much to his surprise Lake Michigan was much flatter than he expected and now he must wait for the winters to catch some chilly waves. He is learning the art of fly fishing in his spare time as a form of “meditation”.
Will’s favorite ice creams: Amaretto Cherry with Fudge or a classic Chocolate Malt
Celia Bartels: Undergraduate student at UW-Madison:
Celia grew up in Verona, WI, a very short 20 minutes from campus. She started her lab journey in senior year of high school where she worked at a bovine sequencing lab doing quality control for artificial insemination; very fun to explain to friends and family.
Outside the lab she enjoys ballet, knitting, sewing, and hiking.
Her favorite ice cream flavor is Babcock Hall’s mocha macchiato.
Jacob Meuler: Undergraduate student at UW-Madison.
Jacob grew up in Cedarburg, Wisconsin with his four brothers and sister. He is currently studying biology and psychology at UW-Madison, and this is his first major lab experience. Jacob enjoys learning about virology and hopes to eventually attend medical school.
Outside of the lab, Jacob enjoys long distance running and playing piano. His favorite vacation spot is up north with his family, where he can enjoy the lake and water ski.
Jacob’s favorite ice creams: Strawberries and Cream, Mint Oreo