Joseph Oh

BS/MS Student​

Samuel Gabovitz

Undergraduate Student

Yaron Fireizen, MD​

Infectious Diseases Fellow

Ana Cobian, PhD

​​Postdoctoral Scholar​​

  • Mayuri Naidu, Staff Research Associate
  • Refugio Robles-Sikisaka, Ph.D., Postdoc
  • Nitya Rao, Undergraduate Student
  • Christina Yeh, Undergraduate Student
  • ​​​Madona Khoshabafard, Undergraduate Student
  • ​Ray-Young Tsao, Undergraduate Student
  • ​Rami Michael, Resident
  • ​Andrew Lum, Dental Student​
  • Philip Herbert, Undergraduate Student
  • Ryan McKinzie, Undergraduate Student, CLS
  • Leslie Yip, Undergraduate Student
  • Jonathan Gao, Dental Student
  • Gabrielle Pine, Undergraduate Student
  • Zachary Baldwin, Masters Student
  • Jessica Chopyk, PhD, Postdoc
  • Hedieh Attai, PhD, Postdoc
  • Serena McCarthy, MS, IPATH Virtual Intern
  • Lina Huang, BS, Lab Manager, Medical Student
  • Sam Penziner, MD, Infectious Diseases Fellow
  • Grace Kovalick, MS, Masters Student
  • Nicole Hitchcock, BS, Medical Student
  • Valeria Bonomie, Undergraduate Student
  • Christine Do, Undergraduate Student
  • Andrea Lay Kwoon, PharmD, Visiting Scholar
  • Erin Natale, BS, Masters Student
  • Govind Sah, PhD, Postdoctoral Scholar
  • Megan Chiu, CLS Student
  • Josh Borin, PhD
  • Kanza Batool, Visiting Graduate Student

Gabrielle Shapiro

Undergraduate Student

Khrissa Lecrone, BS

Research Associate

​PALMS Lab

Alisha Blanc

Research Associate

Principal Investigator

David T. Pride, MD PhD

Former Lab Members

Elizabeth Luchinski

Undergraduate Student

Peiting Kuo, BS

Research Associate

PALMS Lab


Dr. Pride is originally from Nashville, Tennessee. He received his undergraduate degree in biology from Wake Forest University and entered the MSTP program at Vanderbilt University. He received his Ph.D. in Microbiology and Immunology from Vanderbilt University in the laboratory of Dr. Martin Blaser and completed his M.D. at New York University.  He finished his medical residency at Massachusetts General Hospital in Internal Medicine, and a fellowship in Infectious Diseases at Stanford University.  He then moved to The University of California, San Diego and serves as the Director of the Clinical Molecular Microbiology Laboratory and as the Associate Director of the Microbiology Laboratory. He also runs a research laboratory dedicated to human microbiome and human virome work. Dr. Pride also collaborates with the Center for Innovative Phage Applications and Therapeutics at UCSD, and has been working to understand how we might better understand the interactions between phages and their host bacteria for phage therapy. Dr. Pride's other major interests are in developing diagnostic tests for infectious diseases, and in understanding the role of microbial communities in human health and disease. 

Emma Ellefson-Frank

Undergraduate Student

Lab Members

Andrew Garcia, BS

Senior Research Associate

Lab manager

Marissa Proost

Research Associate

PALMS Lab

Madison Wong

Undergraduate Student

​Social Media Intern

Monica Bates

Undergraduate Student​​

Jaehoon Kim

Undergraduate Student

Natasha Kanhirun

Undergraduate Student

Connor Dam

Undergraduate Student

Ethan Khong

Research Associate​​

Pooja Ghatbale, MS

Senior Research Associate​​

Sirius Wang

High School Student

Jesse Leonard

Undergraduate Student

Anh Tran

Research Associate

​PALMS Lab

Alicia Amamoto

Research Associate

PALMS Lab

Kristin Nghiem
IPATH Scholars Program

  • Melissa Ly, Lab Manager, Staff Research Associate 
  • Tasha Santiago-Rodriguez, Ph.D., Postdoc
  • Shira Abeles, M.D., Fellow
  • Abdul Saboory, Undergraduate Student
  • Kevin Johnson, Undergraduate Student
  • Tovia Bavly, Undergraduate Student
  • Leila Schwanemann, Lab Manager, Staff Research Associate
  • ​Katayoon Atabakhsh, Undergraduate Student
  • Victoria Popov, Undergraduate Student
  • Kevin Wu, Undergraduate Student
  • Ivan Chan, ​Dental Student
  • Ravi Sadhu, ​Undergraduate Student
  • Olympia Alvarez, CLS, MPH
  • Kathya Arana-Fernandez Garrido, Undergraduate Student
  • Nicola Mangieri, Visiting Graduate Student
  • Jenny Shin, BS, CLS
  • Thaidra Gaufin, MD PhD, Infectious Diseases Physician
  • Joseph Tygart, High School Student
  • Lei Wang, Visiting Scholar
  • Lamya Lokhandwala, Undergraduate Student
  • ​Vivian Lin, CLS Student
  • Claudia Sanchez-Ramirez, MD, Infectious Diseases Physician
  • Roland Liu, PhD, Postdoctoral Scholar
  • Jasmine Chung, MD, Visiting Scholar
  • Dustin Heeney, PhD, Postdoctoral Scholar
  • Alison Rhoads, Undergraduate Student
  • My Nguyen, Undergraduate Student
  • Job Shiach, Medical Student