Lab Members

Shawn Bratton, Ph.D.
Principal Investigator
Associate Professor
B.S., Molecular Biology, The University of Texas at Austin, USA
B.S., Medical Technology, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, TX, USA
Ph.D., Pharmacology and Toxicology, The University of Texas at Austin, USA
Postdoctoral Fellow, Medical Research Council-Toxicology Unit, Leicester, England

Zalak Parikh, Ph.D.
Research Assistant II
B.S., Microbiology, Sardar Patel University, Anand, Gujarat, India
M.S., Microbiology, Sardar Patel University, Anand, Gujarat, India
Ph.D., Department of Zoology, The Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, Vadodara, Gujarat, India
Research Interest: Role of apoptosis and autophagy in development and disease

Youngeun Choi, Ph.D.
Current Position: Senior Scientist, Oncology Platform, EMD Serono, Billerica, MA
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.

Farhana Haque, M.S.
Current Position: Public Health Laboratory Scientist, Maryland Department of Health
My project was to extend our lab’s discoveries in the molecular regulatory mechanism of apoptosis to in-vivo systems such as mouse models.

Sunhee Lee, Ph.D.
Current Position: Research Fellow at Samsung Economic Research Institute, Korea
My research project was to elucidate regulatory mechanisms of caspases by IAPs and IAP antagonists during cell death in Drosophila.

Indra (Mahajan) Newman, Ph.D.
Current Position: Senior Scientific Writer/Grant Editor, Clinical and Translational Science Institute, Wake Forest Baptist Health, North Carolina. 
I investigated the molecular players that regulate heat shock-induced apoptosis using cells derived from various knock-out mice, as well as cancer cell lines.

Madhavi Malladi, Ph.D.
Current Position: Associate Director at MedPace, Dallas-Forth Worth Metroplex.
My research was primarily focused on understanding the mechanisms by which inhibitor of apoptosis (IAP) proteins and their antagonists regulate caspase activation using Drosophila a model system.

Srinivas Malladi, Ph.D.
Current Position:  Assistant Professor, UT Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, Texas.
My project in the Bratton lab was focused on understanding the mechanisms of caspase 9 processing and activation within the apoptosome.

Jaekyoung Son, Ph.D.
Current Position: Tenure-Track Assistant Professor at the University of Ulsan College of Medicine, South Korea
I investigated 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.

Shankar Varadarajan, Ph.D.
Current Position: Principal Scientist, Translational Medicine, Immunocore, Abingdon, England
Past Academic Position: Group Leader, Institute of Systems, Molecular, and Integrative Biology, The University of Liverpool, UK.
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.

Daric Wible, Ph.D.
Current Position: Senior Scientist I, Discovery Biology at Monte Rosa Therapeutics, Boston Massachusetts.
I worked to define the molecular mechanisms that regulate autophagy and how autophagy affects prostate tumorigenesis and progression.

Chu-Chiao (Crystal) Wu, Ph.D.
Current Position: In Vivo Project Lead, Tumor Biologist, Vividion Therapeutics, Inc., San Diego, California.
My project in the Bratton lab was focused on the stoichiometry and dimerization/conformational status of caspase-9 within the Apaf-1 apoptosome complex and its activation mechanism in vivo using a novel caspase-9 knock-in mouse model.

Ting-Chun Yeh, Ph.D.
Current Position: Senior Clinical Research Scientist, Chimerix, Inc., Coppell, Texas.
I worked on understanding how Grim, an endogenous inhibitor of apoptosis (IAP) antagonist in Drosophila, induces IBM-independent apoptosis.

Miao-Der (Sophie) Chen, Ph.D.
Current Position: Scientist II, Thermo Fisher Scientific
My project focused on determining whether cytosolic acidification and cathepsin release, following heat shock-induced ELMP, is important for caspase activation and cell death following heat shock.

Rajrupa (Raje) Chakraborty, Ph.D.
My project was to better define programmed cell death and the regulation of autophagy in cancer.