The Flannery Lab

Principal Investigator

John Flannery

Professor, Vision Science, Neuroscience Division, Molecular and Cell Biology Faculty, Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute and School of Optometry

Lab Manager

Meike Visel

Meike's training from Germany is in Medical Laboratory Science. She has been part of the Flannery Lab since 2005. As the specialist for viral packaging Meike helps and advises anyone in the lab who wants to package Adeno-Associated Virus for their gene therapy studies. She always has an open ear for cloning troubles and helps out wherever she can, may it be animal work, immunohistochemistry or dissections.
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Graduate Students

Beatrice Le

Vision Science PhD candidate since August 2023
Beatrice's research involves developing and evaluating optogenetic gene therapies in murine models. She is co-mentored with Dr. Rowland Taylor.
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Sonali Singh

Vision Science PhD candidate since August 2021
Sonali is working on discovering a novel AAV-mediated gene therapy for dry age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and leber's congenital amaurosis type 2 (LCA2).
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Rotation Students

Lobna Hamed

Vision Science PhD student since August 2024
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Poorna Sharma

Vision Science PhD student since August 2024
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Undergraduate Students

Adithya Sivakumar

Major: Molecular and Cell Biology - Molecular Therapeutics
Minor: Data Science
Graduation : Fall 2024
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Sabrina Spatny

Major: Molecular and Cell Biology and Public Health
Graduation : Spring 2025
She is currently completing her honors thesis in the Flannery Lab, where she focuses on understanding how immunosuppression impacts AAV transfection efficacy in the retina.
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Aneal Singh

Major: Molecular and Cell Biology
Graduation : Spring 2025
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Daniel Kang

Major: Chemical Biology
Minor: Data Science.
Graduation: Spring 2026
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Tyler Houston

Major: Chemical Biology
Graduation: Spring 2026
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Naomi Leader

Major: Neuroscience Public Health
Graduation: Spring 2027
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Evan Kwong

Major: Molecular and Cell Biology
Graduation: Spring 2028
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Kayla Xuan Tougas

Major: Neuroscience
Graduation: Spring 2028
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Vivian Mai Huong Tran

Major: Data Science
Graduation: Spring 2027
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Honorable Mention

Scott Geller

Scott did his post-doc in the Flannery Lab back in the day and recently started as director of the UC Berkeley sequencing facility. He always has an open ear and good advice on all science related questions.
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