Heald Lab group photo, 2025

 

 

Rebecca Heald

Professor; Flora Lamson Hewlett Chair in Biochemistry Dept of Molecular & Cell Biology
Headshot of Rebecca Heald, Professor and PI of the Heald Lab

Postdocs 

Headshot of Alex Lessenger, postdoc in the Heald Lab

Alex Lessenger

lessenga@berkeley.edu

Alex is interested in how oocytes grow to their enormous size with only 4 copies of the genome.

Headshot of Anu Mukherjee, postdoc in the Heald Lab

Anu Mukherjee

a.mukherjee@berkeley.edu

Anu is interested in investigating the mechanisms that safeguard chromosome segregation during rapid cell divisions in early Xenopus embryos.

Headshot of Gabe Cavin-Meza, postdoc in the Heald Lab

Gabe Cavin-Meza

gabe.cavin-meza@berkeley.edu

Gabe is interested in testing the limits of spindle tolerance to polyploidization by utilizing multiple Xenopus species.

Headshot of Helena Cantwell, postdoc in the Heald Lab

Helena Cantwell

helena.cantwell@berkeley.edu

Helena is interested in mechanisms of subcellular size and shape control.

Headshot of Liliana Piñeros Leyton, postdoc in the Heald Lab

Liliana Piñeros Leyton

liliana.pineros@berkeley.edu

Liliana is interested in investigating the cellular basis of the conserved scaling relationship between the organism’s size and the metabolic rate described in Kleiber’s law.

Headshot of Xiao Liu, postdoc in the Heald Lab

Xiao Liu

xiao.liu@berkeley.edu

Xiao is interested in how neuron size impacts the structure and function of the vertebrate nervous system during development.

Graduate Students 

Headshot of Cordell Clark, graduate student in the Heald Lab

Cordell Clark

cordell_jc@berkeley.edu

Cordell studies centromere stability and mechanisms ensuring proper chromosome segregation during early embryo development using hybrid frogs.

Headshot of Khansaa Maar, graduate student in the Heald Lab

Khansaa Maar

khansaamaar@berkeley.edu

Research interests coming soon!

Headshot of Megan Onyundo, graduate student in the Heald Lab

Megan Onyundo

monyundo@berkeley.edu

Megan is studying how spindle architecture varies across species, and how those differences impact chromosome segregation.

Undergraduate Students

Amarisa Gonzalez

ama25@berkeley.edu

Arielle McMullan

ariellemcmullan@berkeley.edu

Heald Lab Alumni

Martin Liu (lab manager) - Medical Laboratory Scientist, Providence Sacred Heart Hospital

Coral Zhou (postdoc) - Assistant Professor, University of Kansas

Guadalupe Sepulveda (graduate student) - Staff Scientist, Stanford 

Clotilde Cadart (postdoc) - Junior Group leader - Institut Cochin

Kelly Miller (graduate student) - BioRad

Maiko Kitaoka (graduate student) - Postdoc, MIT 

Mina Sun (postdoc) - Google

Ambika Nadkarni (postdoc) - Postdoc, Stanford University 

Stephanie Malinich (lab manager) - On-call biologist, Sequoia Ecological Consulting 

Christopher Brownlee (postdoc) - Assistant Professor, Stony Brook University 

Xiao Zhou (postdoc) - Scientific Programmer, Caribou Bioscience 

Romain Gibeaux (postdoc) - CNRS researcher, Institute of Genetics and Development of Rennes 

Rachael Acker (undergraduate) - Medical student, Harvard 

Andy Lane (postdoc) - Computational Biologist, Mammoth Diagnostics 

Lauren Slevin (postdoc) - Prenatal Genetic Counselor, Swedish Medical Center Maternal and Fetal Specialty Center, Seattle 

Andrew Grenfell (graduate student), Instructor and Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Minnesota 

Magdalena Strzelecka (postdoc) - Data Scientist, One Logic 

Marina Ellefson Crowder (postdoc) - Assistant Teaching Professor, UC Davis 

Sharon Guo (undergraduate) - Graduate Student, UC Santa Barbara 

Matt Good (postdoc) - Associate Professor, University of Pennsylvania 

Kara Helmke Rogers (graduate student) - Director, Freshman Research Initiative, UT Austin 

Jeremy Wilbur (postdoc) - Protein and Cellular Biophysicist, Relay Therapeutics 

Evan Whitehead (undergraduate) - Research Assistant, Google-X 

Anne-Lore Schlaitz (postdoc) - Group Leader, University of Heidelberg 

Stephen Bird (graduate student) - Field Applications Scientist, Thermo-Fisher 

Esther Kieserman (postdoc) - Biological Sales Specialist, Nikon 

Blake Riggs (postdoc) - Associate Professor, San Francisco State University 

Daniel Levy (postdoc) - Associate Professor, University of Wyoming 

David Halpin (postdoc) - Paramedic fireman, San Francisco 

Jay Wang (undergraduate) - Opthamologist, Massachusetts General Hospital

Kieren Patel (graduate student) - CEO, Opticent Health 

Jonathan Soderholm (postdoc) - Associate Professor, Yonsei University 

Rose Loughlin (graduate student) - Senior Director, Moderna 

Benjamin Freedman (graduate student) - Assistant Professor, University of Washington 

Petr Kalab (postdoc) - Associate Research Professor, Johns Hopkins 

Eva Hannak (postdoc) - Patent Agent, Morrison & Foerster 

Michael Blower (postdoc) - Associate Professor, Mass General Hospital/Harvard 

Aaron Van Hooser (postdoc) - Director of Data Science, Korro Bio 

Tom Maresca (graduate student) - Associate Professor, UMASS Amherst 

Renée Deehan (graduate student) - VP of Computational Biology, QuartzBio 

Sharat Gadde (graduate student) - High School Teacher, Miramonte High School 

Priya Prakash Budde (graduate student) - Senior Foundation and Corporate Relations Officer, Whitehead Institute 

Sadie Wignall (graduate student) - Associate Professor, Northwestern University 

Ahna Skop (postdoc) - Professor, University of Wisconsin Madison