Our Team

Current Lab Members

Dr. Sarah Flowers - Assistant Professor and PI

Sarah did her Ph.D. at the University of Technology, Sydney, and The Rockefeller University in NY, where she gained strong mass spectrometry (MS) proteomics expertise in the Laboratory of Mass Spectrometry and Gaseous Ion Chemistry with Dr. Brian Chait. She then undertook a postdoc position at the Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, Sweden, with Dr. Niclas Karlsson which introduced her to glycobiology; the study of the identity and function of the glycans (sugars) attached to proteins. Sarah used her MS skills to successfully investigate the role of glycosylation in diseases of aging, particularly arthritis as well as autoimmune diseases including Sjogren’s syndrome, focusing on diagnosis. She developed the first selected reaction monitoring (SRM) (also called multiple reaction monitoring, MRM) method to characterize the entire range of O-glycans on a protein, applied to a protein critical in arthritis leading to a potential new diagnostic. She subsequently moved to Georgetown University and applied her skills towards understanding another critical disease of aging, Alzheimer’s disease, before starting her lab at the end of 2018. Sarah then accepted a tenure track position, moving the Flowers lab to the University of Virginia in June 2023.. Her work looks at the impact of glycosylation on the function of the APOE molecule, and how this might affect Alzheimer’s disease pathology and be important for very early AD diagnosis. The Flowers lab utilizes patient-derived iPSC disease models to understand carbohydrate modifications in human disease systems. Sarah is also interested in the impact of APOE isoforms on metabolism in different cell types involved in AD. Overall, her work is patient-focused, aiming to understand how changes in metabolism and carbohydrate post translational modifications impact pathogenesis and how these two critical factors interact, and translating this understanding into the early-stage diagnosis of diseases of aging like Alzheimer’s disease.

Sarah has an unabashed love for Lego and Funko Pop, and an impressive Grogu collection.

Dr. Harvey Fernandez - Research Assistant Professor

Harvey did his PhD at the University of New South Wales, Sydney, and then moved to the US and completed a postdoc in Missouri working on epigenetic mechanisms of gene regulation. He subsequently spent 4 years at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, analyzing the impact of the glycoprotein, MUC1, on colorectal cancer. Moving back to the US, Harvey started his work at Georgetown University examining mitochondrial metabolism in cancer stem cells, and his extensive molecular biology, metabolism, stem cell and glycobiology expertise led to a collaboration with the Flowers Lab, which he joined in late 2018. His current work in the Flowers Lab involves utilizing patient-derived induced pluripotent stem cells to generate astrocytes, neurons, microglia and hepatocytes to analyze the influence of different APOE isoforms on the function of these cells, and how this affects Alzheimer’s disease pathogenesis. He is instrumental in a range of projects looking at how APOE genotype impacts cells as well as how its glycosylation affects its function. Harvey is both continually fascinated by science and hugely practical, which drives us to be inventive in a thoughtful way that makes the lab more productive and creative.

They have not discovered a sport that Harvey could not enjoy watching.

Rachel Mulavelil - Research Specialist

Rachel Mulavelil was a Masters student in the lab at Georgetown and moved down with us to Charlottesville. She grew up in a Mission Hospital in rural India which gave her a passion for healthcare and moved to the US for her undergrad at Calvin College in Grand Rapids. In Summers she spent time doing community-based health research in rural India on glucocorticoid misuse. After Undergrad she was a research assistant at the UT San Antonio, Glenn Biggs Institute for Alzheimer’s and Neurodegenerative diseases working on clinical AD studies including the PEACE AD study. Rachel joined the lab to expand her wet lab skills and was investigating how APOE genotype impacted the effectiveness of potential AD therapeutics and generated some exciting data that we will continue exploring.

Rachel is fond of an exclamation and loves a Marvel movie.

Deborah Olagbenro - Graduate student

Debbie is a graduate student in the Neuroscience program at UVA. She grew up in Lagos, Nigeria, before her parents immigrated to Ohio. As an undergraduate, she attended OSU and majored in Neuroscience. She's always been interested in science, and her time in the Barrientos Lab during her undergrad cemented her love for neuroscience. After undergrad, she completed her postbaccalaureate at OSU, where she prepared herself for graduate school. Since joining the lab, she has become interested in understanding how APOE isoforms impact the metabolism of iPSC-derived microglia.

She is a proud cat mom of a chunky cat named Jasper. In her free time, she likes to listen to audiobooks while playing video games or crocheting.

Dana May - Graduate student

Dana is a graduate student in the neuroscience program at UVA. She obtained her Bachelor of Science from The Pennsylvania State University in veterinary and biomedical science. After undergraduate studies she went on to obtain her Master of Science from Temple University in biomedical sciences with a concentration in neuroscience, there she fell in love with glial cells and all things pertaining to the blood-brain barrier. Her master’s degree ultimately prepared her for graduate research in neuroimmunology here at UVA. Dana’s research interests in the lab center around understanding how specific genetic risk factors including APOE isoforms impact the metabolic homeostasis of IPSC-derived astrocytes to elucidate how these factors contribute to the development of late-onset Alzheimer's Disease. 

Outside of the lab, she is a devoted cat mom to her cat Spice. She also enjoys spending time with friends and family, working out, cooking (mostly Jamaican food), listening to music, reading, and watching science fiction movies and shows. 

Ayushi Agarwal - Research Assistant

Ayushi is a research assistant, who just finished a year as an undergrad in the lab and we obviously didn’t scare her enough, so she decided to stay, which we are very happy about! She is graduating from the University of Virginia in the Spring of 2024. During her time at UVA, she majored in Cognitive Science and Neuroscience. So far, Ayushi has spent most of her time in the lab learning more about astrocytes and IPSCs, but is excited to start her own independent research project in the near future. Her future career goal is to become a neurologist, which we think she will excel at because she is very smart and has the best enunciation as well as very neat writing.

She loves baking, plants, and Taco Bell's fire sauce, as well as making super creative halloween costumes.

Amisha Sahni - Undergraduate student

Amisha is a rising 4th year student who joined the lab at the start of her third year. She is a Neuroscience major at University of Virginia. She grew up in Roanoke, VA, and spends her time in the summer volunteering as an EMT for her local rescue squad, where she got first hand experience working with patients with different neurological diseases. Amisha was first introduced to iPSCs from learning about it in her Introduction to Cell Biology course, and was excited to work with them further in the Flowers Lab. She is currently optimizing the generation of iPSC derived cardiomyocytes, and having a great time watching them beating. She is excited to do more extensive analyses of them in the coming semester.

Amisha loves to dance salsa, bachata and cha-cha, and hasn’t injured any dance partners in months!

Past Lab Members

Max Pabilonia - Research Assistant

Max was a research assistant in the lab hailing from the DMV area. She did her undergraduate degree at Haverford College in PA, a biology major. Max was involved in a lot of research before joining us focusing on difficult molecular biology techniques and infectious diseases which Max has a particular interest in. She has spent a lot of time as a crisis counselor working on a suicide hotline. Max used her molecular expertise to great effect in the lab setting up standardized molecular techniques and expanding her skills to include a range of cell culture techniques.

Max now aims to pursue at least one Masters degree before exploring further career options.

Max has written multiple novels and loves to tell an anecdote with a macabre twist.

Mackenzie Brown - Research Assistant

Mackenzie was a research assistant in the lab. She came to us from California doing her undergrad at Santa Clara University and carrying out classroom-based cognitive testing research. Mackenzie did her Masters here at Georgetown University and worked with our collaborators and friends the Brain and Language Lab. She spent some time in the Flowers Lab learning to genotype and really enjoyed and showed great aptitude for benchwork, so she came to join us on the dark side. Mackenzie really expanded her molecular research skills including iPSC culture and differentiation and molecular biology skills, working on several projects in the lab. She has now moved into industry where they are benefiting from her great cell culture and other expertise.

Mackenzie is vegan, a super organizer and a little bit random (in a good way).

Blu Mahbub - Masters Student

Blu Mahbub did her undergrad at Mount Holyoke College majoring in Neuroscience. She had a lot of research experience including: behavioral and EEG clinical studies on infants; autism spectrum disorder meta-analysis; patient PCR and sequencing to assess pharmacogenetics, and drosophila neuron tracing. Following undergrad she worked at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute as a data specialist. At the beginning of the pandemic Blu collected PPE and donations for PPE to send to healthcare workers at home in Bangladesh. Blu’s work in the lab focused on visualizing mitochondria, defining differences and taking beautiful images.

Blu is now a Lab Manager at NIH.

Blu is a professional Kathak dancer and has exceptional henna skills.

Caroline Greene - Visiting Masters Student

Caroline came to us from the great state of North Carolina. Caroline did her undergraduate degree at the University of Colorado Boulder Majoring in Neuroscience and Molecular Biology. She then moved to Georgetown University and did her Masters here working with the Burns lab for her Research Practicum. Caroline learnt a wide range of molecular biology and mouse handling skills working on her project investigating traumatic brain injury. She has come to spend some time in the Flowers lab to learn about culturing iPSCs. Her plan is to go to Med School.

Caroline runs a lot and drinks pickle juice.

Jacob Rosenstadt - Undergraduate Student

Jake was an Undergraduate student at the Georgetown College majoring in neurobiology. He was introduced to AD and APOE in his freshman biology class where he wrote a review paper on the intersection of APOE genotype and environmental and behavioral factors. Soon after he joined the Flowers Lab. He really enjoyed working with iPSCs in the Flowers Lab and was excited to be pursuing an independent research project. His enthusiasm and proficiency with bench work resulted in him generating functional iPSC derived microglia and doing some preliminary characterization that provided excellent insight that will help us with our future goals. After college, Jake spent some time doing further research and was just accepted into the medical program at Georgetown.

Jake supports the Knicks but everybody still speaks to him.

Nicole Johnson – Masters Student

Nicole came to us with a strong chemistry background and excelled quickly in the lab developing a broader range of techniques. She was working towards improving the efficiency of the differentiation of iPSC-derived hippocampal neurons and understanding their use as an AD model. Nicole has a drive towards neuroscience and AD research and her work helped us with one of our goals to create more appropriate models for translational research.

Nicole took her great cell culture expertise to industry where she is enjoying the work while also obtaining another Masters degree.

Nicole’s sense of humor exactly suited the Flowers Lab, she is hilarious, and she has a cat that is not angry.

Laurie Zabala – Masters Student

Laurie had a strong research background in academia and industry and was very excited to be focusing on AD. She plans to combine her science, research and AD knowledge to work towards better science policy, particularly for AD. She bolstered her Masters in Integrative Neuroscience with policy classes to prepare for this objective. Laurie’s project was focused on understanding the most effective treatment approaches to alleviate the metabolic deficiency seen early on in AD and with the APOE4 genotype using iPSC-derived astrocytes, cells critical for metabolism in the brain.

Laura is now working at the American Association for the Advancement of Science, helping generate science policy that will help improve people’s lives.

Laurie is an incredibly tidy and organized person (not sure how she put up with us) and loves bright and friendly things that make you smile, but that we can all agree on.

Tesha Blair - Research Assistant

Tesha hailed from Tennessee where she received her B.S. and M.S. in Biology. She came to us with over seven years of experience as a highly-regarded Research Assistant and three years as the Lab coordinator for the Proteomics and Mass Spectrometry Facility, Dept of Pediatrics, East Tennessee State University. More recently she was a Biologist at ATCC working on advanced cancer models.

She loves her kinda mean but endearing cat (her name is Kevin Michael) and music and is very talented, able to play several instruments.

Megan Kuwashima - Research Assistant

Megan is from California and moved to DC for college where she attained her BS in biochemistry at Georgetown University. She has undertaken cancer research particularly focusing on cancer metabolism during her undergraduate studies and following her graduation. She joined the Flowers Lab where she learned, developed and applies extensive induced pluripotent stem cell culturing and differentiation skills while keeping the lab working smoothly and everyone laughing. Although Megan has quite extensive mouse handling skills, she focused on the iPSC work to optimize human disease models using a range of cells including hepatocytes, astrocytes and neurons to reduce the need for mouse models.

She has a 70 lb. dog named Tucker and hopes to adopt more dogs the first chance she gets.

Nancy Luo - PhD Rotation Student

Nancy is an MD/PhD Student who did a summer rotation in the lab. She was working on examining whether APOE genotype impacts the metabolism of iPSCs using functional metabolic assays. Nancy developed her cell culturing techniques and became an expert at the metabolism assays on the Seahorse instrument. She survived the cicada plague (relatively unscathed) and has an unparalleled passion for birds.

Teresa Neves - Masters Student

During her Masters project in the Flowers Lab Teresa worked on the culturing of iPSCs and optimizing differentiation protocols of specialized neurons. Always eager to learn new things, Teresa was able to develop great cell culturing skills, very quickly becoming proficient with a wide range of difficult cell types. Unfortunately, her time in the lab was disrupted by the start of the pandemic, the lab was shut down and her lab work had to stop abruptly and she moved to online research. Teresa dealt with these challenges with patience and practicality, remaining productive and positive throughout. After leaving us, Teresa chose to continue her work as an EMT during the pandemic as well as teaching chemistry. Teresa plans to go to Medical School in the future.

Mark Von Eisenburg - Masters Student

Mark did his research work, part of his Masters degree, with Dr. Flowers focusing on quantifying protein localization changes with APOE genotype and metabolic condition. He learnt a range of techniques including cell culture and immunofluoroescence imaging and developed quantification techniques for different protein arrangements. Mark excels at science communication and is always able to clearly articulate concepts and ideas in both graphical and verbal forms. One of the politest students we have ever worked with, it was great having Mark in the lab to share our mutual appreciation of fika. Mark initially moved to Research!America, first as a Science Communications Intern but was promoted quickly to a Program Associate position. He then moved on to Avalere Health, where he is an FDA Fellow that focuses on regulatory policy supporting the development and launch of emerging biotechnologies.

Eliott Kim - Undergraduate Student

Eliott conducted research on APOE throughout his undergraduate studies at Georgetown University including over a summer when awarded a well-deserved GUROP (Georgetown University Research Opportunities Program) Summer Fellowship. Eliott learnt a range of techniques over his time in the lab but he really showed a natural aptitude for cell staining and microscopy techniques, being able to take new antibodies and reagents and optimize them quickly, producing beautiful images. Over the years Eliott also created several iOS apps, one to allow the Georgetown ambulance service to locate student calls on campus quickly and another to search for the closest place to buy ice cream; both absolutely essential tools. Eliott has gone on to his Medical Degree at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.

Colleen Fitzpatrick - Masters Student

Colleen came to the Masters in Integrative Neuroscience program with a psychology background and really embraced and excelled at her molecular neuroscience research project. Working with Dr. Flowers she mastered a range of techniques from cell culture to protein analyses and immunofluorescence staining with precision and dedication. During her time Colleen produced a lot of important data that pushed her project forward, looking at the changes in important metabolism proteins that occur with APOE genotype. Colleen is a patient and generous team player who puts the work first, always strives to learn more and to make any situation better. She does not like to be called Colleen Fitzgerald which happens more than you might think. Since leaving us she has moved onto a position on the Harvard Aging Brain Study.