Lab Members
Principal Investigator
R. Mako Saito
Assistant Professor of Genetics
Telephone: (603) 650-1121
E-mail: Richard.M.Saito@Dartmouth.EDU
Mako Saito is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Genetics. Mako received a B.S. in Biology from U.C. Irvine and a Ph.D. in Microbiology and Immunology from the UCLA School of Medicine. He left sunny California behind to study C. elegans as a post-doc in the Schedl (Washington Univ. St. Louis, MO) and van den Heuvel labs (Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School), where he was a fellow of the American Cancer Society and the MGH Medical Discovery Fund. He arrived at the Dartmouth Medical School in late 2004. Mako's brush with greatness: as a kid, he delivered newspapers to the home of Andy Fire, 2006 Nobel Laureate in Physiology or Medicine.
Lab Members
Sarah Buck - Sarah Buck graduated from UVM in 2007 with a Bachelor's degree in Biology. Sarah enjoys RNAi experiments, microinjections, and molecular cloning. Sarah's been focusing on getting two papers published within one year of working in the lab. Stay tuned to see her progress!
Dan Chiu - Undergraduate ('09) - Dan is from New York City. He is pursuing a B.A. in Biology with a concentration in developmental genetics and wants to attend medical school in a few years. Dan helped conduct the RNAi screen for negative regulators of the cell cycle. His current project is a genetic characterization of one of the cell-cycle inhibitors identified in the screen. Dan enjoys watching movies, browsing bookstores, and ordering take-out on cold winter nights. Little known Dan fact: Dan is like Bigfoot: he is rarely seen during the day. But, you can often find evidence that he's around: A Boloco bag and a half-eaten burrito means that he's not far away.
Talia Robledo-Gil - Talia Robledo-Gil is a Women in Science Project (WISP) intern from Dartmouth College. She is a '12 and is planning on double majoring in Biology, with a focus in Genetics, and Art History. Talia is proud of her Peruvian heritage is originally from Miami Beach. In her spare time, she enjoys dancing and playing tennis. Currently, she participates in the multi-genre dance group, Fusion, Dartmouth Coalition for Global Health, Women in Science Project, and Club Tennis.
Where are they now?
Joe Clayton - Shortly after graduating from the Univ. of Massachusetts with a Bachelors degree in Biology, Joe teamed up with Mako in the winter of 2005 to start the new lab. Joe-of-all-trades was involved in most projects in the lab: some of his work to uncover the genetic network that controls cell divisions was published in 2008. Amazingly, while working in the lab Joe also earned a Masters degree from The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice. On the rare occasion that Joe was not working, he could be found biking, camping or generally running amuck in the woods. Joe is currently enjoying life in Burlington, Vermont.
Travis Green - Dartmouth '08, is a native of West Palm Beach, Florida. Travis entered the lab as a Presidential Scholar and worked on the genome-wide RNAi screen for tumor suppressor genes. He was the "Fastest Screener Known to Man". A four-year member of the heavyweight crew team, he served as Dartmouth's Student Assembly president, was active in Palaeopitus, served as the design/graphics editor of The Dartmouth, and is a member of Sigma Phi Epsilon. Travis was awarded a 2008 George J. Mitchell Scholarship, through which he is currently pursuing a master's degree in cognitive science at University College Dublin.
Jenna Holmen - Jenna is from California originally and plans to return someday, eventually. She received her BA at Dartmouth in Biochemistry and an MA at Boston University in Medical Science. Currently she is attending medical school at Eastern Virginia Medical School. In the Saito lab, she helped coordinate the screen of the C. Elegans genome, identifying genes involved in cell-cycle regulation. When not in the lab, she could generally be found traversing the local trails, something which Norfolk, VA is sadly lacking.
Camila Lopez-Anido - Camila is originally from Orono, ME. She will be graduating from Bowdoin College in 2009 as a double major in Biochemistry and in Gender and Women's Studies. She came to Dartmouth as a Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) student and ended up loving life in the Upper Valley. In the Saito lab, she investigated mechanisms controlling cell divisions during the development of C. elegans.
Isabella Lubin - Until recently, Isabella spent all her time in the greater metropolis of the twin cities: Hanover, NH and Norwich, VT. While in the lab, she helped with the genome-wide screen for cell-cycle regulators. Currently, she is in the Class of 2012 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Isabella trivia: She was working in research labs at the Dartmouth Medical School before she could drive a car.