Elizabeth Lawlor, MD, PhD
Associate Director of Cancer Biology
Phone:
Email: Beth.lawlor@seattlechildrens.org
elawlor@uw.edu
Office: SCRI-JMB
Dr. Lawlor received her M.D. from McMaster in 1989 and her PhD in Pathology & Laboratory Medicine from UBC in 2002. She completed clinical training in Pediatrics, at CHEO, and Pediatric Hematology-Oncology Fellowship, at BC Children’s. She then pursued post-doctoral research training at the University of California, San Francisco. Dr. Lawlor began her independent lab at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles/University of Southern California in 2004, and was at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan from 2010-2020. In June 2020, she joined the Seattle Children’s Research Institute in Seattle, WA.
Hobbies: Hiking, travel, cats, good food & wine
Shireen Ganapathi, MD
Pediatric Hematology Oncology Fellow
Email: shireen.ganapathi@seattlechildrens.org
Shireen received her M.D. from the University of Toledo College of Medicine in 2016. She went on to complete her clinical pediatric residency training at UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh in 2019. She is currently a pediatric hematology-oncology fellow at Seattle Children’s Hospital who will be joining the Lawlor lab as a research fellow. Prior to her medical training, Shireen worked at the Cleveland Clinic focusing on the genomics behind cancer predisposition syndromes, and at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine understanding the role of epigenetic changes and DNA damage in aging.
Hobbies: Camping, hiking, traveling, and discovering delicious new food.
Kate Braun, PhD
Senior Research Scientist
Email: katherine.braun@seattlechildrens.org
Kate received her B.S. in Biochemistry from the University of California, Davis in 1993 and her Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of Iowa in 1998. Her work as a graduate student and a postdoctoral fellow at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory focused on understanding the mechanism of DNA replication in eukaryotes. In subsequent postdoctoral work at Fred Hutchinson Research Center she studied cell cycle regulation in yeast. As a research scientist at the University of Washington she studied the regulation of gene expression in response to changing nutrient conditions in yeast. Kate moved to the Fred Hutchinson Research Center to study chemoresistance in breast cancer using patient derived organoids as a senior research scientist.
Hobbies: Running, hiking, snowshoeing, bread baking, reading and spending time with my family.
Nicolas Garcia,MS
Senior Research Scientist
Email: nicolas.garcia@seattlechildrens.org
Nicolas was born and raised in France and worked at the ENS Lyon before moving to the United States in 2010. He conducted research on Flavivirus at the Center for Vaccine Research of Pittsburgh and then moved to the West Coast at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center to work on T-cell therapy for solid and liquid tumors before joining Seattle Children’s.
Hobbies: Hiking and snowshoeing, his little one, and board games.
Emma Wren, PhD
Post-doctoral fellow
Email: emma.wrenn@seattlechildrens.org
Emma received her B.S. in Biological Sciences from the University of California Santa Barbara in 2014 and her PhD from the Molecular & Cellular Biology Graduate Program at the University of Washington in 2021. Her doctoral research in Dr. Kevin Cheung’s lab at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center focused on intercellular signaling during collective metastasis by tumor cell clusters in breast cancer. Her current research interests include identifying and characterizing heterogeneous cell subpopulations that contribute to metastasis in Ewing sarcoma, and understanding their interactions with the bone tumor microenvironment.
Hobbies: backpacking, live music, video games, travel.
Darleen Tu, DVM
Veterinary fellow
Email: darleen.tu@seattlechildrens.org
Darleen received her DVM from Western University of Health Sciences. She is a veterinary fellow for a residency training program through the University of Washington and Seattle Children’s Research Institute. She is working toward completing a Master’s in Comparative Medicine and has a special interest in translation research.
Hobbies: Rock climbing, painting/drawing, and exploring the city.
Aya Miyaki
Research Technician
Email: aya.miyaki@seattlechildrens.org
Aya was born and raised in Japan before moving to Canada for high school. She then moved to the United States and received her A.S. from Seattle Central College and B.S. in Biochemistry from the University of Washington. Post-graduation, she worked in Gene and Cell Therapy Lab at the University of Washington and manufactured CAR-T cells for platinum resistant ovarian cancer.
Hobbies: hanging with her cats
Past Lab Members
April Apfelbaum, PhD
Graduate Student, Cancer Biology
April joined the Lawlor lab in 2018 and her research focused on understanding how hijacking of normal developmental pathways lead to oncogenesis and cell state plasticity in Ewing sarcoma. She is currently a postdoctoral fellow at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute in Dr. Mimi Bandopadhayay’s Lab.
Jennifer Jiménez, PhD
Graduate Student, Cancer Biology
Jennifer joined the Lawlor lab in 2018 and her research focused on understanding the metabolic reprograming that occurs in Ewing sarcoma to promote tumorigenicity. She is currently a Medical Communications Fellow at JB Ashtin in Plymouth, MI.
Mohamed Ahmed, PhD
Postdoctoral Researcher
In 2020, he joined Lawlor Lab to investigate and understand the metabolic reprograming that mediate and promote survival and dissemination of Ewing sarcoma cells.
Ramón Ocadiz Ruiz, PhD
Research Investigator, Pediatrics
Kelsey Temprine, PhD
Postdoctoral fellow, Pediatrics Hematology/Oncology
Kelsey is continuing her Post-doc in the lab of Dr. Yatrik Shah.
Sudha Sud
Research Lab Specialist
Wei Jiang, PhD
Research Lab Specialist, Senior
Wei is currently working in the lab of Dr. Christina Angeles.
Tahra (Luther) Suhan, MS
Lab Manager
Tahra is currently working in the lab of Dr. Goutham Narla
Sydney Treichel
Undergraduate student then Research Technician
Sydney is pursuing her MD/PhD as a part of the MSTP at the University of Cinicinnati College of Medicine and Cincinnati Children’s.
Josh Bradin
Undergraduate student
Josh is pursuing a B.S. in Neuroscience anticipated in April 2022.
Andrew Kassa
Undergraduate student
Andrew is finishing his senior year as a UM undergraduate.
Sonja Konzen
Undergraduate student
Sonja is finishing her senior year as a UM undergraduate.
Abhijay Kumar, B.S.
Lab tech
Abhi is currently in Medical School.
Elise Pfaltzgraff, PhD
Post-doc
Elise is currently the Education Coordinator in the Rogel Cancer Center Office of Education and Training.
Allegra Hawkins, PhD
Cancer Biology Graduate Student
Ally is currently working as a data scientist at the Alex’s Lemonade Stand Childhood Data lab.
Laurie Svoboda, PhD
Post-doc
Laurie is currently a Research Assistant Professor of Environmental Health Sciences in the School of Public Health at the University of Michigan.
Beth Pedersen, MD, PhD
MSTP Student, Pathology
Beth worked on the Wnt signaling pathway and its contribution to Ewing sarcoma pathogenesis, with a particular focus on the heterogeneous nature of Wnt/beta-catenin signaling and the interactions between Wnt signaling and EWS/ETS fusion proteins.
Beth is currently starting her Dermatology residency at the University of Michigan.
Melanie Krook, PhD
Cancer Biology Graduate Student
Melanie is currently working as a post-doc at Ohio State.
Katherine Ryland, PhD
Pharmacology Graduate Student
Katherine is currently working at Janssen Pharmaceuticals.
Natashay Bailey
Laboratory Technician
Ashley Harris, M
Lab Manager
Raelene Van Noord, MS
Lab Manager
Raelene currently works at the University of Michigan doing work with Clinical Trials.
Jack Mosher, PhD
Associate Research Scientist
Lawlor Lab 