People

Essey Afewerki

22', High School Student Researcher

Essey is interested in pursuing a career in biological engineering or molecular biology. Essey enjoys all things science, loves manipulating DNA and generated engineered parasite strains! He is now an...

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Julia Alvarez

18'-23', Ph.D., Current - Assistant Professor, Medical Education Department, UC Merced

Graduated from UC Merced. Julia is making fundamental discoveries on the GPI anchor of Toxoplasma gondii. Former President of RadioBio, and active baking blogger.
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April Apostol

Ph.D. '16-'22, Industry Becton and Dickson

April explored how maternal inflammation and T. gondii infection during pregnancy impacts fetal stem cell development with long term impacts on cellular immune function. April was co-advised by Dr...

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Jose Lopez Arce

Masters Student [1st year]

Jose is a Master's student in the QSB graduate program as a former top immunology student of mine. He desires to gain experience in mouse models for host-Toxoplasma interactions and immunology. Jose's...

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Ahmadzakaria Arjmand

22'-23', Undergaduate researcher

Ahmadzakaria is interested in CD8 T cell responses to T. gondii infection.

Hannah Bautista

Undergraduate researcher 2026

Hannah joined our laboratory during her final semester as a senior. She was a standout immunology student and was part of the larger team tasked with screening the Collaborative Cross for host factors...

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Christina Bui-Thach

23'-25' Undergraduate researcher

Christina is pursuing a career in medicine. She researched immunology and CD8 T cell responses in the Jensen lab.

Bryan Castellanos

’15-’17 Cell Biologist, Thermo Fisher Scientific

Bryan was one of my first undergraduates to join the lab. He is now in industry!

Gabriela Ceron

21'-23' Undergaduate researcher

Gabriela, a UC LEADS scholar, and worked to understand the humoral response to the GPI sidechain of T. gondii.

Andrew Curd

’16-’17 Research Associate, Vera Therapeutics, Inc

Andrew worked on T cell exhaustion in mouse models of T. gondii infection as an undergraduate researcher in the Jensen lab.