Alison Yin/AP images for HHMI

Isabel Goldaracena 

PhD student, Bioengineering

EDGE Fellow

TomKat Graduate Fellow

Isabel grew up in San Luis Potosi, Mexico. She graduated from Tecnologico de Monterrey (ITESM) in 2018 with a bachelor's degree in biotechnology. She then moved to the U.S. to work as a Research Associate in different research institutions and biotech companies. Outside the lab, Isabel likes hiking with her dog, playing soccer, and organizing science outreach events, especially for the Latinx community.

isagolda [at] stanford [dot] edu

Bella Archibald

PhD student, Bioengineering

NSF Graduate Research Fellow

BioX Bowes Fellow

Bella earned her BS in biomedical engineering with a minor in chemistry as a Barry Goldwater Scholar at the University of Utah. She is now a PhD candidate in Bioengineering at Stanford, interested in developing new tools to precisely engineer plants and plant root development. Outside of the lab, Bella loves skiing, hiking, and dancing. Her favorite plant is the Arrowleaf balsamroot!

bellaa [at] stanford [dot] edu

Vin Armelin

PhD student, Bioengineering

RAISE Fellow

armelin [at] stanford [dot] edu

Alice Gevorgyan

PhD student, Biology

Alice graduated from Cornell with a BS in Plant Sciences, concentrating in molecular, cellular, and developmental plant biology. She is passionate about equipping plants to face a changing climate and better understanding the natural world around us. In her spare time Alice enjoys Armenian folk dancing and reading about current affairs. Her favorite plant is lantana camara.

agev [at] stanford [dot] edu

Anna Johnson

PhD student, Bioengineering

co-advised by Kabir Peay

NSF Graduate Research Fellow

Anna earned her BS in chemical-biological engineering with a minor in business analytics from MIT. She is now a NSF Graduate Research Fellow in Bioengineering at Stanford, co-advised by Jenn Brophy and Kabir Peay. Anna is interested in engineering partnerships between plants and fungi for sustainable development, conservation, and food security. Outside of lab, she enjoys pottery and picnicking. Her favorite plant is the Acacia dealbata.

anilives [at] stanford [dot] edu

Carlie McGrath

PhD student, Genetics

Carlie grew up in Guadalajara, Mexico, and obtained a BS in Integrative Biology at Harvard. After graduating, she worked as a research technician in the Greenleaf Lab at Stanford before joining the Stanford Genetics department as a graduate student. She is interested in gene regulation and high-throughput screening in plants. Her favorite plant is the guamuchil tree.

carliem [at] stanford [dot] edu

Andrew Rodd

PhD student, Bioengineering

Andrew grew up on Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada. He earned his BS in biochemistry from the University of Victoria. After graduating, he spent two years researching the applications of carbohydrate active enzymes at the University of British Columbia. He is passionate about synthetic biology and learning ways to apply that knowledge for plant engineering. In his spare time, Andrew enjoys swimming, sports, and exploring nature. His favorite flower is the Aster!

arodd [at] stanford [dot] edu

Sarah Weber

PhD student, Biology

NSF Graduate Research Fellow

Sarah grew up in Albany, California and earned her BA in Biochemistry with a minor in Environmental Studies from Grinnell College in Iowa. After graduating, she worked in Brian Staskawicz’s lab at UC Berkeley, developing tools to improve targeted insertion in rice. Sarah believes that studying plants and learning how to more effectively engineer them is key to mitigating climate change, and she is particularly interested in translational plant research. Outside the lab, Sarah enjoys baking, hiking, and climbing. One of her favorite flowers is the Matilija poppy—also known as the fried egg flower! 

webers [at] stanford [dot] edu

Vivian Zhong

PhD student, Bioengineering

NSF Graduate Research Fellow

Siebel Scholar

Vivian earned her BS in biological engineering from MIT and is currently a PhD candidate in bioengineering at Stanford. She is interested in designing plant biosensors and shaping plant-microbe interactions. Outside of the lab, she's into science policy, communication, and her favorite plant is the lotus!

vivzhong [at] stanford [dot] edu

Alexander Borowsky

Postdoc

NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Biology

Alex grew up in Davis, California, then got his BA in Molecular and Cellular Biology from Vanderbilt University. He went on to earn his PhD in Plant Biology at UC Riverside, where he worked in Julia Bailey-Serres’ lab to understand how gene regulatory networks control the responses of rice root cell types to abiotic stresses. In the Brophy lab, he is interested in developing high-throughput strategies to understand and engineer plant gene regulation. Outside of the lab, he enjoys swimming, cooking, and pottery, and his favorite plant is Magnolia.

abor [at] stanford [dot] edu

Callie Rodgers Chappell

Postdoc

Advised by Kabir Peay 

NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Biology

Callie is from Traverse City, Michigan. They received their BS in Biology and MS in Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology from the University of Michigan. After completing a PhD in Biology from Stanford with Tadashi Fukami, Callie was a Bio Innovation Postdoctoral Fellow with Drew Endy at Stanford’s Center for International Security and Cooperation. Callie is passionate about community science and art. Their favorite plant is milkweed, a host plant for monarch caterpillars.

calliech [at] stanford [dot] edu

Soyeon Choi

Postdoc

Soyeon earned bachelors degrees in biological science and in food and nutrition from Sungshin University in Seoul, Korea. She received her PhD in genetics  from the University of Georgia, where she studied traits conferring latitudinal adaption in switchgrass. Soyeon is generally interested in improving the resilience of agronomically important crops. She wants to avoid adverse outcomes from climate change by developing and utilizing synthetic circuits that spatially and temporally tune the expression of developmental genes.

sychoi [at] stanford [dot] edu

Kate Kozaeva

Postdoc

Novo Norodisk Foundation-BioX Fellow

Kate received her BS and MS degrees in Biochemistry from Moscow State University in collaboration with the biotech company Ajinomoto Co., Japan. She earned her Ph.D. from the Technical University of Denmark, at the Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Biosustainability, where her research focused on metabolic engineering of soil bacteria for bioproduction of chemicals. As a Postdoc at Brophy Lab, she is engineering synthetic microbial communities to enhance plant resilience to abiotic stresses. Kate is passionate about biobusiness, enjoys nature, playing the ukulele, and her favorite plants include succulents & wheat!

ekozaeva [at] stanford [dot] edu

Jackie Kwan

Research Assistant

Jackie earned a Bachelor of Science in Genetics from the University of California, Davis. She began her career as a Research Associate at Corteva, where she conducted research on plant tissue culture and transformation in maize, wheat, and sugarcane, contributing to the development and optimization of plant biotechnology platforms.

Jackie later joined Alpine Bio as a Scientist, where she developed and performed soybean transformation workflows to support the production of casein through plant-based expression systems. Her work focused on advancing plant transformation technologies for innovative agricultural and food biotechnology applications.

Currently, Jackie is a member of the Brophy Lab, where she is developing a Setaria viridis tissue culture and transformation system to enable rapid screening of constructs for research on synthetic genetic circuits. Her research supports the engineering of improved water use efficiency in bioenergy grasses, with the goal of advancing sustainable crop production through synthetic biology and plant biotechnology.

jackiekw [at] stanford [dot] edu

Cuyler Luck

Postdoc

Schmidt Science Fellow

Cuyler grew up in State College, Pennsylvania and earned a BS in Microbiology from Penn State, where he was introduced to research through labs studying malaria and cancer biology. He then moved across the country for a PhD in Biomedical Sciences at UCSF where he modeled and studied ultra-rare cancers driven by fusion oncogenes in the lab of Ross Okimoto. Cuyler pivoted to synthetic biology for a postdoc as a Schmidt Science Fellow, and in the Brophy lab he is excited to learn new skills in plant and yeast experimentation while working to engineer transcription factors to shape development. Outside of the lab Cuyler enjoys running, biking, and camping, with a goal of visiting all of the US national parks. He cherishes his two hardworking carnivorous houseplants.

cuyler [at] stanford [dot] edu

Janina Tamborski

Academic Staff Researcher

Janina earned BS and Master degrees in plant biology from the Technical University of Aachen in Germany. She received her PhD from the Sainsbury Laboratory through the University of East Anglia, where she studied the role of stomata in plant immunity. Prior to joining the Brophy lab, Janina worked in the Krasileva lab at UC Berkeley to engineer disease resistance in wheat. Janina is now developing synthetic genetic circuits to enhance water use efficiency in the bioenergy grasses Setaria viridis and Sorghum bicolor. She is an avid climber and has an adorable rescue dog!

jtambor [at] stanford [dot] edu

Jacqueline Chen

Undergraduate, Chemical Engineering

Jacqueline is an undergraduate from Illinois studying chemical engineering with a minor in computer science. She is interested in the use of genetic engineering in plants to work towards a future of sustainable agriculture. She enjoys expanding her Seek app collection of species whenever she is out in nature, and her favorite plant is the English lavender!

jchen28 [at] stanford [dot] edu

Katelyn Chu

Undergraduate, Bioengineering

Katelyn is a bioengineering undergraduate at Stanford passionate about sustainability and addressing environmental issues. She is interested in developing synthetic biology tools to engineer plants and bacteria for increased climate resilience, food security, and biomanufacturing. Outside of the lab, Katelyn loves painting, reading, listening to music, baking, and exploring forests. Her favorite flowers are lupine and delphinium!

kchu16 [at] stanford [dot] edu

Nathan Godsey

Undergraduate, Bioengineering

Nathan grew up in Honolulu, Hawai'i, and is an undergraduate studying Bioengineering. He is interested in studying bacteria and plant partnerships. Outside the lab, Nathan enjoys surfing, hiking, and music. His favorite flower is 'Ohi'a Lehua.

ngodsey [at] stanford [dot] edu

Dylan Pile

Undergraduate, Undecided

Dylan is an undergraduate student at Stanford. He is interested in sustainability and applying interdisciplinary approaches to environmental challenges. Outside of the lab, he enjoys reading, side projects, and learning about the world. His favorite tree is the weeping willow! 

dylanpil [at] stanford [dot] edu

Roya Rezaee

Undergraduate, Biology

Roya is an undergraduate student studying molecular/cellular biology at Stanford University and is originally from the Bay Area. She is interested in synthetic biology and bioengineering, particularly in adapting techniques from plant tissue engineering to address real-world challenges involving the human body. Outside of the lab, Roya enjoys traveling, playing a variety of sports, especially soccer, going on spontaneous adventures, baking, and spending time outdoors. 

royar [at] stanford [dot] edu

Leo Terman

Undergraduate, Biology

Leo is an undergraduate student studying biology and is originally from Los Altos Hills, California. He is interested in understanding intraspecies host specificity in ectomycorrhizal fungi as well as how climate changes affect mycorrhizal associations. Outside the lab, he loves to play tennis and steel pan as well as run and garden. 

lterman [at] stanford [dot] edu

Angely Vargas

Undergraduate, Bioengineering

I'm an undergraduate studying bioengineering born in the Bay. I believe plants are some of our best teachers; I’m interested in listening closely as I explore the intersection of synthetic biology and genetic engineering of plants for a sustainable world where our lands and cultures can all flourish. Beyond research, you can catch me at the gym, cooking, or making bouquets. My favorite plant has to be maíz morado or Croton lechleri!

angelyvv [at] stanford [dot] edu