Xixi Chen

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"I joined the Aldrich lab in the fall of 2006, with a background in cellular neurophysiology and seeking training in molecular biophysics. I now work on the biophysics of small-conductance, calcium-activated potassium (SK) channels."

Email Jenni

"I joined the Aldrich lab in April of 2008 after completing my graduate studies at Rice University in Bioengineering. Combining my love of all things fluorescent with an interest in ion channel gating mechanisms, I am currently working with Tom investigating the activation of SK channels using lanthanide ions as spectroscopic probes."

Brent Halling

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"I formally met Dr. Aldrich in an alligator swamp in southeast Texas during a departmental retreat while I was a graduate student at the Baylor College of Medicine. We found common interests in the regulation of ion channels by calcium dependent modulators. I recently joined his lab in November 2007 with the intent to elucidate mechanisms involved in channel modulation by calcium sensors."

Email Weiyan

"I joined the Aldrich Lab as a postdoc at Stanford in 2002 and moved with the lab to UT in 2006. I use patch clamp technique to study the molecular mechanisms of calcium activated BK and SK types of potassium channels. My research interest is how ion channels gate in response to different stimuli and the functional roles of different parts of the ion channel protein."

He Liu

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"Right after graduation from UT Neurobiology, I joined the Aldrich lab in September 2006 for my postdoctoral research. I am using molecular biology approaches to screen random mutations in Ca2⁺ activated K⁺ channels, which cause spontaneous opening of these channels. Then I hope to use the electrophysiological techniques I am learning in this lab to further investigate the biophysical effects of these mutations in the channel molecule. Having been at UT for eight years, I am the most native Austinite in the lab."

Email Riina

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Email Tom

"After completing my doctoral studies on electron transfer in photosynthetic reaction centers at Stanford University in 1991, I literally moved across the street to start postdoctoral work on ion channels in the Aldrich and Baylor labs (then located at the Stanford School of Medicine).  The common thread in these seemingly unrelated areas is my interest in how charges move within and across biological membranes.  My work in the Aldrich lab has combined spectroscopic and electrophysiological techniques to study cyclic nucleotide-activated channels and calcium-activated potassium channels.  Since moving with the lab to the University of Texas at Austin, I have been using lanthanide ions as spectroscopic probes to investigate the activation of SK channels by calcium, and have greatly increased my intake of Mexican food."

Email Luisa

"I received my PhD from the University of Rochester in 2003 after exhibiting extreme proficiency at the art of bird-catching. I moved to Austin and changed to ground-dwelling mammals for postdoctoral work studying cellular neurophysiology in the auditory brainstem. To continue and expand on this work/species list, I joined the Aldrich lab in 2008. I am exploring how protein-protein interactions tailor the biophysical properties of SK channels to the specific functional role these channels play in several auditory brainstem nuclei."

Jiusheng Yan

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"I graduated from Purdue University and started my postdoctoral research with the Aldrich Lab in August 2007. I am interested in understanding the structure and mechanism of the Ca2⁺ activated K⁺ channel complexes with approaches of electrophysiology, protein biochemistry, and mass spectrometry."

Vipal Durkal

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Vipal P. Durkal is a Junior at the University of Texas at Austin in the Plan II Honors Program. He is a recent undergraduate assistant in Dr. Aldrich's lab. His interest is in electrophysiology and the conductance in SK channels.

Justin Litchfield

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"I enjoy long walks on the beach and many reactions involving aldehydes. I started college at the University of Arizona (1999-2001) and then transferred to the University of Utah, where by employing a new strategy of going to class and studying, I graduated with a degree in chemistry (biological) in 2003. At Utah I worked in the lab of Matt Sigman trying to synthesize the natural product agrobactin that we hoped would be useful for studying voltage-gated potassium channels (sadly, really it wasn't). Then, I started graduate school in Stanford University's chemistry department where I joined the lab of Justin Du Bois and began trying to synthesize other interesting molecules that could possibly be used to study voltage-gated ion channels. Three years into my studies I decided to devote my energy to studying the channels themselves and so joined this lab and helped move all our stuff across half the country. Now I'm continuing to study voltage-gated ion channels and am now focusing on understanding gating in Kv1.2. Neurons are not in my top 10 favorite things, though cation channels certainly are. Also included in my top 10 favorite things are my bike, my Apple computers, and carbon."

Amelia Hall is the lab's research assistant.

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"I graduated this past May with a BS in Molecular Genetics from the University of Rochester. While there, I learned I enjoyed getting my hands dirty in the lab more than anything else. I began work in August 2007 and I am currently working on purifying calmodulin and hopefully many mutant varieties of it for the electrophysiology researchers. Hopefully, this will be accomplished using a new fast protein liquid chromatograpy system (FPLC) so that large amounts of highly purified protein can be produced. I am currently reading a lot about ion channels as I don't have a lot of background in that area, and have become very interested in the effects of plant and animal toxins on ion channels in vitro and in vivo. I was born in Austin in 1984, and it feels good to be back!"

Dawna Shin is the Aldrich Lab manager.

Email Dawna

Dawna joined the lab in July 2007 to assist Dr. Aldrich with organization, scheduling, purchasing, personnel issues, creating this web site and lots of other things.  Contact her if you would like to sell something to the lab, set up an appointment with Dr. Aldrich, or discuss philosophy.