Sirkka Liisa Hostikka, Ph.D., Postdoctoral Fellow

Sirkka Liisa’s current research project is to study the epigenetic pattern specific to Parkinson’s disease; more specifically, the effect of oxidative stress induced nuclear localization and resulting genomic distribution of α-synuclein. She grew up in Vuokatti, a sports resort center in the middle of Finland, and did her undergraduate and graduate studies in University of Oulu, Finland, receiving a Ph.D. in Biochemistry with highest honors.

Her graduate research included the characterization of type IV collagen α2 chain, discovery of type IV collagen α5 chain and demonstration that mutations in the type IV α5 chain were responsible for X-linked Alport syndrome, an inherited kidney disease.

She did her first post-doctoral fellowship in Mario R. Capecchi’s laboratory in University of Utah and HHMI, Salt Lake City, studying the function and redundancy of Hox genes in development through making and analyzing two knock-out mouse lines; for Hoxc10 and Hoxc11 genes and breeding and analyzing double mutants involving these genes and their paralogs. The phenotypic abnormalities in these mice were found in limb and urogenital development and function. Later she has been involved with studies on pancreatic development and related metabolic testing in mouse model, and characterization of lymphatic malformations through isolation and analysis of lymphatic endothelial cell, immunohistochemistry and expression arrays.

Sirkka Liisa Hostikka CV

Glenn James Geesman, B.Sc., Research Associate II

Glenn was born and raised on the central coast of California. He graduated in spring 2009 with a B.Sc. in Biology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he was also an All-American wrestler. He plans to attend medical school in California in the coming years, and would like to study Trauma Surgery.

Glenn James Geesman CV

Omid Zebarjadi, B.S., Research Associate II

Omid graduated from the University of California, San Diego with a B.S. in Biochemistry and Cell Biology. His involvement in research began at the Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute in La Jolla, in a small neuroscience lab. After back surgery, Omid moved home to Novato, took the MCAT and started working at the Buck. Omid is a talented artist; he paints scientific figures and blueprints (think da Vinci) in a chaotic manner (think Basquiat). In his "me time," Omid likes to drink a Bloody Mary and think about physics, the human mind, and the meaninglessness of life.