Lab Members
David Akalal – Postdoctoral Associate
dakalal@bcm.tmc.edu
David Akalal graduated from the University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston with a Ph.D. in cell biology. His dissertation work under Dr. Gregg Nagle involved the cloning, expression, and characterization of MDGF (mollusk-derived growth factor), which is the first identified Aplysia growth factor. In the Davis Lab, Akalal is interested in further characterizing the roles of the different regions of the Drosophila mushroom bodies in the various stages of learning and memory.
Jacob Berry – Graduate Student
jaberry@bcm.tmc.edu
Jacob Berry graduated in 2002 with a B.S. in Computation Physics from the University of Texas at Austin. After working for two years in breast cancer research at Baylor College of Medicine and MD Anderson Cancer Center, he entered the Developmental Biology Program at BCM and is now nearing the end of his first year of his graduate studies. Jacob recently joined the Davis Lab and is, currently, exploring project ideas in memory and behavior using functional imaging techniques in a Drosophila model system.
Erin Boeer – Research Technician
boeer@bcm.tmc.edu
Erin Boeer graduated in 2006 from Baylor University in Waco, Texas. She received a B.S. in Neuroscience with a minor in Chemistry. As a new member of the Davis lab, Erin is beginning a project on conditioned place preference in Drosophila. Erin also maintains the lab's Drosophila stock collection.
Monica Buchanan – Graduate Student
mb139895@bcm.tmc.edu
Monica Buchanan graduated cum laude from Emory University in Atlanta with a B.S. in Biology. In the lab of Stephanie Sherman, she was involved with an epidemiological pilot study on Down's syndrome and thereby fulfilled her thesis requirements. In the Davis Lab Monica will be initiating a study on the role of NF1 in learning and memory.
Nada Catic – Laboratory Technician
ncatic@bcm.tmc.edu
Nada is our extremely dependable fly food maker. She joined us from her native land, Bosnia, in 2000.
Chi-Shing Chan – Instructor
cchan@bcm.tmc.edu
Chi-Shing Chan received his Ph.D. at the Department of Cellular and Molecular Biology at Baylor College of Medicine. In his doctoral studies, he studied the regulation of the Ultrabithorax gene expression by the segmentation and the Polycomb group genes during Drosophila embryonic development. Since joining the Davis Lab, he has focused on examining the functions and mechanisms of integrins in mammalian learning and memory through genetic, biochemical and behavioral means.
Randi-Michelle Cowin – Graduate Student
rc148058@bcm.tmc.edu
Randi-Michelle Cowin graduated from the University of Miami with her B.S. in Biochemistry. She is currently a graduate student in the Department of Molecular and Human Genetics at BCM. As a new member of the Davis Lab, Randi will be working on a project aimed at understanding the role of integrins in mammalian working memory.
YuanYuan Kang – Postdoctoral Associate
ykang1@bcm.tmc.edu
Yuanyuan, known as Connie to most people, received her Ph.D. in Biology from the University of Houston in 2004. At U of H, she studied the role of a cell adhesion molecule in the development of the mushroom bodies in the lab of Dr. Patrick Callaerts. In the Davis lab, she is currently investigating the role of transcription factors in learning and memory.
William Krause – Graduate Student
wkrause@bcm.tmc.edu
William Krause graduated in 2001 with a B.S. in molecular biology from Vanderbilt University. After working for a year in the lab of Dr. Nancy Weigel, where he focused on the androgen receptor and associated coregulators, he joined the Davis Lab in 2004. Currently, he is working on mapping the responses of antennal lobe glomeruli to odors using a pH sensitive, fluorescent indicator localized to the antennal lobe by confocal microscopy.
Xu Liu – Graduate Student
Xl139882@bcm.tmc.edu
Xu Liu received his B.S. at the School of Life Sciences and his M.S. at the Institute of Genetics, Fudan University, P. R. China. He is a graduate student in the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology. Currently, he is working on a project aimed to understand the role of GABA receptors in learning and memory.
Lynda Lynch – Administrative Assistant
lyndaa@bcm.tmc.edu
Lynda Lynch received her B.A. in Psychology from the University of St. Thomas, Houston, Texas. She has been with the Davis Lab since September 2002 and is responsible for the general administrative duties in the lab... and for building this spectacular website.
Zhengmei Mao – Postdoctoral Associate
mao@bcm.tmc.edu
Zhengmei Mao completed her Ph.D. studies on the function of prefrontal cortex at the Shanghai Institute of Physiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences. After joining the Davis lab, she worked on spatial and temporal
rescue of learning mutant flies using the GeneSwitch system. She is currently using functional imaging to study the role of dopaminergic neurons in olfactory classic conditioning.
Ying Tan – Postdoctoral Associate
yingt@bcm.tmc.edu
Ying Tan received her Ph.D. in Molecular and Cellular Biology from the University of Houston. Her doctoral studies focused on the characterization of a zebrafish clock mutant and the functional analysis of the zebrafish circadian system. She joined the Davis Lab in 2003 and is currently interested in understanding the role of the discs-large gene in Drosophila learning and memory.
Seth Tomchik – Postdoctoral Associate
tomchik@bcm.tmc.edu
Seth Tomchik graduated from the University of Miami in 2005 with a Ph.D. in Biology. His dissertation work with John Lu involved the function of efferent feedback in auditory signal processing. He went on to investigate the role of cell-cell communication in the gustatory system in the lab of Stephen Roper. In the Davis Lab, he is studying appetitive conditioning in Drosophila using functional imaging.
Curtis Wilson – Research Technician
curtisw@bcm.tmc.edu
Curtis Wilson graduated from College of the Mainland with an Associates degee with an emphasis in Biology. He is currently attending the University of Houston Clear Lake pursuing a B.S. in Environmental Science. He has been in the Davis Lab for six years and is the primary histotechnician for the lab. He is also responsible for maintaining the lab mouse colony.
Dinghui Yu – Instructor 
dyu@bcm.tmc.edu
Dinghui Yu received his Ph.D from the Institute of Biophysics, The Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing. After joining the Davis Lab, he began working on a research project to study the neural activity in the central brain of Drosophila using transgenically-supplied protein reporters and confocal and multi-photon microscopy.
Lin Zong – Research Technician
lzong@bcm.tmc.edu
Lin Zong received her B.S. from West China University of Medical Sciences. Her major was Medicinal Chemistry and Drug Design. She joined the Davis lab in 1997. Her major role is to assist on several lab projects using molecular and genetic techniques, as well as confocal and multiphoton microscopy. She constructed vectors for the gene-switch project and currently performs the microscopy for the Drosophila brain mapping project.