People

Charles Sagerström, Ph.D.
PROFESSOR,
DEPARTMENT OF PEDIATRICS
B.A., Biology
Macalester College
1987
Ph.D., Immunology
Stanford University
1993
Postdoctoral Fellow
Whitehead Institute/MIT
1993-1997
My research career started in college with an interest in Immunology that I pursued through graduate school. I was particularly interested in cell fate decisions among immune cells and this led me to carry out postdoctoral research studying embryonic development. I started my own research group at the University of Massachusetts Medical School in 1997, and in 2019 I relocated to the University of Colorado Medical School. My group has a long-standing interest in understanding how embryonic development is programmed at the level of gene expression. We primarily use zebrafish as a model organism and we apply genome-wide approaches to study transcriptional regulation in early embryogenesis.
PROFESSOR,
DEPARTMENT OF PEDIATRICS
B.A., Biology
Macalester College
1987
Ph.D., Immunology
Stanford University
1993
Postdoctoral Fellow
Whitehead Institute/MIT
1993-1997
My research career started in college with an interest in Immunology that I pursued through graduate school. I was particularly interested in cell fate decisions among immune cells and this led me to carry out postdoctoral research studying embryonic development. I started my own research group at the University of Massachusetts Medical School in 1997, and in 2019 I relocated to the University of Colorado Medical School. My group has a long-standing interest in understanding how embryonic development is programmed at the level of gene expression. We primarily use zebrafish as a model organism and we apply genome-wide approaches to study transcriptional regulation in early embryogenesis.
Current Lab Members
Yong-ll Kim, Ph.D. post doctoral fellow B.S., Biology Chungnam National University 2009 M.S., Biology Chungnam National University 2011 Ph.D., Microbiology Wonkwang University School of Medicine 2017 When I was an undergraduate student, I worked with a master’s degree student who was trying to generate a mutant line of zebrafish using insertional mutagenesis. After joining my master’s degree program, I worked on a project to characterize cells that form bone. I generated a bone-specific col10a1:GFP transgenic zebrafish. I joined my Ph.D. program and started working on my project that focused on the role of peroxisome-related genes during zebrafish development. During this time, I generated several alleles of zebrafish mutants and transgenic zebrafish related to peroxisome biology. Currently I work in the Sagerström lab as a postdoctoral research fellow. Here, my research focuses on investigating the role of hindbrain-related genes during zebrafish development. |
Ethan Wright, M.Sc. Sr. PROFESSIONAL RESEARCH ASSISTANT B.S., Genetics University of Georgia 2016 M.Sc., Molecular Biology University of Colorado 2019 My research interest is in transcriptional regulation during early neurogenesis. While at The University of Georgia, I performed my undergraduate research in Jonathan Eggenschwiler's lab. My project focused on Sonic Hedgehog signaling in mouse neural tube closure. My graduate research was performed in Eugenia Killian's lab. My work focused on the alternative splicing factor, Caper, and its role in Drosophila neuron development. I joined the Sagerström lab in the summer of 2019. My current project focuses on the early transcription factors Meis and Prep. The primary focus of the project is to understand the role of these factors in hindbrain development; especially during the transition from maternal to zygotic stages. These factors are uniquely interesting as they are critical in the hindbrain during early development but then also play a key role in cancer during adulthood. |
Sylvia Nunez Ph.D. CANDIDATE B.S., Integrative Biology University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign 2016 During my undergraduate career at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, I had the opportunity to work in Dr. Felipe Soto-Adames's lab studying the molecular evolution of paralogous genes involved in muscle contractions in insects and decapods. I joined the Sagerström lab as a PhD student in Cell Biology, Stem Cells, and Development researching cell fate decisions at the midbrain-hindbrain boundary in zebrafish. |
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Heather Reichenbach Professional Research Assistant B.A., Molecular, Cellular, & Developmental Biology University of Colorado, Boulder 2021 During my undergraduate studies I conducted research with Drs. Nolan Kane and Daniela Vergara, which consisted of assembling and annotating the Linum decumbens plastome, in addition to leading an evolutionary genetics analysis of a published, non-domesticated Cannabis sativa genome assembly. I joined the Sagerström Lab in Autumn 2021 and currently assist with genotyping and the established TALE transcription factor research involving Meis and Prep. |
Cameron Bennett graduate student B.S., Genomics and Molecular Genetics Michigan State University 2021 While an undergraduate at Michigan State University, I had the opportunity to work in Dr. Ingo Braasch's lab. My research focused on the functional analysis of the endothelin gene Edn4 in neural crest cells and their derivatives. I joined the Sagerström lab as a Ph.D. student in the Molecular Biology program in 2022. |
Lab Alumni Jelena Kresoja-Rakic, Ph.D. (2023) Scientist | ArtisanBio; Louisville, CO Jessica Warns, Ph.D. (2022) Adjunct Professor | Northern State University; Aberdeen, SD |
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