Van Deynze Lab Bios

Hamid Ashrafi, Research Associate, received his B.S. in agronomy and plant breeding from the University of Technology, Iran, and M.Sc. in plant breeding from Azad University, Tehran, Iran.  Hamid received his Ph.D. in genetics from Pennsylvania State University in August 2007. He is interested in plant breeding and genetics, with special interests in molecular breeding through marker assisted selection, genetic mapping, QTL analysis, and application of statistical methods. He is responsible for microarray data analysis, high-throughput data analysis, marker development, bioinformatics, database management, and software development.

Sebastian Reyes Chin-Wo, Junior Specialist from Costa Rica, received his B.S. in Biotechnology Engineering from the Instituto Tecnologico de Costa Rica in 2010. He is interested in genetics and bioinformatics, and is currently focused on expression analysis and genetic mapping. Sebastian works analyzing microarray data, marker development, web design and software development.

Nicholas Eattock is a Graduate Student Researcher in the Van Deynze lab, working to complete his MS degree in Horticulture and Agronomy. He obtained his Bachelor’s degree in the field of Biotechnology from UC Davis in 2003 and his current work involves characterizing the effects of drought on a switchgrass for cellulosic biofuel production.

Theresa Hill, Senior Research Associate, received her B.S. in biology from the University of Minnesotea, Duluth, and her Ph.D. in biology with emphasis in plant molecular and developmental biology from Yale University. She did post doctorates in plant molecular genetics at UC Davis and USDA-ARS-WRRC. Theresa is responsible for large scale microarray experiments for massively parallel detection and mapping of DNA markers in pepper.

Zeb Rehrig, a Graduate Student Researcher, received his B.S. in Horticulture at Colorado State University. At the University of Hawaii at Manoa, he completed his M.S. in Tropical Plants and Soil Science, with research related to the tissue culture of recalcitrant orchid species, Paphiopedilum. He then joined the Maize Trait Integration program within the Monsanto Breeding Technology group which oversaw the integration of new biotech traits in elite inbred lines. Zeb’s work in the Van Deynze lab involves Phytophthora resistance in peppers using QTLs.

Kevin Stoffel, Senior Research Associate/M.Sc. Fall 2007, received a B.S. in Genetics from UC Davis in 2003. Kevin is responsible for developing lettuce hybridization protocols and target preparation. Kevin has completed numerous other projects including work in tomato and cotton SNP discovery.

Shawn Yarnes, Postdoctoral Researcher, received her B.S. in Ecology and Environmental Science from Appalachian State University, and completed her M.S. in Biology and Ph.D. in Molecular Biology at New Mexico State University.  She recently held a postdoctoral research position at The American Chestnut Foundation, a non-profit organization whose goal is to breed blight resistant American chestnut trees for ecosystem restoration.  She is interested in genetics and plant breeding, with a special interest in plant-microbe interactions.  She is responsible for phenotypic trait assessment and QTL mapping within the Van Deynze lab.

Previous Lab Members

Hans van Leeuwen, Postdoctoral Researcher, received his B.S. in Horticulture from the Agricultural College Delft, The Netherlands. He received a M.Sc. degree in Plant Breeding and Crop Protection from Wageningen Agricultural University, The Netherlands and will receive a second M.Sc. in Bioinformatics from the University of Manchester, United Kingdom. Hans received his Ph.D. in Biology from the University of Barcelona, Spain. He was responsible for microarray data analysis, high-throughput data analysis, genetical genomics, marker development, bioinformatics, database management, and software development.

Jessica Lund, Junior Specialist, graduated from UC Davis in 2006 with a B.S. in Evolution, Ecology, and Biodiversity. Jessica was responsible for designing and analyzing genotyping data for cotton mapping using Illumina and evaluating Affymetrix GENECHIP for DNA marker discovery in cotton and also undertook a gene flow study in the field.