Current Members

Kathy Gould

Professor, Cell & Developmental Biology

Kathleen L. Gould, Ph.D., is a Professor in the Department of Cell and Developmental Biology and holds a Louise B. McGavock endowed faculty chair. Dr. Gould received her A.B. degree in Biochemistry from the University of California, Berkeley and her Ph.D. in Biology from the University of California, San Diego. She was then a Fellow of the Jane Coffin Childs Memorial Fund for Medical Research at the University of Oxford. After joining the Vanderbilt faculty, Dr. Gould received the Boehringer-Ingelheim New Investigator Award, the Searle Scholar Award, and was an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute from 1994-2013. Elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2011, Dr. Gould is also a member of several national professional societies and journal editorial boards, and she serves regularly as reviewer for the National Institutes of Health and the National Academies Ford Foundation. Her achievements have also been recognized with the SEC Faculty Achievement Award and the Vanderbilt Earl Sutherland Prize.

Dr. Gould runs an internationally recognized research program that has made fundamental, pioneering discoveries in the mechanisms that control cell division using a multi-disciplinary approach that includes super-resolution microscopy, mass spectrometry-based proteomics, genetics, structural biology, and biochemistry. In her laboratory, Dr. Gould has trained over 40 undergraduate students, many who have gone on to attend graduate or medical schools, and 50 pre-doctoral and postdoctoral scientists.

Dr. Gould has served in multiple leadership roles at Vanderbilt University including Interim and Vice Chair of the Department of Cell and Developmental Biology. She is currently Senior Associate Dean for Biomedical Research, Education, and Training in the School of Medicine. In this capacity, Dr. Gould is helping to shape institutional and national strategies to enhance and broaden training of biomedical pre- and post-doctoral fellows so that they are prepared to enter the biomedical workforce of the future

: kathy.gould@vanderbilt.edu

Liping Ren

Senior Research Specialist, Cell & Developmental Biology

Liping was born in Shanghai, China. She is researching pre-mRNA splicing and regulation of cytokinesis. In her leisure time, she enjoys gardening and hiking with her family.

: liping.ren@vanderbilt.edu

Lesley Turner

Research Assistant I, Cell & Developmental Biology

Lesley is originally from Birmingham, Alabama and recently graduated from Auburn University with a degree in Biology. At Auburn she worked in an Alzheimer’s research lab that studied the blood brain barrier. She enjoys playing Ultimate Frisbee and cats!

: lesley.turner.1@vanderbilt.edu

Jun-Song Chen

Research Assistant Professor, Cell & Developmental Biology

Jun-Song Chen was born in China but he came to the USA to pursue his “American dream” after he got his Ph.D. degree in Shanghai. He is studying proteins involved in cell cycle regulation, one of which is the newly identified protein, Nsk1. When not in the lab, his favorite thing to do is taking road trips with his family to look around “Mei Guo” (the Chinese translation for America meaning “beautiful country”), even when he has to carry “a little burden”—his son Roger.

: jun-song.chen@vanderbilt.edu

Alaina Willet

Research Assistant Professor, Cell & Developmental Biology

Alaina was born in Connecticut and raised close to Nashville in Franklin, Tennessee. She received her Bachelor’s degree from The University of Tennessee and came straight to Vanderbilt for graduate school. She defended her thesis in July 2017 and continues in the Gould Lab as a Research Instructor. Currently she has a broad interest in the regulation of cytokinesis. Outside of lab she enjoys the outdoors, playing soccer, reading and cooking.

: alaina.h.willet@vanderbilt.edu

Kazutoshi Akizuki

Kazutoshi was born in Oita, Japan. He received his PhD degree from Ehime University (Kagawa), Japan, where he studied the function and activation mechanism of CaMKIδ, a CaM kinase. And then he moved to Hiroshima University, Japan, and studied the role of CaM kinase phosphatase in migration of breast cancer cells by using its specific inhibitors. He is excited for this next chapter in Nashville and researching CK1 kinases using fission yeast and mammalian cells with cutting-edge approaches. Outside of the lab, Kazutoshi enjoys playing guitar, soft tennis, and swimming.

: kazutoshi.akizuki@vanderbilt.edu

Sarah Hanna

Sarah was born in Iowa and raised in Tampa, Florida. She is pre-med and double majoring in Medicine, Health and Society and Cell and Molecular Biology, with a minor in Spanish. Outside the lab, she loves thrift shopping, going to the beach, and spending time with family and friends!

Bita Tavafoghi

Bita was born in Maryland and raised in Northern Virginia. She is pre-med and double majoring in Medicine, Health, & Society, and Political Science. In her free time, Bita likes to hike, travel, and dance.

Hanbing An

Research Assistant Professor , Vanderbilt University Medical Center ,

: hanbing.an@vumc.org

Mohan Balasubramanian

Professor, Biomedical Cell Biology, Warwick Medical School, University of Warwick

: m.k.balasubramanian@warwick.ac.uk

Janel Beckley (formerly McLean)

Software Engineer, ClickFunnels

: janel.r.beckley@gmail.com

Lynne Berry

Research Assistant Professor, Vanderbilt University Medical Center Vice-Chair, Informatics and Collaborative Programs, Dept. of Biostatistics Deputy Director, Center for Quantitative Sciences