Ramon Velazquez

We are very proud of the accomplishments made by students mentored in the Velazquez lab. 

Click here to see our success stories.

Current Trainees

I. Post-Doctoral scholar:

1. Dr. Jessica Judd Ph.D. – Primary mentor of Edson post-doctoral fellow Dr. Judd whose work investigates the mechanistic role of Rbbp7 in tau acetylation and subsequent neurodegeneration in Alzheimer’s disease. (2021 - present).

II. Graduate:

1. Savannah Tallino (Ph.D. student primary mentor) - Primary mentor of Savannah’s graduate work which investigates links between Down syndrome and Alzheimer’s disease (2021 - present). 

2. Samantha Bartholomew (Ph.D. student primary mentor) - Primary mentor of Samantha’s graduate work which investigates the role of Dyrk1a in Down syndrome and Alzheimer’s disease (2022 - present). 

3. James Bonner (Ph.D. student committee member) – On James’s Ph.D. committee whose primary mentor is Dr. Bertram Jacobs (2019 - present) at ASU. His work focuses on mechanisms associated with necroptotic cell death. 

4. Chelsea Tran (Ph.D. student committee member) - On Chelsea’s Ph.D. committee whose primary mentor is Dr. Robert Bowser at Barrow Neurological Institute in Phoenix AZ (2020 - present). Her work focuses on deciphering the molecular mechanisms associated with ALS. 

5. Sara Walton (Ph.D. student committee member) – On Sara’s Ph.D. committee whose primary mentor is Dr. Jeffrey Kordower (2022 - present) at ASU. Her work focuses on mechanisms associated with Parkinson’s disease. 

6. Briana Ondatje (Ph.D. student committee member) – On Briana’s Ph.D. committee whose primary mentor is Dr. Rita Sattler (2022 – present) at ASU. Her work focuses examines the interplay between astrocytes and microglia, and how their interactions with one another contribute to Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) onset and progression. 

7. Ashton Spillman (Ph.D. student committee member) - On Ashton’s Ph.D. committee whose primary mentors are Drs. Rita Sattler and Fredric Manfredsson (2022 – present) at ASU. His work focuses on the role of microglia in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) onset and progression.

8. Bruna Genisa Costa Lima (Ph.D. student committee member) - On Bruna’s Ph.D. committee whose primary mentor is Dr. Esther Florsheim at ASU (2023-present). Her work focuses on the role of allergens on inflammation and neuronal function.  

9. Pavani Dadi (Ph.D. Student committee member) – On Pavani’s Ph.D. committee whose primary mentors are Dr. Dhara Shah and Abishek Shrivastava at ASU.  Her work in focused on the understanding the role of gut bacteria in producing critical GABA neurotransmitter. 

10. Ashley Ruland (M.S. Student co-chair) – Co-chair of Ashley’s MS committee, whose primary mentor is Dr. Johnathan Lifshitz PhD at the University of Arizona.  Her work is focused on mechanism associated with traumatic brain injury.

III. Undergraduate:

1. Rachel Etebari – ASU undergraduate research assistant who is an underrepresented minority and is assisting in various projects in the lab (2022- present). She was accepted to the SOLUR program in Fall 2023. 

2. Alison Martin - Mentored at ASU as part of the Barrett’s Honor’s college program. She will prepare and defend her thesis in Spring 2026 (2023 - present).

3. Anastasia Culibrk (2024-present) – Mentored at ASU as part of the Barrett’s Honor’s college program. Her work is focused on understanding links between dental hygiene and dementia.  

4. Shauna Meshkin (2024-present) - Mentored at ASU as part of the Barrett’s Honor’s college program. Her work is focused on understanding interactions between dental hygienist and dementia patients.   

5. Bryce Mortensen (2023-present) – Mentored at ASU as part of the Barrett’s Honor’s college program. His work is focused on understating why patients with Alzheimer’s disease versus Lewy body dementia are misdiagnosed given common symptomology. 

6. Aastha Wandile (2024-present) - Mentored at ASU as part of the Barrett’s Honor’s college program. Her work is focused on understating the role of choline supplementation in offsetting the tau pathogenesis in primary tauopathies. 

Former students

I. Post-Doctoral scholar:

1. Dr. Adrian Fisher Ph.D. – Co-mentor on Dr. Fisher’s Presidential post-doc committee, whose primary mentor was Dr. Brain Smith. Dr. Fisher’s work focused on environmental stressors affecting insect pollinator health (2022-2023). 

V. Graduate students:

1. Kavya Balasubramanian (M.S. student committee member) – On Kavya’s committee member whose primary mentor was Drs. Jason Newbern and Heather Bimonte-Nelson. Her work examined the effects of ovariectomies on basal forebrain cholinergic dysfunction (2023-2024). 

2. Nicole Houchin (M.S. student committee member) – On Nicole’s committee whose primary mentor was Dr. David Medina at Barrow Neurological Institute. Her work focused on characterizing a novel mouse model of mutated Matrin3, a genetic mutation tied to ALS. 

3. Gabrielle Kizeev (M.S. student committee member) - On Gabrielle’s committee whose primary mentor was Dr. Timothy Balmer (2022 - 2023) at ASU. Her work focused on cerebellar neurocircuitry. 

4. Joanna Winstone (Ph.D. student primary mentor)– Primary mentor of Joanna’s graduate work who investigated the widely used pesticide glyphosate as a risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease (2019 – 2023; defended June 26th, 2023).

5. Sara Knowles (Ph.D. student committee member) - On Sara’s Ph.D. committee whose primary mentor was Dr. Jason Newbern (2019 - 2023). Her work focused on the ERK1/2 pathway and its involvement in GABAergic neuron development. 

6. Nikhil Dave – (M.S. student primary mentor) - Mentored as a high school researcher and undergraduate in my lab. He was the recipient of the 2018 Arizona Flint Foundation Scholarship and was appointed Arizona Student Regents (2020 - 2022). He published various high impact papers on the role of Rbbp7 in Alzheimer’s disease. He has accepted a position at Mckinsey & Company Global Consulting as of October 2022. 

7. Hannah Weisman (M.S. student committee member) - Was on Hannah’s committee whose primary mentor was Dr. Rita Sattler (2020 - 2022) at ASU. Her work focused on the role of progranulin in a mouse model of frontal temporal dementia. 

VI. Undergraduate students:

1. Zoe I. Lusher – Mentored at Cornell University and was co-authored on one of my publications. She received her B.S. in 2012, an M.D. in 2018 and is now in her medical residency. 

2. An L. Tran – Mentored at Arizona State University as part of the Barrett’s Honor’s college program. She was co- authored on three of my publications (2015 – 2017). She was accepted into a Clinical nursing program at Georgetown university to start in Fall 2021. 

3. Lukith Surendra - Mentored at Arizona State University as part of the Barrett’s Honor’s college program. Defended his thesis in Spring 2020 and was accepted to U of A medical School class of 2024. (2018 - 2020). 

4. Marc Mifflin - Mentored at Arizona State University as part of the Barrett’s Honor’s college program. Defended his thesis in Spring 2020 and is currently applying to law school (2018 - 2020). 

5. David Moreno - Co-mentor of an undergraduate working in the laboratory of Elliot Mufson at Barrow Neurological Institute as part of the Barrett’s Honor’s college program (2019 - 2020). Defended his thesis in Spring 2020. 

6. Mara-Clarisa Boiangiu - Mentored at Arizona State University as part of the Barrett’s Honor’s college program. She defend her thesis in Spring 2022 and started a master’s in public health at Georgetown. (2019 - 2022). 

7. Oscar Villarreal Espinosa – Undergraduate mentored at Arizona State University to receive more training in biomedical research. Graduated in 2021 and entered a medical program at the University of Wisconsin (2020 – 2021). 

8. Leia Brookhouser - Co-mentored in collaboration with Dr. Paul Coleman at Arizona State University as part of the Barrett’s Honor’s college program. She will prepare and defend her thesis in Spring 2022 (2020 - present). 

9. Shelby Coup - Co-mentored in collaboration with Dr. Paul Coleman at Arizona State University as part of the Barrett’s Honor’s college program. She defended Spring 2022 and applied to Physician assistant school (2020 - 2022). 

10. Jennifer White - Undergraduate mentored at Arizona State University to receive more training in biomedical research prior to graduating in Spring 2022 (2020 - 2021). 

11. Landon Mattingly – ASU Neuroscholar undergraduate student mentored at ASU to receive training in biomedical research (May 2022- July 2022). 

12. Isabella Sepulveda - WINURE undergraduate underrepresented minority student mentored at ASU to receive training in biomedical research prior to graduating in Spring 2023 (2021- 2023). 

13. Neha Yeturu – Barrett Honor College thesis director for ASU undergraduate who worked with Dr. Drake Duane on a case study of a patient with frontotemporal dementia (2022-2023). 

14. Kavya Balasubramanian – Barrett Honor College thesis committee member for ASU undergraduate who completed work with Dr. Jason Newbern on ERK1/2 loss-of-function during basal forebrain cholinergic neuron development (2022-2023). 

15. Garima Pilania – Mentored at ASU as a summer intern as part of the prestigious Khorana scholarship program awarded by the Indian department of biotechnology. This student worked on understanding the role of S6K1 knockdown in the PS19 mouse model of tauopathies (May – August 2023). 

16. Chloe Coulter - Barrett Honor College thesis committee member for ASU undergraduate who completed work with Dr. Thomas Martin investigating the Diet-Disease Links in Diabetes & Alzheimer's (2023-2024).

17. Paige Feldman - Barrett Honor College thesis committee member for ASU undergraduate, who was paired with Chloe Coulter, completed work with Dr. Thomas Martin investigating the Diet-Disease Links in Diabetes & Alzheimer's (2023-2024).

18. Mena Abdullah – Mentored at ASU as a part of the NIH funded STEP-UP program. This student work is on understanding the role of Rbbp7 in the PS19 mouse model of tauopathies, which was presented at NIH in Bethesda, MD on July 30, 2023 (2023 – 2024). 

19. Hector Leon - WINURE undergraduate underrepresented minority student mentored at ASU to receive training in biomedical research prior to graduating in Spring 2024 (2023- 2024).

20. Faizan Mistry - Mentored at ASU as part of the Barrett’s Honor’s college program. He will prepare and defend her thesis in Spring 2024 (2021 - 2024).