Our Team: Lani Chun
Research Technician
1660 S. Columbian Way, MS-127, Seattle, WA 98108.
Education
University of Washington, Seattle, WA. Graduated June 2007.
Research Experience
June 2007-present: VA Puget Sound Medical Center, Seattle, WA. Supervisors: Valerie Olson, Ph.D., Cyrus Zabetian, M.D., M.S.
Full-time job working for both labs. Dr. Zabetian’s lab involves the genotyping of individuals at a varying number of markers and mutations in an effort to find and/or characterize genetic contributors to the onset of Parkinson’s disease. Duties with Dr. Olson’s lab includes behavioral testing of mice in two different contexts. The first is in relation to post-traumatic stress disorder, while the second has to do with the occurrence of drug addiction following lesioning of norepinephrine-producing brain nuclei.
Sept. 2004-June 2007: University of Washington, Seattle, WA. Supervisor: Wendy Raskind, M.D., Ph.D.
Worked for credit during the school year, paid during the summertime. Most recent project involved the characterization of the linkage between several candidate genes and the incidence of Wenckebach block in a family affected by the disease. Other projects involved candidate genes or loci and/or linkage disequilibrium studies of various neurological diseases including ataxia and Parkinson’s disease.
Aug. 2004-June 2006: VA Puget Sound Medical Center, Seattle, WA Aug. 2004 – June 2006, Supervisor: Cyrus Zabetian, M.D., M.S.
Worked for credit. Performed data analysis for a linkage disequilibrium, case-control study of the gene DBH -1021 in relation to the incidence of Parkinson’s disease, which led to a first-author publication.
Presentations
Sept. 2006: Summer Undergraduate Research Symposium, University of Washington, Seattle, WA.
Mentor: Dr. Wendy Raskind. Attendence was required to participate in the NASA Space Grant Consortium/Summer Undergraduate Research Program. Participated by presenting a scientific postor on my project which involved searching for, and testing candidate disease genes that may be linked to a novel ataxia phenotype that is co-inherited autosomally with pancytopenia within a previously uncharacterized family.
May 2006: Undergraduate Research Symposium, University of Washington, Seattle, WA.
Mentor: Dr. Wendy Raskind. Participated by presenting a scientific poster on a linkage-disequilibrium study I had participated in, which involved several candidate genes that were believed to cause dyslexia. Later, findings were published in the American Journal of Medical Genetics (see below).
May 2005: Undergraduate Research Symposium, University of Washington, Seattle, WA.
Mentor: Dr. Cyrus Zabetian. Participated by presenting a scientific poster on the preliminary results regarding linkage between the DH -1021 gene and Parkinson’s disease. Later, published findings in the Annals of Neurology (see below).
Awards, Fellowships, and Grants
Robert C. Byrd Scholarship (Sept. 2003 - June 2007)
Mary Gates Scholar
NASA Space Grant Consortium/Summer Undergraduate Research Program (June 2006 - Aug. 2006)
Publications
Chun LS, Zabetian CP, et al.
DBH -1021CT does not modify risk or age at onset in Parkinson’s disease. Ann Neurol, 2007 Jul;62(1):99-101.
Brkanac Z, Raskind WH, et al. Evaluation of candidate genes for DYX1 and DYX2 in families with dyslexia. Am J Med Genet, 2007 Jun 5;144(4):556-60.
PARKINSON’S RESEARCH