People and Contact

Staff

The Troemel Lab

Emily Troemel
Principal Investigator

Office: 4202 Bonner Hall
e-mail: etroemel @ucsd.edu
office phone: (858) 246-0708

University of Wisconsin, Madison, B.S.
UC San Francisco Ph.D.
Renovis, Inc. Scientist
MGH/Harvard Med, Postdoctoral fellowship
UC San Diego Faculty 2008

Bioblurb

Tyler Bechtel
Postdoctoral Fellow

College of Charleston, B.S.

UMass Amherst, PhD

Research

James Tirtorahardjo
Postdoctoral Fellow

UC Irvine, B.S.

UC Irvine, PhD

Research

Lakshmi Batachari
PhD Student

F31 NRSA NIH Fellow

Harvey Mudd College, B.S.

Research

Max Strul
PhD Student

Chapman University, B.S.

Research

Marisa Tsunoda
Lab Manager, SRAI

University of Washington, B.S.

Research

Joshua Joseph
Lab Assistant

UC San Diego, B.S. (Expected 2026)

Research

Eilish Murphy
Lab Assistant

UC San Diego, B.S. (Expected 2025)

Research

Lab Alumni

Postdoctoral Fellows:

Nicole Wernet, PhD

Vladimir Lažetić, PhD: Asst Prof at The George Washington University

Spencer Gang, PhD: Asst Prof at Colorado College

Cheng-Ju Kuo, PhD: Postdoctoral Fellow at Sanford Burnham Prebys

Eillen Tecle, PhD: Asst Prof at Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI

Jessica Sowa, PhD: Asst Prof at West Chester University

Johan Panek, PhD: Marie Curie Fellow at U of Newcastle

Aaron Reinke, PhD: Associate Prof at U of Toronto

Michael Botts, PhD: Research Scientist at Genus

Malina Bakowski, PhD: Investigator at CALIBR

Margery Smelkinson, PhD: Staff Scientist at NIH

Amy Ma, PhD: Asst Prof, Drexel University

Katie Estes, PhD

Project Scientists:
Kirthi Reddy, PhD: Research Scientist at the Salk Institute

Visiting Computational Biologist:
Ryan Underwood, PhD: Bioinformatician at Naval Health Research Center

Visiting Scholars:
Cheng-Ju Kuo

Tian Li, PhD

PhD Students:
Robert Luallen – NSF GRFP fellow and NSF GROW fellow
Currently: Asst Professor, San Diego State University

Keir Balla – NSF GRFP fellow
Currently: Postdoctoral fellow, University of Utah

Suzy Szumowski – NSF GRFP fellow
Currently: Product Support Scientist, Illumina

Tiffany Dunbar – Bouchet Graduate Honor Society recipient
Currently: Postdoctoral fellow, San Diego State University

Lianne Cohen
Currently: Postdoctoral fellow, UC Irvine

Master’s Students:

Katie Li

Deevya Raman

Theresa Bui
Currently: College of Medicine, University of Arizona

Technicians:

Mario Bardan Sarmiento

Aundrea Koger

Crystal Chhan: PhD Candidate at the University of Washington Seattle

Bretta McCall

Ivana Sfarcic

Erin Daniels

Tal Dror

Zhi (Jean) Yan, MD

Undergraduate Researchers
and Assistants:

Alyssa Dai

Ian Baick

Michael Blanchard

Kealia Attaway

Chris Pham

Vanessa Lei

Lakshmi Somasundaram

Noelle Ying

Jennie Huynh

Aelita Meng

Fengting Wu

Grace Sek

Cristina Monterroza

Sirena Louie

Chelsea Herrmann

Chris Probert

John Popovich

David Nguyen

Vicky Cao

Peter Nguy

 

 

 

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Lab Address: UC San Diego
9500 Gilman Dr, #0349
4205 Bonner Hall
La Jolla, CA 92093-0349
Lab Phone: (858) 246-0882

UC-San Diego overview video

Blink: Maps and other UCSD info

UCSD Division of Biological Sciences

Professor Troemel received her BS in Biochemistry from the University of Wisconsin Madison in 1992, and her PhD in Cell Biology from the University of California, San Francisco in 1999. For her PhD thesis work she identified and characterized the first chemosensory receptors in the nematode C. elegans and used them to understand the logic of behavioral responses to odors, as well as how neuronal identity is established. After a brief postdoc studying visual motion detection in Drosophila, she helped launch a start-up biotech company in South San Francisco where she studied questions of neuronal identity, neuroinflammation and performed drug screening in mammalian systems. After this company went public, she returned to academic research to do a postdoctoral fellowship at Mass General/Harvard Med, where she identified the first natural pathogen of C. elegans. She named this pathogen Nematocida parisii, and it defined a new genus and species of microsporidia, which are priority pathogens of medical and agricultural significance. Here in her own lab at UC San Diego, she is using this natural host/pathogen system to investigate the host response to intracellular infection. Recent findings include describing how a common transcriptional response to N. parisii and a natural RNA virus constitute a new immune/stress response.

 

Outside of lab Prof. Troemel enjoys swimming in the ocean and taking videos of turtles, sharks and other sea life, as well as heading to the mountains or desert for climbing. She also has an active meditation practice and has taken teacher training in Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction at the UCSD Center for Mindfulness.
Tyler’s research focuses on understanding tissue-specific and cell-specific antiviral immune responses in C. elegans. By investigating how the DRH-1(2CARD) protein triggers immune signaling, he aims to uncover novel mechanisms of defense against viral infections. This work may provide exciting insights into how innate immunity is coordinated in multicellular organisms during viral infection.
James is investigating how the transcription factor, ZIP-1, contributes to the Intracellular Pathogen Response (IPR) across different tissues or in response to different pathogens. ZIP-1 serves as a central signaling hub for the IPR. Additionally, he is investigating how some IPR effectors interact with each other to induce tolerance to heat shock.
Lakshmi is interested in uncovering the immune signaling components that regulate host-virus interactions at the epithelial barrier. During viral infection in C. elegans, activation of the Intracellular Pathogen Response (IPR) is dependent on DRH-1, a homolog to mammalian pattern recognition receptor RIG-I. By defining how DRH-1 mediates viral detection and IPR activation, Lakshmi is excited to elucidate the evolutionary conservation or rewiring of RIG-I signaling in epithelial cells. 
Max is currently investigating the localization and signaling of two Intracellular Pathogen Response (IPR) regulators: PALS-22 and PALS-25. These two proteins have unknown biochemical functions and the importance of subcellular localization has yet to be determined. His project is focused on determining how these two proteins interact, what their downstream signaling is, and whether their subcellular localization is required for the IPR.
In addition to lab maintenance and management, Marisa is researching PALS-14, a protein that was recently shown to increase infection resistance in C. elegans as part of the Intracellular Pathogen Response (IPR). She is exploring the subcellular localization pattern of PALS-14 and how PALS-14 expression is regulated by various IPR triggers.
Joshua is a lab assistant in the Troemel lab, and fulfills requests for reagents, plates, and other consumables along with assisting with and performing his own research projects. He is investigating what proteins are downstream of DRH-1(2CARD), which is a homolog to mammalian RIG-I like receptors and is involved in IPR activation and viral detection.
Eilish is a lab assistant in the Troemel lab, and fulfills requests for reagents, plates, and other consumables along with assisting with and performing her own research projects. She is focused on studying viral infections in C. elegans and how the Intracellular Pathogen Response is regulated during these infections.