Members

Beth Bearce, PhD. (they/them)

Post-doc (NIH F32 fellowship)

Beth grew up in the backbone of the US, if you loosely define that to mean "the middle part." She did her undergraduate work at the University of Missouri, in an interdisciplinary track that merged Biochemistry and Dietetics. In 2013, she moved to Boston College for her doctoral studies in Cell Biology with Laura Anne Lowery. There, she used high-resolution, live imaging and quantitative analysis to examine microtubule plus-end regulation during embryonic cell motility (axon outgrowth and neural crest cell migration). Her thesis work was funded by an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship. She defended in June 2019, and then abandoned the Northeast for the Pacific Northwest, in an effort to keep things symmetrical. On that note, in the Grimes lab, Beth is asking questions about how fluid flow inside the developing spine can be sensed and translated, and why these fluid flows are integral for building a symmetrical spine. If she’s not in the Scope/uCT room, check a park (dog, skate, or national), or yell “I attack the darkness,” and wait for her to pop out and tell you to “roll initiative.”

Beth is currently funded by an NIH NRSA F32 Fellowship from NIAMS.

Twitter | Orcid | Pubmed

Samuel Bertrand

graduate student

In 2022 Samuel graduated from Vassar College with a B.A. in Biology. At Vassar, he worked with Dr. Megan Gall to investigate the effects of anthropogenic noise on black-capped chickadee mating calls. He also worked with Dr. Candido Diaz and wrote his thesis on unraveling the chemical composition and unique physical properties of Cyrtarachne akirai silk. He spent a summer at the University of Chicago under the NSF REU where he worked with Dr. Jean Greenberg and Dr. Korey Brownstein investigating pathogen resistance in A. thaliana. Samuel now turns his interests to developmental biology at the University of Oregon where he is pursuing his PhD. Outside of the lab, Samuel enjoys worldbuilding his next DND campaign, gardening, and playing video games.

Adamend Freda

undergraduate student

Adamend is currently studying Biochemistry at the University of Oregon as an undergraduate researcher. In his free time, he likes to play chess and read classic novels.

John O’Hara-Smith

graduate student

John grew up in a town called Hollister, California, where he would spend his early days with his grandmother exploring the Monterey Bay aquarium—from these early moments, John has been fascinated with science and understanding what makes living things, well, live. After completing a community college course in science as a high schooler, John was inspired to pursue a career in the life sciences. John then went on to complete a bachelor’s degree in Molecular and Cell Biology at UC Berkeley and following completion of the bachelor’s, worked on projects focused on stickleback tooth regeneration in Dr. Craig Miller’s lab.  

Working on teleost model systems became fascinating to John due to the optical clarity of the embryo (in certain species) as well as the wide array of molecular and genetic toolkits available for exploring biology in vertebrates. Now, John has decided to further his education by pursuing a PhD in molecular biology at the University of Oregon. For his graduate work, John aims to understand the molecular genetic basis of spine development. More broadly, he hopes to expand our mechanistic knowledge of how organ systems maintain their respective positions and upscale in size throughout development; both things which contribute toward proper anterior-to-posterior body patterning.  In his free time, John enjoys playing and watching basketball, and loves playing video games. 

Judy Peirce (she/her)

research assistant

Judy graduated with a B.S. in Biology from the University of Oregon in
1984. As an undergrad researcher she worked in the Menaker lab studying
circadian rhythms in a variety of vertebrate animal models including
rats, mice, anolis lizards, gecko and trout. After graduation she
continued to work as a research assistant in the Menaker lab and later
split her time between the Venkatesh lab, working with fruit fly
genetics, and the Eisen lab working with zebrafish.

In 1988 she began a collaboration with Len Schvaneveldt and generated The Schvaneveldt Sisters: Cody, Eleni, and Eliot, an elite team of millennials
questioning the paradigm every day. Judy returned to zebrafish research
in 2002 when she joined the lab of Monte Westerfield as a research assistant. She now splits her time between the Westerfield and Grimes labs.

Abbie Ruddick

graduate student

Abbie graduated with her B.S. in Biology with a Molecular and Cell emphasis from Western Washington University in 2023. During undergrad, she did research in the lab of Dr. Suzanne Lee investigating a RNAi pathway, the small RNA’s it produces, and their impacts on genome integrity in Tetrahymena thermophila. After graduation, Abbie moved to the east coast for a an intramural post baccalaureate trainee position at the NIH in the lab of Dr. Orna Cohen-Fix, where she worked to help study the dynamics of the centriculum and nuclear envelope in C. elegans embryos in very early stages. Abbie is excited to be back on the west coast as a PhD student in the Institute of Molecular Biology at the University of Oregon, where she is looking forward to pursuing questions about development using zebrafish as a model. When not in the lab, Abbie can be found reading, making chainmail, crocheting, or watching documentaries (sometimes all at the same time).

Stevana Schauer (NIH F31 fellowship)

graduate student

Stevana graduated with her B.S. in Biology from the University of Louisville in 2021. While studying there and for a year after, she worked in Dr. Michael Perlin's lab and wrote her thesis on implementing CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing in the phytopathogenic fungus Microbotryum. This research also took her to the Czech Republic to learn how to transform the fungus's host plant Silene. She is now a PhD student in the Institute of Molecular Biology at the University of Oregon and is interested in learning more about developmental biology and genetics. She hopes to one day use this knowledge to gain more insight into the causes of chronic diseases. In her free time, Stevana enjoys traveling, hiking, painting, watching horror movies, and playing video games. 

Max Segeberg

graduate rotation student

Max graduated with a B.S. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from California Lutheran University. As an undergraduate researcher, he worked in an organic chemistry lab looking at metal organic frameworks, and a molecular biology lab researching functional RNA structures. Post graduation, he worked at UC Irvine as a technician in Dr. Yongsheng Shi's molecular genetics lab, researching mRNA 3' end processing factors. He is currently a PhD student at UO in the Institute of Molecular Biology, where he is delving into human disease using genetic models and translating the work to the physiological level. In his free time he loves to go running, go on hikes, and watch movies. 

Zane Walsh

undergraduate student

Zane is an undergraduate student studying Multidisciplinary Science with minors in Spanish, Chemistry, and Biology. In his free time, he likes to play soccer and chess, ski, and hit the weights. Zane enjoys learning about anything related to biology, especially topics pertaining to human health and molecular genetics. Looking ahead, he is deciding between pursuing a career in health or one focused on research. 

Samara Williams

graduate student

Samara graduated with a B.S. in biochemistry from the University of Washington in 2020. There, she worked in the Musculoskeletal Systems Biology Laboratory of Dr. Ronald Kwon, examining the function of hox genes in patterning the zebrafish skeleton. After that, she worked as a technician in the laboratory of Dr. Ian Swinburne at UC Berkeley, studying the zebrafish inner ear and the role of hormone signaling during development and homeostasis. Currently, she is a PhD student at the University of Oregon in the Institute of Molecular Biology and is excited to be pursuing new developmental questions in the Grimes Lab. In her free time, she enjoys swimming, cycling, video games, and participating in the UO Campus Orchestra.