Erin Song

Erin Song is a sophomore at UC Berkeley studying Bioengineering. She is working with Gwyneth Hutchinson-Ramirez (PhD student) because of previous work with data collection/analysis, research methodology, and medical devices like fMRI as an undergraduate researcher at the Psychology Department Computational Neuroscience Lab. She is gaining experience in mammalian tissue culture and other molecular biology techniques/skills. She is growing her skill set as a bioengineer. She is expanding her expertise in lab techniques/technologies and contribute to the lab’s pioneering work in tissue culture and engineering!

Sun-Young Kim

Sun-Young is a postdoctoral researcher in the Arkin Lab at the University of California, Berkeley. He received his Ph.D. in Microbiology from the University of Texas at Austin, where he studied the molecular mechanisms of microcins, including their export, antibacterial activity, and self-immunity systems. At the Arkin Lab, he is involved in the ARPA-H PROTECT project, where he focuses on isolating microbial pathogens and commensals from the lower respiratory tract. He is also leading the phenotypic characterization of these isolates, including profiling antibiotic resistance, carbon source utilization, and antagonistic interactions against lung-infecting pathogens. His research interests lie in understanding microbial interactions within the oral and lower respiratory tract microbiota and in discovering novel antibacterial compounds and mechanisms.

Ezgi Booth

Ezgi Booth is the PROTECT Project Coordinator, leveraging her BA in genetics and PhD in computational biology to excel in scientific project management. She bridges research with operations by overseeing administrative, reporting, procedural, and legal processes, while enhancing communication among multidisciplinary teams to support PROTECT’s objectives.

Spencer Long

Spencer is a Data Scientist at UC Berkeley working with Dr. Adam Arkin on the ARPA-H funded PROTECT and ASMA initiatives. He joined the Arkin Lab to help build a structured, scalable data infrastructure to support multi-omic microbiome research in the human airway. His background spans astronomy, mathematics, bioinformatics, and machine learning, with experience integrating genomic and lifestyle data for predictive health modeling. Prior to joining the lab, he co-founded and led the bioinformatics division at a startup focused on personalized genetic health, where he developed risk prediction models for over 200 diseases.

In the Arkin Lab, Spencer is developing reproducible pipelines, metadata standards, and automated QC workflows for multi-modal datasets—including isolate genomics, metagenomics, metatranscriptomics, and cytokine data—to enable better understanding of host-microbiome interactions in airway health and disease. He is particularly interested in the intersection of synthetic microbial communities, host-pathogen exclusion, and data-driven hypothesis generation. Above all, he’s fascinated by science and deeply enjoys the research process—from the smallest technical challenge to the biggest biological questions.

Luis Villarreal

Luis is a Junior at UC Berkeley studying Bioengineering. He is working under Gwyneth Hutchinson on the PROTECT project, focusing on tissue engineering with lung epithelia. Luis is interested in pursuing a field in cell and tissue engineering.

Allie Cabiles

Allie (Sarah) Cabiles is an undergraduate at UC Berkeley studying bioengineering. She is working with Dr. Jacob Hilzinger and Dr. Sun-Young Kim on PROTECT. Her interests lie at the intersection of biochemistry and synthetic biology, and she hopes to pursue a career in the biotech industry focused on harnessing these fields within translational medicine.

Malavika Garimella

Malavika Garimella is a junior at UC Berkeley, studying Molecular & Cell Biology and Business Administration. She is working with Gwyneth Anne – Hutchinson on PROTECT because of her previous work with mammalian tissue culture and is interested in studying how cellular mechanisms can be leveraged for therapeutic discovery, particularly in the context of genetic disorders and antimicrobial resistance. Her experience spans genomic therapeutic research at MD Anderson Cancer Center and integrative biology research at UC Berkeley.

Mallika Garimella

Malli is a senior at UC Berkeley studying both Molecular and Cellular Biology (MCB) as well as Business Administration. She is working under Gwyneth Hutchinson on the PROTECT project, focusing on tissue engineering with lung epithelia. Malli is interested in studying immunology and therapeutics development.

Shobhin Logani

Shobhin Logani graduated from UC Berkeley studying Molecular and Cell Biology. He worked with Dr. Kelsey Hern on engineering probiotic biosensors for detecting respiratory disease. He is interested in studying functional and comparative genomics, and his research interests lie in manipulating natural biological systems to address issues in human and environmental health. He is also passionate about making new biotechnologies more accessible and cost-effective.

Kelsey Hern

Kelsey Hern

Kelsey Hern completed her B.S. in Biochemistry in 2016 and went on to develop nanotechnologies to understand, diagnose and treat infectious respiratory diseases. She did her PhD work in Adam Arkin’s lab designing lower airway communities for protection against respiratory infection. As a Women in Enterprising Science Fellow at the Innovative Genomics Institute, Kelsey works to take the technology developed in her PhD and apply it to real-world clinical problems. Kelsey’s research interests include microbial interactions, synthetic biology and the development of living materials for improving health.