Current Lab Members
Iris Lindberg, Ph.D.
Prof. Lindberg did her undergraduate work at the University of California, Berkeley, and graduate work at the University of Wisconsin- Madison. She then performed postdoctoral research at NIH for three years before assuming an assistant professorship in Biochemistry at LSU Health Sciences Center in New Orleans in 1984. In 2007 Dr. Lindberg moved the laboratory to the University of Maryland-Baltimore, where she is now a professor in the Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology. A complete CV can be found here.
The focus of the work in the Lindberg laboratory is secretory pathway biochemistry and cell biology, i.e., the folding, maturation, and packaging of secretory proteins. While historically the emphasis has been on proteolytic maturation, new interests include chaperone interactions and folding pathways. For more detail see our research page.
Please direct email to ilind001@umaryland.edu.
Hiroyuki Yamamoto, Visiting Professor
Hiro is visiting our laboratory from the University of Shizuoka, Japan. He is interested in the mechanism of bioactive peptide processing in peripheral tissues and in carcinoma. He has found that some non-endocrine cells release bioactive peptides as precursors, and would like to determine how these precursors are converted to active forms in the extracellular milieu. In our lab, he is working on the biosynthesis of FGF23 in osteocytes. He can be reached at ddymouse@gmail.com.
Elias Blanco, Postdoctoral Fellow 
Elias is a Ph.D. graduate of Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile, where he studied the subcellular sorting mechanisms of the CART peptide precursor. His current research involves both biochemical characterization and subcellular localization studies of new PC1/3 mutants discovered in patients with severe endocrine anomalies. He would like to understand how PC1/3 activity regulates energy homeostasis through the production of satiety/appetite signals. His email is eliasblancon@gmail.com
Valeria Albornoz, Senior Research Assistant
Val is from Santiago, Chile. She completed her B.Sc. in Biochemistry at the University of Chile in 2005. She joined our lab in June 2012 and her research work is focused on both the PC1/3 project as well as the FGF23 project. She can be reached at valeria.albornoz@umaryland.edu.
Ross Bittman, Research Technician
Ross completed his Bachelor’s in Public Health at Johns Hopkins University in December of 2011. He worked with Laura Sanglas in purifying PC2 and 7B2 complexes and is now working on FGF23. His email address is: rossbittman@umaryland.edu.
Past Baltimore and New Orleans lab members
Laura Sanglas, Postdoc
Laura completed her Ph. D. in Biotechnology in July 2010 under the supervision of Prof. Francesc Xavier Aviles at the Autonomous University of Barcelona. Her doctoral research was primarily focused on the structural and biochemical characterization of metallocarboxypeptidases and their protein inhibitors. She is now working on an isoform of TAFI (thrombin activatable fibrinolysis inhibitor) as well as purifying prohormone convertase 2 for crystallographic efforts. She also worked on structure-function analysis of 7B2. She is now taking a break from bench science.
Please direct email to laura.sanglas@gmail.com
Michael Helwig, Postdoc
Michael received his Diploma in Biology from the Philipps-University, Germany in 2004. He then joined the Rowett Research Institute in Scotland to attend a one year post-graduate Marie Curie Training on neuroendocrine energy balance regulation. Back in Germany he started his doctoral thesis on photoperiod-dependent neuropeptide processing in seasonal mammals at the Department of Animal physiology and received his PhD from the Philipps-University in Marburg in 2008. Following that Michael worked as a postdoctoral fellow at the Technical University in Munich, Germany on a neuroproteomics project aiming to identify novel protein candidates involved in the development of diet-induced obesity. He joined our lab in September 2009, received a Leopoldina Felllowship in 2010, and worked on three topics in the lab: catecholamine modulation of convertase activity; control of proglucagon processing by 7B2 levels; and 7B2 as a neuronal chaperone involved in neurodegenerative disease.
Michael has now moved on to the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE) in Bonn.
Please direct email to michael@helwig-tec.com.
Indrani Dasgupta, Postdoc
Indrani completed her Ph.D. from the University of Houston in 2008. She was studying the unusual secondary structures formed by tandem repeat DNA sequences, which are known to expand to large numbers in the human genome and can lead to various neuromuscular diseases such as Huntington’s Disease, Friedrich Ataxia etc; using thermal melting and NMR techniques.Following that she joined as a post-doc at The University of Texas Medical School at Houston where she was screening a chemical library to identify a pharmaceutical excipient, to be used as component of a self-regulated liposomal insulin delivery system.She was also involved in developing a novel liposome based diagnostic particle for early detection of amyloid plaques seen in Alzheimer’s disease. She has joined the lab in March 2011. Indrani’s current research understanding the structure and function of the neuroendocrine protein 7B2, which plays a critical role in the maturation of PC2 and likely serves as a secretory chaperone. Indrani has now left the bench and is studying patent law.
Please direct email to indrani.dasgupta@gmail.com.
Akina Hoshino, Former Graduate Student
Akina did her undergraduate work at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie,NY, graduated in 2002, and did her thesis work in our laboratory.
Prohormone convertase 1/3 (PC1) exhibits very low specific activity and is highly unstable. PC1/3 has two active forms – the 87kDa and 66kDa PC1 – and both forms will aggregate into different species, although the 66 kDa form has a higher propensity to aggregate. Akina’s project involved understanding how aggregation and/or interaction with its endogenous binding partner, proSAAS, regulate PC1/3 activity. In addition, she developed assays to look at the aggregation of PC1, a-synuclein, and Abeta to determine whether 7B2 or proSAAS may affect aggregation of proteins other than convertases.
Akina is now a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Washington in the Reh Lab studying stem cells.
Please direct email to Akina.Hoshino@gmail.com.
Mirella Vivoli, Postdoc
Mirella achieved her Master’s degree in Biological Sciences from the University of Rome Sapienza, Italy in 2006. Then, she started her doctoral thesis on structural and functional studies of pyridoxal 5′-phosphate-dependent enzymes at the Department of Biochemical sciences Alessandro Rossi Fanelli and received her PhD in Biochemistry from University of Rome Sapienza, in March 2010. She worked on identifying novel PC inhibitors and purifying PC1/3 for crystallography.
Mirella is now in Exeter, England working in the Harmer lab.
Please direct email to mirellavivoli@hotmail.com
Akihiko Ozawa, Postdoc
Aki did his graduate work at Ehime University, Japan, graduating in 2003.
His current research interests revolve around post-translational modifications of peptide hormones, discovering novel signaling molecules and characterizing their biological properties.
Aki is currently an independent investigator at the Torrey Pines Institute for Biomedical Studies in Port St Lucie, Florida.
Please direct email to akihiko.ozawa@gmail.com.
Lindsay Pickett, Research Technician
Lindsay Pickett worked on the biochemistry of naturally occurring PC1/3 mutations known to be associated with obesity and gastrointestinal disorders; she had a separate project on PC1/3 evolution.
Lindsay is now enrolled in the Program in Neuroscience graduate program here at UMB. Please direct email to Lindsaypick46@umaryland.edu.
Yogikala Prabhu, Postdoc
Dr Prabhu received her PhD in Natural Sciences from University of Cologne, Germany. She carried out her graduate studies in the laboratory of Dr. Angelika A. Noegel which was funded by Institute for Genetics and Functional Genomics. Her doctoral thesis involved studying the role of GABAB- like GPCRs in model organism, Dictyostelium discoideum. She moved to the USA and continued to work as a postdoctoral researcher at NICHD/NIH in the laboratory of Dr. Juan S. Bonifacino, where she addressed retrograde trafficking of transmembrane cargoes by retromer protein complexes. She also studied endocytosis of beta-secretase and its implications in Alzheimer’s disease. She worked with a prohormone convertase1 mutation that leads to obesity and multiple endocrinological defects.
Yogi is currently on extended leave from the lab.
Dorota Kowalska, Postdoc
Dr. Kowalska received her Masters of Science from the Department of Chemistry, University of Warsaw, Poland in 1997 and her Ph.D. from the Department of Chemistry, University of Surrey, Guildford, England in 2003.
She holds a position as an assistant professor in the Faculty of Food Sciences, Warsaw University of Life Sciences, Warsaw, Poland, and was on loan to our lab in order to work on purifying prohormone convertase 1 for the purpose of crystallization. She has now returned to her former position in Warsaw.
Please direct email to dorota1803@gmail.com.
Adam Lick, Research Technician
Adam graduated in 2009 from Dickinson College in Carlisle, PA with a B.S. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.
He joined the lab in September 2009 and was working to purify various novel prohormones. Adam used a wide range of techniques revolving around construction of His-Tag plasmids and eventual protein purification via Ni-NTA affinity and reverse phase HPLC. He then moved on to studying the protein chemistry and cell biology of FGF23.
Adam left the lab in the summer of 2012 and is now enrolled in medical school. He can be contacted at anl687@hotmail.com.
Joseph Miceli, Research Technician
Joe did his undergraduate work at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, NY.
In the lab, he purified various prohormones, such as POMC, proenkephalin, and prodynorphin, from E. coli using histidine tag/Ni affinity chromatography and reverse phase chromatography. He also cared for the various mammalian cell cultures which produce our prohormone convertases for purification in the lab.
Joe began his graduate work in the fall 2009 at Arizona State University in Tempe, AZ, enrolling in their Biological Design Ph.D. program. Please direct email to miceli.joseph@gmail.com.
Past New Orleans Lab Members
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Former Graduate Students
John Mathis (1988- 1994) Staff Scientist at Pioneer Seed Co., Iowa
Yi Zhou (1990- 1995) Senior Scientist, Cellular Genomics, Connecticut
Maria Sayah (3/00- 12/00) (Master’s thesis; French practical training); Senior Scientist, Sunovion, Boston
Yolanda Fortenberry (1997- 2001) Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, Johns Hopkins University Medical School, Baltimore
Former Postdoctoral Fellows
Steven F. Roberts (1988-1991); Staff Scientist (Protein Chemistry), Antex, Rockville, MD
Osvaldo Vindrola (1991- 1993) Professor, Universidad de Puebla, Mexico
Xiaorong Zhu (1994- 1997) Research Assistant Professor, University of Chicago, IL
Nazarius Lamango (1994- 1996) Associate Professor, Florida A&M University, FL
Karla Johanning (1994- 1998) Business Owner, Austin TX
Laurent Muller (1996-1999) Charge de Recherche, First Class (Assistant Professor), College de France, Paris, France
Ekaterina Apletalina (1997-2000) Senior Research Associate, Boston University, MA
Angus Cameron (1999- 2000) Instructor, University of Bristol, Bristol, U.K.
Jae-Ryoung Hwang (1997-2001) Research Assistant Professor, Sungkyunkwan University, Seoul, Korea
Virginie Laurent (1999-2002) Assistant Professor, University of Strasbourg, France
Juan Ramon Peinado (2002-2003) Research Professor, University of Ciudad Real, Spain
Magda Kacprzak (2002-2005) IT Director, MCI Bioventures, Poland
Sang-Nam Lee (2002-2007) Assistant Professor, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea
The Costa Lab
A tiny portion of the Costa Lab in the mid-80s, taken at ‘Man Emerging’, a sculpture that is no longer located where it was then- on Hains Point in Washington DC.
An updated list of past productivity by lab members can be found here.
