Meet the Team!

We are currently looking for enthusiastic and motivated individuals to join our team. We welcome applicants who are interested to learn about cancer cell biology and genomics. We are highly invested in mentoring individuals in our group so that they can develop both scientifically and professionally. 
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Please email your CV and a description of your interest in our work to Dr. Julia Maxson.

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Julia Maxson​
Ph.D., Principal Investigator

Dr. Maxson pursued her undergraduate studies at Scripps College and then completed her Ph.D. in Cell Biology at OHSU in the area of protein trafficking and processing. As a postdoc, Dr. Maxson identified new therapeutic targets in leukemia in the laboratories of Jeff Tyner, and Brian Druker. Notably, she discovered targetable mutations in CSF3R (the receptor for the cytokine GCSF) in the majority of patients with chronic neutrophilic leukemia. Dr. Maxson then moved to Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center to pursue the mentored portion of her K99 Pathway to Independence Award on the biochemical mechanisms of aberrant CSF3R activation in leukemia. In 2016, Dr. Maxson moved to the Knight Cancer Institute to establish her laboratory with a focus on leukemia evolution at the genetic and epigenetic level.

Hanqian Carlson
Ph.D., Senior Research Associate

Hanqian Carlson is originally from China and she got her Ph.D. from the University of North Dakota. She has lived in Portland for more than 20 years, during which time  she has worked as Postdoctoral Scholar or Senior Research Associate at OHSU and Shriners Hospital. Her research background is in cancer, protein trafficking, and lncRNA. She is very excited to join the Knight Cancer Institute and work in Dr. Maxson’s lab to study myeloid malignancies. In the Maxson lab, Dr. Carlson is now working on projects centered around understanding and reversing disordered gene expression in myeloid leukemias.

​Samantha Tauchmann
Ph.D.,  Postdoctoral Scholar

Samantha was born and raised in Germany before she moved to the Netherlands to study molecular life sciences at the University of Maastricht, where she explored the effects of PI3K pathway inhibition in Merkel cell carcinoma. For her Master's and PhD degrees she joined the Schwaller Lab in Basel, Switzerland, where she explored mechanisms behind erythroleukemia. Her research in Basel focused on characterizing an erythroleukemia mouse model (Nsd1-/-) and continued to understand the differentiation block of malignant human erythroblasts at the epigenetic, transcriptional and proteomic level. During her PhD she has visited several labs across Europe to learn new techniques and establish fruitful collaborations. She is very excited to join the Maxson lab to combine her passion for normal and malignant hematopoiesis with her determination to understand leukemia biology.

​Shruthi Subramanian
Ph.D.,  Postdoctoral Scholar

Shruthi completed her bachelor’s in India, before moving to the USA to work as a research assistant with Dr Anna Krichevsky at the Harvard Institute of Medicine, Boston, where she investigated the role of mir10b in glioblastomas. She then pursued a doctorate degree at the University of New South Wales, Sydney. Here, she joined the lab of Professor John Pimanda, and worked on identifying the role transcription factors, and 3D genome architecture played in cell differentiation; modeling her study on healthy human blood stem cells. Since, she has developed a keen interest in studying how genome folding occurs in leukemia and further facilitates aberrant enhancer-promoter interactions and transcriptional states. At the Maxson Lab, Shruthi hopes to delve more into genome folding and how variable mutational landscapes play a role in transforming promoter - enhancer interactions.

​Breanna Maniaci
B.S., Graduate Student

Breanna was born and raised in Alaska, where she attended the University of Alaska Anchorage. There she graduated in 2017 with a B.S. in Chemistry with a minor in Biology. During this time, she studied the protein structure and function of COMMD1 in mammalian copper trafficking under Dr. Jason Burkhead. Through her undergraduate experiences she took an interest in science applied to human disease. She is now a graduate student in the Cancer Biology program at OHSU, and looks forward to expanding her knowledge of myeloid malignancies and the broader topic of cancer.

​Thai Nguyen
M.S., Computational  Biologist

Thai graduated from the University of Florida with a B.S. in microbiology, where she studied environmental coliphages in Dr. James Maruniak’s lab. Afterwards, she worked on the genetic improvement of biofuel crops and was a bioenergy team member on the U.S. Department of Energy-sponsored ROGUE Project. During her time at the University of Florida, she developed a passion for programming and its interdisciplinary applications. Thai then completed her Bioinformatics and Genomics Master’s Degree at the University of Oregon. She is also a developer of CITE-Viz, an interactive, user-friendly CITE-seq data exploration app designed to help biologists profile cell populations of interest. In the Maxson Lab, she works on pipelines and tools to analyze sequencing data and enjoys providing bioinformatics support to everyone.

Sarah Taylor
B.S.,  Graduate Student

Sarah graduated in 2014 from the University of North Carolina with a B.S. in Biology and a minor in Chemistry. As an undergrad, she completed an Honors Thesis studying the effect of an amino-acid cocktail-based depletion method on dopamine transients under the mentorship of Dr. Donita Robinson. After graduation, Sarah moved to Roanoke, Virginia and joined the lab of Dr. John Chappell at the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at Virginia Tech. During this time, she was a lab manager and research technician, studying the role of pericytes in development and disease. Now a graduate student in the Program in Biomedical Sciences at OHSU, she is excited to be a part of the Maxson Lab studying the underlying causes and potential treatments for myeloid malignancies.

Shawn Shrestha
B.S.,  Research Assistant II

Shawn graduated from Oregon State University in 2023 with a B.S. in Biohealth Sciences and a minor in Chemistry and Public Health. As an undergrad, Shawn worked under Dr. Brian Dolan. There, he studied the PD-1/PD-L1 immune pathway, attempting to incorporate human immunotherapy into veterinary oncogenic medicine. He also assisted in studies investigating the susceptibility to infection of SARS COV-2 in different rodent species. Now, Shawn is excited to join the Maxson lab and learn more about cancer biology and myeloid malignancies.

Amara Pang
B.S., Graduate Student

Amara graduated from UCLA in 2021 with a B.S. in Microbiology, Immunology, and Molecular Genetics and a minor in Biomedical Research. Amara joined the Chute lab to complete her undergraduate thesis which aimed to determine how a novel compound inhibits the LIN28B/let-7 axis in acute myeloid leukemia. After graduating from UCLA, Amara pursued other projects in the Chute lab which ranged from studying the effects of intrinsic and extrinsic regulation of hematopoietic stem cells. Her research helped identify Sydencan-2 as a novel surface marker that regulates stem cell maintenance and bone marrow regeneration. Amara joined OHSU’s MD/PhD program in August 2021. She is excited to join the Maxson Lab for her dissertation research and to use her knowledge in hematopoietic stem and progenitor biology to better understand the development of myeloid malignancies. Beyond her academic pursuits, Amara is deeply committed to fostering inclusivity and support within her community, actively engaging with various advocacy groups on campus. ​

Amanda Burrell
Administrative Coordinator

Amanda recently joined the Maxson lab (March 2024) after exiting a leadership position in Beverage Manufacturing to return to a career path geared toward scientific research. She brings previous experience with administration management to our lab as well as a background in biology from her time dedicated towards a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology paired with a minor in Chemistry from the Portland State University's Honor College. As an undergraduate student at Portland State University, she developed a histological protocol to measure mutation accumulation in Mimulus gutattus in collaboration with researchers at the Cruzan evolutionary biology lab. Currently, she helps support the Maxson lab through handling calendaring, travel plans, expense reports, procurement, grant applications, and much more. 
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