Dr. Bryce Manso is an NIH NIGMS IRACDA postdoctoral fellow at the University of California Santa Cruz. He received his Ph.D. in immunology from the Mayo Clinic Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences in 2020 and his B.Sc. in biology from Pacific Lutheran University in 2010. Dr. Manso’s overall research focus is on the intersection of aging, inflammation, and blood cell generation. In his postdoctoral fellowship, he is studying how manipulating general and specific inflammation molecularly and functionally changes hematopoietic stem and progenitor cell function and differentiation. His current focus is on the age-related and inflammatory modulation of megakaryopoiesis and platelet production. He is also translating his findings from mice to humans by assessing related features and functions in human bone marrow. His research interests mainly focus on hematopoiesis, stem cells, aging, and chronic lymphocytic leukemia.

Dr. Alessandra Rodriguez y Baena originally moved from Italy to pursue her Bachelor of Science in molecular biology at San Jose State University (BS 2015). She then pursued her Master of Science at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo in regenerative medicine (MS 2018). After finishing her PhD in molecular, cell, and developmental biology (PhD 2023) in Dr. Camilla Forsberg’s lab, she continued her research on epigenetic changes in the hematopoietic system during aging as a postdoctoral fellow in the same lab.

Dr. Camilla Forsberg is a professor of biomolecular engineering and director of the Institute for the Biology of Stem Cells at the University of California-Santa Cruz, USA. Her laboratory focuses on hematopoietic stem cell biology.