Laboratory Members

Craig Lowe

Associate Professor / Principal Investigator

Craig's background is in computer science, bioinformatics, and developmental genetics, which spans both computational and experimental research. He has been a faculty member in the Department of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology at Duke University since June 2018, and was awarded tenure in January 2026.

Google Scholar

Seth Weaver

Graduate Student

Seth is a graduate student in the Cell and Molecular Biology graduate program (CMB). He is interested in using cell lines and CRISPR-related technologies to discover the genetic basis of phenotypes unique to humans. He has a particular interest in segmental duplications and regions of the genome that are close to telomeres.

Yanting "Raven" Luo

Graduate Student

Raven is a graduate student in the Cell and Molecular Biology graduate program (CMB). She is using both computational and molecular techniques to understand the genetic basis of human-specific phenotypes. She is studying the regions of the human genome that are highly divergent compared to the other great apes.

Hailey Napier

Graduate Student

Hailey is a graduate student in the Cell and Molecular Biology graduate program (CMB). She is studying how cell types in the cerebellum evolve and how changes in their transcriptome lead to disease.

Natalie Dzikowski

Graduate Student

Natalie is a graduate student in the University Program in Genetics and Genomics (UPGG). She is studying cell type-specific DNA methylation changes in the brain that occur during aging and age-related cognitive disorders.

Eric Au

Staff Researcher (2018-2021)

Currently a Software engineer at Boehringer Ingelheim

Eric was the first person to join the Vertebrate Genetics Laboratory and was both a Lab Manager and a staff researcher. His background is in applied mathmatics, but he also has over five years of experience working with stickleback fish and had worked in Stanford's Genome Center for a year. Eric worked on new computational frameworks for representing genetic variation within a species. Following his time in lab, Eric was a software at Invitae, Berkeley Lights, Mammoth Biosciences, and now Boehringer Ingelheim.

Juliana Carvalho

Staff Researcher (2021)

Currently a Sustainability Associate for Stakeholder Engagement at George Washington University

Juliana was a lab manager and also worked to understand the genetic basis of brain expansion and cognitive abilities across a wide variety of mammals. She has a background in both anthropology and marine biology. Her research combined genomics, neurobiology, and the fossil record. After her time in lab, she was a graduate student in the Nicholas School of the Environment at Duke. Juliana is currently at George Washington University managing the Office of Sustainability’s communications. She is also leading the office’s activities around engagement and behavior change on campus, as well as building a culture of sustainability among students, staff, and faculty.

Chelsea Shoben

Graduate Student (2020-2022)

Currently a Data Engineer at Blue Cross Blue Shield

Chelsea graduated with a master's degree in Genetics and Genomics in 2022. Her research was centered on better understanding the most repetitive and difficult-to-analyze regions of the genome. Following her time in lab, Chelsea took a position as a data engineer at Blue Cross Blue Shield.

Shae Simpson

Undergraduate Student (2022-2023)

Currently a Research Technician at the Columbia University Irving Medical Center

Shae graduated with a bachelor's degree in Evolutionary Anthropology, with honors. She is currently a medical student at NYU.

Riley Mangan

Graduate Student (2019-2023)

Currently a Postdoctoral Associate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Riley was a graduate student through the Cell and Molecular Biology (CMB) Program and a graduate of Davidson College. Riley's work combined tools from evolutionary biology, comparative genomics, and developmental neuroscience to study human-unique evolutionary processes and disease mechanisms. Since earning his Ph.D. from Duke in Molecular Genetics and Microbiology, he continues to study human evolutionary genetics in the lab of Manolis Kellis at MIT CSAIL.

Tracey Mirembe

Undergraduate Summer Researcher (2024)

Tracey is an undergraduate at Davidson College and worked with us for a summer to establish CRISPR interference in the lab. She focused on designing guide RNAs to the genome of the cell line being used, rather than the reference genome for that species.

Kat Bendt

Lab Manager and Staff Researcher (2021-2024)

Kat has a track-record of keeping labs running smoothly and making everyone around her more productive.

Christiana Fauci

Graduate Student (2019-2025)

Christi graduated with a PhD in Genetics and Genomics. She contributed to our understanding of how cell types evolve. This led to a better understanding of which changes in cell state are likely to be allowable, and which contribute to disease.

Anushka Katikaneni

Graduate Student (2022-2025)

Anushka graduated with a masters degree in Genetics and Genomics. She studied how stickleback fish adapt to new environments, and also contributed to our understanding of novelty in the human genome.

Luke Bartelt

Graduate Student & Postdoctoral Researcher (2020-2025)

Luke graduated with a PhD in Genetics and Genomics and stayed in the lab for postdoctoral studies. During this time, he made significant contributions to defining the molecular mechanisms that connect human-specific poly-Q expansions to neurodegeneration. Luke is used new genomic techniques to analyze these diseases at the level of single cells, and developed a method to more evenly sample cell types present at different proportions within a complex tissue, like the cerebellum. He is currently a faculty member in the Department of Neurology at UT Southwestern.