People

The people behind the work

Research here is hands-on and collaborative — undergraduates, graduate students, and faculty partners working side by side at the bench.

Dr. Mikaela Stewart

Principal Investigator · Department of Biology, TCU

Dr. Stewart leads the lab's work on the structure and function of BRCA1 and its role in cancer risk, supported by the National Institutes of Health. She mentors students through every stage of real research — from purifying proteins to publishing — and is committed to making that science clear to people far outside the lab. (Add a sentence or two in her own voice here.)

Researchers & collaborators

Recent contributors

People who drove the lab's recent published work. Update this list as the team changes.

BRCA1–PALB2 studyChrissy N. S. Baker — led the binding-assay work
BRCA1–PALB2 studyPrecious Grace C. Pajela · Davis E. Martin — experiments & analysis
C. elegans studyIshor Thapa — led the gene-regulation work
Faculty collaboratorsDr. Marlo K. Sellin Jeffries (Biology) · Dr. Sergei V. Dzyuba (Chemistry)

Life in the lab

Science, and the people doing it

Conferences, poster sessions, and the occasional very nerdy game night. Tap any photo to enlarge.

Stewart Lab group photo outside the science building — The whole crew. Wearing purple isn’t in the lab safety manual, but the data trend strongly that way.

Student presenting the poster A Kink in the System — “A Kink in the System”: one stubborn proline can unravel a whole helix. Great title, real science.

Student explaining a poster on peptide mimics of the BRCA1-PALB2 interaction — Explaining how designer peptides might block the BRCA1–PALB2 handshake. The hand gestures are load-bearing.

Student presenting a poster on C. elegans meiosis — How BRCA1’s worm cousin keeps chromosomes in line during meiosis. Several thousand worms contributed; none were available for comment.

Two students with a poster on BRCA1 and reactive oxygen species — Investigating oxidative stress — a subject every grad student understands on a deeply personal level.

Student at the ASBMB national meeting beside a research poster — Taking the worm-and-BRCA1 work to the national stage at the ASBMB meeting. Poster #79, kind of a big deal.

Four lab members gathered around a table — Lab meeting, or the nerdiest game night in Fort Worth? The amino-acid chart on the table says: both.

Three lab members in a classroom with data on the screens behind them — Three scientists, two giant monitors, and roughly forty open browser tabs.

Lab members taking a selfie in front of conference posters — Conference mode, hour six: fully caffeinated, freshly credentialed, running on poster fumes.

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