Welcome to the Pluvinage Lab!

Natalia is a Senior Scientist at the Arc Institute with expertise spanning structural biology, vaccine development, and cell therapy. She earned her PhD from UC Berkeley, where she studied protein structure and signaling using X-ray crystallography. As a scientist in the Kim Lab at Stanford, she contributed to vaccine development efforts targeting SARS-CoV-2 and HIV, before going on to lead the molecular assays group at Adicet Bio. In the Pluvinage Lab, she draws on this interdisciplinary background to develop molecular and biochemical tools that rigorously investigate the underexplored role of autoimmune mechanisms in neurological disease and brain aging. Outside the lab, she enjoys traveling, gardening, and hiking.

Richard is a 1st year Biology PhD student from Stanford. He received his BS in Life Sciences from Ateneo de Manila University (Philippines). He completed his MSc in Molecular Mechanisms at Radboud University (Netherlands), including an internship at Boston Children's Hospital where he developed VHH tools to dissect the basic mechanisms of E2 ubiquitin-conjugating enzymes. Before starting graduate school, he worked at Cradle, a techbio start-up based in the Netherlands, to build high-throughput workflows to characterize and optimize antibody fragments. Outside of work, he enjoys painting, hiking, and reading.

Marcell earned his PhD at UC San Francisco in Yifan Cheng’s lab where he revealed a regulatory structural element in herpesvirus proteases. During his postdoctoral work in Charly Craik’s lab at UCSF, he characterized autoimmune responses in recurrent kidney disease and solved the structure of a patient-derived anti-CD320 autoantibody in complex with its epitope. Before his academic endeavors, Marcell worked at Bayer in the hematology group to develop antibody-based therapies for non-malignant bleeding disorders. Outside the lab, Marcell likes to play table tennis, dine at fun restaurants, and tend to his houseplants.

Sravani received her undergraduate degree in biomedical engineering at UC Berkeley, followed by a research gap year at UCSF with Dr. Steven Hetts designing endovascular interventional devices for chemotherapy filtration from the blood. Afterwards, she attended the Medical Scientist Training Program at UCSF, where she completed a PhD in Bioengineering and received an NINDS F31 grant to study multi-brain region coordination of movement in healthy and stroke rodents for neuromodulation design in Karunesh Ganguly's lab. She then joined UCSF’s neurosurgery residency program, and looks forward to engineering surgical and therapeutic solutions for the variety of neurological disorders. In her free time, she enjoys figure skating, running marathons, and playing with the postdog Berkeley.

Jessica received her undergraduate degree in Cognitive Science from Yale University, where she studied social computational cognition. She then worked as an AI/Data Scientist at Medtronic (MiniMed) Diabetes, developing personalized machine learning algorithms for glucose monitoring and novel meal-related insights to improve glycemic outcomes. She is an aspiring neurologist interested in movement disorders and medical devices. Outside the lab, she enjoys dancing, mountain biking, and running.

Steven received his PhD in Molecular Genetics from the University of Toronto where he worked in the lab of Benjamin Blencowe. His graduate work focused on developing functional genomics methods for studying alternative splicing and included an exon-resolution single-cell CRISPR screening platform that uncovered how neuron-specific ‘microexons’ regulate neurogenesis and autism-linked pathways. He also worked as an intern at Genentech in Aviv Regev’s group, optimizing in vivo optical pooled CRISPR screens. He is a hybrid experimental and computational scientist interested in applying functional genomics and single-cell method development to better understand the mechanistic basis for neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative disorders. Outside the lab, he enjoys running marathons, backcountry camping, and traveling.

Stephanie brings more than 20 years of experience in stem cell research, including hematopoietic, neural, and cancer stem cells, along with extensive expertise in laboratory management, research operations, and collaborative science. She holds an M.S. in Molecular Biology/Microbiology from San José State University and developed her passion for stem cell research while working with Dr. Irving Weissman at Stanford University, later leading research on hematopoietic stem cell trafficking, vascular biology, and aging megakaryocytes at UC Santa Cruz with Dr. Camilla Forsberg. Outside the lab, Stephanie is an avid home winemaker who has produced award-winning wines.

Berkeley received his BA in human psychology from San Jose State University before completing his PhD on sleep electrophysiology from Stanfur. In his free time, he enjoys chasing squirrels and chewing on milk cartons.