Meet Our Team
Principal Investigator
Flora Rutaganira
Assistant Professor of Biochemistry and Developmental Biology
Flora received her B.S. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from UC Davis and her Ph.D. in Chemistry and Chemical Biology from UC San Francisco under the mentorship of Prof. Kevan Shokat. In 2017, she became fascinated by choanoflagellates and joined the laboratory of Prof. Nicole King at UC Berkeley as an HHMI Hanna Gray Postdoctoral Fellow. Based on her research on choanoflagellate kinase signaling in the King lab, Flora started her lab, the FUNR lab (from Flora’s government name: Florentine Uwamahoro Novotny Rutaganira) to study the origin of cell communication in animals at Stanford University in the departments of Biochemistry and Developmental Biology. She hopes that the work in her lab will uncover how molecule sensing was integrated with core signaling pathways during the evolution of animals, and uncover core principles of animal cell signaling.
Email: FUNR[at]stanford.edu
Fellows & Senior Scientists
Lupe Peña
Senior Staff Scientist
I am establishing expansion microscopy techniques for choanoflagellates. I am completing my PhD at UC Berkeley in Molecular and Cell Biology.
Email: gepena9[at]stanford.edu
Graduate Students
Nils Dormanns
U.Hannover-Microbiology
I am uncovering the ancestry of Insulin-like Growth Factor 1 Receptor signaling in Salpingoeca rosetta with structural biology and dominant negative mutants.
My favorite protist: Lacymaria olor
Email: dormanns[at]stanford.edu
Hannah Reeves
Biochemistry
I study the role of focal adhesion kinase in choanoflagellate biology
Email: hlreeves[at]stanford.edu
Post-Baccalaureate Researchers
Rotation Students
Former Team Members
Name (Position, Academic Year)
Emma Esterman (Graduate Student Rotation, 2023)