Members

Current Members!

Kristin Calar (She/Her)

Senior Research Specialist

Kristin joined the lab in 2018 and has been an essential member since. She earned a bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities. Kristin is interested in research because it is exciting to be able to study things that may not have been studied before and you are always learning new things each and every day. She enjoys the challenge of devising and executing experiments and, being an engineer, she enjoys the obstacles that come with research projects and using her problem-solving/troubleshooting skills to resolve them. Analyzing data and interpreting the results is something that is newer to her but she enjoys investigating and learning the new technologies and methods of analysis and figuring out how they can be used to tell the story of her project! Continuing to grow and learn will always be a huge career goal for her and that is a big part of being in the field of research. She has always desired to have a rewarding career where she feels like the work she is doing is making an impact on the world and she definitely feels that way doing the work we do in the De la Puente lab

Hobbies: Spending time with my husband and daughter is my favorite hobby! Anything we can all enjoy doing together is what I love to do ❤ but I also enjoy playing volleyball, ice skating, attending hockey games, watching movies, playing board games or video games, going camping and shopping!

Simona Plesselova (She/Her)

Postdoctoral Fellow

Simona join us the summer of 2019 for an abroad internship while finishing her PhD studies in Molecular Biology at University of Granada, Spain. Shortly after, she joined us for a postdoctoral fellowship focusing on immune-cancer interactions and microfluidics on a chip. 1. She is interested in research because she thinks the small steps we take in the lab can save lives and overcome current problems in health care. Also, she loves to face the new challenges that research brings every day.  Her career goal is to have her own lab and be a professor and mentor at a University.

Hobbies: Travel, read books, gym, Zumba and play with my baby

Amrita Bhagia (She/Her)

MD PhD Student

Amrita joined us the spring of 2023 and she is interested in a career in Gyn/Onc. Her project focuses on ovarian cancer metastasis and models to recapitulate this process. As an MD-PhD student, Amrita hopes to be a practicing physician-scientist in the future. Specifically, she is interested in being an OB/GYN and combining patient care, basic science, and clinical research to advance healthcare, with an emphasis on caring for underserved populations. Amrita loves research for its ability to inform clinical care and move from bench to bedside. “Research provides us with the tools to ask and answer questions about the conditions affecting real patients, including those patients belonging to historically marginalized groups and those facing health inequities. It is through research that we can improve healthcare for all by understanding disease mechanisms, identifying novel drug therapies, and more”.

Hobbies: reading (I love listening to audiobooks in the lab!), anything politics-related, traveling

Hailey Axemaker (She/Her)

Research Specialist

Hailey joined the lab in 2022 and is interested in graduate school. She earned a bachelor’s degree in Biotechnology at South Dakota State University. Hailey enjoys doing research because she is constantly learning new things and her work isn’t always the same every day. It means a lot to her that she gets to contribute even a little bit to the advancement of women’s health and getting to do it as one part of such a dedicated team is so rewarding!

Hobbies: going to the gym, starting (and never finishing) random arts & crafts projects, listening to podcasts, and taking months to finish reading one book.