Lab Alumni

Greg Bomhoff (Research Associate ’06-‘11) – Greg graduated with a Master’s degree in biochemistry from KUMC in 2005.  After graduation he joined Dr. Geiger and became the first member of the research lab.  As a founding member of the lab, he was instrumental in establishing the lab from the ground up.   Greg quickly became an outstanding lab manager, running the day to day activities of the lab, interacting with sales reps, teaching the fundamentals to in-coming students, and organizing morale building activities such as softball, fantasy football, and groundhog runs.  After six years, Greg took a position at St. James Academy High School in Lenexa, KS as a biology teacher. Greg will also be utilizing his marathon background as an assistant track coach.

Anisha Gupte (PhD ’06-’09) – Anisha graduated in 2004 from St. Xavier’s College in India with a BS and MS in Applied Medical Sciences. She than earned a Masters in Molecular Biology at Kansas State University. Moving on to KUMC, Anisha became the first graduate student to join Dr. Geiger’s lab in the fall of 2006. [She immediately established herself as an exemplary student and became famous for her Western blotting techniques.]  Her thesis work led to the discovery of Heat Shock Proteins (HSPs) as novel therapeutic targets against insulin resistance. Furthermore, she discovered the association of stress kinases and HSPs in modulating insulin sensitivity of skeletal muscles in age-related, obesity- and diet-induced insulin resistance.  Anisha finished her thesis work in three years and is currently a Research Fellow at the Methodist Hospital (Houston, TX) where she specializes in drug target discovery for the metabolic syndrome.  Her work thus far has included:  the identification and characterization of a novel mouse model of metabolic syndrome exhibiting human-like Nonalcoholic Steatohepatitis (NASH); discovering a novel role for Rosiglitazone in preventing NASH; and, developing techniques to assess mitochondrial changes in brown adipose tissue with a safe thyroid mimetic.

Brittany Gorres (PhD ’06-’11) – After receiving her BS from South Dakota University in 2005, Brittany came to KUMC with an interest in reproductive biology, as well as diabetes.  These interests landed her in the Geiger lab where she studied the regulation of glucose uptake and GLUT4 protein levels in skeletal muscle. While traditional research uses male animal models to study these topics, Brittany’s project used female animal models and focused on the influence of estrogen receptor activation on skeletal muscle glucose uptake.  Furthermore, she focused on how estrogen receptor activation alters adipocyte regulation and the impact of a high-fat diet on estrogen receptor regulation using a post-menopausal animal model.  Completing her PhD in 2011, Brittany accepted a teaching position at Cleveland Chiropractic College in Overland Park, KS.  She is currently an Assistant Professor and teaches Endocrine/Reproductive Physiology, Renal/Digestive Physiology, and Neurophysiology.

Jill Morris (PhD ’06-’11) - Jill graduated from William Jewell College with a degree in Biochemistry in 2006. After completing the IGPBS program, Jill joined the Geiger lab in the Spring of 2007. Her graduate work was a collaborative project with Dr. Geiger and Dr. John Stanford to investigate the link between Type 2 Diabetes and Parkinson’s disease. Her research using animal models indicates that high fat diet-induced insulin resistance results in profound alterations in dopamine mechanics in the basal ganglia, the region of the brain affected in Parkinson’s disease. In January 2012, Jill will begin working as a post-doc with Dr. Jeff Burn’s for the KU Alzheimer and Memory Program.

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