Mertens Lab
Our Team
Jerome Mertens
Jerome is Associate Professor at the Department of Neurosciences of UCSD, and Adjunct at the Salk Institute in La Jolla, CA. Before he was Assistant Professor at the University of Innsbruck in Austria. His research focus is to better understand the interface between the biology of aging and neurodegeneration. Jerome completed his PhD in the lab of Oliver Brüstle (University of Bonn) and Philipp Koch, and his postdoc in Rusty Gage’s lab. His work has been supported by grants and fellowships, including a K99/R00, a Marie Curie Fellowship, and an ERC Starting Grant.
Larissa is an assistant project scientist in the Mertens lab, and her focus is on how cellular metabolism regulates disease states in neurodegenerative disorders, particularly Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Her postdoctoral work was supported by a BrightFocus Foundation Fellowship. She earned her Ph.D. from the University of Innsbruck, focusing on the role of pyruvate kinase M (PKM) in AD. Her research has been recognized with the L’Oréal Austria-UNESCO for women in science and the Theodor Körner fellowships, and funding from the Austrian Marshall Plan Foundation, which allowed her to train with the metabolomics expert Angelo D'Alessandro's lab at UC Denver and promote active collaborations with the Gage lab at the Salk Institute. In her free time, Larissa loves to spend her time outdoors in the mountains, going for hikes or paragliding, and enjoying a good beer.
LARISSA TRAXLER
Ismail is a joint postdoc in the Mertens lab and the Gage lab at UCSD and the Salk Institute. His research focuses on how epitranscriptomic and epigenetic modifications change during aging and contribute to the development of Alzheimer's disease. He conducted his doctoral research at the Max Delbrück Center in Berlin and received his Ph.D. in Genetics from Humboldt University of Berlin. His research was supported by the ERASMUS+ program of the European Commission and a fully-funded doctoral fellowship from the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD). In his free time, Ismail enjoys long-distance biking, HYROX training, and spending time with his family.
Ismail Özcan
Jessica is a PhD student in the Biomedical Sciences program at UC San Diego. Her project is centered around age-related mislocalization of tau in human neurons, and the role this mislocalization plays in diseases such as Frontotemporal dementia. Originally from South Africa, Jessica completed her BSc in Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, and her MSc in Genetics, at Stellenbosch University. She also trained in direct neuronal reprogramming at Lund University in Sweden under the guidance of Dr. Karolina Pircs and Dr. Johan Jakobsson. She’s passionate about mentoring students and making science more approachable through communication and community-building. Outside the lab, Jessica loves spending time outdoors - rock climbing, mountain biking, and hiking whenever she can. She's also always picking up new hobbies, with ceramics and crocheting being her most recent creative pursuits.
Jessica Lagerwall
Oliver Borgogno
Oli is a graduate student in the lab. He received his BSc in Biology and his MSc in Molecular Biology at the University of Innsbruck. His study focuses on the molecular crosstalk between psychiatric disorders, accelerated aging, and Alzheimer’s disease. Therefore, he uses a hybrid approach consisting of a broad variety of different cell-culture techniques coupled with the subsequent bioinformatic analysis. In his free time Oliver loves to boulder in- and outdoor as well as going on trail runs in the mountains. Since he is a nerd, special interests of him are computers and 3D-printers. As soon as he finishes his Master, Oliver wants to dig deeper into the possibilities Big Data Biology offer with a particular focus on Neuroscience and Aging.
Lucy is a graduate student in the Biomedical Sciences program at UC San Diego, supported by a CIRM fellowship. She earned her BSc in Health Biology from Complutense University and her MSc in Molecular Biomedicine from the Autonomous University of Madrid, in Spain. Her passion for stem cell research and 3D disease models was solidified during her time at the Carlos III Institute in Madrid, where she worked on iPSC-derived lung organoids. She also completed a research stay in Jun Yao’s lab at Tsinghua University in Beijing, further expanding her skills in the field. Her current research focuses on integrating fate reprogramming technologies with next-generation 3D culture systems to model aging and age-related neurodegenerative diseases. She’s smiley, warm, and always enthusiastic about spending time with friends and meeting new people. She especially lights up at live music and concerts- her absolute happy places- along with pottery studios and museums. She’s also a big foodie who loves exploring new restaurants and sharing good meals with good company.
Lucia Zhou-Yang
Sophie is a graduate student in Neuroscience program at UC San Diego. She who did her BSc in Biology and MSc in Molecular Cell and Developmental Biology at the University of Innsbruck. She is especially interested in neuroscience and aging and developed a fascination in metabolic alterations in neurons that fall victim to age-related diseases. In her free time she enjoys horseback riding, reading and the occasional hike.
Sophie Eichhorner
coming soon
Courtney Yu
Lukas Karbacher
coming soon
Mario is the Lab Manager for Mertens Lab. He graduated from Point Loma Nazarene University with a BA in Biology with a focus in ecology and animal behavior. He not only manages the upkeep and functionality of the lab but also provides support to any of the members’ current projects. Mario also runs a small photography business. In his free time, he likes to spend time playing videogames, spending time with his family, and practicing his creative side by taking pictures both on film and digitally, and taking on new creative medias like sewing, drawing, and digital design.
Mario Medina
coming soon
Kylie Champion
Cat is a Molecular and Cellular Biology Masters student in the BS/MS program at UC San Diego. They began working in the Mertens lab as an undergraduate assistant in early 2024. Cat has always been interested in biomedical science, but they fell in love with regenerative medicine when they took a high school class on stem cell biology offered by UC Berkeley. They are especially interested in using stem cell fate reprogramming techniques to study degenerative diseases in vitro. They received initial scientific training at a research program from the University of Glasgow, where they assessed which single aspect of flooding—a complex stressor for agricultural plants—is most detrimental. Currently, Cat utilizes live imaging to study how nucleocytoplasmic transport of tau is impacted in age and disease. Much of their non-lab time is spent as the Head Librarian at Darkstar, a local sci-fi and fantasy library. They love to read, work on puzzles, and spend time with their pets.
Cat Siler
Gerdo is a Masters student in the lab, they completed their Bachelor’s degree in Human Biology at UCSD. He is especially interested in neuroscience, motor disorders, and aging. Specifically studying the mechanisms of how stress impacts motor neurons in ALS induced neurons. For this purpose he established motor neurons in the lab, implementing the necessary procedures and ironing out the conversion process. In their free time they enjoy going dancing, reading, and playing board games.
Gerdo Wagner-Swanepoel
Isha is an undergraduate student at UC San Diego majoring in Biology, with a strong interest in integrating computation and neuroscience. She works on analyzing genomic and epigenomic datasets to study Alzheimer’s disease and is passionate about bioinformatics. In the future, Isha hopes to pursue graduate studies in this field.
Isha Dhandha
coming soon
Jamie HAYER
Joe is Postdoctoral Scholar and a joint member of Mertens lab and the Gage lab at the Salk Institute. Joe received his PhD from UC San Diego, his BSc from the University of Alabama in Huntsville and his MSc from the University of Kentucky. Joe's research focuses on the induction of neuronal senescence during aging and neurodegenerative disease. Outside of the lab, Joe enjoys hiking, fishing, rock climbing and any other excuse to spend time outdoors.
Joseph R. Herdy
Ravi Agarwal
Ravi is an MD PhD student at UC San Diego, and joint member of the Mertens lab and the Gage lab at the Salk Institute.