Director

Bob Searles, Ph.D.
Bob earned a B.S. from the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics at Oregon State University and a Ph.D. from the Department of Biological Chemistry at UCLA. His post-doctoral work was in molecular neuroscience. He did additional work in molecular virology and bioinformatics before being recruited into shared resource operations and setting up a microarray printing and processing facility in 2000. He has focused on directing high-throughput sequencing services at OHSU since 2009. Bob is a member of the Quantitative Oncology division of the OHSU Knight Cancer Institute, and the Division of Bioinformatics and Computation Biology of the Department of Medical Informatics and Clinical Epidemiology. He is also a member of ABRF, ISCB, and Sigma Xi National Honorary. 

Operations Managers

Amy Carlos, B.S.
Amy Carlos is Manager of the Sequencing Services unit of the IGL and a Core Scientist at OHSU.  She received her degree from Louisiana State University College of Science in 1990 and has over 30 years of experience in genetics and molecular biology and over 14 years of experience working with the sequencing core.

Britt Daughtry, Ph.D.
Britt brings a wealth of RNA and DNA experience (14 years!) to the Integrated Genomics Laboratory. Her passion for science flourished during her PhD graduate studies at OHSU in Shawn Chavez's lab. There, she delved into cellular fragmentation and chromosome mis-segregation in preimplantation embryos, utilizing single-cell DNA sequencing and low-input RNA methods for gene profiling. While Britt appreciates the big-picture science stories, she thrives when immersed in the intricacies of methods and analysis, like an artist focused on brushstrokes. For her, the process of science is as rewarding as the findings. Britt also enjoys project planning with clients, particularly the initial consultation phase. She finds immense reward in helping clients set up successful and optimized projects, all while learning about their fascinating work. Beyond the lab, Britt unleashes her competitive spirit as a dodgeball fanatic, leading sports groups and travel teams.  She also cultivates a unique hobby: growing gourmet mushrooms!

Kristina Vartanian, B.S.
Kristina has worked for OHSU for 25+ years and has spent over 20 of those years working in the Integrated Genomics’ Core Laboratory. Her interest in genomics began at the University of Oregon and continued in her first position at OHSU, working in a skeletal genetics’ laboratory that focused on studying osteoblast function as it relates to the acquisition of bone mineral density.  Working in that lab provided her with a strong foundation in molecular biology techniques.  Around that time, OHSU announced they were launching a genomics core on the West Campus that centered around expression profiling analysis using microarray technology.  Feeling a need to explore this new technology she transitioned to working to in the core lab.  In the last two decades, she has worked to support the expanding needs of OHSU investigators from optimizing nucleic acid isolation to running more complex genomic profiling assays. Her most memorable recent experience occurred in February of 2020 when she was asked to assist with the set-up of the OHSU Molecular Microbiology Covid-19 Testing lab in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.  In the IGL, she enjoys helping researchers reach their project goals and finds it rewarding playing a small role in so many of the important projects being done at OHSU.  Outside of work, she enjoys visiting national parks with her family and photography.

Laboratory Staff

Jacob Buitrago, B.S.
Jacob is a technician for the Healthy Oregon Project, working under the auspices of the IGL. He is responsible for extracting, quantifying, and purifying human DNA for cancer and cardiovascular research. Jacob divides his time between Marquam Plaza and Richard Jones Hall. He started his scientific career at OHSU in May of 2022 after graduating from Portland State University the same year with a bachelor's degree in biology. Jacob is particularly interested in medical genetics and hopes to pursue a graduate degree in genetic engineering.

Ken Crawford, B.S.
After graduating from UCBerkeley with a degree in Biology, Ken started his career in the Bay Area working for Chiron Corp. As a researcher at Chiron, Ken had the rare opportunity to work at a small biotech company that was successful, grew, and was later purchased by the pharmaceutical giant Novartis, where he worked for 17 years. Ken’s own career grew from research associate to team leader in the Protein Sciences Dept, and manager of the Insect-Cell Expression Service. As a researcher at Novartis, Ken contributed to many important oncology programs including a team that solved the PI3Kinase crystal structure. Ken’s area of expertise is Molecular Biology with an emphasis on protein expression.

Eaon Hanebury, B.S.
Eaon studied Microbiology and Genetics during his undergraduate education and entered the genomics world by way of molecular biology and virology research in the Department of Molecular and Medical Genetics at OHSU. He assists in all benchtop phases of the sequencing workflow: from library preparation and quantification to normalizing and pooling libraries and finally to sequencing on the NovaSeq 6000 and NextSeq 2000 platforms. He also performs assays for the core's DNA and RNA evaluation services. Outside of the lab, Eaon is an avid reader of science-fiction and fantasy and meets regularly to play Dungeons & Dragons and other TTRPGs with friends.

Rachel Henson, B.S.
Rachel started working with Illumina sequencers back in 2008 at the University of Miami. She has been at OHSU since October 2010. In the lab her passion is giving clients the best sequencing results possible.  Outside of work, Rachel is very active in Scouting America’s scouting program.

Jinah Kim, Ph.D.
Jinah has extensive expertise in genetic engineering and cell signal transduction, with a BS and MS from Sungkyunkwan University and Yonsei University in South Korea, and a PhD in Cancer Biology from Joseph Fourier University in France. She conducted postdoctoral research on breast cancer at MD Anderson Cancer Center and Baylor College of Medicine, and later focused on osteosarcoma and Ewing sarcoma at the Children's Cancer Therapy Development Institute. Her strong background in molecular and cancer cell biology, coupled with her collaborative research experience, makes her highly qualified to support qPCR, NanoString analyses, and DNA/RNA isolation services at the Integrated Genomics Laboratory (IGL). Jinah is dedicated to advancing genomic research and provides exceptional customer support, assisting researchers with their projects and ensuring smooth laboratory operations.

Alex Klug – B.S.
Alex has been a scientist at OHSU for the past 15 years working on many different varied projects. He’s been involved with hands-on Macaque work at the west campus, mouse work at the KCRB, and plenty of genomics-focused benchwork. Most recently he’s been an integral part of the Integrated Genomics Lab since early 2020.  Alex’s interest in genomics began with his genetics class at Colorado State University and his first job at OHSU studying DNA repair polymerases. While he is proficient in all the services the core offers, he specializes in assisting single-cell users to complete successful 10X single-cell experiments with cells and nuclei. When he's not extracting and handling nucleotides, Alex enjoys motorcycling with his Dad and bouldering in the many climbing gyms in Portland.

Informatics

Chenwei Lin, M.S.
Originally trained as a molecular biologist, Chenwei shifted her career into bioinformatics in 2002, after working in experimental research for over 7 years.  Since then, Chenwei has been working in genomics and system biology research groups at Cornell University, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and Stanford Medical School, until she started her role as the informatician of Integrated Genomics in 2010.  Chenwei received her bachelor’s degree from University of Science and Technology of China, and her Master’s degree from University of Maryland, Baltimore.

Priscila Darakjian – M.S.
Priscila previously worked at OHSU as a bioinformaticist/computational biologist in the Department of Behavioral Neuroscience and at the Oregon Primate Research Center, where she developed expertise in computational analysis and data-driven research, integrating complex biological datasets to advance scientific understanding. She holds an undergraduate degree in Biological Sciences and completed graduate studies at the Universidade de São Paulo in Brazil and Oregon State University. With a robust background in behavioral ecology and ecological engineering, Priscila has developed extensive skills in software engineering, which she further honed during her time in the software industry, including a position at Oracle Corp. Outside of work, Priscila enjoys woodworking and has a special interest in the psychological impact of well-designed spaces.