Melanie Gillingham is a professor in Molecular and Medical Genetics at Oregon Health & Science University in Portland, OR. She completed her PhD in Nutrition Science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a post-doctoral fellowship in Genetics at OHSU. Prior to graduate school, Melanie worked as an acute care clinical dietitian in Tulsa, Oklahoma. As a metabolic dietitian, she has been investigating nutrition interventions in patients with fatty acid oxidation disorders for 25 years. Dr. Gillingham and her colleagues have studied the role of dietary protein in energy balance and metabolic control, MCT prior to exercise for exercise tolerance and triheptanoin compared to MCT on clinical outcomes in FAODs. She has a long-standing interest in the LCHADD chorioretinopathy and the lab is currently focused on understanding the pathophysiology and novel treatments for this unique retinal disease. Other research interests include measuring dietary intake with food photography, type 1 diabetes, and the relationship between glucose and fat oxidation with insulin resistance. In addition, the Gillingham lab is currently exploring oral ketones as a novel treatment for fatty acid oxidation disorders and cardiac complications of LCHADD. Melanie has two daughters and outside of work enjoys cooking, walks on the beach, snow shoeing and spending time with her husband, family and friends.  

See Melanie Gillingham's OHSU faculty profile page.

Ashley Gregor is a Clinical Research Associate in the department of Molecular and Medical Genetics at OHSU. She joined the Gillingham lab in 2017. Before that, she worked in clinical research labs studying ischemia-induced muscle loss and age-related cognitive decline. Ashley grew up in rural Idaho and moved to Oregon to attend school at the University of Oregon (Go Ducks!) where she earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Human Physiology. She enjoys discovering great Portland area hiking trails, playgrounds, and food trucks with her husband and 2 young boys and reading and crafting in her spare time.

Ayah Asal is a research intern in the Gillingham lab at Oregon Health and Science University. She is currently a Biology pre-med student at Portland State University, working toward a future in biomedical research. Through working in the Gillingham lab, she also hopes to learn more about different techniques that will be relevant to her future career in research. She moved to Portland last year after she graduated from an early-college program. She spends her spare time going on walks, spending time with family and friends, and hanging out with her cat. She also likes rock climbing, cycling, and enjoys gardening when the weather is nice.

Gabriela Elizondo is a medical geneticist who specializes in metabolic research in the Gillingham Lab at Oregon Health and Science University. Her work in both basic and translational research projects focuses on long-chain fatty acid oxidation disorders. She is currently working on her master’s in Clinical Investigation through OHSU. She grew up in Monterrey, Mexico and holds a medical degree from UANL in Mexico but has lived in Portland, Oregon for the past 10 years with her husband and two boys. She loves being a soccer mom and hiking around the beautiful Pacific Northwest.

Garen Gaston is a Research Associate in the Gillingham lab at Oregon Health Science University, Portland, Oregon, USA. He studies disorders of the fatty acid β-oxidation pathway through the use of multiple model systems. In this effort, he helped develop and characterize patient-derived iPSC cell-culture models and mouse models. Mr. Gaston has presented at INFORM and ICIEM meetings and is author and co-author on several journal articles and a book chapter. He holds an MS in Biology from Loyola where he specialized in Genomics.

Hak Chung is a postdoctoral researcher in the Gillingham Lab. She is a nutrition scientist, earning her bachelor's degree in nutrition and trained as a clinical dietitian while pursuing her master’s at Seoul National University in Korea. She moved to the States for her doctoral studies at The Ohio State University, where she gained a foundation in molecular genetics through an interdisciplinary nutrition program. She expanded her background to immunology during her postdoctoral research at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center. She recently moved to Portland with her cat to join her husband and is excited to begin her research on LCHADD-associated chorioretinopathy in pursuit of potential treatment strategies alongside the wonderful and dedicated research team. Hak is a yogi who enjoys all kinds of beverages, including coffee, tea, and wine, and she finds Oregon a beautiful place for outdoor activities like hiking.

Emmalie Jager was a visiting MD/Ph.D. Candidate from the University Medical Centre Groningen, the Netherlands. During her 8 months stay at the department of Molecular and Medical Genetics at the Oregon health and Science University she conducted a pre-clinical study on exogenous ketones as a potential therapy for (long-chain) fatty acid oxidation disorders. In her spare time she explored the beautiful hikes, climbs and surf spots in Oregon.

Shannon Babcock was a Molecular and Medical Genetics PhD candidate in the Gillingham lab. Shannon grew up in Colorado before moving to Spokane, WA to attend Gonzaga University where she received a bachelor’s in science in Biochemistry in 2017. She then moved to Portland, OR to start the Program of Molecular and Cellular Biology at OHSU in 2019. Shannon joined the Gillingham lab in May of 2020 and was using multiple model systems to study the molecular mechanisms involved and potential treatments for long-chain 3-hydroxyacyl-CoA dehydrogenase deficiency (LCHADD) chorioretinopathy, a long-chain fatty acid oxidation disorder. She graduated with her PhD in May 2024. In her free time, Shannon enjoyed playing tennis, spending time outdoors with her dog, and hanging out with friends and family.    

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