Lab Members

Kei Igarashi, PhD
Assistant Professor
Kei grew up in greater Tokyo and obtained his Ph.D in the Kensaku Mori lab at University of Tokyo. He then moved all the way to Trondheim, Norway to join the laboratory of Edvard and May-Britt Moser. There, he experienced a vibrant and exciting new era of memory research, concurrent with the awarding of Edvard and May-Britt’s Nobel Prizes. Kei moved again all the way to California to start his lab in 2016.
Enthusiast in Nordic skiing (Langrenn & Telemark)

Tatsuki Nakagawa, PhD
Postdoc
Tatsuki grew up in Nakgano, Japan, and obtained his PhD at Kanazawa University. He joins the lab in Aug 2020.

Sharon Lim, PhD
Postdoc (shared with the Kitazawa lab)
Sharon grew up in Singapore and obtained her PhD at National University of Singapore. She will be expanding her research interest in Alzheimer's disease in the Igarashi lab starting May 2020.

Heechul Jun
MD-PhD Student
Heechul grew up in Nova Scotia, Canada. He obtained his BA at Johns Hopkins University in 2012 with work in Dr. Hongjun Song’s lab. He then worked as a technician in Dr. Mi-hyeon Jan’s lab at the Mayo Clinic. Heechul joined the Igarashi lab in 2017.

Jason Lee
PhD Student
Jason grew up in Huntington Beach, CA. He obtained his BS in Neuroscience at UCLA mentored in the lab of Dr. Dean Buonomano, then joined the Igarashi lab through the UCI Interdepartmental Neuroscience Program (INP) in 2019.

Leon Jiayun Xie
PhD Student
Leon grew up in Guangzhou, China. He obtained his BS in Biochemistry and Cell Biology at UCSD in 2014, working in Dr. Ralph Greenspan's Lab. He continued working as a technician in the Greenspan Lab after graduation. He joined the Igarashi lab in 2020

Tomoko Viaclovsky
Research Technician
BS, University of Miami

Kaori Shiraiwa
Research Technician
BS, Tokyo Gakugei University
Former Members
Shogo Soma, Ph.D
Postdoc 2018 – 2019
Now Assistant Professor at Kyoto Medical College, Japan
Ananya Dasgupta, Ph.D
Postdoc 2018 – 2019
Now back in India
Tomoaki Nakazono, Ph.D
Postdoc 2016 – 2018
Nakazono et al., Neurosci Res 2018
Nakazono et at., Front Sys Neurosci 2017
Now Assistant Professor at Fukushima Medical College, Japan
Alexis Osbourne
Undergraduate Student 2019
Karolyn Tran
Undergraduate Student 2018 – 2019
Seiya Bamba
Undergraduate Student 2018
Now MD student at Kyoto University
Sunwoo Oh
Undergraduate Student 2018
Now PhD student in UCI CMB program
Ayushi Patel
Undergraduate Student 2016 – 2018
Now MD student at University of South Florida
Travis Lam
Undergraduate Student 2016 – 2018
Rodrigo Romo
Research Technician 2019 – 2020

Gregory de Carvalho
Research Technician (Jointly with the Chen lab)
BS, UC Irvine

Allen Bramian
Research Technician
Undergraduate Researcher 2018-2020
BS, UC Irvine

Sandra Yungblut
Research Technician
Sandra joined the lab in 2019.

Jasmine Chavez
Undergraduate Student
Jasmine joined the lab in 2019.