Capra Lab Members

John Anthony (Tony) Capra
he/him/his
Principal Investigator
tony[at]capralab[dot]org
0000-0001-9743-1795
Scholar Citations
@capra_lab
CapraLab

Tony Capra is a Professor and Head of the Division of Bioinformatics in the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics and the Bakar Computational Health Sciences Institute at the University of California, San Francisco. He is also Co-Director of the Biological and Medical Informatics PhD program. He received his PhD in computer science from Princeton University and completed a postdoc in the Gladstone Institutes at UCSF. Prior to coming to UCSF, Tony spent 7 years at Vanderbilt University in Dept. of Biological Sciences and the Vanderbilt Genetics Institute (VGI).

Ava Xu
she/her/hers
Graduate Student
ava.xu (at) ucsf.edu
0000-0002-9222-1227
-ava-xu
Scholar Citations
@avamissxu
avaxu222

Ava Xu is a Ph.D. student in the Pharmaceutical Sciences and Pharmacogenomics Program and holds a Pharm.D. from Chapman University. She is interested in incorporating pharmacogenomics data to better predict Pharmacokinetic-Pharmacodynamic parameters. Ultimately, the goal is to use such models to provide personalized recommendations for patients and to guide clinical trial designs. Outside of research, she enjoys hiking and trying out new restaurants.

Colin Brand
he/him/his
Postdoctoral Scholar
colin.brand@ucsf.edu
https://colinmbrand.weebly.com
0000-0002-6881-8074
Scholar Citations
@colinmbrand
brandcm

Colin is an evolutionary genomicist and studies evolutionary processes and the molecular underpinnings of phenotypic differences among humans, archaic hominins, and non-human primates. He received his PhD in Anthropology from the University of Oregon in 2021.

Erin Gilbertson
she/her/hers
Graduate Student
erin.gilbertson (at) ucsf.edu
0000-0002-2426-9966
@ErinNGilbertson
egilbertson-ucsf

Erin is a PhD Candidate in the Biological and Medical Informatics Program. She graduated from the University of Minnesota with a B.S. in Genetics, Cell Biology and Development with a minor in Computer Science. Her research interests revolve around using machine learning methods to understand the evolution of gene regulation. Outside of the lab she enjoys playing guitar, cooking and spending time outdoors.

Grace Ramey
she/her/hers
Graduate Student
grace.ramey (at) ucsf.edu
0000-0001-5321-131X
gramey02

Grace is a PhD student in the Biological and Medical Informatics (BMI) program at UCSF. She graduated from UCLA with a dual B.S. in Computational and Systems Biology and Neuroscience. Her research interests include obtaining phenotypic predictions from gene expression data using machine learning, and outside of the lab she enjoys rock climbing and trivia.

Hannah Takasuka
she/her/ella
Graduate Student
hannah.takasuka@ucsf.edu
0000-0002-9697-4189
hannah-takasuka
Scholar Citations
hanmochturt

Hannah Takasuka is a DDS/PhD student in the Oral and Craniofacial Sciences Program. She is a 2022 graduate of Johns Hopkins University with majors in biomedical engineering and Spanish. Prior to UCSF, she conducted academic and industry research in cell biology, tissue engineering, and hardware/software development of medical devices. She also underwent orthognathic (corrective jaw) surgery, experiencing first-hand how a severely dysfunctional and unaesthetic orthodontic bite can negatively affect both physical and mental health. This inspired her to shift her focus and pursue studies in dentistry and oral sciences. She is currently exploring dental electronic health record data and leveraging medical electronic health record data to quantify maternal comorbidities for mothers who deliver early preterm (<32 weeks gestational age), late preterm (32-36 weeks), spontaneous preterm (labor and delivery not induced by a doctor), or medically-indicated preterm (induced by a doctor). Outside of research, Hannah enjoys running, soccer, rock climbing, Christian fellowship, learning languages, and community service/advocacy.

Sebastián Cruz González
he/him/his
Graduate Student
sebastian.cruzgonzalez[at]ucsf.edu
https://seba2550.github.io/computational-violist
0000-0003-0263-5379
sebastián-c-1b68239a
Scholar Citations
@seba_2550
seba2550

Sebastián is a Ph.D. student in the Biological and Medical Informatics program and holds a B.S. in Molecular and Cell Biology from the University of Puerto Rico in Rio Piedras. He leverages electronic health record data for deep phenotyping and integrates these data with molecular datasets to characterize complex diseases with clinically heterogeneous presentations. Outside of the lab Sebastián is an amateur kitesurfer, a dedicated road cyclist, occassional literature and cinema enthusiast, and former violist.

Yaen Chen
she/her/hers
Graduate Student
yaen.chen (at) ucsf.edu
0000-0002-1389-5398
yaenchen
Scholar Citations
@yaenchen
yaenchen

Yaen (Yah-En) is a PhD student in the Biological and Medical Informatics program at UCSF. She works on exploring the contributions of Neanderthal introgressed genomic regions in moderns humans and how they affect structural/functional brain phenotypes, along with psychiatric disease risk. Before joining UCSF, she graduated from Northeastern University with a Bachelor’s in Behavioral Neuroscience and a minor in Data Science, studied tau biology at AbbVie, and conducted neuroimaging research though Northeastern University’s Music, Imaging and Neural Dynamics Laboratory and Massachusetts General Hospital’s Eating Disorder Research and Clinical Program. Today, she continues to advocate for diversity in research, increased mental health awareness, and hopes to be a mentor in the spaces she is a part of. Outside of the lab, you can find Yaen being a guest in the Bay Area hip-hop dance community, exploring San Francisco on her bike, playing too much Candy Crush, and crafting.