Department of Neurology

Lab Members

Nicholas Poolos, MD, PhD

Nick received his AB in Biology from Harvard, and an MD and PhD in Neuroscience from Stanford with Jeffery Kocsis. After a neurology residency at the Harvard Longwood program, he did a postdoctoral fellowship with Daniel Johnston at Baylor College of Medicine. He is looking smug here because he claims to still know how to work all the knobs on the electronics.


Francis Concepcion, PhD

Francis received his BS in Molecular & Cellular Biology from the University of Washington, and a PhD in Cell & Neurobiology from the Keck School of Medicine at USC in the laboratory of Jeannie Chen. Following this, he was a postdoc in the lab of John Wilson at Baylor College of Medicine studying gene therapy approaches to retinal degeneration. He is currently leading our project studying phosphorylation of HCN channels in epilepsy. In his free time, he hones his killer tennis game and is always looking for victims/partners.


Matthew Ross, PhD

Matthew joined us in 2018. He obtained his PhD in the lab of Rick Hyson at Florida State University, studying the cellular mechanisms of neural plasticity underlying birdsong (which in part depend on HCN channels). He has adapted well to the Pacific Northwest, having discovered the joys of hiking on Rainier, and the infinite variety of coffee and microbrews found in Seattle.


Marium Khan

Marium is an undergrad at the UW, majoring in the highly selective Neuroscience program. Her project is focused on understanding how JNK becomes hyperactivated in chronic epilepsy. When not in the lab, she volunteers at Harborview in the emergency department. She is aiming for medical school after graduation.


Dearly departed lab members

  • Haijie Yu, PhD, is an Assistant Professor at University of Macau, China.
  • Amisha Parikh, BS, is a medical student at Washington University in St. Louis, MO.
  • Christina Castagna, BS, is a medical student at Hofstra University.
  • Aaron Williams, PhD is a scientist at Xenon Pharmaceuticals, Vancouver, BC.
  • Will Skyrud, BS is a graduate student in Medicinal Chemistry at University of California, Berkeley.
  • Sangwook Jung, PhD is a group leader at SeoulViosys in Seoul, Korea.
  • Vicky Herrera, DDS went to dental school at Harvard University.
  • Tina Tai, BS is a consultant for Lucidity Consulting Group in Dallas, TX.
  • Lindsay Warner, MD is an internal medicine faculty member at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, MA.
  • Ignatius Lau, MD is a resident in vascular surgery at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City.
  • Terrance Jones, MD is a researcher at the University of South Florida.
  • James Bullis, PhD is a research & development manager for FORMA Therapeutics, Inc. in Waltham, MA.
  • Miranda (Roth) Knowles, MS is teaching science at the Paideia School in Atlanta, GA.
  • Taylor Abel, MD is a pediatric neurosurgeon specializing in epilepsy at the University of Pittsburgh.