Personnel

Lisa Cameron, Ph.D.

Lisa Cameron, Ph.D.

Director

Lisa comes to Duke from Boston where she built and ran the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute Confocal and Light Microscopy Core from 2008-2016. Prior to that she was a postdoc in Ted Salmon’s lab at UNC-Chapel Hill where she studied microtubule dynamics in mitosis using high-resolution live-cell imaging. She received her PhD from Stanford University in the laboratory of Julie Theriot studying actin cytoskeletal dynamics. She has always been fascinated by watching things move using light microscopy.

Job Responsibilities
  • General inquiries
  • Class-based teaching
  • Grant application assistance
  • Acquisition of new capabilities
  • Training
  • First contact for FFSC systems
Contact Information

Yasheng Gao, Ph.D. ("Gao")

Gao headshot

Microscopy Specialist

Gao began working in LMCF in October 2008. He has a PhD in Cell Biology obtained from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. His research mainly focused on intracellular membrane trafficking, the cytoskeleton, endocytosis/phagocytosis and cell signaling. He has been a regular user of different microscopes in the LMCF for several years as a post-doc in the Yao lab at Duke. He is particularly experienced in immunofluorescence.

Gao supports most of the microscopes but mainly the systems in LSRC, where he is based, and MSRB3.

Job Responsibilities
  • Training
  • First contact for LSRC systems
Contact Information

Benjamin Carlson, Ph.D.

Microscopy Specialist

Ben began working in LMCF in January of 2012. He has a PhD in Cell Biology obtained here at Duke University. His research focused on membrane protrusion development in neurons and how dysregulation of the formation of these protrusions alter synapse formation and contribute to mental retardation. He has been a regular user of the microscopes in Nanaline Duke for several years as a graduate student in the Soderling Lab performing a wide range of imaging and analysis. Previous to his work and study in biological fields, Ben trained and worked as an Engineer, including some time at NASA, and is keen to develop the image analysis capabilities of LMCF.

Ben provides most of the support for the Nanaline Duke systems and works with many other systems across LMCF.

Job Responsibilities
  • Training
  • First contact for Nan Duke systems
Contact Information

Ana Cartaya, Ph.D.

headshot-Ana

Microscopy Specialist

Ana began working in the LMCF in November 2023. She has a PhD in Pharmacology from UNC-Chapel Hill. Her research focused on the nano-encapsulation of therapeutics for the treatment of atherosclerosis and restenosis using murine models of these cardiovascular diseases. Ana has worked with a broad range of samples including nanomaterials, live and fixed cells, sectioned tissue, ex vivo preserved tissue, and animals. She was a regular user of several systems in the NCore, BRIC, NRC, MSL and HIC cores at UNC.

Job Responsibilities
  • Training
  • Assist with confocal and LUMICKS C-trap
Contact Information