Principal Investigator

​

Dr. Albert L. Gonzales is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Physiology and Cell Biology at the University of Nevada, Reno School of Medicine. After graduating from California State Polytechnic University, Pomona with a degree in Biology, he obtained his Ph.D. in Biomedical Science from Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado with Professor Scott Earley, Ph.D. He completed his postdoctoral training at the University of Vermont, Burlington, Vermont under the mentorship of Mark. T. Nelson, the Chair and University Distinguished Professor in the Department of Pharmacology. In 2020, Dr. Gonzales joined the faculty of the University of Nevada, Reno School of Medicine.  Dr. Gonzales’ laboratory is focused on understanding the active role capillary networks play in sensing and responding to the metabolic needs of the tissue and the mechanisms insuring the point-to-point delivery of oxygen and nutrients and the removal of metabolic waste. Dr. Gonzales’ laboratory employs a broad range of modern experimental approaches and techniques, including: ex vivo pressurized vasculature tissue preparations; high-speed high-resolution Ca2+ imaging, and patch clamp electrophysiology. 

Cristian received his Bachelor’s degree in Biochemistry at California State University Fullerton in 2020. His undergraduate thesis was on the Carbon Dioxide Reduction to Sodium Formate on Tin Plated Zinc for Fuel Cell. Currently, he is working towards his PhD in the Biochemistry program at the University of Nevada Reno. Within the Gonzales lab, he is working on the role of pericytes in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer’s disease and the development of novel laboratory procedures.

Elena is a graduated student from the university of Nevada, Reno. She works as a laboratory technician and manages our inventory. She hopes to gain more knowledge about research and experimentation later in the future.

Shipra earned her Bachelor of Science in Biotechnology from the University of Burdwan in West Bengal, India in collaboration with the Indian Council of Agricultural Research, Jharkhand, India. Her graduate thesis was titled "Survey of Short Sequence Repeats Markers on Drought Quantitative Trait Locus 12.1 in Oryza Sativa (rice)," and she earned a master's degree in Environmental Sciences from the Central University of Gujarat, India, and the Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati, India. Her master's thesis focused on the preliminary phytochemical extraction of lipids in green algae and the antioxidant properties of the algae. She worked as a junior research fellow at the Indian Institute of Technology-Indian School of Mines, Dhanbad, India. She is currently a graduate student in Gonzales' lab, where she is developing novel methods for defining tissue pericytes.

Murshida Begum completed her Bachelor’s (B. Pharm) in Pharmacy from Rajshahi University, Bangladesh. She did her Master’s (M. Pharm) in Pharmacy from the same university in thesis track. Her Pharm Thesis was in Phytopharmacology titling “Isolation,
characterization and biological activity of the bioactive principles from the leaf of Piper betle." After completing my M. Pharm, She has joined Primeasia University, Bangladesh as a Lecturer in Pharmacy and worked there for 3 years. She did her second Master’s in Nutrition from Nutrition Department at University of Nevada, Reno (UNR). In Master’s, her thesis title was “A systematic review on online resources on dietary management of hyperphosphatemia in people with chronic kidney disease.” She has started her PhD in Cellular and Molecular Physiology and Pharmacology department at UNR School of Medicine from Fall 2023

Audrey finished her second year of BSc Biomedical Science at Queen’s University Belfast. She is currently taking a gap year to pursue research in the Gonzales lab as part of the UNR International Undergraduate Research Program.

​

Contact us!

​