People
Managing Director
Flow Cytometry Core
coconnor@salk.edu
In her role at the Flow Cytometry Core facility, Carolyn aims to foster a collaborative and educational environment dedicated to supporting Salk scientists in their efforts to realize research goals through the use of analytical and sorting technologies. Carolyn has extensive flow cytometry experience to leverage, from time spent working in both academic and industrial settings. Prior to moving to California, Carolyn worked in London for leading UK cancer research and awareness charity, Cancer Research UK (CRUK), at their London Research Institute’s Fluorescence Activated Cell Sorting (FACS) Laboratory. Here she assisted scientists with a diverse range of sample types and analytical flow techniques including cell cycle, proliferation, apoptosis and multi-colour flow assays, offering training and support on experimental design and execution, data analysis, as well as running cell-sorting experiments. Most recently, Carolyn managed the 11 cytometer-equipped Flow Core at local San Diego biotech company, BioLegend Inc., where she directed all aspects of the core’s operations. Following her beliefs that sustainable high productivity requires a safe, and harmonious work environment with reliable instrumentation, she focused on identifying and resolving productivity impacting bottlenecks, whilst implementing SOPS and providing user training and support in current methodologies. It is also with the users in mind that Carolyn designed the company’s new Flow Core facility in Mira Mesa, which opened in January 2012. In addition to her key responsibilities, Carolyn provided technical expertise to Sales and Marketing colleagues, and played a key role in R&D where she participated in novel flow cytometry reagent development and Custom Solutions Team projects.
Senior Core Research Assistant
mliem@salk.edu
Michelle started learning flow cytometry in 2019 at the Salk Flow Cytometry Core during her time as an undergraduate student at UC San Diego. After graduating with a bachelor's degree in Bioengineering in 2020, she continues to support the Salk Flow Cytometry Core with assisting scientists on multicolor panels of various cell types, such as plant, human brain, and mouse lung tissue. She has a particular interest in spectral flow cytometry and high throughput analysis and sorting.
Core Research Assistant
mmarrin@salk.edu
Mikayla graduated from San Diego State University with a bachelor’s degree in Cellular and Molecular Biology. She then went on to learn flow cytometry at her first job at a cancer diagnostic testing company. For the past two years, she has been training and supporting many Salk scientists with their flow cytometry experiments ranging from immunophenotyping analyses to human neuronal nuclei sorting. She has a particular interest in pursuing research in the neuroimmunology field in the future.
Core Lab Technician II
crose@salk.edu
Cynthia has a bachelor's degree in Molecular, Cellular, & Developmental Biology from the University of Colorado at Boulder as well as a certificate in Flow Cytometry. Her background includes experience as a research assistant at CU Boulder as well as serving as an allergy and immunology medical liaison at Merck. Her primary responsibilities at Salk are setting up the flow core analyzers and sorters, training scientists to use the analyzers, and monitoring sorts on the influxes. Her current project is learning to set up and run Bigfoot, FCCF's state-of-the-art sorter.
