Dr. Thomas Sanger
I received my Ph.D. in 2008 from Washington University in St. Louis and began at Loyola University Chicago in 2016. I am committed to advancing the professional development of all my lab members. Everyone’s lab experience is personalized based on their career goals, whether aimed at developing the skills for academia, education, industry, or medicine. I encourage students interested in our research areas to contact me if interested in joining the lab.
Find my CV here.
Post Doc
Dr. Marta Marchini
Marta is originally from Italy. After spending some time in Canada, she joined the lab in 2022. She is working on the developmental bases of craniofacial and skeletal diversity in vertebrates.
Graduate students
Katherine Starr
Katherine is a master’s student studying the evolutionary patterns of Anolis skull morphology. She uses the micro-CT scanner at Loyola to collect shape data on the skulls of lizard specimens from the Field Museum here in Chicago. She is also working on an educational chapter for her master’s thesis, focused on teaching students how to answer scientific questions with data collection and analysis of lizard bite force data.
Undergraduate students
Greta Keller
Greta works on a vast number of projects ranging from studying the molecular mechanisms underlying craniofacial development in anoles to working on embryonic toe pad morphology in geckos.
Adriana Saliceti Galarza
Adriana is studying the role of Hedgehog signaling in anole hemipene development. She photographs the specimens with SEM to study the impact of this signaling pathway on its phenotype.
Naaz Khan
Naaz is currently working on running fluorescent in situ hybridization of anole embryo sections to detect where Hedgehog signaling is expressed during development.
Rui Shah
Rui focuses on brain and skull morphology in anoles by working with the microCT scanner.
Allie Edwards
Allie is studying skull differences throughout different species as they develop from juvenile to adult bone structures.
GiHo Jeong
GiHo is studying the development of anole skulls by comparing the bone development at various stages of the embryo.
John Resener
John is working on a project to determine whether development constrains the adaptive potential of adhesive toe pads. John uses computer software to measure a database of anoles.
Alyssa Carlson
The developing anole forebrain shows cell death when subject to elevated temperatures. Alyssa is studying how thermal stress affects the other regions of the developing brain.
Xavier Rosas
Xavier is studying the morphology of scale count and toe length in anoles and in lizard species without adhesive toe pads to understand developmental constraints.
Alexandra Apostolopoulos
Alexandra is studying the cranial morphology of rabbit species with an emphasis on North American regions. She utilizes the microCT scanner and VGStudios to make skull models for analysis.
Tyler Jensen
Tyler is looking at the cranial development and skull morphology in anoles through the use of the microCT scanner and VGStudios.
This could be you!
Are you interested in joining the lab? If so, please review the research we are doing to make sure that it aligns with your interests. After that, contact me directly at tsanger@luc.edu.
Lab Alumni
Sylvia Nunez
Lilian Arnaoudoff
Michelle Hajduk
Arlisse Lim
Patricia Chen
Gannon Cottone
Laura Harding
Sarah Alcantara
Samuel Jaros
Alexandrea Turnquist
Ameer Odeh
Laura Krance
Judith Kyrkos
Dryden Lachance
Brigid Janos
Seerat Dhindsa
Jillian Schuberth
Alyson Reese
Nicholas Sedlacek
Brittni Walker
Clara Fix
Hannah Maher
Former Lab Technician
Beata Czesny