People

Stacy Gelhaus, PhD is an Associate Professor of Pharmacology and Chemical Biology and Clinical Translational Science. Dr. Wendell is the Scientific Director for the Health Sciences Mass Spectrometry Core at the University of Pittsburgh. Dr. Wendell received her PhD in chemistry from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County and was an NRSA postdoctoral fellow in the lab of Ian Blair at the University of Pennsylvania. Her research focuses on the formation and signaling actions of bioactive lipids in asthma and other inflammatory diseases, where she uses mass spectrometry-based approaches to look at global changes in disease pathophysiology. Dr. Gelhaus has over 20 years of liquid chromatography mass spectrometry experience and is internationally recognized for her work in lipid signaling and small molecule mass spectrometry

Matthew L. MacDonald obtained his PhD in Pharmacology from the University of Pennsylvania with Drs. Chang-Gyu Hahn and Ian Blair and completed his postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Pittsburgh in the Department of Psychiatry with Drs. Robert Sweet and Nathan Yates. Dr. MacDonald is currently an associate professor of psychiatry. He is an expert in neuroproteomics and has more than 15 years of expertise in quantitative proteomics using multiple techniques. His research focuses on mapping synaptic protein network pathologies in neuropsychiatric diseases

Steven J. Mullett is a Research Instructor in the Department of Pharmacology and Chemical Biology and the Assistant Director for the Health Sciences Mass Spectrometry Core. He has over 18 years of bench expertise including 10 years of LC-MS method development for small molecules, lipids, and proteins.

Erica Fong received her B.S. in Biology from the University of Pittsburgh. She has over 20 years of core lab experience from the University of Pittsburgh Genomics Research Core (GRC) and now in the Health Sciences Mass Spectrometry Core. During her time at the GRC, Erica provided university researchers with numerous services including RNA/DNA extractions, SNP detection, gene expression, and Next-gen sequencing. Erica is excited to have transitioned to the Mass Spectrometry Core in July 2022 and will be focused on LC-MS sample preparation and data analysis for small molecules, lipids, and proteins.

Cassandra Happe, PhDis a Research Scientist in the Health Sciences Mass Spectrometry Core. She received her Ph.D. in Bioengineering from the University of Pittsburgh and her postdoctoral training at the University of California, San Diego. She has over 15 years of experience in assay development across the fields of proteomics, neuroscience, cardiovascular science, and developmental biology. At the MSC, Dr. Happe supports investigators with her expertise in experimental design, method development and data interpretation.

Ms. Sun has 17 years of experience in mass spectrometry-based proteomics data analysis. She is knowledgeable about numerous mass spectrometry-based bioinformatics tools. Her responsibilities with the MSC include the implementation of bioinformatics pipelines and data exploration.

Crystal Uvalle received her B.S. in Biology from John Carroll University. She has 8+ years of lab experience in clinical and analytical bench work including animal husbandry, RT-PCR, cell culture, western, IHC and MS. In her time at the University of Pittsburgh, she previously worked under Dr. Sally Wenzel on the Severe Asthma Research Project and managed Dr. Bruce Freeman’s lab which focused on the de novo synthesis of nitrated fatty acids as anti-inflammatory mediators. She is currently a student in the Graduate School of Public Health working towards her master’s in Health and Policy Management. As the manager of the Mass Spectrometry Core, her responsibilities include optimizing and developing new mass spectrometry methods, coordination and analysis of customer samples, billing, data interpretation, and instrument service and repair.