Ken Borrelli, PhD, is the Head of Computation at Superluminal Medicines, where he leads the development of computational platforms and their application to GPCR drug discovery. Prior to this role, he served as Senior Director of Chemical Data Science at Odyssey Therapeutics and spent over a decade at Schrödinger, where he led a group expanding structure-based drug discovery to new modalities and adapting it to less certain structural biology. Ken holds a PhD in Biomedical Engineering from Washington University in Saint Louis, with research focused on computational methods for drug discovery. He specializes in integrating machine learning and physics-based modeling to solve complex challenges in small molecule therapeutic design.

Brian Bothner, PhD, is a faculty member in Chemistry and Biochemistry and Director of the MSMS Core. His research group use a wide range of mass spectrometry techniques in their investigations of protein structure/function and metabolic processes.

David Dickensheets, PhD, is a Distinguished Professor and Head of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and the Founding Director of the Montana Microfabrication Facility which started operations in 2004.  His research interests include optical microscopy and spectroscopy as applied to problems in biology and medicine, and the application of microfabrication technologies to develop active optical devices and miniature instruments for biomedical and industrial imaging and sensing. Dr. Dickensheets led the NSF National Nanotechnology Coordinated Infrastructure project at MSU, which supported several MSU Core Facilities including MMF, ICAL, CBE Imaging, Mass Spec and cryo-TEM. 

Jayne Downey, PhD, is a Professor and Director of the Center for Research on Rural Education at Montana State University. For more than 25 years, she has been a committed leader and researcher in rural education. Her work centers on preparing teachers and counselors to thrive in rural schools and communities and on improving outcomes for rural students. Dr. Downey serves on the Board of Directors for the Montana Small Schools Alliance, representing 150 of Montana’s smallest rural schools. Dr. Downey has secured more than $21 million in rural research funding, published over 50 scholarly works, and delivered more than 150 presentations worldwide.

Magali Eaton is MSU's Director of Innovation and Ventures. She is currently working with the research community and industry partners to translate research into impact, with a focus on helping launch and grow startup companies. To do so, she leverages her backgrounds as an intellectual property lawyer, and educator, and an entrepreneur. Magali holds law degrees from Universite Jean Moulin and Universite de Strasbourg in France, and an LLM in intellectual property law from the University of Washington where she attended thanks to a Fulbright scholarship.

Katey Tuchscherer Franklin, PhD, LSC, LCPC, is an Assistant Professor and School Counseling Program Leader at MSU and Director of the Center for Mental Health Research and Recovery. A licensed school counselor, clinical professional counselor, and clinical supervisor, she brings more than 20 years of experience. Her teaching, research, and professional work focus on rural counseling, youth wellbeing, rural mental health, counselor preparation and supervision, ethical practice, and expanding behavioral health access in rural communities through workforce development. Dr. Franklin is passionate about supporting rural communities  and the professionals who serve them.

Roland Hatzenpichler, PhD, is an Associate Professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry and Director of Montana State's Extreme Biology Institute, which, until recently was known as the Thermal Biology Institute. He started his faculty position at MSU in 2016 and received tenure in 2023. His lab works on many extreme microbes, including cultured and uncultured archaea from Yelllowstone hot springs and deep-sea sediments, as well as on developing novel techniques to measure microbial activity directly in their native environments, which with important implications for both ecosystem and human health.

Chelsea Heveran, PhD, is an Associate Professor in Mechanical & Industrial Engineering. Her work on bone fragility and bone-inspired living building materials has been funded by the NIH and NSF, including the NSF CAREER award. Dr. Heveran's students are frequent faces in MSU core facilities, including ICAL the CBE Imaging Core, and the Mass Spec facility.

Martin Lawrence, PhD, is a Professor in the Department of Chemistry adn Biochemsitry, where his research is focused on structural biology. The Lawrence Lab uses cryo-EM to determine high resolution 3D structures of bacterial ribosomes, CRISPR-Cas complexes, and proteins involved in iron transport and iron homeostasis.  Dr. Lawrence is also the founding director of the Cryo-EMCore Facility (https://www.montana.edu/cryo-electron-microscopy/), which provides cutting edge instrumentation for high resolution structrural studies by cryo-EM.

Greta M. Linse has supported Montana State University researchers through Social Data since 2018, coordinating survey projects, managing professional and student staff, and overseeing core facility operations. She holds master's degrees in Mathematics and Statistics from Montana State University and is currently pursuing a PhD in Statistics. Her expertise includes statistical programming, survey data analysis and weighting, biostatistics, technical writing, and statistical consulting. Greta has collaborated with researchers, government agencies, nonprofit organizations, and community partners to design studies, analyze data, and communicate results that support evidence-based decision making.

Mary Miles, PhD, Professor, and Associate Dean of Research focuses her research on the intersection of metabolism and health by examining dynamic responses to metabolic challenges. I use inflammation assessments, metabolomics, and analysis of the gut microbiota to elucidate the influence of diet and physical activity on health. The overarching goal is to develop effective strategies to lower risk of diseases.

Kailyn Mock, MHA, serves as Director of the Montana Office of Rural Health and Area Health Education Center (MORH/AHEC) at Montana State University, where she has spent more than 15 years advancing rural health and healthcare workforce development. She leads statewide initiatives focused on strengthening access to care, building academic and practice partnerships, and developing innovative workforce programs for Montana communities. An MSU alumna and National Rural Health Association Rural Health Fellow, Kailyn brings both local roots and a national perspective to her work. Outside of work, she enjoys spending time with her family, golden retrievers, and cheering on the Bobcats.

Eric Raile, PhD, is the founding director of Social Data Collection and Analysis Services (Social Data), which began as the HELPS Lab in 2014. He is a professor in the Department of Political Science at Montana State University and the co-director of Montana INBRE’s Data Science Core. Dr. Raile has specific expertise in survey research and quantitative analysis but teaches courses in quantitative and qualitative social research methods. He works with Montana INBRE to boost data science training, infrastructure, and workforce development throughout Montana. As a researcher, Dr. Raile is a development scholar whose recent work focuses on the use of technology to drive economic growth and the transformation of food systems.

Jackson Rose is the Operations Manager of the Geospatial Core Facility (GCF) at Montana State University. He runs the GCF's day-to-day operations, scoping and delivering projects in geospatial surveying and mapping, cartography and data visualization, and geospatial data analysis. GCF clients include MSU researchers, state and federal agencies, nonprofits, and private firms across Montana. As an Instructor in the Department of Earth Sciences, Jackson also teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in GIS and spatial analysis.

Don Smith, PhD, manages the Mass Spectrometry core facility, where he leads outreach, instrumentation, and educational programs.

Eric Sproles, PhD, is an Associate Professor in Earth Sciences and serves as the Director of the Geospatial Core Facility. Eric has broad experience in all things geospatial, from satellite measurements of the Earth and geolocated medical devices to simply making a good map. As a researcher, Eric focuses on improving snow and water measurements and developing decision-support tools for water management.

Stacy M. Stellflug, PhD, APRN, FNP-BC, is an Associate Professor in Montana State University’s Mark and Robyn Jones College of Nursing and a family nurse practitioner whose work focuses on preparing the rural health workforce. Through collaboration with the Montana Office of Rural Health and Area Health Education Center (AHEC), she integrates education, research, and community partnerships to address rural health needs.

Seth Walk, PhD, is a Professor in the Department of Microbiology and Cell Biology and his research is focused on the human gut microbiome. The Walk Lab uses bioinformatics to analyze large sequencing datasets (genomics, metagenomics, RNAseq) and other computationally intense data types (e.g., mass spectrometry). Dr. Walk directs the new Bioinformatics Core Facility (https://www.montana.edu/bioinformatics/) along with Nick Pinkham (Facility Manager) to improve MSU researcher access to cutting-edge computational tools and services. 

Trenton Wolfe is a PhD candidate in the Department of Microbiology and Cell Biology in Dr. Seth Walk’s lab. His dissertation research examines how antibiotic perturbation of the gut microbiome influences susceptibility to arsenic toxicity and carcinogenesis. His interdisciplinary research makes extensive use of MSU’s core facilities, including the Animal Resource Center (ARC) for mouse studies, the MSU Mass Spectrometry (MS-MS) facility for arsenic speciation, the Imaging and Chemical Analysis Laboratory (ICAL) for high-resolution FE-SEM imaging of mouse tissues, and the Cellular Analysis Core (CAC) for traditional H&E histology and tissue-based analyses.

 

 

 

Please contact Research Integrity and Compliance at ric@montana.edu with any inquiries, questions or concerns. 

 

Cancellations

Please contact Nicole Soll at nicole.soll1@montana.edu for any last minute cancellations.