Current grads, postdocs, and staff
Ekkachai Khwanbua
Postdoctoral Researcher
Ekkachai was born and raised in Thailand and later moved to the States to pursue his PhD in Plant Pathology at Iowa State University, which he completed in December 2025. He joined the Steinbrenner lab in May 2026 as a postdoc. He is excited to learn more about plant receptor biology, including receptor-like proteins (RLPs). Outside the lab, he enjoys hiking, swimming, cooking, and reading books.
Amy Moore
Graduate Student
amoore02 /at/ uw.edu
I am a Biology graduate student who joined the lab in 2025. I previously worked as an undergraduate at the University of Minnesota in the lab of Fumi Katagiri studying the robust plant immune signaling network and as a post-bac at the University of Washington in the Brewer/Raghuraman lab using the power of yeast genetics to study DNA replication timing and origin usage. In the Steinbrenner lab I hope to understand immune recognition specificity in legumes, especially when it comes to responding to our favorite herbivore pests.
Euan McCubbin
Research Technician
mccubeua /at/ uw.edu
Euan McCubbin joined the Steinbrenner Lab in January 2024 as an Undergraduate research assistant. After graduating with a B.S. in Biology from UW in 2025, he moved to an Research Technician role, and is currently engineering a system to screen DAMP candidates in vivo. Outside of science Euan enjoys competitive trivia, playing his trumpet, and going hiking.
Di Wu
Postdoctoral Researcher
woody63 /at/ uw.edu
Di joined the lab in November 2023 as a postdoctoral researcher, bringing a diverse background in plant immune signaling and plant-herbivore interactions. Currently, he is investigating the spatial aspects of INR-mediated defense, along with screening for additional components in the INR-mediated pathways.
Brian Behnken
Research Technician
bbehnken /at/ uw.edu
Brian is a microbiology major with the intention of pursuing a PhD in immunology. He joined the lab in winter of 2022 and is looking forward to learning about plant immune systems. His interests include research and reading anything from physics to biology, and outside of the academy he enjoys backpacking, finding any excuse to make curry, and create art.
Ben Sheppard
Graduate Student
bdshep /at/ uw.edu
I am graduate student studying molecular mechanisms of immune signaling in plants. Previously I studied plant genetics as an undergraduate at Whitman College, and worked in human vaccine research at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center. My key interest is in understanding how the molecular perception of pathogens and pests induces threat-specific immune responses in plants. My current work focuses on the role of signaling kinases following plant perception of caterpillar herbivory by the legume Inception Receptor.
Adam Steinbrenner
Principal Investigator
astein10 /at/ uw.edu
Associate Professor, UW Dept. of Biology
HHMI Postdoctoral Fellow, UC San Diego (2016-2019)
PhD 2015, UC Berkeley Dept. of Plant & Microbial Biology
BS 2010, Tufts University
I am fascinated by plant immune systems. Building on my training in chemical ecology and molecular genetics of immune receptors, my lab now explores new aspects of plant immunity, often using comparative, evolutionary, and synthetic biology lenses. I love working with excited, creative trainees to develop projects on these topics.
Undergraduate lab members
Korina Medina
JT Dugan
Anna Perfetti
Former full-time lab members
Antionio Chaparro (2019-2022), currently at UC Berkeley PhD program, Dept. of Plant & Microbial Biology
Anthony Garcia (2019-2022), currently at University of Washington PhD program, Dept. of Biology
Simon Snoeck (2019-2022), currently postdoctoral researcher with Cyril Zipfel, University of Zurich
Wesley George (2022-2023), currently at UC Riverside, Plant Biology Graduate program
Natalia Guayazán-Palacios (2020-2026), currently a postdoc with Lena Mueller at the Salk Institute
Kelsey Wood (2024-2026)
Former undergraduates
Amelia Wayman (2024-2026)
Laura Barbosa-Chifan (2024-2026)
Aster Earls (2024-2024)
Jaden Benitez (summer 2024)
Morgan Alonso (2022-2024)
Nick Petersen (2023-2024)
Justin Kwok (2023-2024)
Hannah Luskin (2021-2023), currently lab manager at Innovative Genomics Institute, Berkeley CA
Erika Khosrovian (2022-2023)
Alice Lutzenhiser (summer 2023)
Ava Kloss-Schmidt (2019-2022), currently in NYU Biology PhD program
Karyn Tindbaek (2021-2022), currently technician at Metzger Lab, Pacific NW Research Institute, Seattle WA
Nathan Greenwood (2021-2022), currently undergraduate at UW Institute for Protein Design
Sandy Tran (2021-2022)
Sanjana Jadhav (2021)
Anthony Garcia (2019-2020), currently in UW Biology PhD program
August Liu (2021), currently Research Associate, AAV Gene Therapy at Allen Institute for Brain Science
