PI: Susan Shen, MD, PhD
Assistant Professor (started Summer 2024)
Susan is an Assistant Professor at the University of Iowa in the Department of Psychiatry. She grew up in Ames, Iowa and attended college at Caltech, where she double majored in biology and English. She completed her MD/PhD at Washington University in St. Louis, where she studied gene regulation in the mammalian retina and brain in the lab of Joseph Corbo. She then completed her psychiatry residency at UCSF, during which she conducted postdoctoral research in the systems pharmacology labs of Steven Altschuler and Lani Wu, focusing on hypoxia. Susan officially became a Hawkeye in Summer 2024! She enjoys writing poetry, reading literature, spending time outdoors with her family while minimizing mosquito exposure, and improvising upon new recipes with reckless abandon.
Benjamin Borrman
Post-Baccalaureate Research Intern (joined Fall 2024)
Ben is from a small town in Minnesota, who attended the University of Iowa to get his BS in Neuroscience. He has spent the past year and a half working at the University of Iowa Health Care orthopedics, trauma, and spine unit and is interested in pursuing a medical career as a surgeon. He is interested in a diverse range of research topics and has spent the past two years with the Kliemann Social Cognitive Neuroscience lab before joining the Shen lab as a post-bacc research assistant. Aside from academics, Ben enjoys spending time on Lake Superior with his family, cooking a new meal a week, and cheering on the Hawkeyes.
Logan Corwin
Undergraduate researcher (joined Fall 2025)
Logan is from Des Moines, Iowa and is currently a freshman at the University of Iowa on the Pre-Med track. Logan plans to be a psychiatrist in his future and is interested in a broad range of research topics in the field of psychology, neuroscience, and biology. Outside of the lab, Logan enjoys running and staying active, as well as playing the guitar and board games with his friends and family.
Alyxandra "Lexie" Golden
Visiting MSTP student (joined Spring 2025)
Lexie is a second-year MSTP student at the Carver College of Medicine. Originally from Denver, she earned a BA in biochemistry with a minor in computer science at the University of Colorado Boulder. After graduating, she completed a postbaccalaureate fellowship in the lab of Jiyeon Choi, PhD, MS at the NIH, where she studied genetic susceptibility to lung cancer. Her current interests lie in leveraging genomic data to better predict and characterize complex diseases. Outside of medicine and research, Lexie is an avid rock climber and outdoors enthusiast.
Cassidy Kline
PhD student in Human Toxicology (joined Summer 2025)
Cassidy is originally from Iowa and earned her BS in Biochemistry from the University of Denver. Before starting her PhD in Human Toxicology at the University of Iowa, she spent over a year studying how cells clear non-apoptotic corpses in C. elegans. Her current research interests are how environmental exposures alter the epitranscriptome and how those changes may impact downstream brain health. Outside the lab, Cassidy enjoys hiking and snowboarding in the mountains, weightlifting, experimenting with coffee and playing board games with friends.
Marcelo Melo, PhD
Postdoctoral scholar (joined Fall 2025)
Marcelo is originally from Brazil, and split his childhood between Fort Collins (Colorado), Palo Alto (California), and Natal (Brazil) before moving to Iowa City for college. He attended UIOWA for both his undergraduate and graduate studies, where he majored in Biochemistry and later received a PhD in Genetics. His graduate research focused on identifying and characterizing the genetic factors that contribute to the Loose Anagen Hair phenotype, a rare disorder. Marcelo joined the Shen lab as a Postdoctoral Scholar in the fall of 2025, where he will be studying the genetic link between substance use disorders (SUD) and co-morbid psychiatric disorders. Outside of research, Marcelo enjoys spending time with his family and dog, reading, cooking, weight-lifting, listening to music, and watching sports.
PRIOR LAB MEMBERS
Alice Hu, SSTP student (Summer 2025)
ROTATION STUDENTS
- Kelsey Payne, 1st year Neuroscience PhD rotation student (Fall 2025)
- Prerana Ramanan, 1st year Neuroscience PhD rotation student (Spring 2025)
- Safa Kalteh, 1st year Human Toxicology PhD rotation student (Winter 2024)