Lab Members

Paige Porrett, M.D., Ph.D., PI

Associate Professor
Director, VCA Transplantation, UAB Comprehensive Transplant Institute
Director, Clinical & Translational Research, UAB Comprehensive Transplant Institute
Vera Hauptfeld-Doejsek Endowed Professor in Transplant Immunology

Dr. Paige Porrett received her Bachelor’s of Arts in Immunology from Northwestern University, her Doctor of Medicine from Northwestern University, and her Doctor of Philosophy in Immunology from The University of Pennsylvania. 

Dan Epstein, Lab Manager

Scientist II

Daniel was born in Duncanville, Texas, a suburb of Dallas. He attended Centenary College of Louisiana where he obtained a B.S. in biophysics and neuroscience. Daniel later obtained an M.S. in biotechnology from the University of Texas at San Antonio where his thesis project focused on the firing properties of pyramidal neurons in the rat CA3 regions of the hippocampus. As a research technician and lab manager, Daniel worked in labs at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical intracellular trafficking and neuronal function. At UT Southwestern, Daniel also was part of a team that utilized traditional cloning, bacterial recombination, and CRISR-Cas9 to knockout the entire Rab GTPase family in D. melanogaster and study the function of the fly a-subunit of the v-ATPase in neuronal function. Daniel moved on to work on the role of CDK5 in traumatic brain injury and ischemic neuronal injury at the University of Alabama. Daniel had a brief stint as a manager of in vivo operations at Southern Research until returning to UAB to work with the Porrett group.

His experiences have given him expertise in cellular physiology, biochemical techniques, molecular biology detection, cell culture, and animal models. In the Porrett Lab, Daniel works on molecular detection techniques for xenotransplantation experiments. This includes porcine pathogen detection and xenochimerism.

Sam Fry, Research Coordinator

Clinical Research Coordinator III

Samantha Fry is a Clinical Research Coordinator who holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Philosophy and a Master’s Degree in Public Health from UAB.  Her past research experience in women’s health made her excited to join Dr. Porrett’s team.  Bioethics along with patient advocacy are her leading interests, especially within the realm of Uterus Transplantation.

Outside the lab, Samantha enjoys baking and sharing her goodies with friends.  She has been honored to be a Mardi Gras Queen in Mobile, Alabama.  Samantha also recently completed a half marathon and can be found running all around Birmingham.

Shawn Little, Ph.D

Scientist III

Shawn holds a BS in Biomedical Engineering (Northwestern University), obtained his PhD in Developmental Biology (University of Pennsylvania), and conducted his post doctoral research at Princeton University with Eric Wieschaus (Dept. of Molecular Biology) and Thomas Gregor (Dept. of Physics). He is a research scientist with a broad interest in the mechanisms of gene regulation expression in cell specification, maintenance of homeostasis, as well as disease and regeneration.

Becky Asiimwe, MS

Bioinformatician III

Becky received her Bachelor of Science Degree in Information Technology, a Master of Science Degree in Information Technology and a Master of Science degree in Bioinformatics from the University of British Columbia. Until recently, Rebecca worked as a Computational Science Analyst at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (New York), in the Dobin Lab, where she focused on improving the STAR read alignment tool with Dr. Alexander Dobin. Prior to this, she lived and worked in Vancouver, Canada, where she had the privilege of working with the Kobor Lab conducting bioinformatics and statistical analyses of high-dimensional DNA methylation array data and genotyping data to facilitate the interpretation of associations between molecular data, the environment, and disease. She also worked with the BC Cancer Research Centre in the Shah Lab for Computational Cancer Biology where she conducted novel research to stratify Triple Negative Breast Cancers into distinct genomic subgroups based on mutation signatures, genome-wide individual somatic variants (SNVs, CNAs, SVs and INDELs) and clinical outcomes. As a Bioinformatician in the Porrett Lab, Rebecca works closely with colleagues and with collaborators to lead, manage and contribute to existing projects through performing bioinformatics, computational and statistical analyses of high-throughput single-cell RNA-seq datasets – projects largely designed to support the elucidation of the immune response to transplanted organs.

Morgan Greene

Graduate Student, MSTP Program

Morgan is a graduate student in UAB’s Medical Scientist Training Program (MSTP). She joined the Porrett Lab to pursue her interest in reproductive immunology and is currently investigating the ontogeny of endometrial natural killer cells and macrophages. Morgan earned her bachelor’s degree in Microbiology/Immunology from the University of Miami and is currently pursuing her Ph.D. in Immunology.

Fun Facts:
If you suddenly robbed of your ability to sleep, what would you do with all that extra time? Read for fun
If you were an animal, what would you be? A panda
What is the craziest thing you’ve ever experienced? Cat calls in Italy
What is the best book you’ve ever read? Brave New World by Aldous Huxley