purvislab

As the academic year is coming to a close, we are thrilled to celebrate our graduating undergraduates: Ander, Lauryn, and Freya, who have each brought lots of hard work and curiosity to the Purvis Lab. Thank you for all your hard work—we can’t wait to see all you accomplish next ⭐️

Dr. Sam Wolff is an Assistant Professor and one of the founding members of Purvis Lab. Sam’s role in the lab is to support day-to-day operations—making sure everything is stocked, equipment working, and handling administrative work. Sam also studies drug resistance in breast cancer.
Thank you Sam!👏

We are excited to welcome Aditi Deshpande to the Purvis Lab! This summer, Aditi will be continuing her research with support from a SURF grant, working alongside Dr. Tim Daugird to explore patterns in protein expression using quantitative approaches. Welcome, Aditi! 👋

Meet the Lab Equipment at the Purvis Lab! 🔬 Our research relies on a range of specialized tools that support our work in computational biology. Check out our Instagram or LinkedIn for specific descriptions of our lab tools! 🖥️

#PurvisLab #UNC #Research #Science

Recent Purvis Lab alumnus Tarek Zikry was just chosen to receive the Kupper Dissertation Publication Award for 2025. You can read Tarek's paper, which was co-authored with Dr. Sam Wolff using the following link: www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/.... Congratulations, Tarek!🏆🚀 #UNC #Science #Research

Follow along a day in the life of a Lab Life Director at Purvis Lab! ☀️ We’re currently hiring for this role—so if you are looking for a dynamic position, this could be your opportunity! For more details, contact Sam Wolff at swolff@med.unc.edu.

#PurvisLab #UNC #Hiring #Joinourteam #Job

Slinky Frazier (named after Toy Story). Follow Slinky at @slinkytheedoxie on Instagram!

Louis Camillo Merhebi

Nova

Leo

Family is incredibly important to us at Purvis Lab. They’re who we turn to after an eventful day at work. That’s why we’ve compiled some of our most cherished family members—our pets! 🐾 Meet our lab members’ furry companions, and check out our Instagram for more!

Meet Lorenzo, sitting at his favorite place: the tissue culture hood. Lorenzo is a junior majoring in Biology and Chemistry, and has been a member of the Purvis Lab since his freshman year. After graduation, he plans to pursue a PhD. We are so happy to have you, Lorenzo!

Happy holidays from Purvis Lab! 🎄As the year comes to a close, we’re reflecting on a fantastic year of research, collaboration, and growth and excited for what’s ahead in the new year. Wishing you a joyful holiday season!

#PurvisLab #HappyHolidays #Science #Research #UNC

Purvis Lab is looking for a new Director of Lab Life!🎉 This role offers flexible hours, valuable experience in communications and marketing, and the opportunity to work closely with a team of researchers. For more details, check out the attached poster and contact Sam Wolff at swolff@med.unc.edu.

Lunch at the Carolina Coffee Shop is the best way to celebrate a paper submission! 📄 Congratulations to Garrett Sessions, whose research sheds light on how healthy cells become senescent under common stresses such as DNA damage. Check out Garrett’s preprint using the following link: lnkd.in/eRzzb5FQ

Meet Ander, a senior Biology major who joined Purvis Lab in his first year through a work-study position. As a Research Assistant, he’s contributed to wet lab research, computational analyses, and other lab tasks. Ander now plans to use the skills he gained here as he prepares for Medical School.

This past Friday, we were thrilled to welcome students from the Wake Tech START Program to Purvis Lab! The students had the chance to explore our lab through faculty-mentored, hands-on research experiences 🔍. A big thank you to our lab members and faculty who made this inspiring visit possible! 🤝

We are excited to announce that our graduate student, Garrett Sessions, has recently released a preprint of his research on how healthy cells become senescent in response to stresses such as DNA damage. 🧫 🎉 Click the following link to read the full preprint: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Take a closer look!🔬 This image captures three levels of magnification of human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs), labeled for DNA and key cell cycle proteins, in a custom chamber slide designed to mimic real blood flow ➡️. Special thanks to the Bautch Lab at UNC for the images!

We’re excited to introduce our newest lab member, Tim Daugird, who joins the Purvis Lab as a postdoctoral researcher. With a background in microscopy and computational methods, Tim’s research is focused on understanding how cancer cells evade treatments and develop resistance. Welcome Tim!🔬

We're hiring! We want to learn about your research vision. Join the interdisciplinary faculty of UNC's Computational Medicine Program, the Department of Genetics, and the Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center.📝

Purvis Lab on Instagram: "We recently caught up with our lab director, Dr. Purvis, for some updates on our current projects and future plans. Check out the Q&A below to see what’s happening in the lab... 11 likes, 1 comments - purvislab on August 28, 2024: "We recently caught up with our lab director, Dr. Purvis, for some updates on our current projects and future plans. Check out the Q&A below to see...

To view the full Instagram post, click on the following link: www.instagram.com/p/C_OGlmgvIE...

Check out our Q&A with our lab director Dr. Purvis on our Instagram for the latest updates on Purvis Lab! We discussed new collaborations, exciting research projects, open positions, and upcoming events. Learn more about how the lab is gearing up for the new semester and what’s on the horizon. 🚀

Purvis Lab takes on Scandinavia as we meet Lauryn Bailey, our newest lab member—a rising senior majoring in Biology. Through the partnership of UNC and the Danish Institute for Study Abroad Scandinavia (DIS), Lauryn has been traveling around Europe this summer. Welcome to the team Lauryn! 📚🧬

We are excited to announce that our lab member, Leah Frazier, has been accepted into the UNC Certificate Program in Translational Medicine! Leah’s acceptance into this program highlights her outstanding credentials and dedication to research. Congratulations, Leah! 🎉🏆
#UNCResearch #PurvisLab #UNC

Meet Garrett Sessions, a PhD student how studies how healthy cells transition into senescent cells in response to stress, with a focus on how they develop into the kind of senescent cell that drives tissue level disease. We are thrilled to have Garrett on our team! 🧫🔬📚

Exciting news from the Purvis Lab! Garrett Sessions and Maddie Loops recently presented their research at the AGE (American Aging Association) 52nd Annual Meeting in Madison, Wisconsin. For more information, visit the AGE conference website: www.americanagingassociation.org #PurvisLab #AGE2024

Introducing Omar Merhebi, a Graduate Student in the Bioinformatics and Computational Biology program and one of our newest lab members who joined us in April 2024! Omar focuses on utilizing interpretable deep learning to uncover the underlying biological mechanisms of the cell cycle. Welcome Omar!🧬💻

We are filled with mixed emotions as we announce that our undergraduate seniors Maddie Loops, Olivia Wen, Nyah Rizzuti, and Aditya Iyer are embarking on new opportunities. We look forward to following your bright futures. Thank you all! #PurvisLab #ComputationalMedicine #UNCSchoolOfMedicine

The Computational Medicine Program at UNC Chapel Hill

Exciting News! A new video capturing the mission of UNC's Computational Medicine Program. Catch the full video at @KathASK Films on YouTube or simply click the following link for direct access: www.youtube.com/watch?v=YI8n... #PurvisLab #ComputationalMedicine #UNCSchoolOfMedicine

Now in print: Cellograph! A semi-supervised approach to analyzing multi-condition single-cell RNA-sequencing data using graph neural networks. Creative quantitative work by Jamshaid Shahir in close collaboration with Natalie Stanley.
Read more: bmcbioinformatics.biomedcentral.com/articles/10....

We are excited to announce Purvis Lab’s newest member! Leah Frazier is a PhD student interested in investigating how changes in cell cycle progression affect the response of breast cancer cells to combination therapies. We are excited to continue working alongside you, Leah. Welcome to Purvis Lab!

Our very own Tarek Zikry completed his Ph.D. Defense. We want to congratulate him on this incredible accomplishment, recognizing all the time and effort that went into his work. Congratulations Tarek!