Mehrzad is an Associate Specialist and the Manager of the Sandler Gnotobiotic Animal Facility in Dr. Baranzini’s laboratory. His responsibilities include genotyping, DNA isolation and qPCR analysis, maintaining sterilization, animal gavaging, EAE analysis, and performing surgical dissections. His previous experience consisted of Craniofacial research in the department of Cell and Tissue Biology performing animal husbandry duties, tissue segmentation, and cryosectioning. He graduated with his BS in Biological Sciences with an emphasis in Neurobiology, Physiology and Behavior from UC Davis. When he’s not in the lab, you can find him mountain biking, exploring San Francisco, or jogging through Golden Gate Park and Ocean Beach. His main passion is snowboarding in Tahoe and conquering every mountain in North America that has snow on it.