Staff Profiles
Lorraine Horwitz, PhD
Research Specialist
Dr. Horwitz joined the Core facility in July of 2023 and is responsible for user trainings.
She received her Ph.D. in Neuroscience from the University of Michigan in 2022 where she studied multi-sensory integration of somatosensory and auditory stimuli. She then worked as a postdoctoral research scholar at Rush University’s Alzheimer’s Disease Center studying extracellular matrix composition within the glymphatic system. She has expertise in confocal, expansion, and light microscopy as well as tissue clearing, image analysis, immunohistochemistry, and in situ hybridization.
Vytas Bindokas, PhD
Facility Director Emeritus
Dr. Bindokas served as full-time director of all Core operations until December 2022.
He has over 35 years experience (via four institutions) in light microscopy methods, specializing in physiologic measurements including ratiometric probes, FRET, confocal techniques and image analysis. He served at the University of Chicago for over 20 years (Research track equivalent to Associate Professor) and has over 70 peer-reviewed publications.
Christine Labno, PhD
Facility Director
Dr. Labno has worked in the Core since 2006 and took over as Facility Director in 2023.
She received her PhD in 2005 at the University of Chicago Department of Pathology, specializing in immunostaining (including antibody generation) and cytoskeletal biology. She has expertise in confocal, TIRF, superresolution and lightsheet microscopy. She has created a number of online tutorials for image processing with ImageJ, teaches the Facility’s two ImageJ classes and leads an ImageJ Macro Writing Workshop. Dr. Labno works in KCBD 1250.
Shirley Bond, MA
Technical Director Emeritus
Shirley served as a Technical Director in the KCBD 1250 site until January 2023.
She has over 38 years experience in light microscopy – over 24 years of which were spent at the University of Chicago. Earlier she served 11 years at the University of Illinois Medical Center where she was involved in research and in clinical immunopathology. Shirley also worked as a research microscopist for several years and trained under Anna Teetsov.
Khalil Rodriguez, BS
Imaging Specialist
Khalil joined the Core facility in February 2023 and now oversees the slide scanner service.
He received his bachelor’s degree in biomedical engineering with a specialization in cell and tissue engineering at the Illinois Institute of Technology. Prior to joining the core facility, he worked as a clinical engineer for St. Mary’s Medical Center and as a research technician for the University of Chicago. Khalil was involved with diabetes research where his primary focus was on the image analysis of pancreas vascularization.