Lab Members
Paul R. Langlais
- Associate Professor, Department of Medicine, Division of Endocrinology, University of Arizona College of Medicine
- Director Quantitative Proteomics Laboratory, Center for Disparities in Diabetes, Obesity & Metabolism, Department of Medicine, Division of Endocrinology, University of Arizona College of Medicine
I was born French Canadian, Montreal to be exact, in 1975. My family moved to San Antonio in '78, so I grew up in the good old Texas public school system while spending my summers as a kid back in Quebec (which I still do when I can). I graduated from Texas Tech University in 1997 and realized that I liked Cell Biology, so I got lucky and ended up as a Research Assistant in an insulin signalling lab that Fall, all of which led me to a PhD in biochemistry from the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio. I met my boss, Larry Mandarino, when he interviewed me for grad school and we both left UTHSCSA for Arizona State University together in 2005, him as the Chair of Kinesiology (a department that went bye-bye), me as a Post-Doctoral Fellow. Spent too long there before taking an Assistant Professor position at the Mayo Clinic in Arizona in 2012. Realized pretty quickly that Mayo held no future for me, so we all ended up at the University of Arizona College of Medicine in the Fall of 2016, which turned out to be where we should have started in Arizona in the first place. Love the UA, so good to be back at a health science center and an institution that has a passion for basic biomedical research.
I started my career as a scientist in an era where radiation was the main approach to study protein phosphorylation (this was '97, the internet had just come out and I don't even know if I had an email address, I don't think so). Luckily for me, I met the right people and got an early introduction to mass spectrometry. As a result, my training incorporated basic molecular biology, traditional signaling techniques, microscopy, and eventually mass spectrometry and proteomics. During this scientific journey, I became self-proficient as an end user capable of running mass spectrometers to study proteins. This led to a lot of collaboration, so much so, that we developed numerous proteomics facilities, all of which cumulated to the creation of the University of Arizona College of Medicine Quantitative Proteomics Laboratory, a resource we have designed to offer UA investigators a chance to use quantitative proteomics to answer their own personal research questions.
I am fortunate enough to have a very loving family, a power trio, with my wife Leah, and our daughter Sophia. I enjoy spending time with the girls and watching Sophia turn into a beautiful little maniac. I also get my kicks playing music, SH*TLOADS OF GOLF, listening to music, reading, fishing, snorkeling, exercising, being outdoors, watching movies, barbequing, eating cheeseburges and french fries and chocolate, drinking whatever is being offered to me, and laughing at my idiot friends while I too act like a 14-year old moron. I also like winning money from said friends, the holidays with my family, October, and decorating my house during Halloween in a way that scares little kids so much they end up too afraid to grab the candy and I get all the chocolate.
Alana Betancourt - 2023 - ????Undergraduate Student - McNair Scholar
Fall 2023 - The McNair program, a great group that helps underrepresented students find opportunities in research. I was first introduced to the McNair program by Anay RIP 2023 WE HOPE YOU'RE DOING AWESOME IN PHARMACY SCHOOL and what do you know, a year later, McNair reached out to me again with another match, this time WELCOME ALANA!! Alana hails from a very small town south of Tucson where she commutes from, every single day, an hour each way, while she listens to Nu Metal from the early 2000s. Alana spent the summer of 2023 with us as part of her 6-week McNair gauntlet, we took on single-cell proteomics together. She went from some geek off the street to a scientist by the end of the program. Alana has a very keen eye, not only for when Taco Bell brings back Nacho Fries which she swears are the best fries but I mean really Taco Bell has the best fries what is that they obviously do not because they don't call it French Fry Bell, but also for when she saw me day in, day out, processing thousands of mass spec files, an observation that led her to propose the opportunity that she join the lab hourly to process mass spec files for me. And you know what, it's been fantastic. Not only does Alana help relieve me of 4,000,000,000 hours of work, she also keeps Austin company in the freezer box that is the mass spec lab. Alana has done really well in the McNair program, so much so that she has decided to....wait for it....APPLY TO GRAD SCHOOL. That's right people, we got one! We have managed to find a future scientist! TAKE THAT MEDICAL SCHOOL YOU CAN'T HAVE THEM ALL HAHA! So, we'll do what we can to help Alana achieve her goals of becoming just like me, an academic scientist who's constantly awake at night trying to solve yesterday's problems and then tomorrow's problems and then the next day's problems! YA! GO ALANA! In her spare time Alana drinks way too much caffine and wonders why she can't sleep at night while she plays dungeons and dragons video games and watches Midsommar and Nightmare on Elm St. |
Eva Crudo - 2023 - ????Undergraduate Thesis Honors Student
Spring 2024 - I am late on updating the addition of Eva Crudo to the Langlais Lab website, alas, she has finally made it to internet fame. Eva comes to us as a result of Macie picking up on some chit chat in class where Eva was expressing some interest in getting in a lab that does experiments. Right place, right time? Perhaps. Eva comes to us from sassy San Diego where she CLAIMS to have learned how to surf, but everyone knows no one can actually surf. Eva, sadly, will not be pursuing science as a career, at least she hasn't seen the light as of yet, but instead would like to go to medical school. She is with us for her Franke Honors College thesis work and she joined the lab starting her junior year. During her time in the Langlais Lab she has discovered that she actually likes discovery-based research and performing experiments, or at least, she CLAIMS to, similar to the surfing thing. I've been surfing twice in my life, the first time was 1993 in South Padre, Texas where I never got up on the board and worse, I was slammed Into the ocean floor by wave power. The second time was sassy San Diego, La Jolla to be exact, in 2003, when again, I came no where close to getting up on the board and instead all I did was strain my back like a loser. WELCOME EVA! |
Madi Gackle - 2022 - ????Undergraduate Thesis Honors Student
Spring 2022 - One day Atley came to me and said "I have an idea, i'm a preceptor for a class that has a bunch of smart people in it. What if at the end of a lecture about microtubules, I go up to the front of the class and talk about the lab and the work we do? Maybe we can recruit some new members?" Welcome Madi! Madi hails from the mecca that is the Phoenix suburb of Happy Valley. Madi has a 12.0 GPA and joins our lab as a sophmore. She came to the lab with practically no experience, but, it quickly became apparent that Madi posesses the coveted "golden hands" skillset, as in, anything she touches turns to gold. Madi went from zero to hero in a matter of months, deciding early on to go ahead and choose the Langlais Lab as the lab for her Honor's Thesis. With the loss of Atley and Skylar, Madi's arrival was perfect timing. In her spare time Madi is an amatuer professional bartender who likes to pour garbage into a fishbowl, stick two straws in it, and call it a masterpiece. Cheers to scientific progress and saying HELL NO to Blue Curacao! |
Macie Goodmanson - 2022 - ????Undergraduate Thesis Honors Student
Fall 2022 - Macie, another poor soul snared in Atley's trap, even worse, she got caught as a Freshman, completely unsuspecting, so full of eagerness and hope. Macie spent some time shadowing here and there in the Spring of 2022, but mostly she marveled at my ability to come up with excuses for why I couldn't meet up. Luckily for Macie, things eased up and now, the Fall of her sophomore year, she's officially enrolled in her Honor's college thesis right here in the old Langlais Lab. We'll be teaching her stuff like making sure she completely avoids learning how to do a BCA assay from Noah, and that she needs to steer very clear of learning glucose uptake assays from Jake, and that she absolutely cannot listen to anything Kaelie says about tissue culture. As a result, Macie has pretty much just walked around in circles since she's been here, pondering why anyone would ever do this for a living. Things are gearing up though, so, rest assured, Macie will soon be incessently failing just like the rest of us! LET'S DO THIS. |
Jacob Lasher - 2022 - ????Undergraduate Thesis Honors Student
Fall 2023 - Great, a second Jake in the lab, wait a minute....WELCOME J2! Damn, just realized that I didn't ask Jake to send me a description of stuff he does, so, i'll make it up. I do know that Jake is a descendent of the Madi Gackle line, along with Tahlia. I think Jake knows Tahlia and Madi from class? Maybe? Anyway, Madi, knowing the Langlais Lab was going to get hit with some major losses when Mac, Anay, and Noah were set to graduate, set out on a mission to recruit, bingo, ol' J2 makes the cut. I know J2 has a brother, and they live in a house. I think he likes going to Glamis, the sand place somewhere betweeen here and California, to ride vehicles on the sand? Maybe? I think i'm making that up. One thing I do know is, J2 was instrumental in setting up the inagural Langlais Lab Fantasy Football League. As commisioner of this new 12-team league, he keeps the league in line and he has done a terrible job so far because Crudo still hasn't set her line-up and we're on week 6 I mean seriously you two. Even worse, he's hoarding tight ends and just messaged all of us to hit him up for a trade, i'd rather trade farts. Anyway, J2, just like Tahlia, joined the Langlais Lab right when the black plague hit and contaminated every single cell culture experiment of the Spring 2023 semester. Not to be discouraged, J2 volunteered over the summer and trained under Madi, and now, well, he's getting there. He's got three glucose uptake assays under his belt and he's 0 for 3. He does have a printout of his fourth experiment sitting by the computer, where it's been for eight days. You'd think a kid who has yet to get a glucose uptake assay right would be interested to see if he's finally turned the corner and he'd be itching to see how his experiment turned out right? Nope, instead he's sending garbage trade requests to Kaelie as I write this, claiming "positional value". Even worse, the raw data looks like it worked! Anyway, J2 has been a lot of fun and we're glad he's with us, we'll get him turned around quickly and make sure he kicks ass when he leaves this forsaken place. WELCOME JACOB LASHER! |
Austin Lipinski - 2019-????Research Specialist
Austin comes to us straight outta college! Austin is now the go-to person for the proteomics lab we run across the hall. Austin realized in his mid 20s that he should get a degree cause hard labor is hard. He realized he liked science so he got some kind of scientific double major and while doing that met Mack. Once Natalie and James had to move to North Carolina, the Langlais Lab was fortunate to get a lead on Austin through Mack who recommended Austin as a replacement for Natalie. Since showing up in the late Fall of 2019 Austin has had no choice but to get with the program. Let's just see if he can survive the science gauntlet, he's done pretty damn good so far. GOOD LUCK AUSTIN. UPDATE! Austin is awesome. |
Emilie Lu - 2023 - ???Master's Student
Fall 2023 - Last Spring, ol' Frank The Tank Duca messaged me "hey really your mass spec lab it's so fancy, do me a favor and have the interviewing students come through and act like you're fancy". So, candidates come through, I give them the speech BOOM SNAGGED ONE. Welcome Emilie Lu, the Langlais Lab's second ever graduate student, behind of course, the legend of DeHaven McCrary RIP DMC. Emilie graduated from the school we do not mention and then spent a year doing some sort of hybrid, I don't know, some kind of mishmash "i'm a student i'm a teacher" thing before she decideed "F this" and set out to find her life's calling THAT'S RIGHT IT'S THE LANGLAIS LAB! I gave Emilie at least six chances to choose a different lab but she stubbornly held on to the notion that the Langlais Lab was the place that students thrive. So, now she is in the trenches with the rest of us, grinding her way through the first year of grad school, living off Kit Kat and her parent's homemade dumplings and wontons which she has to give me 25% of because that is Law. In her spare time Emile doesn't have any spare time. WELCOME TO YOUR NEW LIFE EMILIE. |
Mac McGraw - 2022 - ????Was an Undergraduate Thesis Honors Student and is Now a Medical Student
Spring 2022 - Ah yes, Mac McGraw. In his spare time, when he's not volunteering to help feed the homeless, or running a Physiology Student Group, or participating in a Student Diabetes Club, or doing 512 things for the early entrance program (HEAP) for UA Medical School, he dabbles in a little bit of Langlais Lab. Mac comes to us from the Mandarino Lab, where he helped out on some of the Center for Disparities in Diabetes, Obesity & Metabolism BioBank biz. Seeking a more bench-centric lab for his Phyiology Honors Thesis, Dr. Mandarino recommended Mac consider an experience with us. Mac has been such a fantastic addition to the lab because he already has an in-depth understand of type 2 diabetes, being type 1 himself. I'm pretty sure Mac has taught me more than I have taught him. When I grow up, I want to be like Mac.
UPDATE Fall 2023 - Mac graduated Spring 2023 from college with something like 239 awards. OF COURSE he went straight into medical school weeks later. Apparently, Mac will be spending his summer doing his medical school research project in the ol' Langlais Lab hell hole, or at least he says he is, until he bails on us for someone fancier. |
Rotimi Odeneye - 2023 - ????Undergraduate Thesis Honors Student - Blaiser Scholar
Fall 2023 - Ah yes, Rotimus Maximus. I have no idea why that nickname for Rotimi popped up in my head one day, but it's the name that I think of every single time. I am pretty sure Rotimi cringes every time he hears it, anyway, yes, Rotimi, the "i'm going to be a senior next year I gotta find a lab damn man!" guy. I too procrastinated in college, I never procrastinate now, never, ever, nerver. Once Rotimi and I realized "ok ya, we've got to make this happen even though we don't have a lot of time", we quickly joined forces. Rotimi spent the summer of 2023 in the Langlais Lab as a Blaiser scholar, a paid internship, pay that Rotimi is pretty sure he spent in entrirety by going out to eat all summer. Eaters eat. Turns out Rotimi, like 99.999% of the undergrad geniuses that make it to the Langlais Lab, wants to be an MD BOOOOOOOOO. Well, he's of the MD lineage, as his family has a history of being cardiologists. I asked a question one time about heart crap, and wouldn't you know it, Rotimi shot out fifteen answers, his parents definitely would have shed a prideful tear. All summer, Rotimi went through the process of failing miserably attempting glucose uptake assays, just like the rest of us, although, Rotimi felt the heat hard, those days were long, especially the last one. So long in fact that Rotimi ended up drinking tequila and cokes ("that's all I had!") that night until he hit the wall and barfed out. That's definitely one way to cope with glucose uptake assays, can't judge, been there, but I'm pretty sure I've never had a tequila and coke. Maybe no one has, ever? WELCOME ROTIMUS!! |
Anna Sullivan - 2022 - ????Undergraduate Thesis Honors Student
Fall 2023 - Ah yes....The Breadsticks. First there was Breadstick #1, Atley Moberly RIP 2022 APM WE MISS YOU BUDDY. Then there was Kaelieieneiea Zelms, Breadstick #2, started as a freshman in the Langlais Lab during the stupid coronavirus, now a senior. Bring in the third Breadstick of the Langlais Lab lineage, Anna "Sully" Sullivan. Breadsticks you ask? Long ago, in what Atley and I surmised as sometime between 1910 and 1960, other sororities said their sorority was boring and the girls in their sorority have the personality of a breadstick. So, now they're known as The Breadsticks. What sorority you ask? I have no idea, all I know is that they're smart as sh*t and work really hard and actually give a crap. Long ago, I figured that if Atley was this good, then the other breadsticks are probably great too, so, we came up with the idea of creating the lineage. Anna hails to us from Phoenix I swear that's right. I'm pretty sure Anna ended up with us because she enjoys exercise and once Kaelie and Atley set out to recruit, Anna liked the fit because we here in the Langlais Lab research glucose homeostasis. Anna gave up drinking till her 21st birthday, which is super ironic because YOU'RE NOT ALLOWED TO DRINK TILL YOU'RE 21 ANNA. Also, Anna joined the inaugural Langlais Lab Fantasy Football League without actually knowing a single thing about football. But you know who does know about football and is super into fantasy football? Anna's mom Mrs. Sullivan does. So now we have to play against the cutthroat Mrs. Sullivan who hawks the living crap out of the waiver wire and leaves the rest of us with nothing. Anyway, Anna, just like Tahlia and J2, joined the lab right when the black plague destroyed every experiment we attempted in the Spring of 2023, but that's in the past. Thanks to all the hard work of everyone, we beat that stupid plague and have returned, all of which now allows Anna to finally get a shot at doing experiments. Anna is a Junior now, so, we've got to hurry up and get to work so we can get her contributions to the lab before she heads on the greener pastures like OH I'M SO FANCY MEDICAL SCHOOL. Anna, your cells better look good, i'm going to check on them right now. WELCOME SULLY. |
Kaelie Zelms - 2021 - ????Undergraduate Thesis Honors Student
2021 - Once I realized Atley was going to leave us to become the President of the United States of America pretty soon, I had the epiphany that she probably knows other highly functional, up-and-coming, academic elites. In typical take-care-of-business Atley form, she simply said "ya, i'm puting out the call". 10 MINUTES LATER WELCOME KAELIE ROSE ZELMS! Kaeaeaelie comes to us from NORTH Scottsdale OK, not South Scottsdale, NORTH Scottsdale, like Kierland, not Taco Bell on McDowell and Hayden. Like Atley, Kaelie is also in the sorority comprised of over-acheivers that make me regret the time I wasted skateboarding when I was in college, although Kaelie is just a Freshman, so she is involved in only 36 extra-cirrucular activites, not 608 like Atley. Kaelie has joined the lab with zero scientific experience, although she passed the scientific vetting process like a pro. Kaelie will only be able to train with Atley for just a few weeks before she heads home for the summer. Once she returns, she will apply to the UBRP program and we will make her work 80 hours a week in the lab to prove her worth. Funny thing is, because of the stupid pandemic, I've never actually met Kaelie, our entire experience has been through the internet. Alright, let's all wish Kaelie good luck during her transformation from booger-pickin' Freshman rookie to Sophomore Like A Boss. 2022 - UPDATE - Kaelie is now a sophomore and is doing not that bad here in the Langlais Lab. College has her split between many commitments, although, it is obvious she should drop them all and only work in the lab 80 hours a week. C'mon Kaelie, get my priorities straight. |