Group Leader

Jacob Kirkland Ph.D. (He/Him/His)
Jake was an undergrad at UC Berkeley (Go Bears!), then spent over three years as a technician in the Corvera Lab at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) in the Department of Surgery studying electrophysiology and GPCR biology in hepatobiliary and digestive diseases. He then went on to get his Ph.D. in the Kamakaka Lab at the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC), studying insulators and chromatin organization in budding yeast. There he found the unexpected observation that heterochromatin organization requires DNA elements and Homologous Recombination DNA repair proteins. Jake then moved to one more SF Bay Area University to do his postdoctoral work in the Crabtree Lab at Stanford University. In the Crabtree lab, Jake developed a Cas9-based epigenome editing technology that allows for the rapid and reversible recruitment of proteins to any locus of interest. Jake also worked closely with the Curtis lab at Stanford to describe a breast cancer-specific chromatin regulator transcriptional network that predicts patient response to anthracyclines through a novel mechanism involving changes in DNA accessibility to TOP2 proteins. Jake mentors students from SACNAS. He is a reviewer for travel scholarships, research presentations, and session proposals for the SACNAS conference. He also serves as a SACNAS mentor, helping students prepare for graduate school and fellowship applications.

Jake believes in hobbies outside the lab and is an avid birder, herper, camera trapper, and all-around naturalist. Jake is a member of the Board of Directors of the Oklahoma Ornithological Society. Here are a few examples of his wildlife photography. Jake is a homebrewer of actually drinkable beer and a hobbiest amphibian and reptile breeder.
Google Scholar Profile

Trainees

Portrait of JinYoung Park

JinYoung Park
Graduate Student
Joined 2022

Michaela Crossley
Research Technician
Joined Spring 2024

Adam Kulpa
Graduate Student – Co-mentored with Dr. Freeman
Joined Fall 2024

Colter Bufford
Fleming Scholar Summer 2025
Undergrad Lab Technician Fall 2025

Julia Skalka
BioLab Scholar 2025-2026
Co-mentored with Dr. Stout

Christian Wright smiling in front of a stone wall

Christian Wright
Graduate Student – Co-mentored with Dr. Freeman
Joined Summer 2025

Alumni

Selfie of Karol Tchorz on the coast of Portugal

Karol Tchórz
BioLab Scholar 2023-2024
Research Technician 2024-2025

Marcin looking dapper in a pink bowtie

Marcin Ostoja-Helczynski
BioLab Scholar 2024-2025

Bri Owens standing in a street with a leather jacket

Bri Owens
Langston University Fellow
Summer 2024

Mary Bergwell
Research Technician II
May 2021 – July 2024

Portrait of Amari Griffis holding up a slide while wearing a lab coat

Amari Griffis
Langston University Fellow
Summer 2023

Portrait of Laura Pistoni

Laura Pistoni M.Sc.
Senior Research Technician

Aijalon Underwood

Aijalon Underwood
Langston University Fellow
Summer 2022

Corvin Barlow
Research Technician

Contact us if you are interested in joining the team or collaborating.

Lab Outings and Pics:

Lab at Bar sen in OKC

Lab outing to Bar sen to celebrate out NIH R35 Award.

5 lab members sitting around a table full of ramen bowls

^ people standing in front of the OMRF sign smiling

Celebrating Amari Griffis completing her Langston Summer Scholar Fellowship with her proud parents!

JinYoung passes her qualifying exam!

Portrait of JinYoung Park celebrating her win

JinYoung celebrates her OMRF predoc scholarship after pizza at Fair Weather Friend

5 people outside of a BBQ restaurant taking a selfie

Vinny’s going away BBQ at Edgecraft

Four people in masks in a basketball arena after the game is over

Golden State Warriors @ OKC Thunder Game Feb 2022

Four people dressed in gray pants, t shirts and flannels with backwards hats. One sweater is modified from Oklahoma to say Okland. Wearing keys on belt loop.

Halloween AKA Dress as Your Boss Day 2021

Four people at a picnic table with Pizzas

Lab Lunch @ Pizzeria Gusto Sept. 2021