The individuals below are the people that make our laboratory rich.
They bring energy, ideas, amazing troubleshooting and fun to our science, every day.
JANICE THOMPSON
Janice earned her bachelor of science in biochemistry from Michigan State University and joined the Watts lab in 2002. She is currently a research assistant II, with over 25 years of experience as a scientist in both academia and industry. In addition to lab managerial responsibilities, she regularly performs protein extractions and quantitation, western analyses, and enzyme activity assays related to all of the projects currently being researched in the lab. She has been called both Queen of the Westerns and All Knowing of Where Everything and Anything Is/Has Been Located.
BETH LOCKWOOD
Beth joins the Watts Lab in July 2023. We welcome her to our group! She has a limitless spirit in MAKING THINGS WORK and unfraid to try new things.
Andres Contreras
Andres is a FULL Professor in the Large Animal Clinical Sciences Dept here at MSU in his own right. With us? He’s a Watts Lab member. Andres has been a long term partner in studying the adipocyte, and educating us continuously in working with this fascinating cell type. I cannot not have be on this page
Rachel Kram
Rachel is a DO PhD student who began in our laboratory in 2024. She is currently M2 in the Do program. Her training with Dr. John Osborne at the University of Minnesota was dep in whole animal physiology. This prepared her so well for walking into studies on how 5-HT lowers blood pressure and finding a new molecule to do just this.
Lydia Elbert
Lydia joined us January in 2026, having been a PA in The Honors college the previous two years. As a rising senior, she is planning on attending graduate school and thus our laboratory becomes a home for her to learn pharmacology and physiology hands on.
Mankirat Singh
Mankirat is a rising Senior at MSU and is an ASPET Summer SURF trainee in summer of 2026. Mankirat has significant laboratory experience and comes to our lab for a summer of learning some new things. Her hope is to attend Medical School, and we are behind her all the way.
Santi Contraras
Santi will be. freshman at The University of Michigan in Fall of 2026. He worked with us in Summer of 2025 and will do so again this summer (2026). He hast mastered real time PCR and will work with Janice Thompson around a new project in lab.