Our team

Dr. Jaime Modiano holds the Alvin and June Perlman Endowed Chair of Animal Oncology and is director of the Animal Cancer Care and Research Program of the College of Veterinary Medicine and the Masonic Cancer Center, University of Minnesota. He completed his training through the Veterinary Medical Scientist Training Program (VMD, PhD) at the University of Pennsylvania, and he followed it with a residency in Clinical Pathology at Colorado State University and a post-doctoral fellowship at the National Jewish Center for Immunology and Respiratory Medicine.

Ashley Schulte is from Lena, Wisconsin. She received her bachelor’s degree in Biotechnology and Animal Science from the University of Wisconsin – River Falls and has been working in the Modiano Lab since 2011.

Courtney Bush grew up in a suburb of Cleveland, Ohio. She graduated with a BS in Molecular Genetics and a minor in Economics from the University of Rochester in New York, where she first became involved with research. She is currently a veterinary student at the University of Minnesota and joined the Modiano Lab in the summer of 2020.

Kelly Makielski is from Michigan. After Kelly graduated from UW-Madison School of Veterinary Medicine in 2010, she completed board certification in Small Animal Internal Medicine. During her residency, Kelly performed research in the field of veterinary hematology. She joined the Modiano Lab as a post doc in July of 2016 to gain more research experience in veterinary oncology. 

Lauren Kreager is from Duluth, MN, and is currently an undergraduate student at the University of Minnesota – Twin Cities campus. She joined the Modiano Lab in December of 2019, and this is her first research experience. 

Mitzi has been the sample collection coordinator and mouse colony manager since joining the lab in 2008. She has maintained the lab's sample inventories and assisted with in vivo experiments and clinical trials, such as the Shine On study for early detection of hemangiosarcoma.

Taylor DePauw is from Tonka Bay, MN. She received her bachelors at UW-Stout in 2015 and joined the Modiano lab right after graduation in February of 2016.