Meet the Lab

​Amy Brock, Ph.D. Amy received a Ph.D. in Biomedical and Biological Sciences from Harvard University and a B.S. from MIT. She carried out postdoctoral work at Boston Children’s Hospital and the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard and joined The University of Texas at Austin in 2013. Amy’s research interests include: cancer systems biology, heterogeneity and cell state plasticity, models of cancer progression and response to therapy. Outside the lab, you can find her sailing on Lake Travis with family, digging in the vegetable garden, playing board games, and just enjoying the antics of her five children.​

Patrik Parker, Lab Manager. Patrik joined the lab in the summer of 2021. They graduated with a B.S. in Biomedical Engineering from UT. Before joining the Brock lab they spent 3 years as a lab manager and research scientist for an immunology lab at UT. Outside of research Patrik spends time crafting, gardening, or is out exploring nature.

Graduate Students

Michael Cotner, Graduate Student. Michael joined the Brock lab in the Spring of 2022 as a graduate student in Biomedical Engineering. Michael grew up in Utah and obtained a B.S. in Biological Engineering from Utah State University before coming to UT Austin. Outside of lab, Michael's interests include playing one of various instruments, biking, hiking, paddle boarding, and caring for his tortoise, Clyde.

Sarah Meng, Graduate Student. Sarah joined the Brock lab in the fall of 2021. She grew up in Virginia and completed her undergraduate at the University of Virginia. Through her undergraduate career, she developed a passion for bioinformatics and therapeutic response in the context of cancer. Now, she works on studying the subclonal differences in metabolism and how we can take advantage of it to sensitize subclonal populations to chemotherapeutics. Outside of lab, she enjoys running, hiking, and trying as many taco places as she can in Austin.

Kennedy Howland, Graduate Student. Kennedy joined the Brock lab after the Fall 2021 semester and is pursuing a Ph.D. in biomedical engineering. Kennedy is from San Antonio, Texas where she pursued a B.S. in Biomedical Engineering at UTSA. Her current work involves investigating cell fusion and its effects on the aneuploid state and cellular mechanics of triple negative breast cancer cells. Outside of the lab, Kennedy enjoys hiking, playing video games, and spending time with her cat and dog.

Audrey Freischel, Graduate Student. Audrey joined the Brock lab in fall 2022 as a graduate student in the biomedical engineering program. After receiving her masters in molecular medicine at the University of South Florida, she worked at Moffitt Cancer Center investigating the ecology and evolution of cancer. She is interested in combining mathematical and computational modeling with experiment to understand the effect of ecological competition in heterogeneous cell populations. In her free time, she enjoys exploring, dancing, playing video and board games, running, and swimming.

​Althys Cao, Graduate Student. Althys joined the lab in Spring 2026 as a graduate student in Biomedical Engineering. She grew up in Vietnam and completed her B.S. in BME at UW-Madison. She is interested in studying genetic dynamics underlying drug resistance in cancer cells. Outside of lab, she enjoys drawing, playing the piano, and playing video games.

Undergraduate Students
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Alysa Pham, Undergraduate Student. Alysa is a senior Computational Biology major and joined the Brock lab during the summer of 2025. She currently works under the mentorship of Sarah studying surface-marker expression under various metabolic states and studying how these interactions contribute to altered drug resistance in different clones. Outside of the lab, Alysa enjoys casual photography, reading, and any kind of artistic craft, especially crocheting and journaling.

Nuha Mir, Undergraduate Student. Nuha is from Dallas, Texas and joined the Brock Lab at the beginning of Fall 2024 semester and is currently pursuing a B.S. in Biomedical Engineering. Nuha works under the mentorship of Kennedy investigating cell fusion events and their impact on population growth dynamics within triple negative breast cancer cells. Outside of the lab, Nuha enjoys reading, taking relaxing walks, casual photography, and watching the NBA (she is a Celtics fan!).

Joshua Thomas, Undergraduate Student. Joshua is a sophomore undergraduate student majoring in computational biology at the University of Austin and joined the Brock lab in Fall of 2024. He is working under the mentorship of Carolina De Santiago to investigate the impact of heterogeneity in metastatic and migratory potential of  triple negative breast cancer. Outside of the lab, Joshua enjoys painting, hiking, trying new foods, and fences competitively for the UT Fencing Team.

Past Lab Members
PhD Students

• Carolina De Santiago (2025)
• Daylin Morgan (2025)
• Andrea Gardner (2024)
• Tyler Jost (2024)
• Eric Brenner (2021)
• Kaitlyn Johnson (2020)
• Grant Howard (2019)
• Aziz Al'Khafaji (2019)

Undergraduates and MS Student Researchers

• Eric Li (2025)
• Andrea Ramirez (2024)
• Anton Simieou (2024)
• Lan Zheng (2023)
• William Mo (2023)