Current Members

Dr. Linnstaedt is an Associate Professor in the Department of Anesthesiology at UNC-CH and a member of the Institute for Trauma Recovery, the Genetics and Molecular Biology curriculum, the Bioinformatics and Computational Biology curriculum, and the Carolina Stress Institute.  She received her BSc from Virginia Tech, her PhD from Georgetown University, and completed her postdoctoral fellowship at Duke University. Following training, she joined the faculty at UNC and focused her career on understanding vulnerability factors for chronic pain and co-occurring adverse neuropsychiatric symptoms. Her lab is particularly interested in the role that molecular and genetic mechanisms play in posttraumatic chronic pain development.  Dr. Linnstaedt enjoys collaborating with the fantastic team of scientists in her lab as well as with other labs at UNC and across the globe. In her spare time, Dr. Linnstaedt enjoys photography, travel, cooking, baking and spending time with her family, friends, and pets. 

Dr. McKibben is a Postdoctoral Fellow with the Department of Anesthesiology, a Trauma T32 Fellow in the Department of Surgery, and a member of the UNC Institute for Trauma Recovery. She received her Bachelor’s degree in Psychology with a minor in Math from Nicholls State University in 2015, and her PhD in Behavioral Neuroscience from the University of Alabama at Birmingham in 2020. Her PhD work focused on microRNA mechanisms of susceptibility and resilience to affective disorders such as anxiety and major depression, especially following early life adversity. Dr. McKibben’s interest in the interplay between physical and mental health led her to join the Linnstaedt lab in 2021 where she is studying how adverse childhood experiences influence vulnerability to trauma-induced pain development in adults. Outside of the lab, Dr. McKibben enjoys spending time with her husband and pets, throwing on the pottery wheel, playing video games, and cooking new recipes.

Erica is a PhD Candidate in the Genetics and Molecular Biology curriculum at UNC-CH. She graduated from Texas A&M University with a BS in Genetics in 2020, then joined the UNC-CH Biological and Biomedical Sciences Program for graduate school. Erica’s interest in translational epigenetics research led her to join the Linnstaedt lab in 2021, where she now studies epigenetic mechanisms contributing to chronic pain development following traumatic stress exposure, with a particular focus on DNA methylation of stress-regulatory genes. After a day in the lab, Erica enjoys getting a drink in Carrboro with friends or spending time with her dog, Jackie.

Alice joined UNC-CH in 2020 and is now pursuing her doctorate in Bioinformatics and Computational Biology. She transferred her studies from Georgia Institute of Technology, where her graduate work focused on clinical data analytics. After completing her bachelor’s degrees, Alice worked for the federal government for several years as a computational toxicologist, investigating topics from developmental neuropsychiatry in baby rats to fish epigenetics in the Great Lakes. She is delighted to continue her research with the Linnstaedt lab, where she is using multidimensional modeling to explore the interplay of sex hormones and posttraumatic chronic pain development. In her free time, Alice enjoys bar trivia, building crossword puzzles, and coaching little league Rubik’s cubing competitions.

Brittanie joined UNC-CH in 2023 to pursue a doctoral degree in Bioinformatics and Computational Biology with a focus on omics in human disease conditions.  She obtained her BS in Microbiology from the University of Minnesota, where she also did microbiome research. Following graduation, Brittanie worked in a genomics R&D laboratory at 3M for two years where she helped develop liquid biopsy assays. During her first year of her PhD program at UNC-CH, she completed three successful rotations learning about methylation, gene expression, and protein expression computational approaches. Brittanie joined the Linnstaedt lab in the spring of 2024 to work on projects where she could integrate these skills with the aim of discovering therapeutic targets for treating chronic posttraumatic pain. When she’s not coding in R, Brittanie loves to hike through nature with her dog, Shadow, do yoga, and spend time with friends.

Jacqueline is an Animal Research Specialist with over 20 years of experience in animal behavior and surgeries. She received her BS in Biology from UNC-CH and worked testing novel compounds for hemophilia in rodent models of wound healing before joining the Linnstaedt Lab in 2021. Jacqueline applies her expertise in animal surgery, injections, and behavior to test the effect of potential pharmacological interventions for pain in our animal models of traumatic stress exposure. Jacqueline spends her free time enjoying her pool with her family and tending to her chickens.

Kennedy is a Research Technician with a B.S. in Biomedical Sciences from North Carolina Central University. Kennedy has interests in Neuroscience, Genetics, Pain, and Trauma which led him to the Linnstaedt lab where he is performing molecular experiments aimed at understanding mechanisms of chronic pain development following traumatic stress exposure using samples collected from both human cohort and animal model studies. Kennedy is an avid fisherman and Carolina fan. Go Heels!

Simran is a senior Neuroscience and Peace, War, and Defense major at UNC. Her projects have focused on the role that peritraumatic 17β-estradiol plays in protecting against posttraumatic chronic pain following trauma exposure. After graduation she plans to pursue a PhD in Neuroscience at UGA and study neurodegeneration and traumatic brain injuries.

Miranda is a senior Neuroscience major at UNC. Her projects have focused on the measurement and analysis of circulating CRP levels in human trauma survivors with and without chronic pain. After graduation she plans to attend medical school.

Meghna is a senior Biology major at UNC. Her projects have focused on identifying stress and sex hormone signaling mechanisms that increase risk for chronic posttraumatic pain, using RNA Seq methods and protein expression assays. After graduation she plans to pursue a MS in Public Health at Johns Hopkins and then medical school. 

Kareem is a junior Psychology and Biology major at UNC. His projects have focused on clinical trials aimed at using estrogen-based therapies to treat chronic pain. After graduation he plans to attend medical school.

Meghana is a sophomore Biology major with a minor in Spanish for the Language Professionals at UNC. Her current research interest is in the functional effect of pain-associated DNA methylation on gene expression and stress system dysregulation. After graduation, she wants to pursue a medical degree.

Taanvii is a sophomore Neuroscience major at UNC. She is interested in neuroimmunology and has focused on projects involving circulating hormones and cytokines in an animal model of chronic hypersensitivity following early life adversity. Taanvii plans to attend medical school after graduation.