Dr Prue Talbot received her Ph.D. in Biology from the University of Houston, Texas. As a pioneer in reproduction research, she has studied various aspects of fertilization in mammals including ovulation of oocytes from follicles, oocyte pick-up by the oviduct, capacitation, the acrosome reaction, fertilization of oocytes, the cortical reaction, and the cortical granule envelope. She has published more than 130 peer-reviewed papers in fertilization and stem cell field. Her laboratory is currently developing bioinformatics tools to study drug toxicity and to quantify cell processes including migration, apoptosis, and cell adhesion of mouse and human embryonic stem (ES) cells. Dr Talbot is the recipient of the Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Mentoring Undergraduate Research and is the Director of the UCR Stem Cell Center.

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Dr. Rachel Behar received her B.S. degree in Biological Sciences from UCI where she graduated with honors, and her Ph.D. from UCR in Cell, Molecular, and Developmental Biology. Rachel worked in Dr. Prue Talbot's lab where she published several papers dealing with the development of assays for accessing cytotoxicity using human embryonic stem cells and adult lung cells. Subsequently, she studied the effects of electronic cigarette refill fluids, aerosols, and flavoring chemicals on human embryonic and adult lung cell health. While she was a graduate student, Rachel was the recipient of an NIH pre-doctoral fellowship, two Graduate Research Mentoring Program awards (funded by UCR), and the Cornelius Hopper award (funded by TRDRP) to carry out her studies on electronic cigarettes. Rachel joined the UCR Stem Cell Core as Academic Coordinator in 2018 and thoroughly enjoys working with students and researchers to help them achieve their research goals.

Ngan-Rachel is a third-year undergraduate student. She is a biology major and aspires to become an optometrist in the future. She enjoys spending her free time creating artwork and baking.