people
Current members and alumni of the Fortenbach Lab.
Current members
Christopher R. Fortenbach, MD, PhD
Principal Investigator
Assistant Professor, Department of Ophthalmology
Adjunct Assistant Professor, Department of Neurobiology & Biophysics
Medical Director, Karalis Johnson Retina Center
University of Washington
Christopher R. Fortenbach, MD, PhD is principal investigator of the Fortenbach Lab. He is a clinician-scientist and vitreoretinal surgeon at UW Medicine, with a research program centered on photopharmacologic vision restoration in retinal degeneration.
He completed his MD/PhD at the University of California, Davis, and then trained at the University of Iowa for residency and vitreoretinal surgery fellowship. He joined the UW faculty in the Fall of 2023.
Angela Sandt, BS
Lab Manager
Lab Manager
Angela brings two decades of experience in molecular biology and ophthalmology research, with deep expertise at the bench and in lab administration. She runs the day-to-day operations of the Fortenbach Lab.
Payton Hermanson, BS
Research Scientist
Research Scientist
Payton joined the lab from the UW Division of Rheumatology, where she spent nearly seven years as a research scientist and lab manager, leading subprojects on fibroblast and neutrophil biology. She brings hands-on expertise in animal handling, flow cytometry, qPCR, cell culture, tissue processing, and microscopy, and is now applying that toolkit to experiments on azobenzene photoswitches for vision restoration in outer retinal degeneration.
Alumni
Alex Dohoda, PhD
Chemist (lab member, 2024–2025)
Alex is currently a postdoctoral fellow in the Romo Group.