School of Medicine
Showing 141-150 of 179 Results
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Diana Tordoff
Instructor, Obstetrics & Gynecology - General
BioDiana M. Tordoff, PhD, MPH is an epidemiologist whose research focuses on LGBTQ+ health equity. Dr. Tordoff completed her PhD and MPH in Epidemiology and received a BA with honors in Mathematics from Vassar College. She has been PI on several NIH funded studies focused on the sexual health of transgender populations, and currently is PI on a study exploring the impact of testosterone gender affirming hormones on the vaginal microenvironment and gynecological health of transmasculine adults. She is also an affiliated researcher with The PRIDE Study (pridestudy.org), where she recently completed a postdoctoral fellowship. Dr. Tordoff has over ten years of experience working with and within LGBTQ+ communities. Her research interests include sexual and reproductive health, the vaginal microbiome, molecular epidemiology, intersectionality, and community-engaged research methods.
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Themistoklis Tsarouchas
Postdoctoral Scholar, Psychiatry
BioThemis completed his PhD at the Centre for Discovery Brain Sciences of the University of Edinburgh in Scotland under Prof Catherina Becker, with focus on the contribution of the innate immune system during regeneration of the zebrafish spinal cord. As a postdoctoral researcher with Prof Anna Williams at the Centre for Regenerative Medicine in Edinburgh he worked on the molecular mechanisms that regulate the differentiation and functional maturation of human oligodendrocytes. Over the last few years, he worked on several projects focused on the identification of genes that regulate the axonal regeneration of spinal cord after injury and the differentiation of human oligodendrocyte progenitor cells into myelin producing oligodendrocytes. As a member in the Gibson lab, Themis aims to identify molecular regulators of the circadian clock and how tuning the circadian system affects the maturation and function of oligodendrocytes in health and disease.
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Praveesh Valissery
Postdoctoral Scholar, Infectious Diseases
BioPraveesh was raised in Chennai, India and studied Biotechnology at the Loyola College while minoring in English Literature. He received his Ph.D. from the Jawaharlal Nehru University (New Delhi, India). He has experience in organic chemical synthesis and molecular biology. With Prof. Suman Kumar Dhar, he studied the cell cycle of the malaria parasite (Plasmodium falciparum) and worked on the optimization of water-soluble Artemisinin nanopreparations in the mouse model of malaria (Plasmodium berghei). His PhD thesis concerned “The design, discovery and improvement of novel and existing antimalarial compounds”. He helped in the synthesis and characterization of a novel class of hybrid antimalarial drug, CQ-CFX.
In the Egan lab, Praveesh is interested in exploring essential protein-protein interactions taking place at the interface between the malaria parasite and the red blood cell at key moments during invasion. His research involves the use of genome editing tools, including lentiviral and adenoviral vectors to modify hematopoietic stem cells and generate genetically modified red blood cells by ex vivo erythropoiesis.
In the long term, he hopes to
1. acquire enough skill to study and develop antimalarial vaccine antigens and improve existing vaccine formulations.
2. employ a reverse genetics approach to understand mechanisms that facilitate parasite invasion using genetically modified red blood cells. -
Allison Vreeland
Clinical Instructor, Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences - Child & Adolescent Psychiatry and Child Development
BioDr. Allison Vreeland (she/her) is a licensed clinical psychologist specializing in working with children, teens, and families. Dr. Vreeland received her PhD in Clinical Psychological Science with a minor in Quantitative Studies at Vanderbilt University. She completed her predoctoral clinical internship in Child Psychology at UCSF with specialty training through the Child Trauma Research Program. She completed a research and clinical fellowship in the Immune Behavioral Health Clinic at Stanford University, where she focused her research efforts on examining neurological markers of patients diagnosed with pediatric acute neuropsychiatric syndrome (PANS). Clinically, Dr. Vreeland’s program of clinical care is focused on the delivery of evidence-based clinical interventions for individuals with anxiety, OCD, PANS/PANDAS, mood disorders, and behavioral challenges.
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Bing Wang
Postdoctoral Scholar, Stem Cell Transplantation
BioMy academic training and research experience have equipped me with multidisciplinary skills and knowledge of molecular biology and immunology.
I led two projects when I was an undergraduate, in which I got primary academic learning. My team member and I investigated the bacteria content in drinking water from two types of machines that are commonly used in colleges under the guidance of our experimental microbiology teacher Zhihong Zhong. Secondly, we produced a hybridoma cell line secreting monoclonal antibody against the core antigen of the hepatitis C virus (HCV) to develop an ELISA kit for the detection of HCV under the guidance of Dr. Rushi Liu and Minjing Liao.
Thereafter, as a Ph. D. candidate at Xiaoming Feng’s lab, my research primarily focused on understanding the biology of regulatory T cells (Treg) and CD11c+ myeloid cells using cutting-edge single-cell sequencing and conditional knockout mice under healthy and disease conditions. We first revealed the heterogeneity and bifurcated differentiation pathway of human Tregs from normal donors and transplanted patients at the single-cell transcriptome level. A subsequent first and corresponding author publication identified a key innate responsive protein in CD11c+ alveolar macrophages, NRP2, that protects mice from lung injury via promoting the phagocytosis of neutrophils. I also participated in two projects regarding the role of a serine/threonine kinase, LKB1, in mice CD11c+ dendritic cells from lymphoid tissues and adipose tissue with diet-induced obesity. These academic experiences guided me into a strong passion and independent capacities for biomedical studies.
For my postdoctoral training, I will focus on developing Treg therapies and genetic stem cell therapy to cure patients with IPEX syndrome (a severe autoimmune disease) at preclinical and clinical stages, and other immune disorders. My sponsor Dr. Rosa Bacchetta is a well-known leader in treating IPEX patients and developing Treg therapies. My co-mentor Dr. Maria Grazia Roncarolo is a well-recognized pediatric immunologist and also one of the pioneers in the stem cell and gene therapy field, who discovered the type 1 regulatory T cells or Tr1 cells and translate the scientific discoveries into novel Treg therapies. Both of them have an excellent record of training postdoctoral fellows. The proposed projects will provide me with great opportunities in cutting-edge technology and translational research and outline a set of career development including grant writing, public presentation, and lab management, which will enhance my ability to become an independent investigator and help me to reach my goal of developing efficient and safe Treg therapies for a wide range of immune disorders and associated human diseases. -
Jinglong Wang
Postdoctoral Scholar, Radiation Biology
BioDr. Wang was trained at the Jacques Monod Institute and École Normale Supérieure in Paris, France under the mentorship of Dr. Terence Strick. and obtained his Ph.D. degree from the University of Paris in 2019. He dissected the molecular machinery of human and bacterial NHEJ, and interrogated the mechanism of SpCas9 tolerance to non-specific substrate using single-molecule nanomanipulation tools.
Jinglong’s research in the Frock Lab focuses on DSB-related chromosome topological changes and genomic interactions.
