Faculty
Peter Kuhn, PhD
DIRECTOR, CSI-CANCER
Dean’s Professor of Biological Sciences and Professor of Medicine, Biomedical Engineering, and Aerospace & Mechanical Engineering
James Hicks, PhD
Professor of research, Deputy Director, CSI-Cancer
Department of Biological Sciences, Dornsife College of Letters, Arts, and Sciences
Jeremy Mason, PhD
Assistant Professor of Research,
Director of Data Science
Department of Urology,
Keck School of Medicine
Liya Xu, PhD
Assistant professor of research
Department of Ophthalmology, CHLA
Institute Fellows
Jorge Nieva, MD
Associate Professor of Clinical Medicine
Department of Medicine
Inderbir Gill, MD
CHAIR AND Distinguished PROFESSOR of Urology,
ASSOCIATE DEAN FOR CLINICAL INNOVATION
Department of Urology
Jesse Berry, MD
ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR Of CLINICAL Ophthalmology,
ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR of OCULAR ONCOLOGY
Department of Ophthalmology
Administration Staff
Elvia Nunez
Director of Research administration
Allie Welsh
dIRECTOR OF FINANCE
Research Scientists
Anand Kolatkar, PhD
dIRECTOR OF dATA sCIENCE INFRASTRUCTURE
Stephanie Shishido, PhD
DIRECTOR OF CLINICAL RESEARCH
Postdoctoral Scholars
Rish Prabakar, PhD
George Courcoubetis, PhD
CHEN-CHING PATRICK PENG, PhD
Liz Qi, PharmD
Graduate Students
Lisa Welter
PhD Candidate
Molecular Biology
Shoujie Chai
PhD CANDIDATE
Molecular Biology
Amin Naghdloo
PHD STUDENT
Mechanical Engineering
Joseph Larsen
PhD Candidate
Computational Biology and Bioinformatics
Nikki Higa
PhD Candidate
Cancer Biology and Genomics
Libère J. Ndacayisaba
PhD candidate
Medical Biophysics
Sonia Maryam Setayesh
PhD Candidate
Molecular Biology
Jiyoun Seo
PhD Student
Computational Biology and Bioinformatics
Mike Schmidt
PHD CANDIDATE
Technical Support staff
Eduardo Ayala
Lab Manager
Samuel Lee
Specialized Lab Technician
Valerie Hennes
Research Lab Specialist
Andrés Rivera
Specialized Lab Technician
Tayebeh Hossein
Specialized Lab Technician
Olivia Hart
Research Lab Technician II
Software Engineering (DevOps & IT) Staff
Rafael Nevarez
Research Programmer I
William Kim
Programmer Analyst II
Nicholas Matsumoto
Programmer Analyst II
Robin Dominguez
Systems Administrator III
Jeff Siu
Programmer Analyst II
Patient-facing Tech Staff
Sara Ma
Program Administrator
Undergraduate Students
More on our CURE students: Cancer Undergraduate Research Experience (CURE)
Sachin Narayan
Global Health
Mentor: Stephanie Shishido
Dean Tessone
Biological Sciences
Mentors: Carmen Ruiz and Libere Ndacayisaba
Mihir Kumar
Health and Human Sciences
Mentor: Stephanie Shishido
Rithik Rajani
Computer sCIENCE
Mentors: Shoujie Chai and Libere Ndacayisaba
Audrey Limb
Biochemistry
Mentor: Carmen Ruiz
Emmett Liljegren
Human Biology
Mentors: Liz Qi, Stephanie Shishido
Elijah Wen
Health and Human Sciences, Piano Performance
Mentors: Liz Qi, Stephanie Shishido
Vera Hsu
Biochemistry
Mentor: Lisa Welter and Nikki Higa
Aidan Plant
Neuroscience
Mentor: Patrick Peng
Emmeline Lin
Human Biology
Mentor: Stephanie Shishido
Lily Bai
Human Biology
Mentor: Stephanie Shishido
Carli Kaleta
Quantitative Biology
Mentors: Libere Ndacayisaba and Sonia Setayesh
Sankalp Mrutyunjaya
QUantitative Biology
Mentors: George Courcoubetis, Jeremy Mason
Eric Yang
Quantitative Biology
Mentor: Libere Ndacayisaba
Nathan Kristanto
Biomedical Engineering
Mentor: Jeremy Mason
Hari Mellacheruvu
Quantitative Biology
Mentor: Jiyoun Seo
Carla Collier
BIOCHEMISTRY
Mentor: Stephanie Shishido
Kameron Shahabi
Computer Science
Mentors: Sara Ma & Jeremy Mason
Brando Ye
QUANTITATIVE BIOLOGY
Mentors: George Courcoubetis, Jeremy Mason
Amanda Hmelar
Human Biology
Mentor: Shoujie Chai
Arushi Agrawal
Neuroscience
Mentor: Lisa Welter
Jaden Mullin
Human Biology
Mentor: Jiyoun Seo
Salmaan Sayeed
Computational Neuroscience
Mentor: Stephanie Shishido
Alexander Hill
Quantitative Biology
Mentor: Stephanie Shishido
Christina Chang
Biochemistry
Mentor: Liya Xu
Jena Tran
Quantitative Biology
Mentor: Sonia Setayesh
Cameron Baab
Computer Science
Mentor: Jeremy Mason
Annie Amacker
hUMAN bIOLOGY
Mentor: Carmen Ruiz
Andrew Chen
Biochemistry
Mentor: Jiyoun Seo
Amy Huang
Biological Sciences
Mentor: Stephanie Shishido
Divya Suresh
Biological Sciences
Mentor: Stephanie Shishido
Lab Alumni
| Name | Position in the lab | Dates | Current Position |
| Dr. Carmen Ruiz Velasco | Director of Applied Research | 2014-2021 | TBD |
| Ms. Aidan Moriarty | Graduate Student | 2020-2021 | Min Yu Lab |
| Ms. Maddie Walker | Undergraduate Student | 2020-2021 | TBD |
| Dr. Kien Nguyen | Graduate Student | 2018-2021 | |
| Mr. Sean Solomon | Undergraduate Student | 2019-2021 | Coming soon |
| Mr. Paul Lanctot | Programmer Analyst II | 2018-2021 | Coming Soon |
| Ms. Ching-Ju (Ruu) Hsu | Specialized Lab Technician | 2019-2021 | PhD Student, Baylor College of Medicine |
| Ms. Carlisle Maney | Undergraduate student | 2019-2021 | Data Analyst, Prognos Health |
| Mr. Ryan Storgard | Undergraduate student | 2017-2021 | Medical Student, Weill Medical College of Cornell University |
| Ms. Kate Rappard | Research Lab Technician II | 2016-2021 | Technician, US Department of Justice |
| Mr. Shun-Yang Chen | Rotation PhD Student | Spring 2021 | Coming soon |
| Ms. Riya Verma | Rotation PhD Student | Spring 2021 | Coming soon |
| Ms. Ruoshan Dong | High School Student intern | 2019-2020 | College student, UC Berkeley |
| Ms. Xiomara Villasenor | Research Associate | 2014-2021 | Coming soon |
| Mr. Petar Antovski | Rotation PhD Student | Spring 2021 | Coming soon |
| Ms. Sweta Sharma | Rotation PhD Student | Spring 2021 | PhD graduate student, Unmesh Jadhav lab |
| Mr. Daniel Liu | Undergraduate student | 2019-2021 | Undergraduate Researcher, Dr Kate White |
| Ms. Kathlynn Alba | Administrative Assistant II | 2017-2020 | Associate, Brand Strategy, Canvas Worldwide |
| Dr. Milind Pore | Postdoctoral Scholar | 2015-2020 | Scientist, Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research |
| Dr. Drahomír Kolenčík | Visiting Ph.D. student | 2019-2020 | Medical Science Liaison, AstraZeneca |
| Ms. Sevwandie R. | Specialized Lab Technician | 2017-2020 | Coming soon |
| Ms. Kate Cunningham | Undergraduate student | 2018-2020 | MD-PhD student, Columbia University Irving Medical Center |
| Mr. Kai Han Tu | Specialized Lab Technician | 2018-2020 | Research Associate III at Cedars-Sinai |
| Ms. Ayeshna Desai | Undergraduate student | 2019 | Coming soon |
| Ms. Laura Roed | Undergraduate student | 2018-2019 | Co-Founder, Torch and Frontida Records |
| Mr. Daniel Flores | Undergraduate student | 2018-2019 | Undergraduate student, Dr. Torres Lab |
| Dr. Paymaneh Malihi | Graduate Student | 2015-2019 | Sr. Associate, Global Business Analysis & Insights, Amgen |
| Ms. Sujin Jeong | Research Lab Tech I | 2018-2019 | Coming soon |
| Mr. Michael Morikado | Undergraduate Student | 2015-2019 | Research Associate, Illumina |
| Ms. Isabelle Vu | Undergraduate Student | 2019 | Coming soon |
| Dr. Mohan Singh | Research Scientist | 2018-2019 | Investigator, GSK |
| Dr. Varsha Sundaresan | Postdoctoral Fellow | 2018-2019 | Genomics Scientist, Takeda |
| Ms. Kelly Hong | High school student intern | 2018-2019 | College student, Amherst College |
| Mr. Dillon McKinley | Undergraduate Student | 2015-2019 | Medical Student, University of Colorado Anschutz School of Medicine |
| Ms. Divya Sripathy | Undergraduate Student | 2017-2019 | Graduate Student, USC Marshall School of Business |
| Ms. Preeya Katti | Undergraduate Student | 2017-2019 | Medical Student, St. George’s University School of Medicine |
| Mr. Matthew Lin | Undergraduate Student | 2016-2019 | Medical Student, Keck School of Medicine of USC |
| Ms. Angela Chen | Undergraduate Student | 2016-2019 | Graduate Student, USC School of Pharmacy |
| Mr. Rahul Masson | Undergraduate Student | 2016-2019 | Medical student, Keck School of Medicine of USC |
| Mr. Ali Hashemi | Undergraduate Student | 2018-2019 | Software Engineer, American Express |
| Mr. Ankur Rastogi | Undergraduate Student | 2018- 2019 | Software Engineer, 23andMe |
| Mr. Shaobo Li | Rotation Student | Spring 2019 | PhD graduate student, Joseph Wiemels lab |
| Mr. Peter Savari | Rotation Student | Spring 2019 | PhD graduate student, The Smith Lab |
| Ms. Amanda Meyer | Rotation Student | Fall 2018 | PhD graduate student, Andrew McMahon lab |
| Dr. Sara Restrepo-Vassalli | Postdoctoral Scholar | 2015 – 2018 | Medical Affairs Manager, OM Pharma |
| Mr. Benjamin Ormseth | Research Lab Technician II | 2017 – 2018 | Medical Student, The Ohio State School of Medicine |
| Mr. Joseph Bae | Undergraduate Student | 2016 – 2018 | MD-PhD Student, Renaissance School of Medicine at Stony Brook University |
| Mr. Christopher Kohler | Undergraduate Student | 2016 – 2017 | Medical Student, Warren Alpert Medical School, Brown University |
| Dr. Jana-Aletta Thiele | PhD Student with Charles University in Prague | 2015 – 2018 | Assistant Head of Production, Lyocontract GmbH |
| Ms. Sophia Wix | Undergraduate Student | 2015 – 2018 | Medical Student, TCU and UNTHSC School of Medicine |
| Ms. Serena Zheng | Undergraduate Student | 2015 – 2018 | Medical Student, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai |
| Dr. Michaela Miklikova | Exchange Postdoctoral Fellow | 2015 – 2016 | Postdoctoral Fellow, Charles University in Prague |
| Dr. Anna Sundstrom-Gerdtsson | Postdoctoral Scholar | 2014 – 2018 | Associate Senior Lecturer, Lund University, Sweden |
| Mr. Erik Gerdtsson | Research Lab Specialist | 2014 – 2018 | Imaging Scientist, ImaGene-iT |
| Dr. Fredrika Carlsson | Postdoctoral Scholar; Research Associate | 2014 – 2016 | Project Director, Synklino, Sweden |
| Sara Ruzycky | Specialized Lab Tech | 2015 – 2016 | Research Associate II, Celsius Therapeutics |
| Gina Labeaud | Specialized Lab Technician | 2015 – 2016 | Group Facilitator, The Childrens Collective Inc |
| Ms. Lan Zhou | Research Assistant | 2013 – 2015 | PhD Graduate Student, Arizona State University |
| Dr. Edna Flores | Scripps Clinical Fellow | 2013 – 2014 | Medical Oncologist and Hematologist, Scripps Health |
| Dr. Aadel Chaudhuri | Professional Scientific Collaborator | 2013 – 2014 | Assistant Professor of Radiation Oncology |
| Ms. Newsha Sahaf | Research Assistant III | 2013 – 2014 | Scientist, Gossamer Bio |
| Dr. Jennifer Au | Scripps Clinical Fellow | 2013 – 2014 | Transplant Hepatologist, Scripps Health |
| Dr. Zheng Topp | Scripps Clinical Fellow | 2013 – 2014 | Hematologist Oncologist, Baptist Health |
| Dr. Mariam Rodriguez Lee | Research Associate; Research Scientist | 2013 – 2013; 2013 – 2018 | Medical Affairs Consultant, 1798 |
| Dr. Anders Carlsson | Postdoctoral Scholar; Research Scientist | 2012 – 2015, 2015 – 2016 | CEO, Bionamic, Sweden |
| Ms. Nadia Ebrahim | Research Assistant | 2012 – 2014 | Alliances Manager, Epic Sciences |
| Dr. Luisa Fernandez Altuna | Research Associate | 2012 – 2014 | Scientist, Epic Sciences |
| Ms. Janett Stoehr | Research Assistant Trainee | 2012 – 2013 | Research Assistant, Garvan Institute of Medical Research, Sydney, Australia |
| Ms. Magdalena Panetta | Summer Intern | 2012 | Figure Staking Coach, Saint Paul, Minnesota |
| Dr. Garry Jason Forse | Research Associate | 2011- 2013 | Principal Scientist, Grifols Biologicals |
| Dr. Mohsen Sabouri | Bioinformatics Analyst | 2011 – 2013 | Associate Director, Bioinformatics, Mission Bio |
| Ms. (Julia) Su Zhou Li | Research Assistant | 2011 – 2013 | Postdoctoral Scholar, UC San Diego |
| Ms. Meghana Bhimarao | Summer Intern | 2011 | Consulting Data Analyst, Kaiser Permanente |
| Dr. Angel Ernesto Dago Rodriguez | Research Associate | 2010 – 2014 | Scientist, Lynx Biosciences, Inc |
| Ms. Rachelle Kareen Jessica Lamy | Research Assistant | 2010 – 2012 | Clinical Laboratory Scientist, NeoGenomics Laboratories |
| Mr. Thomas Metzner | Research Assistant | 2010 – 2012 | Medical Student, Pacific Northwest University of Health Sciences |
| Ms. Loressa Uson | Research Assistant | 2010 – 2012 | Government Relations Analyst, UC San Diego |
| Ms. Meghana Honnatti | Research Assistant | 2010 – 2011 | Senior Business Analyst, Epic Sciences |
| Dr. Melissa Torrey | Oncology Research Fellow | 2010 – 2011 | Medical Oncologist and Hematologist, Scripps Health |
| Dr. Edward Cho | Research Associate | 2010 – 2011 | Senior Scientist, BioNano Genomics |
| Mr. Daniel Malinowski | Summer Intern | 2010 | Dartmouth College, Hannover, NH |
| Dr. Yelena Petrova | Research Associate | 2009 – 2011 | Staff Biostatistician and SAS Programmer, Stattrials |
| Dr. Craig Yoshioka | Research Programmer | 2009 – 2011 | Research Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering, Oregon Health & Science University |
| Dr. Marco Wendel | Research Associate | 2009 – 2011 | Medical Strategy & Operations Lead, Bristol Myers Squibb |
| Dr. Xing Yang | Scientific Associate | 2009 – 2010 | VP of Technology, BioNanomatrix |
| Mr. Devin Sok | Graduate Student | 2009 – 2010 | Director of Antibody Discovery and Development, International AIDS Vaccine Research (IAVI), Scripps Research Institute |
| Dr. Ethan Schram | Oncology Research Fellow | 2009 – 2010 | Oncologist, Adventist Health St. Helena |
| Dr. David Nelson | Visiting Investigator | 2009 – 2010 | President and CEO, Splash Pharmaceuticals, Inc, San Diego, CA |
| Ms. Madelyn Luttgen | Research Assistant II | 2008 – 2014 | Law Clerk, Fish & Richardson P.C., San Diego, CA |
| Dr. Michael McCormick | Research Associate | 2008 – 2013 | Staff Scientist, Choate, Hall & Stewart LLP |
| Mr. Lawrence Allin | Research Assistant III | 2008 – 2012 | Scientist, SAFC |
| Dr. Cromwell Cornillez-Ty | Staff Scientist | 2008 – 2011 | Investment Advisor Representative, STEM Financial, LLC |
| Mr. Michael Malchiodi | Research Assistant | 2008 – 2011 | Technical Support Scientist, Truvian |
| Dr. Sumana Chandramouli | Research Associate | 2008 – 2009 | Director & Research Program Leader, Infectious Diseases, Moderna |
| Dr. Edward Huynh | Oncology Research Fellow | 2008 – 2009 | Oncologist, Sharp Rees-Stealy Medical Group |
| Mr. Daniel Lazar | Research Assistant | 2007 – 2012 | Research Assistant, TSRI |
| Dr. Beili Wu | Research Associate | 2007 – 2011 | Professor, Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, CAS, Shanghai, P.R. China |
| Ms. Theresa Tran | Research Intern; Summer Intern | 2007-2008; 2009 | UCSD |
| Dr. Jennifer Fisher | Oncology Research Fellow | 2007 – 2008 | Oncologist, Scripps Health |
| Dr. Vadim Cherezov | Assistant Professor | 2006 – 2013 | Professor, The Bridge at USC |
| Mr. Peter Clark | Research Assistant I | 2006 – 2010 | Professional Helicopter Pilot & Instructor |
| Dr. Jerome Dupuy | Research Associate | 2006 – 2008 | Assistant Professor, Marseille-Luminy University, France |
| Ms. Leila Davis | Research Assistant | 2006 – 2008 | Not available yet |
| Dr. Nicole Lazarus | Research Associate | 2006 – 2008 | Scientific Associate at PARC |
| Mr. Joshua Kunken | Bioinformatics Analyst | 2005 – 2014 | Data Scientist/Engineer, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center |
| Ms. Sophie Daudenarde | Research Assistant | 2005 – 2009 | Senior Product Manager, Convergence Group |
| Ms. Michelle Kraus | Research Assistant | 2005 – 2007 | Scientist, Pfizer Pharmaceuticals |
| Mr. Matthew Leach | Research Assistant I | 2005 – 2007 | Medical Doctor – Otolaryngology, Scripps Health |
| Ms. Christine Chen | Research Assistant | 2005 – 2006 | Graduate student – UCSB |
| Mr. Enrique Rayon | Summer Intern | 2005 | Bio-Mechanical Engineer, NuVasive |
| Dr. Dena Marrinucci | Graduate Student; Scientific Associate | 2004 – 2009; 2009 – 2010 | Founder and VP of Truvian Sciences |
| Dr. Kumar Saikatendu | Research Associate | 2004 – 2008 | Director – Drug Discovery Sciences, Takeda Pharmaceuticals |
| Ms. Sophie Coon | Research Programmer III | 2004 – 2007 | Research Programmer, Illumina |
| Ms. Vanitha Subramanian | Research Assistant I | 2004 – 2007 | Scientist, Novartis |
| Dr. Alexei Brooun | Scientific Associate | 2004 – 2007 | Director, Target Protein Design, Merck |
| Dr. Maneesh Yadav | Graduate Student | 2004 – 2007 | Quantitative Research Analyst, Graham Capital Management, San Francisco, CA |
| Dr. Jill E. Chrencik | Research Associate | 2004 – 2007 | Scientist, Merck |
| Mr. Scott Foster | Research Assistant | 2004 – 2006 | Executive Director and Director of Coaching, Liverpool FC International Academy |
| Dr. Lindsay Kroener | Research Assistant | 2004 – 2005 | Assistant Clinical Professor in Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility, UCLA |
| Dr. Enrique Abola | Research Scientist (Staff) | 2003 – 2014 | Semi-retired |
| Dr. Jeremiah Joseph | Staff Scientist | 2003 – 2012 | Associate Director, Ferring Pharmaceuticals |
