Research Scientist
Samuel Reyes, PhD
Using a cone-and-plate shear stress device (designed by Dr. Hanjoong Jo), Sam researched the role of shear stress in directing stem cell fate. He is now at UCLA Rare Epilepsies & Brain Disease Tissue Bank
Postdoctoral Researcher
William Turner, PhD, was an NIH-NRSA and CIRM-funded postdoctoral research fellow in our laboratory. He primarily worked on developing a cardiac patch using combinations of patterned surfaces, acellularized biomaterials, and stem cell-derived cardiac and endothelial products. William also optimized the derivation of endothelial cells from several human embryonic stem cell lines.
Doctoral Students
Anley Tefera, Ph.D. (goes by T) was a doctoral student in Biological Engineering & Small-scale Technologies (BEST) graduate program. T's project involved the development of a cell stretching device for cardiac tissue slices as an in vitro model of cardiac tissue. He served as an NSF-Diversity Fellow and UCM Faculty Mentor Program Fellow.
Edwin Shen, Ph.D. was a doctoral student in the Biological Engineering & Small-scale Technologies (BEST) graduate program and an NSF-IGERT Fellow. He built a custom modular bioprinting machine (ModiPrint) and examined vascular smooth muscle fate from stem cells.
Rachel Hatano, PhD, was a doctoral student in Biological Engineering & Small-scale Technologies (BEST) graduate program and an NSF-IGERT Fellow. Rachel's project was aimed towards building a heart patch from embryonic stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes for heart repair.
Lian Wong, PhD, was a doctoral student in Materials and Biomaterials Science and Engineering program. Lian was a NSF-IGERT Fellow for 2 years and was a NSF-CREST Fellow. She studied the role of stiffness and patterning in vascular fate towards building perfusable microvasculature in vitro.
Nicole Madfis, PhD, was a doctoral student in UC Merced's Quantitative and Systems Biology (QSB) Graduate Group. She investigated the derivation, purification, characterization, and plasticity of tip, stalk, and phalanx-type endothelial cells from embryonic stem cells. She now works for Cellular Dynamics.
Drew Glaser, PhD, was a doctoral student in UC Merced's Biological Engineering and Small-scale Technologies (BEST) Graduate Group. Drew worked on optimizing endothelial fate from a new embryonic stem-cell line with dual endothelial and smooth muscle promoters under GFP and RFP for studying real time morphological vascular development and vascularization of tissues. She then progressed to a postdoctoral position with Steve George, UC Davis.
Silin Sa, PhD, was a doctoral student in UC Merced’s Biological Engineering and Small-scale Technologies (BEST) Graduate Group. Silin worked on cardiac stem cell differentiation from embryonic stem cells. Her work won best oral presentation at our UC-Systemwide Bioengineering Symposium, 2009. She accepted a research staff position at Stanford University.
Alicia Blancas, PhD, was a doctoral student and NIH NRSA pre-doctoral fellow in UC Merced’s Quantitative and Systems Biology (QSB) Graduate Group. Alicia characterized the angiogenic and vasculogenic potential of embryonic stem cell derived-endothelial cells at operationally defined stages of differentiation. Her research proposal was awarded a 4 year NRSA (pre-doctoral fellowship) by NIH. She then progressed to postdoctoral position with Jane Grande-Allen at Rice University.
Masters Students
Basharat Jaha, MS. was a graduate student in Biological Engineering & Small-scale Technologies (BEST) graduate program. She is interested in in vitro vascular assembly of stem cell derived endothelial cells.
Jesus Luna, MS, was a graduate student in our Biological Engineering and Small-scale Technologies program. He showed that nanopatterns cen increased alignment of neonatal cardiac cells on wrinkled topology. He later pursued a PhD and advanced to a postdoctoral position at UC Davis.
Sarah Stolberg, MS, was a graduate student in the University of CA, Merced’s Quantitative and Systems Biology Graduate Program. Sarah examined the potential role of shear stress in induction of endothelial fate from stem cells.
Yimy Villa, MS, was a graduate student from San Francisco State University funded under a training fellowship from the California Institute of Regenerative Medicine (CIRM). He analyzed the role of materials signaling in endothelial fate.
Undergraduate Students
Maha Zamar - Bioengineering
Ariell Smith - Bioengineering
Diana Cruz Garcia - Bioengineering
Jacob Espinosa - Bioengineering
Jallil Mancera - Human Biology
Omar Aguilar - Human Biology
Christopher Carlson - Bioengineering
Gagandip Singh - Biology, attending medical school at the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Medicine
Alexis Zamudio-Torres Biology
Meer Mohamad - Bioengineering, graduate school at UC San Diego
Chuck Lui - Bioengineering
Gabriela Sanchez - Bioengineering
Cassandra Maldonado - Human Biology
Mohamed Amwas - Bioengineering
Basia Zuniga - Bioengineering, currently in graduate school at Ohio State University
Greg Giardi - Bioengineering, currently in graduate school at UC Davis
Lisa Salmeron - Bioengineering, currently in graduate school at UC Riverside
Ryan Burtzlaff - Bioengineering
Michael Brooks now works at Intel
Gregory Crawford now works at Illumina
Alejandra Preciado graduated with a degree in Human Biology
Angel Guizar graduated with a degree in Bioengineering
Jose Zamora continued to graduate school at UC Merced
Jazmin White continued onto medical school at UCSD
Je Chua graduated with a degree in Bioengineering
Joseph Yi graduated with a degree in Bioengineering
Ian Buczko is now at DVBiologics
Nick White continued to graduate school at Washington University in St. Louis
Vivian Corral graduated with a degree in Human Biology
Ryan Burtzlaff graduated with a degree in Bioengineering
Robert Pucellini is currently pursuing research in Physics at UC Merced
Rachel Hatano continued to graduate school at UC Merced
Lian Wong continued to graduate school at UC Merced
Andrew Burns pursued postbaccalarate program at Keck
Stacey Van continued to graduate program in Pharmacy
Nabjot Sandhu went on to graduate school at UC Riverside
Drew Glaser continued to graduate school at UC Merced
Corey Kuruma went to graduate school at Keck Institute
Albert Shih applying to MD programs
Mike Oliveira went to graduate school at UC Riverside
Brie Gennusa is the COO at SaveSorb
Nick Lauer continued to graduate school at UC Merced
Jolie McLane went on to graduate school at UC Irvine
Jonathan Pegan went on to graduate school at UC Irvine