Tharin Lab Members
Suzanne Tharin, MD, PhD
Assistant Professor of Neurosurgery
Suzanne Tharin, MD PhD joined the faculty at Stanford University in 2012 as an Assistant Professor of Neurosurgery. Following her undergraduate degree in Physiology and a Master’s degree in Anatomy and Cell Biology at the University of Toronto, Dr. Tharin completed a PhD in Genetics at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory and SUNY Stony Brook. She received her MD from Columbia University and then completed her neurosurgery residency at the Brigham and Women's Hospital/Children’s Hospital Boston/Harvard Medical School program. She subsequently completed a clinical fellowship in complex spine surgery at the Cleveland Clinic. Her research program encompasses the molecular controls over cortical neuronal development, spinal cord injury, and regenerative strategies for spinal cord repair, including stem cell-based strategies. As a practicing neurosurgeon at the Palo Alto VA and Stanford University Hospital, Dr. Tharin is dedicated to translating an understanding of neural development into regenerative strategies for the treatment of spinal cord injury.
Verl Siththanandan
Lab Manager
Verl graduated from King’s College London with a BSc in biochemistry, and then went on to complete a PhD in biophysics from Imperial College London. His postdoctoral work at the National Institutes of Health centered on understanding the role of unconventional myosins in intracellular transport using a combination of single molecule in vitro assays and live cell imaging. At Stanford Verl has turned his focus to the regulatory role of microRNAs in corticospinal motor neuron development, with specific attention to the possible changes in expression of certain miRNAs following spinal cord injury.
Victoria Lu
Life Science Research Assistant
Victoria graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2013 with a B.S. in Biology. There, she completed her undergraduate research project in Dr. Phil Sharp's lab. Her research interests involve the roles of small non-coding RNAs in regulating disease and development. She is excited to explore neuroscience and study brain development in the Tharin lab.
Nicole Gonzalez-Nava
Undergraduate Student
Nicole Gonzalez-Nava is a sophomore at Duke University studying neuroscience. Prior to joining Dr. Tharin's lab, Nicole was a recipient of the Stanford Institutes of Medicine Summer Research Program Award. Last summer in the Tharin lab, Nicole used bioinformatic approaches to identify potential targets of microRNAs controling corticospinal motor neuron development. She continues this research at Duke University in collaboration with Dr. Owe Ohler's bioinformatics group.
