Lab Members

Inna Gitman

Inna is the lab administrative assistant. In her free time she enjoys singing with different choral groups.

Ying Yang PhD

Ying is a postdoc focusing on transcriptional and epigenetic regulations of epithelial basal cells during hPSC differentiation.

Anna Jussila PhD

Anna is a postdoc in the lab investigating interactions between tumor and adjacent stromal cells in basal cell carcinoma.

Egor Sedov PhD

Egor is a postdoc in the lab, investigating novel transcription factor networks that contribute to childhood birth defects.

Jessica Torkelson

Jessica is a former CIRM Bridges fellow and current Life Science Research Professional who studies the mechanism of skin differentiation from human iPSCs and stem cells.

Aubrey is a life science research professional working to support the lab's ongoing research projects by creating and maintaining mouse colonies. In her free time, she enjoys exploring new places and restaurants, and spending time outdoors.

Hanson Zhen MD

Hanson is the Oro Laboratory Manager and leads the Therapeutic Reprogramming effort in the lab. He is focused on development of scalable and cGMP compatible skin differentiation protocols.

Sadhana Gaddam

Sadhana, a bioinformatician, assists with data and bioinformatics analyses in the lab. In her free time she enjoys music and exploring new places.

Rachel Wyetzner

Rachel is a graduate student in the Developmental Biology PhD Program. She is studying transcriptional and epigenetic networks that coordinate mouse and human neurodevelopment. Outside of lab, she enjoys playing softball and trying new restaurants.

Nick Guardino

Nick is a graduate student in the Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine PhD Program. He is studying how basal cell carcinomas invade and metastasize. In his free time he enjoys hiking and skiing.

Carmel McCullough

Carmel is a medical student in the Physician Scientist Training Program. She is focused on developing cell-based therapy for Epidermolysis bullosa esophageal strictures. She also enjoys dancing and baking in her free time.

Fernanda Gonzalez

Fernanda is a graduate student in the Cancer Biology program. She is researching how nuclear structural proteins function to regulate the Hedgehog pathway. She also enjoys hiking, dog petting and volunteering.

Franco Felix

Franco is a graduate student in the Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine PhD Program. His work investigates transcriptional and epigenetic networks which drive stem cell lineage commitment during early human skin development.

Zihao Deng PhD

Zihao is a postdoc in the lab investigating ranscriptional networks that regulate skin development and embryonic body patterning. He enjoys playing simulation and action-adventure video games and watching sci-fi movies and shows in his free time.

Michelle Kinney

Michelle is a graduate student in Biology. She is investigating how aPKC regulates the Hedgehog pathway. She enjoys swimming and painting in her free time.

Kevin Chen

Kevin is a medical student in the Physician Scientist Training Program. He is studying how the tumor microenvironment forms and develops in basal cell carcinoma.

Sammie Trescott

Sammie is a graduate student in the Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine PhD Program. She is studying how transcription factors and PTMs coordinate lineage commitment in early human skin development. In her free time, she enjoys hiking with her dog and being outdoors.

Tatum

Sophisticated golden doodle ready to chew anything at a moment's notice

Oro Laboratory

Current Oro Laboratory Members

Anthony Oro MD/PhD