Lin Wang

Nadjet Belbachir
nadbel@stanford.edu

Mengcheng Shen

mcshen@stanford.edu

Arianne Caudal, PhD

acaudal@stanford.edu

Dr. Arianne Caudal is a postdoctoral fellow in Dr. Joseph Wu’s laboratory at the Stanford Cardiovascular Institute. Her work is focused on how metabolism and protein interactions mediate various cardiovascular diseases. Dr. Caudal received her B.S in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the University of California, Santa Barbara (2014) and PhD in Biochemistry at the University of Washington (2021). Dr. Caudal was trained by Dr. Rong Tian in mitochondrial metabolism and its role in disease pathogenesis.

Bernardo Bonilauri, PhD

bboni@stanford.edu

Dr. Bernardo Bonilauri receive his master’s degree in Cellular and Molecular Biology from Federal University of Paraná (2018), and PhD in Biosciences and Biotechnology from Carlos Chagas Institute/Fiocruz (2021) in Brazil. Dr. Bonilauri has great experience with molecular biology of adult and pluripotent stem cells both at experimental and biocomputational levels. Currently, he is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Dr. Joseph Wu’s lab at Stanford Cardiovascular Institute, Stanford University. His research interests include the molecular basis of rare orphan cardiac diseases, therapeutic strategies to cardiovascular diseases, cardiovascular disease modeling using hiPSC, stem cells differentiation and noncoding RNAs function and regulation.

McKay Mullen, PhD

mmullen4@stanford.edu

Carlos Vera, PhD, MBA

verac248@stanford.edu

Carlos obtained his B.S. in Industrial Biotechnology from the University of Puerto Rico at Mayaguez. He received his PhD from the University of Colorado at Boulder working with Dr. Leslie Leinwand on myosin myopathies. His dissertation focused on analyzing the effects on myosin's crossbridge cycle from mutations associated to Hypertrophic (HCM) and Dilated (DCM) cardiomyopathies. For his postdoc he will focus on disease mechanisms that can influence severity.  

Ana Kohic, PhD
anakojic@stanford.edu

Dr. Kojic received her BSc and MSc in Molecular Biology and Physiology from the University of Belgrade, Serbia. During her PhD she was trained in the laboratory of Dr. Carsten Schultz at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg, Germany, where she learned how to use chemical biology tools to explore and manipulate cellular signaling processes. She was awarded a joined PhD degree from the University of Heidelberg and EMBL in 2021. In 2022 she joined the laboratory of Dr. Wu where she will use her skills and knowledge in chemical biology to explore cardiac fibrosis and cardio-oncology.  

Zehra Yildirim, PhD
zehray@stanford.edu

Xu Cao, PhD
xucao@stanford.edu

Xu Cao is currently a TRISH postdoctoral fellow in Dr. Joseph Wu’s lab at SCVI. Dr. Cao obtained his bachelor’s degree of biotechnology from Shandong University and master’s degree of bioengineering from Chinese Academy of Science. Then he performed PhD study in Leiden University Medical Center from 2015 to 2020 in Netherlands, where he applied human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) to model vascular diseases, under the supervision of Dr. Christine L. Mummery and Dr. Valeria Orlova. He joined Dr. Wu’s lab at the beginning of 2021. His research mainly focusses on effects of radiation and other toxic environmental factors on human embryo development and cardiovascular system, and the development of corresponding countermeasures.

Nerea Jiménez Téllez, PhD

Nerea has been a Postdoctoral Scholar at Dr. Joseph Wu's lab since April 2022. She earned her Bachelor's degree in Biochemistry at Universidad Complutense de Madrid (Spain). She was in an exchange program at the University of Saskatchewan (Canada) where she completed her Honours Thesis project on the Regulation of the Metastasis Suppressor Protein CREB3L1 in Dr. Deborah H Anderson's lab. She received her Masters' degree at Universidad de Alcalá (Spain) working at Dr. Isabel Liste Noya's lab on The role of p27Kip1 in the pluripotency and differentiation of dopaminergic neurons. She obtained her Ph.D. in Dr. Naweed Syed's lab studying the Cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying anesthetic-induced cytotoxicity, and their impact on learning and memory.

David Paik, PhD
dtpaik@stanford.edu

Dr. David Paik is an instructor working with Dr. Joseph Wu at the Stanford Cardiovascular Institute. At Stanford, his focus is to utilize single-cell RNA-sequencing technology to elucidate patient-specific mechanisms of various cardiovascular diseases, characterize embryonic heart development, and optimize differentiation of iPSCs to subtypes of cardiovascular cells. Dr. Paik received his BA in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at Boston University (2010) and PhD in Cell and Developmental Biology at Vanderbilt University (2015). At Vanderbilt, Dr. Paik was trained by Dr. Antonis Hatzopoulos to investigate the endogenous cardiac repair mechanisms in the adult heart following ischemic injury such as myocardial infarction. In particular, Dr. Paik focused on the role of Wnt signaling pathway on coronary vessel formation and plasticity of cardiac endothelial cells during cardiac tissue repair. During his PhD training, Dr. Paik completed HHMI/VUMC Certificate Program in Molecular Medicine, where he was supervised by his clinical mentor Dr. Douglas Sawyer to interact with congestive heart failure patients and to bridge clinical sciences with basic and translational cardiovascular research. Outside the lab, Dr. Paik is a competitive tennis and squash player, a fervent fan of Tennessee Titans, and a wine enthusiast roaming in Napa Valley and Santa Cruz Mountains.

Dilip Thomas, PhD
dilipt@stanford.edu

Dilip Thomas is currently a TRDRP Postdoctoral Fellow with Dr. Joseph Wu at the Stanford Cardiovascular Institute. His current interest in the development of in vitro models for cardiac disease modelling and high-throughput drug testing. Dr.Thomas received his bachelor's degree in Biotechnology from University of Mumbai and Master's in Biochemical Engineering from University College London. Dr. Thomas was awarded a PhD for his dissertation ‘Development of a Microgel-based Cell Delivery Platform for Critical Limb Ischemia’ jointly carried out at the Centre for Research in Medical Devices (CÚRAM) and Regenerative Medicine Institute (REMEDI), National University of Ireland Galway. During the doctoral training, Dr. Thomas received several national and international awards including a prestigious short-term training fellowship from the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) to further his research through training in MALDI imaging mass spectrometry (MALDI-IMS) at the Technical University Vienna. Dr. Thomas has authored several first and co-authored publications with leading journals in the field such as Biomaterials, Advanced Materials, Nature Biomedical Engineering, Tissue Engineering, Advanced Healthcare Materials, and has also contributed two book chapters on cell encapsulation for angiogenesis, bone and cartilage repair. Dr.Thomas is a Chartered Member of the Royal Society of Biology and is a peer-reviewer on several high-impact journals in the field of Biomaterials and Tissue Engineering. Dr. Thomas currently serves as the Chair of Student and Young Investigator European Section of Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine Society (TERMIS). Besides lab work, Dr. Thomas is enthusiastic about mentoring and participating in science outreach programs that enable distilling cutting-edge science to a diverse audience from all walks of life.

Masataka Nishiga, MD, PhD
mnishiga@stanford.edu

Masataka Nishiga received his MD from Kyoto University (Kyoto, Japan) in 2007, and completed his internal medicine residency and cardiology fellowship training at Tenri Hospital (Nara, Japan) in 2012. He received his PhD from Kyoto University Graduate School of Medicine in 2017. His research was focused on microRNAs and non-coding RNAs in cardiovascular diseases such as heart failure and atherosclerosis. He joined the Wu lab as a postdoc in Oct 2017. He is interested in epigenetic regulation in cardiovascular diseases and disease modeling using iPSCs.

Angela Zhang
MD/PhD Student
angelaz@stanford.edu

Kiran Vaidya

vaidyak@stanford.edu

Kiran Vaidya is a 4^th year medical student at the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine. She was awarded the Sarnoff Fellowship to conduct research in Dr. Joseph Wu’s Lab. In the Lab, she is working with Dr. Masataka Nishiga on myocarditis in adolescents after receiving the COVID-vaccine and CRISPR prime editing technology. She received a BA in Biology from Cornell University. She has previously studied aortic stenosis in Dr. Butcher’s Lab of Cardiovascular Developmental Bioengineering and has some experience in electrophysiology and kidney stem cell biology. She is concurrently completing a Master’s in Clinical Research studying anomalous aortic origins of coronary arteries with Dr. Blackstone.

Henry Zhu
liqunzhu@stanford.edu

Damon Williams

damonw@stanford.edu

Christina Alamana

calamana@stanford.edu

Christina completed her Bachelor’s in Integrative Biology with an emphasis on Human Biology and Health Sciences, at the University of California Berkeley. As an undergrad, she worked in Dr. Bateup’s lab at UC Berkeley’s Department of Neurobiology. While at the Bateup Lab she studied Tuberous Sclerosis using mouse models with an emphasis on the relation of the mTOR pathway and neuropathophysiology. Christina joined the Wu lab in July of 2021 and is working on multiple projects including but not limited to Microgravity, Space Radiation, Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, and Sudden Cardiac Death.