San Diego, California, United States
I am a biomedical researcher with a great passion for pluripotent stem cell biology. I enjoy developing and optimizing protocols for stem cell differentiation into functional cell types useful for disease modeling or cellular therapies. Most recently, I developed a new approach to generating the cell types of the trophoblast from conventional (primed) human pluripotent stem cells. Over the years, I have used next generation sequencing and bioinformatic analysis tools to answer biological questions. Exploring the vast data after months of lab work and letting it guide future experiments is very rewarding, one of my favorite activities in science. I am a firm believer in a workplace that creates a culture of belonging and values all of its members equally, where you can express opinions openly without fear of punishment. No matter how diverse a workforce, it means nothing if individuals are not allowed to tap into their strengths.
At UCSD, I use primed and naive human embryonic and induced pluripotent stem cells to model early developmental processes in the embryo, by differentiating them into trophectoderm and trophoblast stem cells. I also work with trophoblast organoids created from cells isolated from first-trimester placentas. I continue to leverage my experience with bioinformatics and work with other members of the team to help them make biological insights into their next-generation sequencing datasets.
Derivation, culture, characterization of various types of animal somatic and stem cells.
My responsibility is developing protocols for differentiation of human pluripotent stem cells into functional target cell types, primarily of the trophoblastic lineage - early trophectoderm, trophoblast stem cells, extravillous trophoblast and syncytiotrophoblast, which collectively make up the key cell types of the placenta.
My research focused on novel approaches to derivation of human pluripotent stem cells, mainly from neonatal placental tissues containing multipotent mesenchymal stem cells, ideal for reprogramming due to lack of accumulated mutations typical for adult cells.
Recipient of the SCIEX NMSCh Fellowship. The main goal of the fellowship project was to develop methods for derivation and culture of several human fetal/neonatal primary cells, such as amniotic fluid stem cells, which served as the source for reprogramming into induced pluripotent stem cells in chemically defined culture conditions. Acquired experience with tissue engineering.