MEMBERS

Eri Hashino
Ruth C Holton Professor
Eri is an Auditory Neuroscientist with more than 20 years of experience in studying development and regeneration of the inner ear. She has broad research experience in cellular, molecular, developmental and behavioral neurosciences.

Jing Nie
Assistant Research Professor

Rick Nelson
Associate Professor
Rick is a surgeon-investigator pursuing his independent research in the lab. His current research is focused on elucidating the mechanisms underlying hair cell degeneration caused by mutations in TMPRSS3, using stem cell technology and genomics.

Jefferey Chen
Post-Doc Fellow
Jing joined the lab after receiving his PhD in Biology from Indiana University. He is a developmental biologist with a strong interest in biotechnology. He has extensive experience in CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing technology and is currently working on the CHARGE syndrome project.

Mahboubeh Jafarkhani
Post-Doc Fellow
Maha joined the lab after obtaining her PhD in chemical engineering from University of Tehran. She is currently studying the role for mechanical stimulation in organoid development and hair cell differentiation, using novel biomimetic hydrogels.

Daniel Romano
Medical Student
Daniel is a 4th-year medical student at IUSM and carrying out his one-year resarch term as a MedSTAR scholar. He has extensive research experience in computational biology and is pursuing a project on BMP signaling in human inner ear organoid development using single-cell RNA-seq.

Alex Solivais
Research Technician
Alex recently joined the lab after receiving his Bachelor's degree in Biochemistry from Indiana University. He is working on to develop new bioinformatic tools for single-cell RNA-seq data and also establishing a transgenic stem cell line to be used for disease modeling.

Ernexto Cabrera
Research Technician
Ernesto recently joined the lab after receiving his Bachelor's degree in Biochemistry from Earlham College. He is the lab manager for Rick Nelson's group and is getting proficient with 3D culture and fluorescence and confocal microscopy.

Takashi Nakamura
Visiting Res. Scientist
Takashi is a neurotologist trained in Japan. He has extensive research experience in molecular/cellular biology, and is currently working on a project to determine a signaling pathway for cochlear lineage specification during inner ear organoid development.

Yoshitomo Ueda
Post-Doc Fellow
Yoshi is a cellular neuroscientist with research experience in perinatal brain development. His research interests lie in recapitulating neurodevelopmental disorders with human pluripotent stem cells in 3D culture. In particular, he is interested in CHARGE syndrome and Down syndrome.

Shweta Reddy
PhD Student
Shweta is a 2nd-year PhD student in the Medical Neuroscience graduate program. She is pursuing a project on the development and degeneration of ribbon synapses in human inner ear organoids, using both light- and electron-microscopic approaches.

Stephen Moore
Research Technician
Stephen joined the lab after receiving his Bachelor's degree in Chemistry from Indiana University. He is currently generating and characterizing human otic progenitor reporter stem cell lines as well as testing several signaling pathways in hair cell differentiation.

TBD
Research Technician
Coming soon.

Radek Nabrzyski
Medical Student
Rad is a second-year medical student with clinical interest in Otolaryngology. He is originally from Poland and moved to the US at the age of 13. He is pursuing a project to elucidate the role for TMPRSS3 in hair cell maintenance using a genetically mosaic organoid system.
Previous Members
Pei-Ciao Tang (Res. Assistant Professor): Research Scientist, Univ. Miami Medical School
Jade Harkin (Research Associate): PhD student, IUSM
Emma Longworth-Mills (PhD Student): Author (https://us.macmillan.com/author/emmamills/)
Alpha Alex (Research Associate): Returned to Northern Ireland
Rachel DeJonge (MS Student)
Sreeparna Mjumdar (PhD Student); Post-Doc Fellow, IUSM
Chris Deig (MD Student): Resident physician - Radiation Medicine, Oregon Health Sciences University
Andrew Mikosz (Research Technician): Scientist, The New York Stem Cell Foundation Research Institute
Dharmesh Patel (Post-Doc Fellow): Industry
Alhason Elghouch (MD/MS Student): Resident physician - Otolaryngology-HNS, IUSM
Karl Koehler (PhD Student): Assistant Professor, Boston Children's Hospital/ Harvard Medical School
Alexander Malone (MD Student): Resident physician - Otolaryngology-HNS, University of South Florida
Emily Beans (Research Technician): MD student, IUSM
Akihiro Matsuoka (Research-Track Resident): Assistant Professor of Otolaryngology, Northwestern University
Atsushi Shimomura (Post-Doc Fellow): Professor at Hokkaido Health Sciences University
David Zopf (MD Student): Assistant Professor of Otolaryngology, University of Michigan Medical School
Takako Kondo (Post-Doc Fellow): Professor, Nagoya Woman's University