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Lab Members
Principal Investigator
Ioannis Karakikes, PhD
Assistant Professor (Research), Cardiothoracic Surgery
Member, Stanford Cardiovascular Institute
Dr. Karakikes is an Assistant Professor (Research) in the Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery at the Stanford School of Medicine. He received his Bachelors and PhD degree from the Essex University (UK). His research aims to uncover new fundamental insights into the molecular mechanisms and functional consequences of cardiovascular diseases.
Nike Bharucha, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow, nikeb@stanford.edu
Nike received her BS in Chemistry from The University of Bombay (India) and her PhD in Molecular/Cell Biology from the University of Michigan. She was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Chicago before relocating to the Bay Area. She is interested in understanding the molecular mechanisms of cardiovascular diseases, specifically utilizing genome editing to study these diseases in human iPSCs.
Jennifer Arthur Ataam, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow (Joint with Holden Maecker Lab), jarthur5@stanford.edu
Jennifer completed her PhD in molecular biology and physiopathology in Paris Saclay-Paris Sud University in France. Her interest is to develop new immune assays applied to cardiovascular diseases.
Logan Dunkenberger
Undergraduate Researcher
ldunken@stanford.edu
Logan is an undergraduate student at Stanford and majoring in Biomedical Computation. She is interested in applying computational tools to study the genetic basis of cardiovascular disease.
Rachel Baum, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow
rebaum@stanford.edu
Rachel received her BS in Biochemistry from UC San Diego and her PhD in Biomedical Science and Translational Medicine from Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. She is interested in studying protein trafficking in cardiovascular disease with a focus on identifying therapeutic targets.
Chanatjit (Toon) Cheawsamoot
Visiting PhD Candidate
ccctoon@stanford.edu
Toon received her Bachelor’s degree in Biological Sciences from the University of Oxford and her MSc in Clinical Genomics from the University of Manchester. She is currently a PhD candidate at Chulalongkorn University in Thailand. Her research interest is to understand the pathomechanism behind genetic diseases.
Mackenzie Wall
Mackenzie received her Bachelor of Science Biochemistry with a minor in Biology from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and her Master of Science in Medical Sciences from the Morehouse School of Medicine. She is currently a Doctor of Medicine Candidate at the Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta, Georgia. She is an aspiring orthopedic surgeon. She is interested in the potential of genome editing paired with studies of cardiovascular disease in human-induced pluripotent stem cells for the sake of future therapeutics.
Rohin Ramchandani
Rohin received his BS in biological sciences from Drexel University in Philadelphia. He is interested in utilizing iPSC derived cardiomyocytes and engineered heart tissues as models to study cardiovascular disease and discover therapeutic targets.
Maryam Kay, PhD
Maryam received her Ph.D. in Molecular Genetics from Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran Iran. Her Ph.D. work was focused on the molecular mechanism of non-coding RNAs in regulating cardiomyocyte differentiation and maturation process. Maryam spent a year as a visiting researcher at the cardiovascular research center of UNIL, Switzerland. She was a postdoctoral fellow at UCLA working on the beneficial effect of young blood serum and the candidate circulating factors on heart regeneration capacity. Her interest is to uncover the molecular and cellular function of non-coding RNAs in cardiomyocyte differentiation and heart regeneration.
Lab Alumni
 Nirmal Vadgamanvadgama@stanford.edu Postdoctoral Fellow at the Gifford Lab, Stanford University. |  Yuan Zhang, BSyzhang17@stanford.edu Medical Student at Stanford University |  Pooja Nair, MDChief Resident at St. Mary’s Medical Center |
|---|---|---|
 Maricela Prado, MSScientist II at AbbVie |  Vittavat Termglinchan, MDStanford Clinical Instructor |  Leonard D. Kuhrtleonard.kuhrt@mdc-berlin.de MD/PhD candidate at Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine in the Helmholtz Association/Charité. |
 Wei Qiang Seow, PhDPostdoctoral fellow located in Singapore. |  Isaac Perea Gil |  Ari Arias |
 Alexandra Annali Gavidia, BS |
Nirmal Vadgama, PhD
Yuan Zhang, BS
Pooja Nair, MD
Maricela Prado, MS
Vittavat Termglinchan, MD
Leonard D. Kuhrt
Wei Qiang Seow, PhD
Isaac Perea Gil, PhD
Ari Arias
Alexandra Annali Gavidia, BS