ISHA JAIN, PhD (SHE/HER)
Associate Professor
Isha received her undergraduate degree in Chemical and Physical Biology from Harvard University. There, she worked in the lab of Erin O’Shea on bacterial chromosome segregation. Subsequently, she joined the Harvard-MIT Program in Health Sciences and Technology. During her PhD, she worked in the labs of Vamsi Mootha and Warren Zapol, where she discovered that hypoxia could serve as a therapy for mitochondrial disorders. This work led to a Phase 1 clinical trial. Isha began as a UCSF Sandler Faculty Fellow and then joined the Gladstone Institutes and UCSF in 2021. She has received the NIH Early Independence Grant, Searle Scholar Award, Klingenstein-Simons Award, Mallinckrodt Award, TRDRP New Investigator Award, AFAR Junior Faculty Award, Hillblom Start-Up Grant, Keck Medical Research Grant, and Arc Innovation Investigator Award.
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TEAM
EMMA STRAIGHT, BS (SHE/HER)
Administrative Associate
Emma graduated from Santa Clara University and holds a Bachelor's Degree in both Psychology and Public Health. During her time in college, she gained valuable experience working in a psychology lab and serving as a student manager for the public health department & school of law. In addition to Emma's professional pursuits, she has a passion for live music, skiing, surfing, exercise, film photography, and travel. These interests allow her to maintain a well-rounded perspective and bring creativity and adaptability to her work.
SKYLER BLUME, BS (HE/HIM)
Lab Manager and Research Associate
Skyler grew up in Davis, California and received his Bachelor’s Degree from UC Berkeley, where he majored in Molecular and Cell Biology. There, he worked in the lab of Gertrude Buehring where he studied Bovine Leukemia Virus as a potential etiological agent of breast cancer. He went on to work for a pathology practice in San Diego, where he performed immunohistochemistry. In his free time he enjoys learning about new cuisines, exploring nature, and listening to podcasts.
TEJ JOSHI, BA (HE/HIM)
Research Associate
Tej grew up in Los Angeles and recently graduated from UC Berkeley where he majored in Molecular and Cellular Biology as well as Economics. While in college, he gained experience in cardiology in the lab of Dr. Matthew Budoff where he focused on analyzing CT scans for clinical studies. He went on to study brain tumor immunogenicity in Dr. Olivia Lu’s neuro-oncology lab at UCSF. During his free time, he enjoys playing soccer, skiing, and reading a good mystery.
ALAN BAIK, MD (HE/HIM)
Postdoctoral Fellow | NIH K08, Burroughs Wellcome, Harold Amos & Sarnoff Scholar
Alan was born in Los Angeles and attended Harvard University, where he majored in biology. He completed medical school, internal medicine residency, and cardiology fellowship at UCSF. As a Sarnoff Cardiovascular Research Fellow, he worked in the lab of Bill Kaelin at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, studying the mechanisms of remote ischemic preconditioning in a murine model of cardiac ischemia-reperfusion. Alan is also a cardiologist and assistant professor at UCSF, interested in better understanding oxygen metabolism and signaling in myocardial infarction and cardiovascular disease.
GALIH HARIBOWO, PhD (HE/HIM)
Postdoctoral Fellow | CIRM Fellow
Galih received his bachelor’s degree in Biology from Gadjah Mada University. He then joined the labs of Joost Holthuis at Utrecht University and Anne-Claude Gavin at the EMBL-Heidelberg to study protein-lipid interactions for his master’s degree. During his PhD, he worked in the labs of Howard Riezman at University of Geneva and Maya Schuldiner at the Weizmann Institute of Science, studying the roles of sphingolipid in neurodegenerative disease and ischemia-reperfusion injury. Galih is currently interested in understanding nutrient dependencies of cells under hypoxia and ischemia.
ANKUR GARG, PhD (SHE/HER)
Postdoctoral Fellow | CIRM Fellow
Ankur attended IIT Delhi for her undergraduate studies in Biochemical Engineering and Biotechnology. She received her PhD in Molecular Biology and Genetics, in the lab of Xin Zhang at Columbia University studying the role of Fgf signaling in tear gland development. During a post-doc at UCSD, she worked in the lab of Xin Sun where she studied pulmonary neuroendocrine cells. She is now interested in studying the signaling mechanisms underlying hypoxia as a therapeutic intervention for neurodegenerative and metabolic disorders.
YOLANDA MARTÍ-MATEOS, PhD (SHE/HER)
Postdoctoral Fellow | CIRM Fellow
Yolanda received her undergraduate degree in Biochemistry from Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. There, she worked at the Biochemistry Department to study mitochondrial cardiomyopathy models in drosophila melanogaster. For her PhD, she joined Dr. José Antonio Enríquez's lab at the Spanish National Center for Cardiovascular Research (CNIC) to work on murine models for heart failure therapies targeting mitochondrial protease OMA1. Following her work on age-associated chronic liver disease, she became interested in the study of aging etiology. At the Jain Lab, Yolanda is excited to be studying how molecular oxygen can modulate the aging process.
JESSICA BESERRA FELIX, PhD (SHE/HERS)
Postdoctoral Fellow
Jessica earned her undergraduate degree in Biological Sciences from Cal Poly SLO. She pursued Biotechnology and Stem Cell Technology Certificates at City College of San Francisco, completing a CIRM Bridges Internship at UCSF in Aimee Kao’s lab, studying heavy metal toxicity on iPSC-derived neurons in the context of primary tauopathies. Following her internship, Jessica worked as a Research Associate at BioMarin Inc. for a year before enrolling in graduate school at Baylor College of Medicine. For her PhD in Molecular & Cellular Biology, she worked in Sean Hartig's lab, investigating N-acetylaspartate's role in adipose tissue metabolism and whole-body energy balance. Jessica is excited to return to the Bay Area and contribute to new discoveries in oxygen metabolism across various tissues.
GAUTAM SUSARLA, PhD (HE/HIM)
Postdoctoral Fellow
Gautam was born and raised in India. He earned his undergraduate degree in Life Sciences from Osmania University in Hyderabad. Following this, he joined the integrated master’s and Ph.D. program at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in Bangalore, where he had the opportunity to explore multiple scientific disciplines. For his doctoral research, he joined Dr. Patrick D'Silva's lab, focusing on the role of DJ-1 and its homologs in alleviating metabolic stress in Parkinson’s disease. His current research interests focus on deciphering regulatory proteins that interact with vitamins.
JONATHAN TAI, MD, PhD (HE/HIM)
Postdoctoral fellow
Jon received his undergraduate degree in Biochemistry from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He subsequently completed his medical and graduate training at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where he worked in the lab of David Pagliarini studying coenzyme Q biosynthesis. Jon is currently a clinical pathology resident at UCSF through the Physician-Scientist Pathway.
NAVDAR SEVER, PhD (HE/HIM)
Staff Scientist
Navdar received his undergraduate degree in Molecular Biology and Genetics from Bilkent University in Turkey and his PhD in Cell Regulation from University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas. During his PhD, he worked in the labs of Mike Brown and Joe Goldstein, where he discovered Insig-mediated regulation of mammalian HMG CoA reductase ubiquitination and degradation. Subsequently, he did postdoctoral research on Hedgehog signal transduction pathway at The Johns Hopkins University and Stanford University, and on lung surfactant at Harvard Medical School. After working at a food-tech startup for a couple of years, Navdar is excited to return to basic biomedical research.
YOHEI ABE, PhD (HE/HIM)
Staff Scientist
Yohei earned his undergraduate and master’s degrees in pharmacology from the Tokyo University of Pharmacy and Life Sciences and is a certified pharmacist. His early research focused on cardiac mitochondrial function in heart failure rodent models. During his PhD at the University of Tokyo in Dr. Juro Sakai’s lab, he studied epigenetic regulation in adipocytes to explore new clinical applications for obesity and diabetes. As a postdoc with Dr. Christopher K. Glass at UC San Diego, he expanded his expertise to chromatin dynamics and the epigenetic regulation of macrophage responses to environmental signals. Yohei is interested in investigating how vitamins influence gene regulation under physiological and pathological conditions. His ultimate goal is to contribute to drug discovery by translating basic research into clinical applications.
BRANDON DESOUSA, BS (HE/HIM)
BMS Graduate Student | NDSEG Fellow
Brandon was born and raised in South Florida. He received a B.S. in Biochemistry and Neuroscience at the University of Miami. There, he worked on how neural stem cells can contribute to recovery after a brain injury. He then joined Dr. Ajit Divakaruni’s mitochondrial bioenergetics lab at UCLA and studied the bioenergetics of glioblastoma and macrophage inflammatory activation. Outside of the lab, Brandon enjoys discovering new films at independent cinemas, and working towards crafting the perfect cup of coffee.
BRANDON CHEW, BS (HE/HIM)
PSPG Graduate Student | NSF Fellow
Brandon was born and raised in Hawaii on the island of Oahu. He received a B.S. in chemical engineering from the University of Southern California. At USC, he worked in the lab of Dr. Nicolas Graham where he helped to develop a protocol for enriching and detecting protein methylation via liquid chromatography-mass spectroscopy and analyzed multiple public data sets to determine metabolic pathway dependencies in cancer cell lines. Outside of lab, Brandon enjoys hiking, playing video games, and exploring ramen shops.
AYUSH MIDHA, BS (HE/HIM)
Tetrad MD PhD Student | NIH F30 Fellow
Ayush grew up in San Jose, California, and attended Harvard University, where he majored in developmental biology. As an undergraduate student, he worked in the labs of Dr. Susan Bonner-Weir and Dr. Cristina Aguayo-Mazzucato at Joslin Diabetes Center. There, he studied mechanisms of aging in pancreatic beta-cells and the secretory changes associated with cellular senescence. At UCSF, Ayush is excited about advocating for universal healthcare and studying metabolism in physiology and disease. In his free time, he loves watching and playing basketball, experimenting with new recipes on his cast-iron skillet, and seeing new movies.
WILL FLANIGAN, BS (HE/HIM)
Bioengineering Graduate Student | NIH F31 Fellow
Will was born and raised in Madison, Wisconsin. He attended UW-Madison, earning his B.S. in Biomedical Engineering and Biochemistry. There, he worked in the lab of Dr. Pam Kreeger studying the microenvironmental factors that drive metastasis in ovarian cancer. At UCSF, Will is excited to investigate cardiac hypoxia/ischemia using iPSC-derived cardiac cell types. Outside of lab, Will loves to run and is learning how to make the perfect charcuterie board.