Meet our scientists
Associate Professor, uf pharmacy // PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR, uf Health cancer institute
Mei He, Ph.D.
2008, PhD, University of Alberta /// 2012, Postdoc, University of California, Berkeley /// Office: UF Cancer and Genetics Research Complex 0458 /// email: mhe@cop.ufl.edu
Dr. He has strong research expertise in extracellular vesicles and exosomes -mediated therapeutic delivery and biomarker discovery. She is also the fellow of AIMBE (The American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering) and the senior member of the National Academy of Inventors. Dr. He serves the Chair of 2025 PharmSci 360 Scientific Programming Committee, and the Chair of American Association of Extracellular Vesicles (AAEV) scientific program, the Chair of NanoDDS 2024, Editorial Board Advisor for journal of Pharmaceutics and Lab on Chip (RSC). Dr. He received the NIH Maximizing Investigator’s Research Award and the LOC Emerging Investigator Award by the Royal Society of Chemistry. Her recent publications on extracellular vesicles and exosomes have appeared in the journal of Nature Biomedical Engineering, the Journal of Extracellular Vesicles, Nature Communications Biology, Science Translational Medicine, and cover highlight by journal of controlled release. Her research brings in novel microfluidic and nanotechnology for differentiating, isolating, and intravesicular loading exosomes precisely, which presents a new way for developing precision medicine. Her research innovation leads to more than 20 pending and issued patents, and she is also the founder of Clara Biotech Inc. and ExoDeL Inc.
Research assistant professor
Xiaoshu Pan, Ph.D.
2020, PhD, Chemical Biology, University of Florida, USA /// Office: UF Cancer and Genetics Research Complex 0475G /// email: xpan@cop.ufl.edu
research assistant professor
Pei Zhuang, Ph.D.
2020, PhD, Mechanical Engineering and Material Science, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
2021-2025, Postdoc Researcher, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School
/// Office: UF Cancer and Genetics Research Complex 0475G /// email:
Ph.D. Candidate, NIH scholar
Zachary Greenberg
2020, MS, Material Science and Engineering, University of Florida/// 2017, BS, Chemistry, University of Florida/// Office: UF Cancer and Genetics Research Complex 0475G /// email: zfg2013@ufl.edu
Ph.D. Graduate student
Nina Erwin
2021, BS with Honor, Material Science and Engineering, University of Florida/// Office: UF Cancer and Genetics Research Complex 0475G /// email: nerwin@ufl.edu
Ph.D. Graduate student
Samantha Ali
2022, MS, Chemical Engineering, University of Florida /// Office: UF Cancer and Genetics Research Complex 0475G ///email: samanthaalighand@ufl.edu
PH.D. GRADUATE STUDENT
Brian Ivan Molina Diaz
2023, BS, Chemical Engineering, University of Puerto Rico /// Office: UF Cancer and Genetics Research Complex 0475G ///email:
PH.D. GRADUATE STUDENT
Hillary Jean-Pierre
Medical Microbiology Graduate Certification, Bachelor of Science in Microbiology and Cell Science, University of Florida /// Office: UF Cancer and Genetics Research Complex 0475G /// email:Hjeanpierre@ufl.edu
M.D. – PH.D. GRADUATE STUDENT
Angela Shar
Bachelor of Biomedical Science, University of Central Florida /// Office: UF Cancer and Genetics Research Complex 0475G /// email:angela.shar@ufl.edu
UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCHER
Fabiana Mastantuono
Undergraduate student, Biomedical Engineering, University of Florida /// Office: UF Cancer and Genetics Research Complex 0475G /// email: f.mastantuono@ufl.edu
UF EMARGING SCHOLAR, NIH SUMMER SCHOLAR
Ana Dogan
Undergraduate student, Microbiology, University of Florida///Office: UF Cancer and Genetic Research Complex 0475G/// email: anadogan@ufl.edu
Alumni
Postdoc Researchers:
- Zuo Ding, 2023-2025, Postdoc Researcher, Current: Scientist at UF Scripps
- Tarun Hutchison, 2023-2024, Postdoc Researcher, Current: UF College of Medicine
- Niloy Barua, 2021-2022, Postdoc Researcher, Current: Scientist at Amgen
- Pei Zhuang, 2020-2021, Postdoc Researcher, Current: Postdoc Researcher at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston
- Shaobo Ruan, 2018-2021, Postdoc Researcher, Current: Associate Professor at the Perking Technology University, China
- Suiching Phung, 2019-2020, Postdoc Researcher, Current: Postdoc at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas
- Nan He, 2018-2020, Postdoc Researcher, Current: Clara Biotech scientist
- Qingfu Zhu, 2017-2019, Postdoc, Current: Faculty of the Wenzhou Institute of Biomaterials and Engineering, China
- Philip Hochendoner, 2017-2018, Postdoc, Current: Postdoc at the Princeton University for The Institute Materials
Graduate Students:
- Zacharay Greenberg, 2021-2025, Graduate Student, Current: UF COP
- Bryce Stottlemire, 2018-2020, Graduate Student, Current: KU BioE graduate student
- Mikala Heon, 2018-2020, Graduate Student, Current: KU BioE graduate student
- Rajarshi (Raj) Bose, 2018-2020, Master Student, Current: Merk process engineer
- Kimberly Plevniak, 2015-2017, Master Student, Current: Clinical Laboratory Scientist at ViraCor
- Kyle Merklein, 2014-2016, Master Student, Current: Systems Test Engineer at RBC Medical Innovations
- Ethan Gother, 2016-2018, Master Student, Current: Embedded Systems Engineer at Surface Systems and Instruments
Undergraduate Students:
- Rachell Hawkes, Current: UF undergraduate student
- Lauren Andrews, Current: UF undergraduate student
- Amanda Jiang, Current: UF undergraduate student
- Maria Serafim, Mass General Research Institute and Harvard Medical School
- Natalia Fernandez, Columbia University Medical Engineering graduate program
- Ngan Ngoc Tran, Self Fellow, 2019-2020, Current: KU undergraduate student
- Nicole D’Souza, 2018-2020, Undergraduate Research Fellow, Current: KU undergraduate student
- Peyton Panovich, 2019-2020, Undergraduate Research Fellow, Current: KU undergraduate student
- Yvette Von Loh, 2019, REU summer student, Current: Abeona Therapeutics manufacturing associate
- Darragh Adelaide, 2019, REU summer student, Current: Dublin City University undergraduate student
- Rebekah Elliott, 2018-2020, Research Technician, Current: KUMC research technician
- Pamela Patricia Gamero Kubota, 2018-2019, Research Assistant, Current: Master Student, KU Medical Center
- Xinyi He , Summer undergraduate researcher, 2018, Current: Software Implementation Consultant at Manhattan Associates
- Megan Richards, 2017, Undergraduate Researcher, Current: R&D Engineer at Pfizer
- Kaila Wilson, 2017, Undergraduate Research, Current: System Engineer at Cerner Corporation