Meet our scientists
PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
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 named as the National Academy of Inventors Senior Member, the Board advisor of Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation and The Moore Inventor Fellowship review committee, and the Editorial Board Advisor for journal of Lab on Chip (LOC), also the Editorial Board member of Pharmaceutics and AAPS Taxonomy Committee. She received the NIH Maximizing Investigator’s Research Award for Early-Stage Investigators in 2019, and the LOC Emerging Investigator Award in 2019. The multiple publications from her research group on exosome-based cancer research received the Most Downloaded Articles of 2016 (LOC), the Featured Cover Story of 2018 (LOC), Technology Readers Choice Award of 2018 (SLAS), and Top 100 Read Articles of 2019 (Scientific Reports from Nature Publishing Group). Her recent publications on extracellular vesicles and exosomes have appeared in the journal of Nature Biomedical Engineering, the Journal of Extracellular Vesicles, and the Nature Communications Biology. 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.
Visiting professor
Foram Madiyar, Ph.D.
2015, PhD, Chemistry, Kansas State University/// Office: UF Cancer and Genetics Research Complex 0475G /// email:
Postdoctoral Researcher
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
Postdoctoral Researcher
Tarun Hstchinson
2004, PhD, Immuno-Virologist/ Cell Biologist, Indian Institute of Technology /// Office: UF Cancer and Genetics Research Complex 0475G /// email:hutchte@ufl.edu
POSTDOCTORAL RESEARCHER
Zuo Ding
2022, PhD, Medical Science, University of Florida, USA /// Office: UF Cancer and Genetics Research Complex 0475G /// email: zara930104@ufl.edu
Ph.D. student, 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
Pharma D graduate Student
Jillian Walker
2020, BS, Biomedical Science, Auburn University /// Office: UF Cancer and Genetics Research Complex 0475G /// email: jillian.walker@ufl.edu
Pharma D graduate Student
Maya Patel
2021, BS, Biology, University of Florida /// Office: UF Cancer and Genetics Research Complex 0475G /// email: maya.patel@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:
UF EMERGING SCHOLAR
Rachell Hawkes
Undergraduate student, Pre-Professional Biology, University of Florida /// Office: UF Cancer and Genetics Research Complex 0475G /// email: rhawkes@ufl.edu
UF EMERGING SCHOLAR
Lauren Andrews
Undergraduate student, Biochemistry, University of Florida /// Office: UF Cancer and Genetics Research Complex 0475G /// email: laurenandrews@ufl.edu
Undergraduate researcher
Julia Jamieson
Undergraduate student, Biology, University of Florida /// Office: UF Cancer and Genetics Research Complex 0475G /// email: juliajamieson@ufl.edu
UF RESEARCH Scholar
Maria Serafim
Undergraduate student, Biomedical Engineering, University of Florida /// Office: UF Cancer and Genetics Research Complex 0475G /// email: mserafim@ufl.edu
UF RESEARCH Scholar
Natalia Fernandez
Undergraduate student, Biomedical Engineering, University of Florida /// Office: UF Cancer and Genetics Research Complex 0475G /// email:nataliafernandez@ufl.edu
Research assistant
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
Alumni
Postdoc Researchers:
- 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:
- 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:
- 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