Team

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

mei

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.

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

xiaoshu

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

tarun

POSTDOCTORAL RESEARCHER

Zuo Ding

2022, PhD, Medical Science, University of Florida, USA /// Office: UF Cancer and Genetics Research Complex 0475G /// email: zara930104@ufl.edu

zuo

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

zack

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

nina

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

samantha

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

jillian

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

Maya

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:

BRIAN

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

rachell

UF EMERGING SCHOLAR

Lauren Andrews

Undergraduate student, Biochemistry, University of Florida /// Office: UF Cancer and Genetics Research Complex 0475G /// email: laurenandrews@ufl.edu

lauren

Undergraduate researcher

Julia Jamieson

Undergraduate student, Biology, University of Florida /// Office: UF Cancer and Genetics Research Complex 0475G /// email: juliajamieson@ufl.edu

julia

UF RESEARCH Scholar

Maria Serafim


Undergraduate student, Biomedical Engineering, University of Florida /// Office: UF Cancer and Genetics Research Complex 0475G /// email: mserafim@ufl.edu

maria

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

Hillary
AAPS 2022, Boston
AAPS 2022 Best Abstract Award and Best Poster Award
Gordon EV Conference 2022, Sunday River
Gordon EV Conference 2022 , Sunday River
NINA
Gordon EV Conference 2022 , Sunday River
AAPS 2021, Philadelphia

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