Members

Principal Investigator

Natalia Ivanova, PhD

Dr. Ivanova grew up in Russia and received a Masters degree in Applied Mathematics and Physics from the Moscow Institute for Physics and Technology. She completed her PhD in Biology at the Engelhardt Institute for Molecular Biology (Russia), where she developed a new way to identify differentially-expressed transcripts. She then joined Dr. Ihor Lemischka’s lab at Princeton University where she was among the first to apply systematic transcriptional profiling to compare molecular signatures of embryonic and adult stem cells. Following up on those studies, she utilized shRNA-based loss-of-function techniques to identify new regulatory factors that controls self-renewal in mouse embryonic stem cells.  She became an Assistant Professor at Yale University in 2008 and was promoted to Associate Professor in 2014.  In August 2019 she was recruited to the Center of Molecular Medicine and the Department of Genetics at the University of Georgia. Her laboratory has been mechanistically dissecting self-renewal, differentiation and reprogramming using mouse and human embryonic stem cell models.

Senior Research Associate

Dwaipayan (Deep) Sen

Bio: Dwaipayan Sen (Deep) was born and brought up in India. After finishing his B.Tech in Biotechnology from India, Deep pursued his PhD in Neurobiology from State University of New York, Binghamton, USA (2006-2011). After completing his PhD he returned back to India for his post-doctoral studies in the area of cell and gene therapy (2011-2014). From 2014-2019, Deep was an independent PI in India, where his research primarily focused on adult stem cell biology as well as Adeno associated virus mediated gene therapy. He has worked on various preclinical disease models ranging from Haemophilia, Parkinson’s disease and Glioblastoma. In November 2019, Deep joined the Center for Molecular Medicine at UGA as a Senior Research Associate.

Project: He is currently involved in testing the hypothesis wherein human trophoblast stem cells can be induced from human embryonic stem cells or fibroblasts via direct lineage conversion with a cocktail of trophoblast-specific factors in the presence of maintenance cytokines and/or signaling inhibitors.

Postdoctoral Research Scholar

Jinliang Tao

Bio: Jinglian Tao received her PhD degree in Clinical Medicine from Tianjin Medical University, China. During her Master’s and PhD studies she investigated the hemorrhage risk in acute leukemia and worked on the identification of the malignant stem cells in the patients with Myelodysplastic Syndrome. As a hematology clinician in Hematology Department of Tianjin Medical University General Hospital (China) she was also engaged in clinical research of Myelodysplastic Syndrome patients. In December 2019 she joined the laboratory of Dr. Ivanova in the Center of Molecular Medicine and the Department of Genetics at UGA as a Postdoctoral Research Scholar.

Project: Jinglian is using single cell technologies to study genetic and epigenetic mechanisms of germ layer specification in human embryonic stem cells.

Graduate Student

Hongqi Gao

Bio: Hongqi received a Bachelor’s Degree in Biology from Shandong University, China, in July 2018. During his undergraduate years, Hongqi worked in three different labs studying anti-salinized cotton (3 months), extracellular polysaccharides from intestinal bacteria (2 years) and the antidepressant effects of ketamine (1 year). The breadth of research directions has given him a solid foundation in life science experimental skills. In 2019, Hongqi was admitted to the UGA ILS program, and joined Dr. Ivanova’s laboratory in November 2019.

Project: Hongqi studies genetic and epigenetic networks that regulate the identity of human embryonic stem cells.

Graduate Student

Dong Eun Seo

Bio: Dong Eun grew up in South Korea and graduated from Korea University with Bachelor of Science in Biotechnology. During her Master’s degree, she studied aging related to caloric restriction and worked with yeast to reveal the genes that are crucial for extending lifespan. After receiving Master of Science degree in Korea University, she entered Ph.D. program in UGA and joined Dr. Ivanova’s lab for her thesis work.

Project: Dong Eun is studying the link between metabolism and transcription in the context of neural stem cell self-renewal and differentiation.

Research Professional

Mikhail Parker

Bio: Mikhail Parker received Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Biology from Lomonosov’s Moscow State University, Russia. During his Bachelor’s studies he worked on the derivation of embryonic stem cells from cybrid (cytoplasmic hybrid) blastocysts created via somatic cell nuclear transfer or SCNT. During his Master’s studies he investigated the effects of systemic transplantation of mesenchymal stem cells on aging process in rats. After defending his Master’s thesis he entered a PhD program in Institute of Cell Biophysics (Russia) where he conducted research on embryonic stem cells transfected with suicidal gene HSV-TK for the purpose of prevention of tumor formation after their in vitro differentiation and transplantation. In October 2019 he joined the laboratory of Dr. Ivanova in the Center of Molecular Medicine and the Department of Genetics at UGA as a Research Professional.

Project: Mikhail is studying mechanisms of chromatin remodeling during cellular reprogramming and differentiation.

Research Professional

Benjamin (Ben) Jackson

Bio: Ben graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology, with course work focused in Molecular Biology and Biochemistry. His work since then has gained him experience with handling potentially hazardous materials such as bacteria, fungi, and human blood. He returned to research in October 2019, joining the Ivanova Lab as a Research Professional.

Project:  Ben is investigating how the nuclear hormone receptors of COUP-TF family regulate development of lymphatic endothelium, neurons and cardiomyocytes in mice and humans.