STAR-5 (2024-2025) Course Participants
Nilufar Ali, Ph.D.
Principal Research Scholar, Boise State University.
Decoding Neurodegenerative Diseases: Mitochondrial Mechanisms, Multiomics Insights, and Drug Discovery.
Jamel Ali, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering.
FAMU-FSU College of Engineering and the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory.
Micro/nanobiorobotics, Microbial dynamics, Cancer mechanobiology, Biomaterials for bio/biomedical applications.
Chiara Arrigoni, Ph.D.
Research Associate, Regenerative Medicine Technologies Laboratory, Ente Ospedaliero Cantonale, Bellinzona (Switzerland).
Microfluidics, biofabrication, 3D in vitro models of skeletal tissues.
Richard P. Bonocora, Ph.D.
Senior Lecturer, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
Genome plasticity and gene regulation.
Javier Buceta, Ph.D.
Research Group Leader, Deputy Director, Institute for Integrative Systems Biology (I2SysBio), CSIC-UV, Valencia, Spain.
Microbiology, Tissue Mechanics, Biophysics, Stochastic Processes.
Manohar Chakrabarti, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley.
Plant Molecular Biology, Genomics, and Biotechnology.
Stephanie Dudzinski M.D., Ph.D.
Resident Physician in Radiation Oncology at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.
Immune System, Radioprotectants.
Randa Eshaq, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Fellow, Louisiana State University Health Shreveport.
Retinal microvascular remodeling under pathophysiological conditions.
Luke Fountain, Ph.D.
NASA Postdoctoral Fellow, NASA Kennedy Space Center.
Space crop production, plant nitrogen uptake, plant responses to elevated CO2.
Katelyn Jarvis Griffith, Ph.D.
Research Scientist, NASA Ames Research Center.
Prognostics and Health Management; Mathematical Biology.
Kelly Haston, Ph.D.
Principal Research Scientist and NASA Analog Astronaut.
Modeling human development and disease with induced pluripotent stem cells.
Colwyn Headley, Ph.D.
Post-Doctoral Fellow, Stanford University, School of Medicine, Cardiovascular Institute.
Immune and Cardiovascular aging, mitochondrial dysfunction.
Matthias Hebisch, Ph.D.
Research Fellow, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School.
Human models of neurodegeneration and dementia.
Yamini Jangir, Ph.D.
Visiting Assistant Professor, Indian Institute of Technology (Kanpur), India.
Microbial electrochemistry, Extreme environments, Astrobiology.
Nouha Klai, Ph.D.
Associate Director of Process Development, Galenvs Sciences.
Nanotechnologies for bio-purification and diagnostics.
Marina López-Pozo, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Researcher, University of Colorado, Boulder.
Plant Physiological Ecology.
Catherine Maggiori, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Researcher, Georgetown University.
Agnostic biosignatures.
Karen Ong, M.D., Ph.D., M.P.H.
Flight Surgeon, Virgin Galactic.
Computational Biology.
Patrick Opdensteinen, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Fellow, University of California San Diego.
Plant Molecular Farming and Biotechnology.
Sunghee (Estelle) Park, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Purdue University, Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering.
Stem cells and organoids on a chip.
Camila Maistro Patreze, Ph.D.
Associate Professor at Federal University of Rio de Janeiro State, Department of Botany.
Molecular plant and fungal biology.
Katarzyna Piekarz, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Fellow, Washington University in St. Louis.
Spinal cord development and aging, neural simulations.
Brandon Roberts, Ph.D., M.B.A.
Research Physiologist, US Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine.
Musculoskeletal physiology, obesity, extreme environments.
Manuela Schmidt, Ph.D.
Professor of Pharmacology and Toxicology, University of Vienna, Austria.
Vertebrate nociception and pain.
Jasmine Shirazi, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Fellow, Children’s Research Institute, UT Southwestern Medical Center.
Mechanical loading, hematopoiesis, and bone maintenance.
Tarjani Shukla, Ph.D.
Diagnostics and Therapeutics Research Scientist, 59th Medical Wing, Defense Health Agency.
Bioinformatics and Neurobiology.
Fulvia Verde, Ph.D.
Professor, Department of Molecular and Cellular Pharmacology, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, Miami.
Control of cell morphogenesis and chronological aging during stress response.
Rich Whittle, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, University of California, Davis.
Bioastronautics.
Katherine Wozniak, Ph.D.
Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX. TRISH Postdoctoral Fellow.
Radiation biology of the human gut microbiome and intestinal epithelium..
Cristal Zuniga, Ph.D.
San Diego State University, Assistant Professor.
Computational biology.