Meet the team: Full-Time Staff


Scooby-Doo themed Halloween Gathering (Nov 2022): Pictured from left to right, Sophia Carpinelli, Alayna Zolot, Courtney Tindle, Eleadah Vidales and Kevin Perry. 

HUMANOID-affiliated trainees, faculty, and what we do...


Trainees engaged in disease-modeling studies with HUMANOID through collaborations: Pictured from left to right, Madhubanti Mullick (tumor-immune cell co-culture), Mahitha Shree Anandachar (IBD modeling, microbial clearance); Sophia Carpinelli (lung cancer, lung and intestinal fibrosis, Ulcerative Colitis); Alayna Zolot, Courtney Tindle (core director, multiple projects, organoid-stromal cell co-culture studies), Eleadah Vidales and Kevin Perry (IBD, Reprogramming cancer stem cells in adenocarcinomas); Saptarshi Sinha (Computational vetting of disease models); Raktim Mukherjee (modeling NASH); Gajanan Katkar (organoid-immune cell co-culture studies). Kneeling in front: Pradipta Ghosh, Executive Director and Founding co-Director, HUMANOID. 

                     

Full-Time Staff

Courtney Tindle, Email: ctindle@health.ucsd.edu 
Program Role/Specialized Tasks: In charge of all HUMANOID's services and recharges (internal, external and industry), and project and personnel management, regulatory approvals and administrative tasks. 
Project Lead: Crohn's Disease; Modeling Human Lung Infections (bacteria and viruses); IBD-immune cell co-cultures; Modeling microbial infection and clearance in the gut.
Kevin Perry, Emailk3perry@health.ucsd.edu 
Program Role/Specialized Tasks: In charge of HUMANOID's flow cytometry and microscopy services.
Project Lead: Cancer stem cell targeted therapeutics (colon, biliary, pancreatic, gastric and esophageal).

Sophia Carpinelli, Emailscarpinelli@health.ucsd.edu 
Program Role/Specialized Tasks: In charge of HUMANOID's media preparation, QC testing, and 
Project Lead: Intestinal and Lung fibrosis; Modeling tumor-immune cell co-niche; AI-based organoid imaging; Ulcerative colitis modeling.  
Alayna Zolot, Emailazolot@health.ucsd.edu 
Program Role/Specialized Tasks: Laboratory and Area Safety Manager; In charge of HUMANOID's media preparation, QC testing, shipping and handling. 
Project Lead: Cancer therapeutics and Ulcerative colitis modeling; NASH (non-alcoholic steato hepatitis).  

Erika Miramontes, Email: emiramontes@health.ucsd.edu 
Program Role/Specialized Tasks: Organoid isolation, culture and biobanking. 
Project Lead: [Coming soon].
Spencer Wilcox, Email: srwilcox@health.ucsd.edu 
Program Role/Specialized Tasks: Organoid isolation, culture and biobanking. 
Project Lead: [Coming soon]. 

Frances Feng; Emailfrfeng@ucsd.edu 
Building a career in biomedical sciences as a student research assistant at HUMANOID. 
Project: Modeling Inflammatory Bowel Disease. 

​Jasmin Amezcua; Emailjaamezcua@ucsd.edu 
Building a career in biomedical sciences as a student research assistant at HUMANOID. 
Project: Modeling Lung Cancer Microenvironment and immunoRx.


​Rand Ato; Email: rato@ucsd.edu 
Bioengineering: Biotechnology Student at UC San Diego
Building a career in biomedical sciences as a student research assistant at HUMANOID. 
Project: Modeling Inflammatory Bowel Disease


Affiliated Trainees and Staffs

Vanessa Castillo Head Shot





                  Vanessa Castillo                                               

             Staff Research Associate                      

                                                                  

Vanessa Castillo Head Shot





           Gajanan K. Dattatray, Ph.D                                               

             Assistant Project Scientist           


Visiting Scholars and Scientists


Permanent CNRS Researcher Principal Investigator

CNRS - Centre national de la recherche scientifique · Lifetime Civil Servant

HUMANOID's internal R&D is committed to embrace better disease modeling approaches. We are excited to host Nicolas Aznar at HUMANOID: Human Organoid Center of Research Excellence (CoRE) in the summer of 2023 as a Visiting Professor from Cancer Research Center of Lyon in France. Looking forward to testing an innovative 3D cell culture system developed by Dr. Aznar, which drastically increases the number of stem cells over repeated passage. This strategic partnership allows us to join forces to identify and #eliminate Cancer Stem Cells.

PAST MEMBERS

Staffs: 

Eleadah Vidales (2021-2023)- Immediate next position: Research Associate II at Stemson Therapeutics. Follow her on LinkedIN to know where she is now.

Vanae Goheen-Holland (2021-2022)- Immediate next position: Research Associate II at Stemson Therapeutics. Follow her on LinkedIN to know where she is now.

Gabriela V. Sanchez (2021-2021)

Ayden G. Fonseca (2020-2022)- Immediate next position: Clinical application specialist at INSIGHTEC. Follow him on LinkedIN to know where he is now.

Joshua Alcantara (2020-2022) - Immediate next position: PhD student at UC Irvine Cellular and Molecular Biosciences. Follow him on LinkedIN to know where he is now.

Jasper Lee (2020-2022) - Immediate next position: Two-year Masters program at UCLA. Follow him on LinkedIN to know where he is now.

Stella-Rita Ibeawuchi (2019-2022)- Immediate next position: Research Scientist at Vertex Pharmaceuticals. Follow her on LinkedIN to know where she is now.

Dominik Stec (2019-2021) - Immediate next position: Graduate student, UT Austin to work on interdisciplinary biological physics. Follow him on LinkedIN to know where he is now.

Mackenzie R. Fuller (2019-2020)- Immediate next position: International English Teacher, positioned in South Korea. Aspiring graduate student. Follow Mackenzie on LinkedIN to know where she is now. 

Amanraj Claire (2020-2020)- Immediate next position: Scientific researcher at Cedar Sinai. Follow Amanraj on LinkedIN to know where he is now. 

Trainees:

Priti P. Maity, Ph.D. (2020-2021)- Immediate next position: follow him on LinkedIN


Visiting Scholars, Scientists and Affiliates: 

Ranajoy Chattopadhyay, Ph.D. (2019-2021), Senior Cell Biologist, Cytvia Inc (GE): LinkedIN

Dave Yu, Ph.D. (2019-2021), Vice President of Operations, Cell Applications Inc.: LinkedIN 

Alex Noskov, Ph.D. (2019-2021), Operations Manager, Cell Applications Inc.:  LinkedIN