People
Principal Investigator
Dan S. Kaufman, MD, PhD
Professor, Department of Medicine
Sanford Stem Cell Institute Endowed Chair
Director of Cell Therapy Program
Co-Director, Sanford Advanced Therapy Center
Email: dskaufman@health.ucsd.edu
Division of Regenerative Medicine Staff
Angela Valdez
Executive Administrator
Division of Regenerative Medicine (DRM)
Office 3817
Phone: 858.246.5010
Email: angelavaldez@health.ucsd.edu
Lab Staff
Edith Lopez
Staff Research Associate
Division of Regenerative Medicine (DRM)
Office 3817
Phone: 858.246.9414
Email: e8lopez@health.ucsd.edu
Barbara Perez Escareno
Staff Research Associate
Division of Regenerative Medicine (DRM)
Office 3817
Phone: 858.246.9414
Email: bperezescareno@health.ucsd.edu
Frances Rocamora
Project Scientist
Kaufman Lab, 3rd Floor
Phone: 858-246-1494
Email: frocamora@health.ucsd.edu
Postdoctoral Researchers
Jaya Lakshmi Thangaraj
Kaufman Lab, 3rd Floor
Phone: 858-246-1494
Email: jlthangaraj@health.ucsd.edu
Graduate Students
Jonathan Gunn
Kaufman Lab, 3rd FloorPhone: 858-246-1494
Email: jogunn@health.ucsd.edu
Undergraduate Students
Vivian Le
Kaufman Lab, 3rd Floor
Phone: 858-246-1494
Email: vl003@ucsd.edu
Kaufman Lab, 3rd Floor
Phone: 858-246-1494
Email: vl003@ucsd.edu
Jessica Chu
Kaufman Lab, 3rd Floor
Phone: 858-246-1494
Email:jec065@ucsd.edu
Trini Kellemen
Kaufman Lab, 3rd Floor
Phone: 858-246-1494
Email: </strongtkellemen@ucsd.edu
Ayana Perera
Kaufman Lab, 3rd Floor
Phone: 858-246-1494
Email: aperera@ucsd.edu
Enaaya Mahmood
Kaufman Lab, 3rd Floor
Phone: 858-246-1494
Email: emahmood@ucsd.edu
Lab Alumni
2025
Sima Ebrahimabadi
Visiting Graduate Student
2024
Jesus Beltran-Garcia
Postdoctoral Researcher
Muyang (Hanson) Xu
Undergraduate Researcher
Jusuf Imeri
Visiting Medical Student
Alice D'Andrea
Visiting Graduate Student
Natalie Pok
Undergraduate Researcher
2023
Joseph Sarsam
Staff Research Associate
Meng-Wei Ko
Postdoctoral Researcher
Pooja Hor
Postdoctoral Researcher
Samuel Shia
Graduate Student
Alanisse Apaydin
Graduate Student
2022
Yuelin Kong
Postdoctoral Researcher
Manuel Fierro
Staff Research Associate II
PhD Student at Northwestern University, Chicago IL
Jiyoung Yun
Staff Research Associate II
PhD Student at University of British Columbia, Canada
Andres Bahena
Undergraduate Researcher
Linda Liang
Undergraduate Researcher
Research Associate I at Crown Bioscience
Yuqi Zhang
Undergraduate Researcher
Masters Student at University of Pennsylvania
2021
Davide Bernareggi
Postdoctoral Fellow
Senior Scientist at Shoreline Biosciences, Inc.
Somayeh Pouyanfard
Resident Physician
Senior Scientist Cell Thereapy at Wugen
Michael Coffey
Postdoctoral Fellow
CAR-T Research Scientist at Poseida Therapeutics Inc.
2020
Kenta Yamamoto
Postdoctoral Fellow
Project Manager, Cell Analyst at BioLegend
Stephen Calderon
Summer Medical Research Student
Medical Student at UC San Diego School of Medicine
2019
Huang Zhu
Postdoctoral Fellow
Vice President of R&D at Shoreline Biosciences
Cara Bickers
Postdoctoral Fellow
Scientist at Fate Therapeutics, Inc.
Michele Yunzu Wang
Resident Physician
Pediatric Hematologist/Oncologist at Cincinnati Children's Hospital
Matthew Gynn
Summer Medical Research Student
Resident Physician at University British Columbia
Alessa Ruiz-Cisneros
Undergraduate Researcher
Quality Control Associate at City of Hope
Victor Shen
Undergraduate Researcher
Jack Castaneda
Undergraduate Researcher
2018
Luis Cruz
Graduate Student/SRA
PhD Student at San Diego State University
Jacqueline Le
Undergraduate Researcher
Ye (Ethan) Li
Postdoctoral Fellow
CPRIT Graduate at University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
2017
Prior to 2016
Xinghui Tian
Postdoctoral Fellow
Colin Martin
Postdoctoral Fellow
Frances Harding
Postdoctoral Fellow
Vincent Larouche
Pathology/Transfusion Fellow
Petra Obrtlikova
Postdoctoral Fellow
Ketan Doshi
Hematology/Oncology Fellow
Rizwan Romee
Resident
Zhenya Ni
Postdoctoral Fellow
Ross Kopher
Postdoctoral Fellow
Minh Hong
Postdoctoral Fellow
Martin Pesl
Postdoctoral Fellow
Saiful Islam
Postdoctoral Fellow
Yixin Tang
Postdoctoral Fellow
Jason Motl
Postdoctoral Fellow
Li Zhou
Postdoctoral Fellow
Pavel Simara
Postdoctoral Fellow
George Scaria
Hematology/Oncology Fellow
David Hermanson
Postdoctoral Fellow
Fahad Kidwai
Postdoctoral Fellow
Zhongming Chen
Postdoctoral Fellow
CM Cameron
Graduate Student
Peter Woll
Graduate Student
Jennifer Gori
Graduate Student
David Knorr
Graduate Student
Patrick Ferrell
Graduate Student
Patrick Walsh
Graduate Student
Aarathi Shanmugam
Graduate Student
Li Li
Graduate Student
Mitali Adlakha
Graduate Student
Chao Ma
Graduate Student
Michael Lepley
Graduate Student
Robert Blum
Graduate Student
Matthew Angelos
Graduate Student
Julie Morris
Undergraduate Researcher
Elizabeth Johnson
Undergraduate Researcher
Matthew Painschab
Undergraduate Researcher
Rebecca Marcus
Undergraduate Researcher
Russ Taylor
Undergraduate Researcher
Katherine Hill
Undergraduate Researcher
Rebecca Armstrong
Undergraduate Researcher
Krishnan Ramanujan
Undergraduate Researcher
Amanda Gussiaas
Undergraduate Researcher
Jeremy Kudrna
Undergraduate Researcher
Christine Ngryen
Undergraduate Researcher
Allison Bock
Undergraduate Researcher
Trevor Argall
Undergraduate Researcher
Cory Kellum
Undergraduate Researcher
Beth Schoon
Undergraduate Researcher
Promise Okeke
Undergraduate Researcher
Cody Dali
Summer Undergraduate Researcher
Jessica Edwards
Summer Undergraduate Researcher
Anna Kim
Undergraduate Researcher
Peter Kassis Akal
Undergraduate Researcher
Paige Ruh
Undergraduate Researcher
Jacqueline Le
Undergraduate Researcher
Events
Events
2025
Lab Gathering and Sima Ebrahimabadi Farewell
2024
Jesus Beltran-Garcia's Farewell Gathering
Pumpkin Carving
2023
Rock Painting
Ben Goldstein's Farewell Gathering
2022
Manuel Fierro's and Xio-Hua Li's Farewell Gathering
Michael Coffey's Farewell Gathering
Pumpkin Carving
2021
Lab Kayaking Activity at La Jolla Shores
Lab Happy Hour
Somayeh Pouyanfard and Davide Bernareggi Farewell Gathering
2020
November Birthday Celebration