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Division of Regenerative Medicine Division of Regenerative Medicine

People

Principal Investigator

Dr. Dan Kaufman

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 

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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


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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

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Matthew Kim

Kaufman Lab, 3rd Floor
Phone: 858-246-1494
Email: mak027@health.ucsd.edu

   Graduate Students

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Jonathan Gunn

Kaufman Lab, 3rd Floor
Phone: 858-246-1494
Email: jogunn@health.ucsd.edu

Undergraduate Students

Vivian Le
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: tkellemen@ucsd.edu

Ayana Perera
Kaufman Lab, 3rd Floor
Phone: 858-246-1494
Email: aperera@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

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Lab Gathering and Sima Ebrahimabadi Farewell

2024

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Jesus Beltran-Garcia's Farewell Gathering

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Pumpkin Carving

2023

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Rock Painting

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Ben Goldstein's Farewell Gathering

2022

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Manuel Fierro's and Xio-Hua Li's Farewell Gathering

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Michael Coffey's Farewell Gathering

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Pumpkin Carving

2021

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Lab Kayaking Activity at La Jolla Shores

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Lab Happy Hour

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Somayeh Pouyanfard and Davide Bernareggi Farewell Gathering

2020

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November Birthday Celebration