Mete Civelek, Principal Investigator
- Ph.D., Bioengineering, University of Pennsylvania
- M.S., Chemical Engineering, Pennsylvania State University
- B.S., Chemical Engineering and Molecular Biology and Genetics, Bogazici University
Mete Civelek, Principal Investigator
Mete Civelek joined the University of Virginia after a postdoctoral fellowship in cardiovascular genetics in the laboratory of Jake Lusis at the University of California, Los Angeles. He studied the genetic regulation of gene expression in vascular cells and adipose tissue in human and mouse populations. He identified novel candidate genes that can play causal roles in the development of atherosclerosis, obesity and insulin resistance. He is currently an Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering and is also a resident faculty at the Center for Public Health Genomics. He is a member of the Robert M Berne Cardiovascular Research Center and has a secondary appointment in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics. He is the chair of the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion committee of the Department of Biomedical Engineering. He is a member of the Program Committee of the American Heart Association Vascular Discovery Conference and chair of the Program Committee of the American Society of Human Genetics.
Nicolas Barbera, Postdoctoral Fellow
Nik Barbera completed his PhD in the laboratories of Drs. Belinda Akpa and Irena Levitan at the University of Illinois at Chicago. During his PhD studies, he studied interactions between lipids, sterols, and membrane proteins in a dynamic membrane environment using molecular dynamic simulations. His current work is focused on identifying causal genetic variants in loci associated with coronary artery disease susceptibility. He was a Postdoctoral Fellow of the Cardiovascular Training Grant between 2020 and 2022. He is currently supported by an American Heart Association Postdoctoral Fellowship.
Kelsey Watts, Postdoctoral Fellow
Kelsey Watts completed her PhD in the laboratory of William Richardson at Clemson University. During her PhD studies, she modeled sex differences in cardiac fibroblast morphology and signaling activities in vitro and in silico, including a sex-specific drug screen. She was also involved in significant research in STEM education. Her current work is focused on understanding sex differences in atherosclerosis. She is a Postdoctoral Fellow of the Cardiovascular Training Grant.
Bilge Yaylak Gediksiz, Postdoctoral Fellow
Bilge Yaylak Gediksiz completed her PhD in the laboratory of Dr Bunyamin Akgul at Izmir Institute of Technology. During her Ph.D. studies, she characterized circular RNAs that modulate drug-triggered apoptosis in HeLa cells. Her current work is focused on understanding sex differences in type II diabetes (T2D).
Jordan Reed, PhD Candidate
Jordan Reed received a B.S. in Bioengineering from the University of Pennsylvania and did undergraduate research in bacteriology, studying antibiotic resistance at the University of Rochester. Her current focus is understanding the flow of genetic information in adipose tissue gene expression networks using causal inference modeling. Jordan was a Predoctoral Fellow of the Cardiovascular Training Grant between 2018 and 2020.
Noah Perry, PhD Candidate
Noah Perry received a BS in Biomedical Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology and did undergraduate research in biomechanics and imaging, creating computational eye models to study the impact of glaucoma conditions on the biomechanics of the eye at Georgia Tech and Emory University. His current focus is understanding the flow of genetic information in vascular smooth muscle cell gene expression networks using causal inference modeling. He was a Predoctoral Fellow of the Cardiovascular Training Grant between 2020 and 2021. In 2022, he was awarded a Ruth L. Kirschstein Predoctoral Individual National Research Service Award from the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute as well as a Teaching Fellowship from UVA Engineering.
Yonathan Aberra, PhD Candidate
Yonathan Aberra received a B.S. in Biomedical Engineering from the University of California, Irvine. He studied systems neurobiology and microscopy, designing miniaturized fluorescence microscopy cameras to study regulatory circuitry in the prefrontal cortex and hippocampus in awake mice with the support of the National Institute of Mental Health. His current focus is identifying the causal genes in genomic regions associated with body fat distribution with a focus on the CPEB4 locus. He was a Fellow of The Louis Stokes Alliances for Minority Participation (LSAMP) program between 2019 and 2021. He is currently a Predoctoral Fellow of the Cardiovascular Training Grant.
Lexi Wallace, PhD Candidate
Lexi Wallace received a B.S. in Biomedical Engineering from the Ohio State University and did undergraduate research in the engineering education department on surfacing deeply held beliefs about gender and race based minoritization in engineering and with Cincinnati Children’s Hospital focused on how demographic information affects Lupus severity. Her current focus is sex-biased eQTL loci in vascular smooth muscle cells as a way to understand the sex biased phenotypic switching of vascular smooth muscle cells in the development of atherosclerosis.
Ashlyn Cowan, Lab Manager and AtheroGEN Network Coordinator
Ashlyn Cowan received a B.S. in Microbiology and minor in Spanish from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. While in school she worked as an undergraduate teaching assistant for biology introductory courses and as an undergraduate research assistant in the microbiology department focusing on microorganisms with novel properties to clean the environment, counter the damage done to ecosystems by humans, and improve environmental health. Since graduating she worked as a Lab Assistant at Syntezza Bioscience lab in Jerusalem, Israel.
Mitchell Thomas, Biomedical Engineering Fourth Year Undergraduate
2022 NIH Summer Diabetes Research Internship Program Participant
2023 DAAD RISE Exchange Program Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf
Lily Lei, Biology Third Year Undergraduate
2021 – 2023 Undergraduate Student Opportunities in Academic Research (USOAR) Program
Dhanush Banka, Biomedical Engineering Third Year Undergraduate
2022 – 2023 Double Hoo Award
Nujha Bhuiyan, Computer Science Third Year Undergraduate
2022 – 2023 Undergraduate Student Opportunities in Academic Research (USOAR) Program
Graham Lenert, Biomedical Engineering Second Year Undergraduate
2023 Dean’s Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship
Foday Keita
NIH Summer Research Internship Program Participant
Department of Biology
Howard University, Washington DC
May – August 2023
David A. Gragirenes Delgado
NIH Summer Research Internship Program Participant
Department of Biology
University of Puerto Rico, Cayey, PR
May – August 2022
Lela Ellerbe
NSF REU Multi-Scale Systems Bioengineering Program Participant
Department of Biomedical Engineering
Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA
May – August 2021
Alfredo LeBron
NIH Summer Research Internship Program Participant
Department of Natural Sciences
University of Puerto Rico, Aguadilla, PR
May – August 2018
May – August 2019
Carolyn Graham
NIH Summer Diabetes Research Internship Program Participant
Department of Biomedical Engineering
University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA
May – August 2018
Nicholas Garza
NSF REU Multi-Scale Systems Bioengineering Program Participant
Departments of Biomedical Engineering and Computer Science
Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD
May – August 2018
Anthony Boivin
Department of Physiology and Integrative Biology
Université Pierre et Marie Curie- Sorbonne Universités
April – August 2018
Sonavine Nget Chan
Department of Physiology and Integrative Biology
Université Pierre et Marie Curie- Sorbonne Universités
April – July 2018
Florent Bouchon
M.S. in Cellular and Molecular Biology
Agrocampus Ouest, Rennes, France
September 2017 – January 2018
Rebecca Habisch
Department of Pharmaceutical Biotechnology
Biberach University of Applied Sciences, Biberach an der Riss, Germany
March – November 2017
Simon Perrin
Department of Physiology and Integrative Biology
Université Pierre et Marie Curie- Sorbonne Universités
March – June 2017
Shayna Holness
NSF REU Multi-Scale Systems Bioengineering Program Participant
Department of Chemistry, Biochemistry, and Physics
Rider University, Lawrenceville, NJ
May – August 2017
Cameron Raglin
NIH Summer Research Internship Program Participant
Departments of Chemistry and History
Amherst College, Amherst, MA
May – August 2017
Qianyi Yang, Postdoctoral Fellow
2019-2022 Postdoctoral Fellow
Life after Lab: Senior Research Scientist, Vertex Pharmaceuticals
2016-2022 Postdoctoral Fellow
2018-2020 Postdoctoral Fellow, American Heart Association
Life after Lab: Junior Group Leader, Institute for Cardiogenetics, University of Lübeck
Warren Anderson, Postdoctoral Fellow
2016-2018 Postdoctoral Fellow, Cardiovascular Training Grant
2018-2020 Postdoctoral Fellow, American Heart Association
2020-2021 Postdoctoral Fellow, Neuroendocrinology Training Grant
Life after Lab: Principal Scientist, Translational Bioinformatics Late Stage Immunology, Cardiovascular and Fibrosis, Bristol Myers Squibb
Jameson Hinkle, Lab Manager
2015-2020 Lab Manager
Life after Lab: Lab Manager, Dr. Heather Ferris Lab
Zhiwen Xu, Undergraduate Research Assistant
B.S. in Biochemistry and B.A. in Studio Art
2019-2023 Undergraduate Research Assistant
2020 – 2021 Harrison Undergraduate Research Award
2022 – 2023 Barry Goldwater Scholarship
Life after Lab: Emergency Medical Technician
Dillon Lue, Undergraduate Research Assistant
B.S. in Biomedical Engineering
2019-2022 Undergraduate Research Assistant
2020 Harrison Undergraduate Research Award
Life After Lab: PhD Program in Computer Science, Princeton University
Diana Albarracin, Undergraduate Research Assistant
B.S. in Biomedical Engineering
2020-2022 Undergraduate Research Assistant
2021 Harrison Undergraduate Research Award
2022 UVA Engineering Outstanding Student
Life After Lab: Biomedical Engineer, Medtronic
Rita Anane-Wae, Undergraduate Research Assistant
B.S. in Biomedical Engineering
2018-2021 Undergraduate Research Assistant
2021 UVA Engineering Outstanding Student
2019 Harrison Undergraduate Research Award
Life After Lab: Process Engineer, Merck Vaccine Division
Joon Yuh Sohl, Bioinformatician
2016-2018 Undergraduate Research Assistant
2018-2020 Bioinformatics Technician
Life after Lab: Master of Science in Data Science at the University of Virginia
Ngozi Akingbesote, Undergraduate Research Assistant
B.S. in Biology with Distinction
2017-2020 Undergraduate Student Opportunities in Academic Research (USOAR) Program
2018 Harrison Undergraduate Research Award
2019 Caltech Wave Fellow
2019-2020 Department of Biology Distinguished Majors Program
Life after Lab: Ph.D. Program in Molecular Medicine, Pharmacology, and Physiology at the Yale School of Medicine
Lisa Chen, Undergraduate Research Assistant
B.S. in Biomedical Engineering
2015-2019 Undergraduate Research Assistant
2018 Harrison Undergraduate Research Award
2018-2019 Capstone Design Project
Life after Lab: Master of Engineering in BME at the University of Virginia
Jewel White, Undergraduate Research Assistant
B.S. in Biology
2017-2019 Undergraduate Research Assistant
Life after Lab: Ph.D. Program in Neuroscience at the University of Maryland
Aaron Aguhob, Undergraduate Research Assistant
B.S. in Biomedical Engineering
2015-2018 Undergraduate Research Assistant
2017-2018 Capstone Design Project
Life after Lab: Bioinformatics Software Developer at Cyrus Biotechnology
Ryan Cheng, Undergraduate Research Assistant
B.S. in Biomedical Engineering
2015-2017 Undergraduate Research Assistant
Life after Lab: Senior Data Scientist 2nd Order Solutions
Nicholas Asby, Undergraduate Research Assistant
B.S. in Biomedical Engineering
2015-2017 Undergraduate Research Assistant
Life after Lab: Ph.D. Program in Molecular Engineering at the University of Chicago
