Meet Our Team

Program Director

Mark Frey, PhD

Department: Department of Pediatrics
Division: Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition
Research Focus: Regulation of intestinal stem cell niche and progenitor cell

Research Faculty

Jashdeep Bhattacharjee, PhD

Department: Department of Pediatrics
Division: Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition
Research Focus: Liver Disease, Enterohepatic Signaling and Immunology

Stefano Da Sacco, PhD

Department: Department of Surgery
Division: Urology
Research Focus: Kidney disease modeling on microfluidic glomerular chips

Roger De Filippo, MD

Department: Department of Surgery
Division: Urology
Research Focus: Kidney diseases and regeneration using tissue engineering tools

Christopher Gayer, MD, PhD, FACS, FAAP

Department: Department of Surgery
Division: Pediatric Surgery
Research Focus: Dysmotility inflammatory bowel disease colorectal bowel disease

Senta Georgia, PhD

Department: Department of Pediatrics
Division: Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism
Research Focus: Beta cell differentiation and regeneration

Brendan Grubbs, MD

Department: Department of Pediatrics
Division: Maternal-Fetal Medicine
Research Focus: Fetal maternal health and human developmental biology

Christian Hochstim, MD, PhD

Department: Department of Surgery
Division: Otolaryngology
Research Focus: Tracheal stenosis and epithelial regeneration

Anna Kamitakahara, PhD

Department: Department of Pediatrics
Division: Neurology
Research Focus: Neural development and gut-brain circuits controlling feeding behavior

Rohit Kohli, MBBS, MS

Department: Department of Pediatrics
Division: Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition
Research Focus: Dysregulated functions underlying liver pathophysiology in kids

Rusty Lansford, PhD

Department: Department of Radiology
Research Focus: Molecular and optical tools to study cell decision-making

Ching-Ling (Ellen) Lien, PhD

Department: Department of Surgery
Division: Cardiothoracic Surgery
Research Focus: Heart development and regeneration and iPSC human disease models

Rex Moats, PhD

Department: Department of Radiology
Research Focus: Imaging, stem cell therapy, disease models and preclinical studies

Aaron Nagiel, MD, PhD

Department: Department of Surgery
Division: Ophthalmology
Research Focus: Retinal development and synaptogenesis

Laura Perin, PhD

Department: Department of Surgery
Division: Urology
Research Focus: Mechanisms that regulate kidney damage and kidney cancer

Astgik Petrosyan, PhD

Department: Department of Surgery
Division: Urology
Research Focus: Extracellular matrix and 3D modeling of cancer

Michael A. Schumacher, PhD

Department: Department of Pediatrics
Division: Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition
Research Focus: Tissue re-modeling and mucosal healing in the gut

Sargis Sedrakyan, PhD

Department: Department of Surgery
Division: Pediatric Urology
Research Focus: Endothelial dysfunction, lipid metabolism and extracellular vesicles for kidney disease

David Warburton, OBE, DSc, MD, MMM, FRCP, FRCS, FRCPCH

Department: Department of Surgery
Division: Neonatology
Research Focus: Human lung developmental biology and regenerative medicine