Previous Members
Graduate Students
Lilibeth Ortega-Pineda, PhD
Graduate Student (2019 - 2022)
Lilibeth joined Dr. Higuita-Castro’s lab in January 2019 as a visiting scholar and subsequently started her PhD in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at OSU in August 2019. The primary focus of her research involved developing therapeutic nano-carriers into targeted gene delivery systems for application in translational metabolic disorders and brain injury therapies. Lilibeth successfully defended her thesis in December 2022, titled "Engineering Extracellular Vesicles as Nano-Carriers for Targeted Payload Delivery and Cell Reprogramming Applications". Following graduation, she began working with Eli Lily in Indianapolis.
Ana Salazar-Puerta, PhD
Graduate Student (2019 - 2022)
Ana joined Higuita-Castro Nanomedicine lab in 2019 as Visiting scholar, and immediately after transitioned into her PhD in August of the same year at The Ohio State University. In 2021, Ana received the prestigious Presidential Fellowship from Ohio State, one of the university's most notable fellowships. Her research focused on developing cutting-edge treatments based on novel engineered extracellular vesicle (EV)-based nanotherapeutics for gene delivery and cell reprogramming. Her research was focused on EV-based therapeutics for pulmonary inflammation, valvular heart diseases, low back pain, and neurofibromatosis applications. She completed her PhD in Biomedical Engineering and defended her thesis in December 2022, titled "Engineering Extracellular Vesicles for Therapeutic Applications". Following graduation, Ana began working as a postdoctoral researcher at Ohio State in the Gallego-Perez Nanomedicine Lab.
Research Staff
Ludmila Diaz-Starokozheva
Lab Manager (2017 - 2020)
Ludmila joined the Gallego-Perez Nanomedicine Lab as the lab manager in 2017. As lab manager, she also performed research that focused on tissue engineering for therapeutics outcomes in ischemic disorders and diabetes. Following her tenure, Ludmila joined Ohio State as a PhD student in the Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology Interdisciplinary Program.
Undergraduate Students
Ellie Guilfoyle
2019 - 2022
Ellie was a biomedical engineering student and was working on the reprogramming of pancreatic cells into insulin-producing cells via extracellular vesicles.
Amrita Anaparthi
2020 - 2022
Amrita was a biomedical engineering student . She was working on therapeutic applications of extracellular vesicles in diabetes and neurovascular disorders.
Roxanne Vermette
2021 - 2022
Roxanne was a Cancer Research Experience for the Advancement and Training of Emerging Scientists (CREATES) undergraduate fellow in the Higuita-Castro Nanomedicine Lab. Her research focused on developing non-viral gene therapies for neurofibromatosis utilizing novel nanotechnology tools.
Jad Hussein
2021 - 2022
Jad was a biomedical engineering student and was working on the implementation of engineered extracellular vesicles in inflammatory conditions of the lungs.
Pratima Prabala
2020 - 2022
Pratima was a biomedical engineering student. She worked on the implementation of engineered extracellular vesicles in inflammatory conditions of the lungs.