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Alumni
Graduate Students
María Angélica Rincón Benavides, PhD
Graduate Student (2021 - 2024)
María joined Dr. Higuita-Castro’s lab in January 2019 as a visiting scholar and transitioned into her PhD in the Department of Biophysics at OSU in August 2021. Maria Angélica obtained her bachelor’s degree in biology from the Universidad Distrital Francisco Jose de Caldas, Colombia. She worked on the design and implementation of novel nanocarriers for NF1 applications. María submitted her first-author manuscript during Summer 2022. She also has authored and co-authored 8 manuscripts emanating from work with our collaborators. She has presented her research findings at podium and poster presentations at national (e.g., BMES Annual Meeting) and local conferences (e.g., the OSU Edward F. Hayes Graduate Research Forum). Maria has received awards from the Life Sciences IGP Annual Symposium, the Royal Society of Chemistry, the Hayes Graduate Research Forum, and a Travel Research Scholarship from the International Society for Extracellular Vesicles. María succesfully defended her thesis on August 2024, titled "Engineered Extracellular Vesicles Loaded with Nucleic Acids for Gene Therapy Strategies in Biomedical Applications". She is now working as a Post Doctoral Scholar in Dr. Higuita-Castro's lab.
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. She developed novel nanocarriers for metabolic disorders and brain injury applications. During 2022, Lilibeth was selected for a Summer Internship at Abbott Laboratories with the Research and Development—Scientific and Medical Affairs Departments, which largely has a focus on translational and clinical medicine. Lilibeth was elected Vice-President for the OSU Graduate Chapter - Society of Women Engineers, 2022. Lilibeth has published a first-author paper in Advanced Health Care Materials (2022), and her artwork was selected for the back cover of this issue. She submitted her second first-author manuscript by Autumn 2022. She also co-authored 5 manuscripts emanating from work with our collaborators. Lilibeth has presented her research findings at podium presentations at national (e.g., BMES Annual Meeting, The Military Health System Research Symposium – MHSRS, and The LatinX in Biomedical Engineering Symposium) and local conferences (e.g., OSU Edward F. Hayes Graduate Research Forum). Lilibeth successfully defended her thesis on 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 on 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.
Postdocs
Tatiana Z. Cuellar-Gaviria, PhD
Post Doctoral Fellow (2021 - 2024)
Tatiana joined the lab as a Postdoctoral Fellow during Autumn 2021. Her research is focused on the implementation of artificial intelligence and omics for characterization of novel engineered EV formulations. During Fall 2021, Tatiana was awarded the Leading Engineering as Agents of Change and Equity (LEGACY) Postdoctoral Fellowship from the College of Engineering at OSU. She was awarded the Ken Johnson Memorial Scholarship for the 2022 World Tuberous Sclerosis (TSA). She was also awarded the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) Award for the participation in the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory’s Proteomics course, 2022. As an integral part of her training to become an independent investigator, Tatiana actively worked on writing grants to apply for external and intramural funding opportunities. In January 2022 she was awarded a Kickstart Facility Grant Program, OSU. Dr. Cuellar-Gaviria was recruited in summer 2024 as a tenuretrack assistant professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at OSU.
Cintia Gomez Limia, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Researcher
Cintia joined my lab during Spring 2022. Her research focused on the implementation of a transgenic mouse model to evaluate novel nanocarriers for NF1 applications.
Visiting Scholars
Daniel Velásquez Ramirez, BS
2024 - 2025
Daniel obtained his bachelor’s degree in biomedical engineering in December of 2023 from Universidad EIA in Medellin, Colombia. He provided support for diverse multidisciplinary projects related to the development of novel EV-based carriers for neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1) therapeutic applications.
Juan David Salazar Gil, BS
2024 - 2025
Juan David obtained his degree in Chemical Engineering from the Universidad Nacional de Colombia (Medellin). He joined my lab as a visiting scholar in February 2024 to train in the development of novel nanotechnology-enabled therapies for neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1).
Juan José Gallardo Ríos, DDS
2024 - 2025
Juan José obtained his DDS degree from the CES University, Colombia. He joined my lab as a visiting scholar in February 2024 to train on the development of novel nanomaterials for bone tissue engineering applications.
María Angélica Rincón Benavides, PhD
2019 - 2021
Maria Angélica obtained her bachelors’ degree in Biology from the Universidad Distrital Francisco Jose de Caldas, Colombia. She joined my lab as a visiting scholar in January 2019. She trained under my mentorship on the design and implementation of novel nanocarriers for pulmonary and neurogenerative applications.
Undergraduate Students
Molly Crates
2025 - Present
Molly is an honors undergraduate student in the Department of Biomedical Engineering. She is providing support for the development of novel nanotechnology-enabled therapies for NF1.
Olivia Steele
2025 - Present
Olivia is an undergraduate student in the Department of Biomedical Engineering. She is providing support for the development of novel nanotechnology-enabled therapies for NF1.
Luke C. Spencer
2025 - Present
Luke C. Spencer is an undergraduate student in the Department of Biomedical Engineering. He is providing support to develop novel nanocarriers for therapeutic applications in vision loss.
Adina Beaufort
2025
Adina is an undergraduate student in the Department of Biomedical Engineering. She provided support for the development of novel nanotechnology-enabled therapies for NF1.
Ziad Zedan
2024 - Present
Ziad is an undergraduate student in the Department of Biomedical Engineering. He is providing support for the development of novel nanotechnology-enabled therapies for NF1.
Caden Islam
2024 - Present
Caden is an undergraduate student in the Department of Biomedical Engineering. He is providing support to develop novel carriers for therapeutic applications in back pain.
Vidhi Amin
2024 - Present
Vidhi is an undergraduate student in the Department of Biomedical Engineering. She is providing support to develop novel carriers for therapeutic applications in back pain.
Carman Taylor
2024 - Present
Carman is an undergraduate student in the Department of Biomedical Engineering. She is providing support to develop novel carriers for therapeutic applications in back pain.
Ethan Stamas
2023 - 2025
Ethan is an undergraduate student in the Department of Biomedical Engineering. He contributed to the development of nanocarriers for NF1 therapies.
Lauren Lubin
2023 - 2024
Lauren was a biomedical engineering student. She worked on the development of nanocarriers for back pain.
Henry Hoskins
2023
Henry was a biomedical engineering student. Henry was an undergraduate student in the Department of Biomedical Engineering. He contributed to the development of nanocarriers for back pain.
Bryn Lafferty
2023
Bryn was an undergraduate student in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at University of Virginia. During SU23 she contributed to the development of nanocarriers for back pain.
Drew Depuy
2023 - 2024
Aarti is an undergraduate student in the Department of Biomedical Engineering. She is currently working on the development of EV-based therapies for NF1
Aarti Patel
2022 - 2023
Aarti is an undergraduate student in the Department of Biomedical Engineering. She is currently working on the development of EV-based therapies for NF1.
Hamza Jafri
2020 - 2022
Amrita was a biomedical engineering student . She was working on therapeutic applications of extracellular vesicles in diabetes and neurovascular disorders.
Natalia Mendonca
2019 - 2022
Natalia was an undergraduate student in the Department of Biomedical Engineering. She is currently working on the development of nanotechnology-enabled therapies for brain injury.
Ellie Guilfoyle
2019 - 2022
Ellie was a biomedical engineering student. She worked on the development and application of novel nanocarrier for neurological applications.
Jad Hussein
2020 - 2022
Jad was an undergraduate student in the Department of Biomedical Engineering. He worked on the development and application of novel nanocarrier for heart valve disease.
Amrita Anaparthi
2020 - 2022
Amrita was a biomedical engineering student. She worked on the development and application of novel nanocarrier for T1D.
Pratima Prabala
2019- 2022
Pratima was a biomedical engineering student. She worked on the implementation of engineered extracellular vesicles in inflammatory conditions of the lungs.
Anika Kamisetty
2018 - 2019
Anika was an undergraduate student working towards a degree in Biomedical Engineering. She joined my lab as a research volunteer in 2018 and under my mentorship participated in projects involving advanced techniques of gene transfection and animal models.
Priscilla Afriyie Boachie
2019
Priscilla was an undergraduate student in the Department of Biomedical Engineering. She worked on the development of nanotechnology-enabled therapies for metabolic disorders.
Max Joseph Miller
2018- 2019
Max was an undergraduate student working towards a degree in Biomedical Engineering. He joined my lab as a student research assistant and under my mentorship he worked on the development of novel nanocarriers for therapeutic applications.
Daniel John Dodd
2019
Daniel was an undergraduate student from the Neuroscience Department. During his time in my lab he learned proper/basic laboratory techniques while providing support to a number of research projects in my lab.
Soma Latif Jaf
2019
Soma was an undergraduate student working towards her major in Engineering Re-Exploring. During her time in my lab, she was trained on diverse biomolecular techniques for characterization of biological sample.
Gina Paola Guio-Vega
2017- 2018
Gina was a visiting scholar from Colombia working in the Department of Biomedical Engineering. I mentored Gina on the implementation of micro and nanotechnologies for cancer and cell reprogramming applications.
Arline Joachim
2016- 2018
Arline was an undergraduate student from the Department of Psychology at OSU. During her time in the laboratory I mentored Arline and trained her on standard laboratory techniques, animal handling, and data analysis.
Lizbeth Negron Irizarry
2016
Lizbeth was an undergraduate student from the Department of Mechanical Engineering at OSU. Under my supervision she learned basic molecular laboratory techniques and data analysis.
Jeffrey McGuire
2014
Jeffrey was an undergraduate student from Virginia Tech participating in the SUCCESS program at the OSU Wexner Medical Center. During this internship, I mentored Jeffrey to conduct research related to modeling of a biomedical device to estimate adhesion energy density in the Eustachian tube.
Idaliz Martínez-Traverso
2012
Idaliz was an undergraduate student from the University of Puerto Rico-Mayaguez Campus participating in the SUCCESS program at the OSU Wexner Medical Center. During this internship, she studied the molecular pathways of chemical and mechanically induced inflammation.
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.
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