Mo Ebrahimkhani, M.D.​
Principle Investigator
Mo Ebrahimkhani is an Associate Professor at Department of Pathology, University of Pittsburgh. Prior to his current position he was an assistant professor in the School of Biological and Health Systems Engineering at Arizona State University and adjunct faculty of medicine at Mayo Clinic. He performed his Postdoctoral training at Department of Biological Engineering in Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Mo has an M.D. degree from Tehran University of Medical Sciences and was awarded a European Association for Study of Liver Sheila Sherlock fellowship to investigate regenerative processes at University College London. His lab combines human stem cells, synthetic biology and in vivo mouse models to understand tissue development and regeneration and develop technologies to modulate these processes in a personalized fashion. Mo is the recipient of several research awards including RO1s from NIH, Mayo Clinic accelerated regenerative medicine award and New Investigator Award from Arizona Biomedical Research Council.

Jeremy Velazquez

Jeremy is a graduate student in the Cellular and Molecular Pathology program at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, pursuing his Ph.D. studies in our lab. He graduated from MIT in 2012 with a B.S. degree in Materials Science and Engineering.  He worked as a technical assistant for two and a half years in Professor Linda Griffith’s lab, where he worked on multiple projects including human physiome-on-a-chip, biomaterial development for improvement of liver cell culture, and an NSF- funded project for the study of emergent behavior of integrated cellular systems. Here at Pitt, he works on designing and integrating synthetic genetic circuits into stem cells to control their fate and function.  Specifically, he is interested in investigating ways to use modular, extrinsically and intrinsically responsive genetic switches to develop self-vascularizing liver organoids. He enjoys playing volleyball, video editing, hiking, gaming, and singing alone in the TC room (poorly).

​Ryan LeGraw

​Ryan is a PhD student in the Cellular and Molecular Pathology program at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.  After graduating from Northwestern University in 2014 with a BS in Chemical Engineering he worked as a research technician for two years in the laboratory of Dr. Hanno Hock in the Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center.  At MGH, he worked on projects investigating the role of ETV6 in hematopoiesis and specifically in vivo murine B cell development. At Pitt Ryan works on the development pluripotent stem cell-based liver organoid models using synthetic gene circuits and their application for ex vivo hematopoiesis.  He enjoys playing guitar, live music, podcasts, Boston sports, running, and hiking.​
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Joshua Hislop

Joshua Hislop is a graduate student pursuing his Ph.D in Bioengineering with a focus on Molecular, Cellular, and Systems Engineering. He graduated from Arizona State University in 2018 with a BS in Biomedical Engineering. He is working on projects investigating cell fate decisions as well as synthetic biology based tissue patterning during development. Joshua's goal is to integrate synthetic biology, neural development and network creation to eventually apply this approach towards the creation of biologically-based novel neural interface devices. Outside of lab, Josh enjoys playing board and card games, creating adventures for his Dungeons and Dragons group, camping, backpacking, and honing his skills as a third degree black belt in taekwondo.​

Farzaneh ​Moghadam

Farzaneh is a graduate student pursuing her Ph.D. in Biological Design. She graduated from the University of Tehran with a B.S. degree in biology. Farzaneh began her studies at Oklahoma State University where she focused on protein structure-function relationships using molecular science to explain biological functions. Here at Pitt, she works on the applications of the CRISPR-Cas9 technology in genome engineering. Her research is focused on genetic circuit design, cloning and generation of enhanced CRISPR based gene therapy candidates. Besides research, her passion is science communications focusing on girls’ interests in STEM and women empowerment through accessing higher education at worldwide view.​

​Victor Hernandez-Gordillo

​Victor Hernandez-Gordillo is a Research Associate at Pittsburgh. He got a PhD in biology from Purdue University and Postdoctoral experience at MIT leading a project to design biomaterials for human-derived intestinal organoids and the design of a gut micro-physiological system. His experience in bacterial genetics, cancer cell biology, stem cell biology, pharmacology, chemical biology, biomaterial design, and 3D organoid culture has given him a unique interdisciplinary background to design complex tissue models. At Pittsburgh Dr. Hernandez-Gordillo will lead a project focused on investigating the safety of CRISPR-Cas technology in the context of a liver micro-physiological system.  

Joe Maggiore

Joe is an MD-PhD candidate in the Medical Scientist Training Program (MSTP) at the University of Pittsburgh. Joe is in his second year of medical school and plans to pursue his Ph.D. in Bioengineering. Joe graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 2019 with a BSE degree in Bioengineering. There, he worked in the Kacy Cullen Lab where he investigated the in vivo efficacy of a novel tissue engineered nerve graft in sustaining spinal cord cell survival. Joe additionally has conducted research with the Estée Lauder Companies in advanced technologies for skin biology. Joe is interested in commercially translatable tissue engineered constructs that take advantage of developmental biological morphogenetic processes. At Pitt, Joe works with SciVelo, through the Innovation Institute, as a Junior Commercial Translation Associate where he helps researchers develop commercial translation pathways for novel work. Joe enjoys playing and listening to music, as well as reading.

Saman Sarraf

​Saman studied medicine at Tehran University of Medical Sciences. After working in the medical products industry for several years, mostly in business development and management functions, he restarted doing clinical research in 2014 and worked as a research assistant/coordinator for about 6 years at hospital centers in New York City mainly in the field of oncology. He then decided to move toward translational research inspired by his long-lived enthusiasm for the science and ingrained curiosity about mechanisms and disease biology. In the words of Richard Feynman, "there is a difference between the name of the thing and what goes on... [between] when we are teaching words, and when we are teaching science itself." Saman too hopes his new endeavor gives him the chance to not just recollect words and names but embark on the journey of finding out what goes on and why. In addition to being a researcher, Saman helps the PIs with the organization of labs and team work coordination.

Wioletta Musekamp (Assistant to PI) 

​Wioletta Musekamp received her diploma in business administration (M.A. equivalent) from European University Viadrina in Frankfurt (Oder), Germany. She also holds a master’s degree in European Studies. Prior to moving to the United States, she worked as Department Coordinator at the Center for Key Competences and Research-oriented Learning at European University Viadrina. Wioletta has lived and worked in Poland, Germany, Missouri, and Texas. She enjoys traveling, reading, and good movies.
Honorary member

Hero,
Our Honorary member of the SKMO lab! 
Hero is interested in science from early on AND he is very energetic, hard working and always ready for fun activities. You can't make him tired!


​Alumni

Sharanya Kalasekar (Postdoctoral research associate)-2016
Derek Titus (Master student, 2016)
Angela Hemesath (undergraduate, 2016)
Shaun Wootten (undergraduate, 2016)
Suyen Go (undergraduate, 2016-2017)
Joshua Hsu (undergraduate, 2016-2017)
Shay Carter (Master Student, 2016-2017)
​Ceasar Udave (undergraduate, 2016-2017)
Warner Kostes (undergraduate, 2016-2018)
​Maitriyee Mahanta (undergraduate, 2018-2019)
Matthew Pandelakis (undergraduate, 2016-2019)
Jeremy Ellis (undergraduate and lab technical assistant, 2018-2019)