People

Principal Investigator

Naoki Yamanaka, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor: 04/2014 - 06/2020
Associate Professor: 07/2020 - 06/2024
Professor: 07/2024 -

Honors
2009 Inoue Research Award for Young Scientists
2012 NIH Pathway to Independence Award
2017 Pew Biomedical Scholar
2018 NIH Director's New Innovator Award
2022 JSPS Prize
2022 Japan Academy Medal
2024 ESA Pacific Branch Physiology, Biochemistry, and Toxicology Award

Our Team

Daiki Fujinaga
Postdoc / Project Scientist
03/2020 -

Eisuke Imura
Postdoc / Project Scientist
07/2020 -

Nagham Melhem
Graduate Student
08/2022 -

Avery Morse
Graduate Student
07/2024 -

Katherine Bartels
Lab Assistant
07/2025 -

Sravani Kamineni
Undergraduate
09/2024 -

Nicole Lee
Undergraduate
10/2025 -

Previous Members

---

Project Scientists

Naoki Okamoto (09/2015 - 03/2020): Left the lab as an Assistant Professor at the University of Tsukuba, Japan

Crystal Pontrello (07/2016 - 08/2016): Left the lab for the Haga-Yamanaka lab at UC Riverside

---

Postdocs

Yuya Ohhara (09/2014 - 09/2015): Left the lab as an Assistant Professor at the University of Shizuoka, Japan

Lewis Hun (07/2018 - 01/2022): Left the lab as a Vector Control Ecologist in the County of Santa Clara

Sally Ireri (11/2023 - 04/2024): Left the lab for the Cao lab at the Carnegie Institution for Science

Mitchell Masterson (03/2023 - 12/2024)

Jinmo Koo (05/2024 - 02/2025): Left the lab as an Assistant Professor at Kyungpook National University, Korea

---

Graduate Students

Ruoying Lu (10/2014 - 09/2019): Successfully defended her thesis and left for a biotech company

Mikkal Blick (04/2015 - 06/2020): Successfully defended his thesis and left for a life science company

Hannah Chu (07/2019 - 09/2021): Left the lab for the Murillo lab at UC Riverside Entomology

---

Lab Assistants

Riyan Bittar (09/2015 - 06/2020): Left the lab for a medical school

Roilea Maxson (01/2017 - 09/2018): Left the lab for a graduate program at UC Davis

Lisa Faraee (07/2017 - 10/2019)

Gabriella Moussa (02/2019 - 09/2022): Left the lab for a medical school

Cebrina Nolan (07/2019 - 12/2019): Left the lab as a Fulbright Scholar in Brisbane, Australia

Amritbir Kaur (09/2019 - 10/2021): Left the lab for a nanotechnology company

Aman Kaur (10/2021 - 05/2023)

Rebekah Kim (02/2022 - 08/2023): Left the lab for a graduate program at Columbia University

Kevin Dinh (07/2023 - 08/2025): Left the lab for a clinical testing company

---

Undergraduates

Vivian Phan (11/2018 - 05/2019)

Corinne Karalun (07/2019 - 03/2020)

Ava Ham (04/2022 - 08/2023)

Raghad Odeh (07/2023 -09/2023)

Dun-Han Wu (05/2024 - 06/2024)

Jay Chang (10/2023 - 07/2024)

Tristan Slaughter (04/2024 - 12/2024)

Marina Zaza (07/2024 - 12/2024)