Laboratory Leadership

Richard Smith, MD
Director

Carla Nester, MD
Associate Director
Hearing Loss and Kidney Division Team Leads

Hela Azaiez, PhD
Assistant Professor (Hearing Loss - Research)

M. Adela Mansilla, PhD
Associate Research Scientist & CLIA Officer (Hearing Loss - Clinical)

Nicolò Ghiringhelli Borsa
Research Specialist (Kidney - Clinical)

Yuzhou Zhang, PhD
Senior Research Scientist (Kidney - Research & Clinical)
Administration Team

Cathy Feng
Administrative Services Coordinator

Amy Weaver
Administrative Services Coordinator

Jori Hendon
Operations Manager
Research Assistants and Research Associates

Ligiane Alves Machado de Paula
Research Associate (Kidney - Clinical)

Anna Carmen
Research Assistant (Kidney - Clinical)

Jack Copeland
Research Assistant (Hearing Loss - Clinical)
Stephanie Cook
Research Intern (Kidney - Research)

Chris Culek, MS
Research Assistant (Kidney - Research)
Rebecca Franklin
Clinical Healthcare Research Associate (Kidney - Research)

Renee Goodfellow
Research Associate (Kidney - Clinical)

Monica Hall, RN, BSN, CNN
Clinical Healthcare Research Associate (Kidney - Research)

Sydney Jellison
Research Assistant (Kidney - Research)

Kameron Kruger
Research Assistant (Kidney - Clinical)

Nic Meyer
Research Associate (Kidney - Clinical)

Angela Nelson
Research Associate (Kidney - Clinical)

Sarah Roberts
Research Assistant (Kidney - Clinical)

Dingwu Shao
Research Associate (Kidney - Clinical)

Amanda Taylor
General Laboratory Supervisor & Safety Officer (Kidney - Clinical)

Donghong (Maggie) Wang
Research Assistant (Hearing Loss - Clinical)

Seth Welsh, PhD
Associate Research Scientist (Kidney - Research)
Postdoctoral Research Scholars

Corentin Affortit, PhD
Postdoctoral Research Scholar (Hearing Loss - Research)

Miles Klimara, MD
Postdoctoral Research Scholar (Hearing Loss - Research)

Héctor Merinero, PhD
Postdoctoral Research Scholar (Kidney - Research)
Bioinformatics Team

Brian Hong
Bioinformatician (Hearing Loss - Research)

Daniel Walls
Senior Application Developer (Hearing Loss - Clinical and Research)

Diana Kolbe, PhD
Associate Research Scientist & Engineer (Hearing Loss - Clinical and Research)
Genetic Counseling Team

Amanda Odell, MS, LGC
Genetic Counselor (Hearing Loss - Clinical and Research)

Estella Roster
Genetic Counseling Assistant (Hearing Loss - Clinical and Research)
Graduate Students

Joseph Chin
Graduate Research Assistant (Hearing Loss - Research)

Maria Wong
Graduate Research Assistant (Hearing Loss - Research)

Amanda Slagle
Doctoral Candidate Researcher (Kidney - Research)
Undergraduate Students

Brady Comer
Undergraduate Laboratory Assistant

Lauren Crawford
Student Office Worker - Natural History Study

Anisa Dominguez
Undergraduate Laboratory Assistant

Cece Fierce
Undergraduate Laboratory Assistant

Jill Hall
Student Office Worker - Natural History Study
Rishita Kulkarni
Undergraduate Laboratory Assistant

Lexi Lieb
Student Office Worker

Emmy Liu
Undergraduate Laboratory Assistant

Tina Liu
Student Office Worker- Natural History Study

Sami Martin
Undergraduate Laboratory Assistant

Lora Mitchell
Undergraduate Laboratory Assistant

Jessica Singh
Undergraduate Laboratory Assistant
Athena Singharaj
Undergraduate Laboratory Assistant

Payal Vedanayagam
Undergraduate Laboratory Assistant

Aashna Patel
Undergraduate Laboratory Assistant
Azaiez Laboratory

Hela Azaiez, PhD
Principal Investigator
Tyler Draayer
Undergraduate Laboratory Assistant

Kiersten Knobbe
Undergraduate Research Assistant