Laboratory Leadership
Richard Smith, MD
Director
Carla Nester, MD, MSA, FASN
Associate Director
Hearing Loss and Kidney Division Team Leads
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 (Hearing Loss and Kidney – Clinical)
Anna Carmen
Research Assistant (Kidney - Clinical)
Lucas Ascua
Research Assistant (Hearing Loss and Kidney – Clinical)
Chris Culek, MS
Research Assistant (Kidney - Research)
Rebecca Franklin, RN, BSN
Clinical Healthcare Research Associate (Kidney - Research)
Renee Goodfellow
Research Associate (Kidney - Clinical)
Sydney Jellison
Research Assistant (Kidney - Research)
Josette Knutson
Research Assistant (Hearing Loss and Kidney – Clinical)
Kameron Kruger
Research Assistant (Kidney - Clinical)
Tina Liu
Clinical Trial & Data Management Research Associate (Kidney - Research)
Nic Meyer
Research Associate (Kidney - Clinical)
Angela Nelson
Research Associate (Kidney - Clinical)
Sean Nugent
Research Intern (Kidney-Research)
Heena Panchal
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)
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)
Katie McCormick
Genetic Couseling Assistant (Hearing Loss- Clinical and Research)
Graduate Students
Cobey Donelson
Graduate Research Assistant (Kidney-Research)
Maria Wong
Graduate Research Assistant (Hearing Loss - Research)
Students
Elena Bidus
Undergraduate Laboratory Assistant
Carter Brant
Undergraduate Laboratory Assistant
Brady Comer
Undergraduate Laboratory Assistant
Whitney Farmer
Student Office Worker- Natural History Study
Cece Fierce
Undergraduate Laboratory Assistant
Kiersten Knobbe
Undergraduate Research Assistant
Rishita Kulkarni
Undergraduate Laboratory Assistant
Lexi Lieb
Student Office Worker
Lora Mitchell
Undergraduate Laboratory Assistant
Aashna Patel
Undergraduate Laboratory Assistant
Makenna Perkins
Undergraduate Laboratory Assistant
Kayla Quach
Undergraduate Laboratory Assistant
Andrew Rauenbuehler
Student Office Worker- Natural History Study
Nathan Reimer
Undergraduate Laboratory Assistant
Athena Singharaj
Undergraduate Laboratory Assistant
Zachary Smith
Undergraduate Laboratory Assistant
Addison Toland
Undergraduate Laboratory Assistant
Tiana Washington
Student Office Worker- Natural History Study
Noah Yost
Undergraduate Laboratory Assistant