Juan M. Melero-Martin, Ph.D.
Principal Investigator
Associate Professor of Surgery
Dr. Melero-Martin graduated in Chemical Engineering from the University of Seville, Spain. He earned a Ph.D. in Tissue Engineering from the University of Birmingham, UK. After training as a post-doctoral fellow in the Vascular Biology Program at Boston Children’s Hospital, he joined the Department of Cardiac Surgery at BCH in 2008. In 2018, Dr. Melero-Martin became the inaugural incumbent of a Chair in Cardiac Surgery that will be named in honor of John Mayer, Jr., MD.
Umji Lee, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Dr. Umji Lee earned her B.Eng from Seoul National University of Science and Technology and obtained her M.S in life sciences at Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL) in 2016. After she earned her Ph.D. at EPFL under the supervision of Dr. Jerome Feige and Dr. Benjamin Cosgrove at Cornell University, she joined the Melero-Martin Lab as a postdoctoral fellow in 2021. Her current research focuses on developing effective ex-vivo gene therapy for hemophilia patients with a tissue engineering approach.
Allen Chilun Luo, M.S.
Research Technologist
Allen earned his B.S. and M.S degree in Biomedical Science and Environmental Biology from Kaohsiung Medical University, Taiwan. In 2017, he joined Dr. Pei-Lung Chen’s laboratory at the Graduate Institute of Medical Genomics and Proteomics, National Taiwan University. He worked on discovering novel gene mutations in human genetics-related diseases using next-generation sequencing (NGS) technology. In 2021, he joined the Melero-Martin Lab as a Research Technologist to work on Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine.
Liyan Gong, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Dr. Liyan Gong earned her B.S. degree in Biotechnology from Jilin University and obtained her Ph.D. degree in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from the Center for Excellence in Molecular Cell Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China. She then conducted a short postdoctoral training at Tongji University to study important signaling transducers’ basic regulatory mechanisms and post-translational modifications. In 2022, she joined the Melero-Martin Lab as a postdoctoral fellow. She is currently involved in several projects in vascular biology and regenerative medicine.
Xiang (Grace) Li, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Dr. Xiang (Grace) Li earned her B.S. in China Agricultural University and M.S. in The Ohio State University in Animal Sciences. She then worked on stem cell therapy for diabetes in Dr. Jon Odorico’s lab at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In 2021, Grace obtained her Ph.D. degree with studies on cellular senescence, aging, and liver diseases, mentored by Dr. Scott Lowe in Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center/Weill Cornell Graduate School of Medical Sciences. She joined the Melero-Martin Lab in 2022 and focuses on the studies of vascular biology in bone regeneration and tissue engineering.
Gwang-Bum Im, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Dr. Gwang-Bum Im earned his B.S. degree in Chemical Engineering from Sungkyunkwan University in 2017. In 2022, Gwang-Bum obtained his Ph.D. degree with studies on cell and tissue engineering based on a variety of biomaterials under Dr. Suk Ho Bhang’s guidance at Sungkyunkwan University. He joined the Melero-Matin Lab as a postdoctoral fellow in 2022 and is currently working on projects related to vascular biology and tissue engineering.
Yonglin Zhu, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Dr. Yonglin Zhu earned his B.S. in Biology and Pharmacology from Jilin University, China. He then joined Dr. Jie Na’s lab at the School of Medicine, Tsinghua University, to study the genetic and epigenetic regulation of vascular cell differentiation from human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs). After he obtained his Ph.D. in Cell Biology, Dr. Zhu joined the Melero-Martin Lab in 2022 as a postdoctoral fellow and continues to pursue his interest in vascular biology and regenerative medicine using hPSCs.
Daniel Tremmel, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Dr. Daniel Tremmel received his B.S. in Chemistry, Biochemistry, and Genetics from the University of Wisconsin (UW) and worked for several years as a research assistant in the Bacteriology and Genetics departments at UW. Dan continued on to do his graduate studies at UW in the Department of Surgery, studying the extracellular matrix of pancreatic islets under the supervision of Dr. Jon Odorico and Dr. Sara Sackett. He received his Ph.D. in Cellular and Molecular Biology in 2022, and joined the Melero-Martin lab shortly afterward as a postdoctoral research fellow working to engineer the vasculature of stem cell-derived islets.
Alex Barutis
Research Assistant
Alex earned his B.S. degree in Biomedical Engineering from Boston University in 2023. His prior work under Dr. Chris Chen at BU investigated NOTCH signaling and its role in angiogenesis. In the summer of 2023, he joined the Melero-Martin lab to further pursue his interests in tissue engineering, stem cell biology, and regenerative medicine.
Alumni
Kush Patel
Summer Research Internship (2023)
Medical student, Central Michigan University, College of Medicine
Ruei-Zeng Lin, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Fellow (2009-2015)
Instructor in Surgery (2015-2023)
Currently: Principal Scientist, Myeloid Therapeutics, Inc.
Giulia Galaverni, Ph.D.
Visiting graduate student, University of Modena, Italy (2022)
Currently: Postdoctoral Research Fellow, University of Modena, Italy
Victoria Villarreal
Summer Research Internship (2022)
Undergraduate student, Stanford University
Daniel Brito
Graduate Student, Northeastern University (2021-2022)
Currently: BlueRock Therapeutics LP
Xuechong Hong, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Fellow (2017-2021)
Currently: Associate Principal Scientist, AstraZeneca, Sweden
Xi Wang, Ph.D.
Visiting graduate student, Cornell University (2021)
Currently: Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Harvard University
Daniel Sherman
Spring semester research (2021)
Undergraduate student, Harvard University
Jean Lee
Summer Research Internship (2021)
Undergraduate student, Cornell University
Seth Ack
Summer Research Internship (2021)
Undergraduate student, University of Puget Sound
Kai Wang, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Fellow (2016-2021)
Currently: Assistant Professor, Peking University, China
Hwan Drew Kim, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Fellow (2018-2021)
Currently: Assistant Professor, Korea National University of Transportation
Joseph Neumeyer
Research Assistant (2016-2019)
Currently: Research Associate, Editas Medicine
Chin-Nien Lee, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Fellow (2015-2018)
Currently: Research Fellow, University of Pennsylvania
Rocío Muñoz-Hernández, Ph.D.
Visiting Ph.D. Student (2012-2013), Research Fellow (2016)
Currently: Research Fellow, Institute of Biomedicine of Seville (IBiS), Spain
Rafael Moreno-Luna, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Fellow (2011-2013)
Currently: Research Fellow, National Hospital Paraplegic, Toledo, Spain
Alexandra Dreyzin, M.D.
Research Assistant (2009-2010)
Currently: Resident, Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh
Kristie Aamodt, M.D., Ph.D.
Research Assistant (2008-2009)
Currently: Resident, Boston Children’s Hospital