Aparna Lakkaraju, PhD

Professor,
Edward and Estelle Alexander Endowed Chair for Vision Research

About:
Dr. Lakkaraju received her PhD at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, and completed her post-doctoral training at Cornell University’s Weill Medical College in New York City. She established her independent research program in the Department of Ophthalmology & Visual Sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2010. Dr. Lakkaraju was recruited to UCSF in 2018, where she is now Professor and the Edward and Estelle Endowed Chair for vision research in the Department of Ophthalmology. She has a joint appointment in the Department of Anatomy, and is an active member of UCSF’s Tetrad, Pharmaceutical Sciences and Pharmacogenomics (PSPG), and Biomedical Sciences (BMS) Graduate Programs.

Dr. Lakkaraju serves as co-director of the Pharmaceutical Sciences and Pharmacogenomics (PSPG) graduate program and directs the Postdoctoral Training Program in the Department of Ophthalmology at UCSF.

Sydney Williams

Graduate Student

About me:
I am hailing all the way from Charlotte, North Carolina and went to school at Hampton University in Virginia to study biology on the pre-med track. During my undergraduate career, I took up several research projects both on campus and during the summers at University of California at Irvine’s Principles of Biophotonics and Biomedical Engineering (PBBE) program. My research spanned microbiology, cell biology, and toxicology topics in basic science as well as public health and cancer studies. I joined the Lakkaraju lab in June 2022 with the intentions of coupling computational techniques with experimental approaches to explore more causal mechanisms of AMD in the RPE, along with drug repurposing to treat AMD.

DEI/Outreach:
I am an officer for Black Excellence in STEM (BE-STEM) and have recently joined the DEI committee for the PSPG graduate program. In my first year, I have mentored Black and brown high school and undergraduate students of UCSF’s SRTP and BAYS programs and aspire to create/promote programs that broadcast STEM education and innovation to the next generation of scientists!

Other interests:
music, sports, working out, eating, watching sunsets, trying new things/adventures

Valencia Fernandes, PhD

Postdoctoral Associate

About me:
I grew up in India and completed my Ph.D. from National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research (NIPER)-Hyderabad, Telangana, India. My PhD research focused on understanding the underlying epigenetic mechanisms responsible for diabetes-induced cognitive dysfunctions. Epigenetic changes are inaudible signatures of several pathological processes in the brain. Aberrant changes in DNA methylation were studied and DNMT-dependent decrease in the chaperones and synaptic vesicles were observed. Controlling these aberrations, normalized the methylation-mediated changes in proteostasis and synaptic fidelity within the hippocampus of diabetic mice brain, studied using versatile techniques including neuron tracing and reconstruction software – Neurolucida and confocal laser scanning microscopy.

I have been working as a postdoctoral scholar with Dr. Lakkaraju since March 2023, and my project focuses on understanding the molecular mechanisms in retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) degeneration using super resolution spinning disc imaging microscopy and other molecular techniques.

Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.co.in/citations?user=kS_rIIAAAAJ&hl=en
Research Gate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Valencia-Fernandes
PubMed: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/myncbi/valencia.fernandes.1/bibliography/public/

Awards:
ISN Travel Grant from the International Society of Neurochemistry (ISN) – Asia Pacific Society of Neuroscience (APSN), Honolulu, Hawaii (2022);
Best Oral Presentation Award in Young Scientist Colloquium – Federation of Indian Physiological Societies (FIPS) (2022);
CTEP Travel Grant awarded by the Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Government of India (2022);
International Brain Research Organization (IBRO) Travel Award 2019 – IBRO-APRC Associate School on Blood-Brain-Barrier: From Basic Physiology to Neurological Disorders (2019);
IBRO Travel Award 2017 – IBRO-APRC Associate School of Computational approaches in Neuroprotection and Neurorehabilitation (2017).

Other interests:
Music, eating, baking desserts, travelling.

Yao Tong, PhD

Postdoctoral Associate

About me:
I grew up in Anhui, China, and completed my MD degree at Wannan Medical College. After that, I pursued a master’s program in Ophthalmology at Shanghai Jiaotong University. During this time, I also spent a year at the University of Florida, where I initiated my research journey. Following the completion of my master’s degree, I made the decision to advance my career beyond the laboratory setting. Consequently, I enrolled at Tulane University and successfully obtained my PhD degree in August 2023.

In September 2023, I became a member of the Lakkaraju lab, and I am enthusiastic about continuing my research in RPE cells. My primary goal is to gain a more profound understanding of cellular and organelle communication and to discover strategies for preventing vision loss and blindness.

Other interests:
Listening to good music, exploring restaurants and bubble tea places, watching Korean dramas, traveling, trying new things and playing with my two cute cats!

Barry Nguyen

Junior Specialist

About me:
I was born and raised in Marin County and earned my BS in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from the University of California, Davis. During my undergraduate studies, I was a part of the MARC Research Program funded by the National Institute of Health. During my time as a MARC Scholar, I began my research career studying age-related alterations in structural and molecular attributes of the synapse and how it can lead to cognitive decline and to diseases like Alzheimer’s Disease. Near the end of my time in the lab, I developed an interest in Microglial inflammation and the subsequent consequences of a chronic neuroinflammatory environment. This then led me to join the Lakkaraju Laboratory after my undergraduate education to investigate the effects of an inflammatory environment in the Retinal Pigment Epithelium in Age Related Macular Degeneration.

Other interests:
Working out, reading, hiking

Samir Ranjan Panda, PhD

Postdoctoral Associate

About me:
Dr. Samir Ranjan Panda was born in Odisha, India. He received his Master’s and PhD in Pharmacology and Toxicology from NIPER-Guwahati, India. During his PhD he explored the molecular mechanism of air pollution (PM2.5) in mediating neuroinflammation and neurodegeneration using cellular and animal models. He has extensive experience in dosing rodents (mice and rats), conducting neurobehavioral analyses to assess cognitive and motor function, and performing perfusion and tissue collection. Skilled in working with surgical and chemically induced animal models of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases, as well as inflammatory rodent models. Conducted live animal ECG analysis, respiratory function tests, cardiac and neuroimaging studies. He is currently working in the Lakkaraju Lab at UCSF to delineate the role of microglial activation in mediating neurodegeneration and neuroinflammation in cellular and mice models.

Bezawit Danna

Graduate Student

About me:
I was born and raised in Ethiopia and moved to the United States during high school. Then, I went to the University of California, Los Angeles, and graduated with my BS in Biochemistry and Minor in Biomedical Research in 2024. During my undergraduate studies, I was part of a program called UC LEADS, where I gained research experience and leadership support. As an undergraduate, I was involved in research projects revolving around mitochondrial bioenergetics and metabolism in pathologies. I joined the Lakkaraju lab in 2025, and I aim to understand how mitochondrial dysfunction and mitochondrial DNA damage contribute to retinal degeneration, with the goal of developing targeted therapeutic strategies to preserve vision. 

Other interests:
Traveling, jump roping, spending time with family, listening to music, watching movies/shows, and reading

Ricardo Espinosa Lima

Graduate Student

About me:
I am originally from Mexico City and grew up in Los Angeles, California. I attended UC Santa Barbara for my undergraduate career and received my bachelor’s degree in Biology from the College of Creative Studies (CCS). During his first years at UC Santa Barbara, I worked in Dr. Max Wilson’s lab, where I was first introduced to biological engineering and built optogenetic molecular tools to control cellular dynamics in a spatio-temporal manner. I was awarded the two-year UC systemwide research fellowship, UC LEADS, as an acknowledgment for my research efforts. As part of the UC LEADS summer fellowship, I worked in Dr. Song Li’s lab at UCLA. I used polystyrene microparticles and protein-linking chemistry to create a synthetic environment for the SynNotch system to achieve robust gene activation. Inspired by my previous experiences, I finished my undergraduate research training in Dr. Angela Pitenis’s lab, where I utilized hydrogel-based technologies, clonal pancreatic cell lines and tissue-derived organoids to explore cellular responses to microenvironmental stiffening. My goal was to uncover the role of tumor fibrosis in driving cancer cell metastasis and develop new technologies to mimic the stiffness of the extracellular matrix in vitro.

In the Lakkaraju lab, I seek to integrate my previous experiences in biological engineering into macular degeneration research. I strive to uncover fundamental biomechanics in the retinal pigmented epithelium (RPE) while advancing the fields of tissue engineering and regenerative medicine.

Other interests:
I enjoy doing portrait photography, running and weightlifting.

Muskan Pawar

Undergraduate Researcher

About me:
I was born in Dever, CO and grew up in the Central Valley (CA) and am currently pursuing a B.S. in Chemical Biology at the University of California, Berkeley. As an undergraduate, I was introduced to a range of exciting research areas through my coursework and faculty mentors, including molecular therapeutics, drug delivery systems, and CRISPR technologies. This exposure sparked my interest in understanding how disease affects cellular and organelle functions. As a result, I joined the Lakkaraju Lab, where I am excited to learn new techniques and further my understanding of the cellular and organelle functions in retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) cells.  

Other interests:
Listening to music, cooking, sports, trying new things/spontaneous adventures, traveling, watching shows and movies, and playing with my dogs!