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Ocular Immunology and Angiogenesis Laboratory

Meet Our Team

The OIAL team includes students (high school, undergraduate, medical, and graduate), research technicians, postdoctoral and clinical fellows, research associates, basic scientists, engineers, and clinicians with diverse expertise, engaging in innovative basic and translational collaborative research while training future ophthalmologists and vision science researchers.

Led by Lab Director and Principal Investigator Dr. Shyam Chaurasia, the team at the Ocular Immunology and Angiogenesis Laboratory specializes in ocular fibrotic and angiogenic diseases.

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Shyam S. Chaurasia, MSc, PhD

Associate Professor of Ophthalmology & Visual Sciences; Associate Professor of Cell Biology, Neurobiology and Anatomy

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Waylon Alvarado

Medical Student

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Sanjay Chakka, PhD

Postdoctoral Researcher

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Scholastica Go

Graduate Student

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Yesenia G. Gomez

Research Technologist I

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Amer Mohiuddin

Medical Student

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Utkarsh Reddy, PhD

Postdoctoral Researcher

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Chris M. Skumatz

Animal & Laboratory Research Program Manager

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Anju Elizabeth Thomas, PhD

Research Associate I

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Steven Trinh

Medical Student, SOMA Co-President

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Audrianna Wu

Medical Student

Clinical Team

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Baseer Ahmad, MD

Interim Chair, Associate Professor

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Edward M. Barnett, MD, PhD

Professor

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Thomas B. Connor, MD

Professor

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Deborah M. Costakos, MD, MS

Interim Dean of the School of Medicine, Professor

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Vinicius De Stefano, MD, PhD

Assistant Professor

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Aparna Ramasubramanian, MD

Associate Professor of Ophthalmology

Alumni

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Post Doctoral Researchers
  • Khalid Al-Kirwi, MD
  • Binapani Mahaling, PhD
Graduate Students
  • Sarah Derosier, College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO
  • Rayne R. Lim, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO
  • Rukmini Dhara, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO
  • Shermaine Low, Medical College of Wisconsin
Medical Students
  • Waylon Alvarado, MCW
  • Amer Mohiuddin, MCW
  • Devesh Kumar, MCW
  • Maggie Weisser, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO
  • Aaron Warning, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO
Undergraduate Students
  • Sophia King, University of Iowa
  • Summer Zilisch, Carthage College
  • Abdallah Shehadeh, Marquette University
  • Katina Patterson, Washington University
  • Sam Patterson, Washington University
  • Jorden Jefferson, Betune Cookman University
  • Simrah Ahmad, University of California Los Angeles (UCLA)
  • Nishant R. Sinha, University of California Los Angeles (UCLA)
  • BhavHarshad Parikh, National Technological University
  • TungWai Hon Desmond, National Technological University
  • Sophia Wang, National Technological University
  • Ho Yan Ting, National Technological University
  •  Alison Tan, National Technological University
  • Milan N. Mehta, National Technological University
  • Rayne R. Lim, National Technological University
  • Ervia Huang, National Technological University
  • Holly Carpenter, Emory University
  • Johny Moore, Emory University
High School Students
James Flynn, Arrowhead High School

Collaborators

Rajiv R. Mohan, PhD, University of Missouri , Columbia, MO
Veluchamy A. Barathi, PhD, Singapore Eye Research Institute, Singapore
Arakasubhra Ghosh, PhD, Narayana Nethralaya, Bengaluru, India
Michael Sturek, PhD, Chief Scientific Officer, Corvus Foundation, Inc, Crawfordsville, IN
Mouhamad Alloosh, PhD, Corvus Foundation, Inc, Crawfordsville, IN
Paras Kumar Mishra, PhD, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, NE
Gaurav Sharma, PhD, UT Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX
Abhay H. Pandey, PhD, National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education & Research, Mohali, India
Rajamani Lakshminarayanan, Singapore Eye Research Institute
Walter Huzniker, PhD, Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology, A*Star Agency, Singapore
Philippe A. Tessier, PhD Universite Laval, Quebec, Canada

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