Team
The Jain Lab Dream Team
We strive for diversity in our team. We have a fun and collaborative group.
We are looking for motivated, hard working researchers interested in making a difference and learning new skills.
Meet the Principal Investigator
Mamta K. Jain, M.D., M.P.H., FIDSA
Dr. Jain specializes in infectious diseases and conducts clinical trials to evaluate new therapies for HIV, hepatitis C, influenza, and now COVID-19.
She earned her medical degree at Baylor College of Medicine. She completed a residency in internal medicine at Baylor Affiliated Hospitals and received advanced training in infectious diseases through a fellowship at UT Southwestern. She also holds a Master of Public Health degree with a focus on epidemiology and statistics from the University of Texas Houston School of Public Health – Dallas branch.
Certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine in infectious diseases, she joined the UT Southwestern faculty in 2002.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Jain has been at the forefront of conducting clinical trials to find effective therapies for the disease. Her investigations have brought access to novel therapies for more than 100 COVID-19 patients at UT Southwestern and Parkland Memorial Hospital.
Dr. Jain’s research is also aimed at improving clinical outcomes for patients with HIV and viral hepatitis, and she has received significant grant support for her work. She has delivered scores of international, national, and regional invited lectures, contributed to the book HIV and Liver Disease, and published a number of academic articles.
Current Lab Members
Angie Garcia, M.D.
POSTDOCTORAL CANDIDATE
Angie is postdoctoral candidate in Applied Clinical Research in the School of Health Professions. She came to us from Venezuela, where she earned her medical doctorate degree. She is interested in becoming a clinical research scientist and is pursuing a PhD to develop skills in research methods. She has been learning about clinical investigation and is working on her dissertation which will examine HIV medication adherence in Hispanic patients using both a quantitative and qualitative approach.
Angie was recently highlighted in School of Health Professions.
Laura Hansen, M.S.
CLINICAL RESEARCH COORDINATOR I
Laura has been with us since 2018 and splits her time with Dr. Jain and Dr. Nijhawan. She is the expert in regulatory and biosafety documents. She has a wealth of experience and is training others on regulatory documents.
Samantha Heredia, M.S
CLINICAL RESEARCH ASSISTANT II
Samantha joined our research team in June 2023.
Olakunbi Latona, R.N., BSN
RESEARCH NURSE
Kunbi joined our research team in January 2023. She earned her BA from UCLA in 2017 where she worked as a researcher at the UCLA School of Nursing HPV Research Lab. She also earned her BS in Nursing from Baylor University in 2021. In July 2021 she became a Neuro Cardiac Telemetry Intermediate Care RN and established skills in monitoring and caring for patients with both acute and critical conditions. She is currently working on getting her Doctor of Nursing Practice degree.
She joined our unit in order to gain experience in research and clinical trials that can bring innovative change to medicine.
She will be working with COVID-19 and HIV studies.
Nicole Naiman, M.D., Ph.D.
ASSISTANT INSTRUCTOR
Nicole joined our research team in September of 2023. She received her MD/PhD from the University of Washington. After completing an intern year in pediatrics residency, she decided to leave residency to pursue a full-time research career. Nicole is working on a retrospective data analysis and works with the team on various clinical trials.
Tianna Petersen, M.S.
RESEARCH MANAGER
Tia joined our research team in 2000. She completed her Master of Science in Exercise Physiology and was hired at UTSW in 1996. She worked in the Orthopedics, Cardiology, and Urology departments before joining the infectious diseases group as a research study coordinator. Since 2008, she has been working as a research manager, bringing her extensive knowledge of NIH/DAIDS regulatory guidelines, and INSIGHT/STRIVE/ACTIV protocols. Currently, she serves as the DAIDS CRS coordinator for ACTG Reprieve Trial/STOMP/ACTIV-2.
Alexander Radunsky, Sc.D, M.P.H.
POSTDOCTORAL RESEARCHER
Alex joined our research team in January 2022. He received his master's in public health from Drexel University and earned his doctorate in mixed-method evaluation from the Harvard School of Public Health. He joined our team in 2022 and has been working on Dr. Jain's CPRIT projects to evaluate the program and assist with mixed methods work.
Stephanie Reyes, MA
CLINICAL RESEARCH COORDINATOR II
Steph joined our research team in Au 2023. She has an extensive background in methodology, study design, statistics, and experimental psychology.
Since 2018 she has been with UTSW and previously coordinated in the Psychiatry Department and the Population Data and Science Department. At DPDS she managed research assistants, trained new coordinators, and assisted with operations and administration. She has multiple years of project management experience, managing multiple research projects and clinical trials research for multiple Principal Investigators.
Nadir Samory, MPH
CLINICAL RESEARCH ASSISTANT II
Nadir joined our team in 2023 after obtaining his master’s in public health from the University of Texas School of Public Health. With his previous experience as a COVID-19 case investigator he has been assisting with the STRIVE and LAU COVID-19 studies here at UTSW.
Minerva Santos
CLINICAL RESEARCH COORDINATOR I
Minerva joined our research team in 2007. She is lead coordinator for ACTG Reprieve Trial. She coordinates multiple HIV trials. Being fluent in Spanish and English allows her to engage an important population in our HIV population.
Shivani Sundar, MBA
CLINICAL RESEARCH ASSISTANT II
Shivani joined our research team in August 2023, she holds her BS in Biology and a minor in Music from the University of Texas at Dallas where she conducted an independent research project on past patient health history, molecular viral structure and mechanism, and patient immune response in COVID-19 patients in 2021. In 2022, she completed an internship at Texas Health's IEEM and later obtained her MBA in Healthcare Management from the University of Texas at Tyler in 2023. Currently, she is pursuing her MS degree in Clinical Epidemiology from Kent State University and is conducting her master's thesis on the effects of influenza during pregnancy on infant birth weight. Her study involves analyzing data from Dallas County for the years 2020-2021.
Diana Triana Gomez, M.D., M.A.I.S.
POPULATION RESEAERCH PROECT ASSOCIATE II
Diana joined our research team in March 2023. She earned her medical degree in Colombia, and after pursuing her master’s degree in interdisciplinary studies from the University of Texas at Dallas, completed in 2022, she wanted to gain experience in research and clinical trials. She has an extensive background in outpatient settings, helping with participant interaction in studies. She will be working with COVID-19 and HIV studies.
FORMER STAFF MEMBERS