Meet the Team

Meet the Principal Investigator

Ivan D'Orso

Ivan D'Orso, Ph.D.

The D’Orso lab has extensive experience in studying mechanisms of gene regulation in the context of human health and disease. Two major areas of study have been: 1) the characterization of mechanisms regulating HIV-1 proviral transcription and their implications for viral latency and reactivation, and 2) the basic understanding and therapeutic exploitation of mechanisms involved in the initiation and/or maintenance of human cancer. Studies on these research areas focus on exploring how gene regulatory programs normally operate and, on the identification, and exploitation of drug targets in these pathways. These include the characterization of viral and host factors, non-coding RNAs, cell signaling and epigenetic programs. We have pioneered new concepts in the regulation of gene expression, found new factors involved in the activation and maintenance of transcriptional programs, and implemented next-generation sequencing approaches and computational tools to broadly define how these factors operate.

Since 2011, Dr. D’Orso has trained 6 Ph.D. students (3 already graduated and doing postdocs somewhere else), rotated 16 Ph.D. or MSTP students, and trained 14 undergraduate students, 5 high school students, and 6 postdocs. Our students have received training grants (Cellular and Molecular biology, Molecular Microbiology and Pharmacology), predoctoral fellowships from Ford Foundation, NSF, and NIH, including one NCI predoctoral-to-postdoctoral fellow transition award (F99/K00).

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Current Lab Members

Ashwini Challa

Research Assistant
(2017 – Present)

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Ashwini Challa

Usman Hyder

Graduate Student, Genetics, Development and Disease Graduate Program
NCI F99/K00 Fellow
(2019-Present)

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Usman Hyder

Keyera Randolph

Graduate Student
Molecular Microbiology Graduate Program
NIAID Diversity Supplement
(2018 – Present)

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Keyera Randolph

Jinli Wang, Ph.D.

Postdoctoral Fellow 
(2017 – Present)

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Jinli Wang

Former Lab Members

Emily Cruz-Lorenzo

Lab Technician (2016-2021)

Current Position: Graduate Student, University of Pittsburgh (2021-Present)

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Emily Cruz-Lorenzo

Nora-Guadalupe Ramirez

Graduate Student, Ford Fellow (2014-2022)

Current Position: Postdoctoral Fellow, Duke University (2022-Present)

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Nora-Guadalupe Ramirez

Ashutosh Shukla, Ph.D.

Postdoctoral Fellow (2018-2023)

Current Position: Instructor, Lab of Josephine Ni, UT Southwestern (2023-Present)

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Ashutosh Shukla

Youn-Tae Kwak, Ph.D.

Research Associate (2011-2013)
Current Position: Research Scientist, Lab of Carole Mendelson, UT Southwestern

Youn-Tae Kwak, Ph.D.

Swapna Aravind, Ph.D.

Postdoctoral Researcher (2012-2014)

Current Position: Manager at ARUP Laboratories, University of Arizona

Swapna Aravind

Jennifer McCann

Lab Technician (2012-2014)

Current Position: Consultant at Lumanity and Founder/CEO of LDR Bags, Denver, NC

Jennifer McCann

Jonathan Reeder

Green Fellow, Research Associate (2013-2015)

Current Position: Assistant Professor, Department of Emergency Medicine

Jonathan Reeder

Ryan McNamara, Ph.D.

Graduate Student, Molecular Microbiology (2011-2015)

Current Position: Director of the Systems Serology Laboratory at the Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT, and Harvard

Ryan McNamara

Sonali Pandhe

Postdoctoral Researcher (2014-2016)

Current Position: Senior Medical Science Liaison (Pediatric Oncology) at Y-mAbs Therapeutics

Sonali Pandhe

Emily Morton

Research Assistant (2014-2016)

Current Position: Research Associate at Peloton Therapeutics, Inc., Dallas, TX

Emily Morton

Victor Fung

Research Technician (2015-2017)

Current Position: Resident Physician at UTMB Galveston

Victor Fung

Carlos Guzman

Research Assistant (2015-2017)

Current Position: Graduate Student, Bioinformatics and Systems Biology, UCSD

Carlos Guzman

Chi Pak

Research Associate (2016-2018)

Current Position: Sr. Data Scientist, Foodome, Inc

Chi Pak

Curtis Bacon

Graduate Student, Biological Chemistry (2015-2020)

Current Position: Biomedical Research Scientist, Eurofins Viracor

Curtis Bacon

Zheng Ma. Ph.D.

Postdoctoral Researcher (2015-2020)

Current Position: Researcher, UT Austin

Zheng Ma

Lab Alumni

2010    Ryan McNamara, Graduate Student, Molecular Microbiology
2011    Terry Ng, Undergraduate Student, STARS Program
2011    Amparo Estrada, Graduate Student, Molecular Microbiology
2011    Evan Stevens, Graduate Student, MSTP
2012    Kelly Vollbracht, Undergraduate Student, SURF Program
2012    Sureka Gattu, Graduate Student, Molecular Microbiology
2012    Blake Richardson, Graduate Student, Molecular Microbiology
2012    Shreya Endapally, Graduate Student, Molecular Microbiology
2013    Nicholas Rinkenberger, Graduate Student, Molecular Microbiology
2014    Azucena Briones, Undergraduate Student, STARS Program
2014    Jonathan Reeder, Undergraduate Student, Green Fellow
2014    Jonathan Reeder, Undergraduate Student, SURF Program
2014    Victor Fung, Undergraduate Student, SURF Program
2014    Alicia Stars, High School Teacher, STARS Program
2014    Nora-Guadalupe Ramirez, Graduate Student, Molecular Microbiology
2015    Curtis Bacon, Graduate Student, Biological Chemistry
2015    Matthew Deng, Undergraduate Student, Green Fellow
2015    Addison White, Undergraduate Student, SURF Program
2015    Zane Gibbs, Graduate Student, Cellular and Molecular Biology
2016    Addison White, Undergraduate Student, SURF Program
2016    Jordan Driskill, Graduate Student, MSTP
2016    Michelle Ramirez, Undergraduate Student, STARS Program
2016    Mikal Woods, Graduate Student, Molecular Microbiology
2017    Matthew Lanahan, Graduate Student, Molecular Microbiology
2017    Usman Hyder, Undergraduate Student, Green Fellow
2017    Darien Nguyen, Undergraduate Student, STARS Program
2017    Joy Nesbitt, Physician Scientist Training Program participant
2017    Anne Devlin, Graduate Student, Biological Chemistry
2018    Francisco Bautista, Undergraduate Student, SURF Program
2018    Victor Nunez, High-School Student, STARS Program
2018    Brittany Stewart, Graduate Student, Molecular Microbiology
2018    Cameron Torres, Postponed graduate school training for 2019
2018    Juliana Herbeck, Graduate Student, Genetics, Development & Disease
2020    Valerie Rodriguez Irizarry, Graduate Student, Molecular Microbiology
2020    Landon Nguyen, Graduate Student, Molecular Microbiology
2021    Henry Vo, Molecular Microbiology
2021    Erick Lopez, Molecular Microbiology
2021    Noah Mathai, STARS Program
2022    Aarohan Burma, Cellular and Molecular Biology
2022    Maham Saeed, Cellular and Molecular Biology
2022    Matthew White, Green Fellow
2022    Emily Santos, STARS Program
2023    Sriram Kumar, Visiting Scholar, Graduate Student, Germany