Meet the Wise-Rios Team

Dr. Wise, smiling woman with dark hair, wearing a lab coat embroidered with "Carol Wise, M.D. - Research Dept."

Carol Wise, Ph.D.

Director

Dr. Carol Wise is Director of the Scottish Rite for Children (SRC) Center for Translational Research at UTSW and Professor in the McDermott Center for Human Growth and Development and departments of Orthopaedic Surgery and Pediatrics at UTSW. Originally from Texas, she received her undergraduate degree in chemistry from Texas A&M University and her doctorate degree in biochemistry from The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas. She completed postdoctoral fellowships in human molecular genetics with James Lupski at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston and with Michael Lovett at The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas. Dr. Wise is a founding member and chair of the International Consortium for Spinal Genetics, Development, and Disease. She also co-directs the TSRHC GOOD for KIDs program aimed at solving rare debilitating musculoskeletal diseases in children using next-generation genomic methods. Dr. Wise’s laboratory hosts the SRC Scoliosis Biobank and the U.S. DNA and Cell repository for the Primordial Registry, a joint effort with Dr. Michael Bober at A. I. duPont Hospital for Children. Dr. Wise leads NIH-funded projects focused on mechanistic understanding of adolescent idiopathic scoliosis, the most common musculoskeletal disorder in children, and on earlier onset forms.

Dr. Rios, smiling man with short dark hair.

Jonathan Rios, Ph.D.

Director- Basic Research and Molecular Genetics

Dr Jonathan Rios is Director of Molecular Genetics at Scottish Rite for Children and Associate Professor in the McDermott Center for Human Growth and Development and in the Departments of Pediatrics and Orthopaedic Surgery at UT Southwestern Medical Center (UTSW), and is a member of the UTSW Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center. Additionally, Dr. Rios is a course director in the medical school at UTSW. He received is doctoral degree in Genetics from Texas A&M University and completed a post-doctoral fellowship at UTSW. 

 

The primary focus of the Rios laboratory is translational genomics, with interests in pediatric skeletal and neuromuscular conditions. 

 

 

Kristhen Atala, B.S.

Research Coordinator III

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Kristin Denton, M.S.

Research Assistant

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Tugba Mehmetoglu Gurbuz, Ph.D.

Post Doctoral Fellow

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Aysha Khalid, Ph.D.

Research Scientist

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Yared Kidane, Ph.D.

Senior Scientist

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Yang Li, M.S.

Assistant Research Laboratory Manager

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Nao Otomo, M.D., Ph.D.

T. Boone Pickens International Post Doctoral Fellow, Spine Research 

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Ila Oxendine, M.S.

Cell and Tissue Core Coordinator

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Nandina Paria, Ph.D.

Senior Research Scientist & Laboratory Manager

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Kayla Meyers, Student

UTSW Biomedical Engineering Graduate Program

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