People

People

Meet the PI

Placeholder image

Qing Zou, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor | Email

Dr. Qing Zou is a tenure-track Assistant Professor in the Division of Pediatric Cardiology, Department of Pediatrics at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. He also holds secondary appointments in the Department of Radiology, and Advanced Imaging Research Center (AIRC). He obtained his Ph.D. in the Applied Mathematics and Computational Sciences (AMCS) program in the Graduate College of the University of Iowa.

Dr. Zou's research interests include:

  1. Unsupervised learning for cardiac MRI processing: Using deep generative models for solving inverse problems arising in MRI processing, especially cardiac MRI processing.
  2. Pulse sequences development for cardiopulmonary MRI: Development of sequences for cardiopulmonary MRI.
  3. Translational cardiology research using advanced Cardiac imaging: Development of new imaging biomarkers for congenital and acquired heart diseases.
LinkedIn

Meet the Team

Placeholder image

Sukran Erdem, M.D.

Research Scientist | Email

Dr. Erdem was born and raised in Turkey. She studied medicine at Ege University Medical School and then completed a Cardiology-IM Program at Istanbul Science University,  Turkey. Prior to joining lab, she worked as an Advanced Cardiac Imaging Fellow at UTSW. She has 2 sons. She likes traveling and taking photos.

LinkedIn
Placeholder image

Tonio Peng, M.S.

Graduate Student I Email

Tengya received his master degree in Medical Physics from Duke University in 2020 and master degree in Computer Science from Georgia Institute of Technology in 2024. Before joining the lab, he worked as a clinical therapy physicist. His research interests include automated treatment planning, free motion CBCT and MRI reconstruction, and various AI-related topics. He joined the lab in 2024 as a biomedical engineering graduate student.

Placeholder image

Corbin Maciel, B.S.

Graduate Student | Email

Corbin received his B.S. in Physics from Brigham Young University in 2022. Prior to joining the lab, he performed research projects assessing dose of cone beam computed tomography in image guided radiation therapy and studying the effects of metal implants near the spine in proton therapy. He joined the lab in 2023 as a graduate student in the biomedical engineering program. His current research focuses on the development of deep learning methods for cardiac MRI super-resolution and reconstruction to decrease acquisition time.

LinkedIn

Lab Alumni

We thank for all of you who have contributed to the lab.

1. Anna Andrews
- Summer Intern (2023)
- Current Position: PhD student

2. Rithvik Gunda
- Research Assistant (2023-2024)
- Current Position: MD student

3. Samantha Stebbings
- Summer Intern (2024)
- Current Position: Undergraduate student at Purdue University

4. Alexandra Jack
- Summer Intern (2024)
- Current Position: Undergraduate student at University of Michigan

5. Nikash Kakarla
- Summer Intern (2024)
- Current Position: Undergraduate student at Texas A&M University

PI and team members of Zou Lab

Search Terms

Join Us

Join Us

Postdoctoral Fellows

Applicants should have a Ph.D  in biomedicine,  immunology, genetics, or MD with a clinical training in medicine, or equivalent combination of education, training and experience. Candidate with an ECFMG certificate will also be considered. To inquire about a position, please email Dr.Kong with a current CV, a 1-page description of your research interests, and contact information for three professional references.

Information on our postdoctoral training program and benefits can be found through UTSW's Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences.

Graduate Students

We welcome Ph.D., M.D/Ph.D and M.D students through UT Southwestern’s medical school and graduate school of Biomedical sciences. Prospective rotation students are encouraged to email Dr. Kong to discuss interests, goals, and potential projects.

Research Staff

Interested applicants are encouraged to email Dr. Kong with a current CV and a description of research interests and career goals.

Contact Us

Email
Phone Number: 214/645-6334
Fax Number: 214/648-20222

Mailing Address
UT Southwestern Medical Center
5323 Harry Hines Blvd.
Dallas, TX 75390-8887

Physical Address
The laboratory is part of the Division of Digestive and Liver Diseases, in the Department of Internal Medicine. The facilities are located on the South Campus of UT Southwestern, on the fifth floor of the Moss Building (J).

Opportunities in the Xiao-Fei Kong Research Lab

People

People

Meet the Principal Investigator

Woman with auburn shoulder-length hair wearing a lab coat, standing in front of large industrial windows.

Vanessa Nomellini, M.D., Ph.D.

Vanessa Nomellini, M.D., Ph.D., is an Associate Professor in the Division of Burn, Trauma, Acute and Critical Care Surgery at UT Southwestern. Dr. Nomellini earned her M.D. from Loyola University, where she also earned a Ph.D. in Cellular and Molecular Biochemistry. She completed her general surgery residency at the University of Wisconsin and her fellowship in Surgical Critical Care at the University of Pennsylvania. She joined the faculty at the University of Cincinnati in 2016, where she developed her research program focused on immune suppression in critically ill trauma and septic patients. She also developed an ICU Recovery Program, where the most complex ICU survivors are followed and managed long term.

Dr. Nomellini was recruited to UT Southwestern in September 2022 to be the director of research for the division, and as part of the leadership for The Center for Organogenesis Research and Trauma (CORT) along with Drs. Levi and Carlson. She currently has an R35 from NIGMS focused on both animal studies of immune suppression, as well as a prospective observational human study characterizing the immune suppression in these patients.

See UTSW Profile

Nagham Alatrash, Ph.D.

Research Scientist Sr

Smiling woman wearing a head scarf and blue sweater standing outside among trees.

Roopa Koduri

Research Associate

Woman with dark hair pulled back in a pony tail wearing a blue shirt standing outside among trees.

Kevin Mutore, M.D.

Clinical Research Fellow

Smiling man with short dark hair, wearing a lab coat.

Geli Kane

Medical Student

woman with dark hair wearing white lab coat outdoors: Geli Kane

Mecca Islam

Research Associate Sr.

Placeholder image

Sonia Chen

Medical Student

Smiling woman with long dark hair, wearing a lab coat.

Past Lab Members

2023-2024

Sonakshi Chakrabarty, summer intern 2024
Current position: college student

Renqing Wu, M.D. , clinical research fellow
Current position: 4th year General Surgery resident, UT Southwestern

2020-2022

Dennis Vaysburg, M.D., surgical resident
Current position: surgical resident, University of Cincinnati

2019-2022

Satarupa Sengupta, Ph.D., research associate
Current position: research scientist, University of Cincinnati

2017-2020

Lisa England, lab technician
Current position: lab technician, University of Cincinnati

2016-2017

Joshua Maurmier, B.A., undergraduate student
Current position: unknown 

group of 7 researchers outside - 6 women, 1 man

Join Our Lab

If you have an interest in the research that we are conducting and would like to be considered for a position in the lab, please send an email including your CV and a letter of interest to Vanessa Nomellini, M.D., Ph.D.

Email

Meet the Principal Investigator, current and past lab members.

Subscribe to researchers