Current Trainees
- Carmen Villalobos, Ph.D.
- Jemema Rajan, M.D.
- Janette Vazquez, Ph.D.
- Somayyeh Nasiripour, Ph.D.
- Jaafar Afaf Saliba, Ph.D.
- Azam Alamdari, M.D.
Carmen Villalobos, Ph.D. (Mentor: Y. Gupta) 02/01/2022-present
Dr. Villalobos is a proud New Mexican, having received her PhD in Biomedical Engineering at the University of New Mexico. Her thesis work focused on host-pathogen interactions at the cell surface where she specialized using stochastic optical resolution microscopy to investigate glucan structures on the surface of Candida albicans and lipid rafts on Giardia lamblia. Her training and experience have been diverse and range from the fabrication of microfluidic devices to determining gene rearrangements in pediatric cancers. Upon the completion of her graduate studies, Dr. Villalobos worked for the Defense Threat Reduction Agency as a biological scientist who deployed instrumentation to characterize aerosols during various types of field testing.
After moving to Texas with her family, Dr. Villalobos joined Dr. Yogesh Gupta’s laboratory as a postdoctoral research fellow. Her current research focuses on the BAF complex which plays a role in the organization of chromatin and associated factors so that regulatory DNA regions are accessible to transcription factors. In cancer cells, the assembly and recruitment of this complex is disrupted by deletions, mutations, and overexpression of subunits, resulting in aberrant BAF complexes. Studying the structure, mechanism, and specificity of critical activity factors will elucidate better approaches to stopping tumor-promoting functions of the aberrant BAF complex.
Jemema Rajan, M.D. (Mentor: R. Defronzo) 07/01/2023-present
Dr. Jemema Rajan,MD got her undergraduate degree (BS) in Biological Sciences and Nutritional Sciences from RUTGERS University (NJ), when she first developed her passion for metabolic aspects of cardiac disease and community outreach through research. She then earned her MD degree (2019) and completed her Internal Medicine at Texas Institute of Graduate Medical education & Research in 2023. During her Medical education she focused on pathology and endocrinal effects on cardiovascular disease, presenting at American College of Cardiology.
Currently, she joined the Postdoctoral program under the mentorship of Drs. Defronzo and Anderson, to further research the metabolic effects on cardiac disease. Her projects focuses on heart failure studies with ketones, ketones, skeletal/cardiac muscle metabolism, SGLT2 inhibitors and pioglitazone. The research dives into ketone and glucose metabolism, myocardial glucose/fat metabolism, with relation to the cardiac function as represented by clamps and imaging with MRI and PET facilities at UT Heath Research Imaging Institute (RII).
Janette Vazquez, Ph.D. (Mentor: C. Satizabal) 11/01/2022-present
Dr. Vazquez earned her PhD in Biomedical Informatics from the University of Utah. During her time there, her work focused on the use of machine learning methods towards the analysis of medical science datasets. This included implementing various machine learning algorithms towards a diverse set of datasets ranging from self-reported social determinants for the analysis of clinical trial participation, the analysis of better predictions of engagement based on objective biometric measures, and the analysis of the effects of air pollution on COPD exacerbations utilizing mortality data and environmental air pollution data. She also worked on utilizing conformal prediction to assess the uncertainty of predictions in the machine learning analysis of the likelihood of an individual to participate in a clinical trial.
Upon finishing her thesis work, she joined Dr. Satizabal’s lab as a postdoctoral research fellow where she will be working on analyzing data from the San Antonio Heart and Mind Study to identify midlife and late-life cardiovascular risk factors that contribute to disparities in cognitive aging, and how these modify genetic susceptibility to cognitive decline and Alzheimer’s disease.
Somayyeh Nasiripour, Ph.D. (Mentor: J. Bopassa) 02/01/2024-present
Dr. Nasiripour graduated from Azad university of medical sciences in 2006 with doctorate degree in pharmacy with the thesis title ’Gastric healing effect of melatonin against different gastroinvasive agents in cholestatic rats’ published in pathophysiology journal in 2010. Then she completed her clinical pharmacy PhD at Tehran University of medical Sciences(TUMS) in May 2013 with the thesis title ”Comparison of the Effects of Enoxaparin and Heparin on Inflammatory Biomarkers in Patients with ST-segment Elevated Myocardial Infarction: A prospective Open Label Pilot Clinical Trial” ,published in Iranian Journal of Pharmaceutical Research (IJPR) in 2014.
Also, she has some experience in teaching medical students and running some clinical trials since she was assistant professor of clinical pharmacy at Iran university of medical Sciences (IUMS) from 2014 to 2023. She did some clinical trials in the field of cardiology in the journal with high impact factor.
After moving to San Antonio, Dr. Nasiripour joined Dr. Bopassa as a postdoctoral fellow.
Jaafar Afaf Saliba Ph.D. (Mentor: Kumar Sharma, MD) 08/01/2024-present
Afaf Saliba Jaafar received her PhD at UT Health San Antonio with thesis and research honors in May 2024 from the Integrated Biomedical Sciences with an emphasis on Cell Biology, Genetics, and Molecular Medicine.
Dr. Saliba’s long-term goal i
s to advance as a leading federally funded translational researcher at the intersection of metabolism and premature aging. During her appointment as a T32 Postdoctoral Fellow, she will investigate the multi-organ effect of kidney failure and gain in-depth knowledge through specialized workshops, courses, and individualized mentorship.
Previously, Dr. Saliba’s innovative research on the kidney-brain axis and acute kidney injury, demonstrated by 18 publications and multiple awards, has paved the way for her postdoctoral studies. Her future research will explore protective mechanisms for the brain in kidney disease models. With this NIH-funded support and training, Dr. Saliba is set to drive forward impactful biomedical research.
Azam Alamdari M.D. (Mentor: Marzieh Salehi, MD) 12/05/2025-present
Dr. Azam Alamdari received her medical doctorate from Iran University of Medical Sciences in 2004. After completion of her residency in Internal Medicine (2010) and fellowship in nephrology (2016) at Tehran University of Medical Sciences she was appointed as assistant professor and then associate professor (2011-202
4), where she engaged in both teaching and clinical research, with a particular interest in diabetes and cardiovascular complications.
Two of her notable research contributions have been characterizing the relationship between serum visfatin and type 2 diabetes independent of insulin resistance and adiposity, published in Diabetes Research and Clinical Practice in 2010, as well as determining the relationship between serum vitamin D levels and the extent of peripheral neuropathy in diabetic subjects, published in neurological science in 2015.
Currently, she joined the Postdoctoral program under the mentorship of Dr. Salehi to further research underlying mechanisms involved with impaired glucose tolerance and obesity in high-risk patients with diabetes.