Lab Members

Audrey Uy-Evanado, MD, is a cardiologist and research associate at the Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute. She leads the patient recruitment and phenotyping efforts for the Oregon Sudden Unexpected Death Study.

Kotoka Nakamura, PhD, is a project scientist at the Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute. She earned her doctorate in biological chemistry from UCLA and went on to work initially as a postdoctoral fellow and then as an assistant researcher in the laboratory of Richard Gatti, MD, at UCLA, where she investigated the genetics and molecular mechanisms underlying neurodegenerative DNA repair disorders. The focus of her research in the Chugh Laboratory is in the area of human genetics and the molecular basis of human disease.

Kyndaron Reinier, PhD, MPH, is a research scientist at the Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute and lead epidemiologist for the Oregon Sudden Unexpected Death Study. She received her doctorate in epidemiology and master of public health at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Public Health. Her research interests include social, demographic and clinical predictors of sudden cardiac arrest.

Arayik Sargsyan, MD, MPH, is a Clinical Research Associate at the Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute. He is a surgeon from Armenia with training and experience in public health and clinical research. He is coordinating implementation of PREdiction of Sudden death in mulTi-ethnic cOmmunities (PRESTO) clinical trial in Ventura County.

Orison Woolcott, MD, studies the pathophysiology of obesity and Type 2 diabetes. He also studies the association of environmental factors (e.g., altitude, latitude) with obesity and Type 2 diabetes. More recently, Woolcott has been interested in exploring new clinical predictors of body adiposity and obesity-linked conditions such as stroke, myocardial infarction, cancer, sudden cardiac arrest and sudden cardiac death.