Lab Members
Esha earned her master’s and PhD in Molecular and Cell Biology at the University of Texas at Dallas. During her PhD, she identified mechanistic insights in mitochondrial pathways underlying neurodegeneration in both aging brains and Alzheimer’s Disease. She then pursued her postdoctoral training in the lab of Dr. Katrin Andreasson at Stanford University as a SPARK scholar, where she studied the role of the de novo NAD+ synthesis pathway in innate immune cells leading to inflammaging & dementia. Esha joined the Ho Lab with a deep interest in leveraging her training to utilize multi-omics data and iPSC technology to identify key cellular and molecular modifiers of aging that lead to various neurodegenerative disorders like ALS.
Thomas Mota completed his undergraduate education in microbiology at California State University, Long Beach, where he became interested neuroscience research. He then completed the CIRM Bridges to Stem Cell internship at the University of California, Irvine, where he studied methods to increase the efficacy of integration of cellular transplants in animal models of neurodegenerative disorders. Thomas joined the PhD program at Cedars-Sinai in 2017, where he has been studying the role of neuroinflammatory signaling in microglia, and their role in ALS disease pathogenesis. In 2020, Thomas was awarded the Howard Hughes Medical Institute Gilliam Fellowship for Advanced Study to support his research.
Michael Edison Ramos completed his undergraduate education in biology at California State University, San Bernardino, where he developed an interest in stem cells and regenerative medicine. He then worked as a laboratory technician at Cedars-Sinai where he received specialized training in the use of induced pluripotent stem cells to study neurodegeneration and pancreatic disorders. Ramos joined the Ho Lab as a graduate student to study the genetic programs involved in aging.
Oksana Shelest earned her master’s degrees in neuroscience from Moscow State University in Russia and in chemistry from Kharkov State University in Ukraine. She has extensive experience in animal surgery and in vivo electrophysiology as well as in animal colony management and behavioral testing in disease and drug addiction models. Shelest is passionate about working toward understanding nature, one of the greatest human abilities, and she studies animal behavior in the context of human neurological disorders.
Brijesh earned his master’s in Biochemistry at the University of Allahabad, India and pursued doctoral studies in neuroscience from the National Brain Research Center, India. He explored the novel role of UBE3A, a ubiquitin E3 ligase in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer’s disease. To further his research skills, he moved to Columbia University to advance his career as a postdoctoral research scientist under the supervision of Dr. Alejandro Chavez, where he focused on developing CRISPR/Cas9-assisted tools, specifically high-throughput gene knock-in technologies and targeted mutations to explore subcellular phenotypes in neurodegenerative disease. In the Ho Lab, Brijesh will be leading CRISPR-engineered neuron maturation and aging projects to model iPSCs for sporadic neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).
Ian Tindel completed his undergraduate degree in biology from California State University, Los Angeles (CSULA), with a minor in computer science. Tindel has previously engaged in research on wing imaginal disc development at CSULA and osteoarthritic clinical data at the VA Greater Los Angeles Health Care System. He is currently analyzing the declining motor behavior of aging wild type and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis mice.