Lab Members

Vanessa Borges, PhD, completed her doctorate at the University of São Paulo, Department of Pharmacology, Faculty of Medicine of Ribeirão Preto, where she played an important role in the sepsis pathophysiology study. Borges participated in works that contribute to the understanding of sepsis associated neutrophil migration failure and cardiovascular dysfunctions, in which she used the cecal ligation and puncture model for murine polymicrobial sepsis induction. Borges joined the Shimada Lab in March 2020 to work on studies that aim to understand the immunological mechanisms related to acute lung injury induced by mechanical ventilation. The model used in these studies is the two-hit murine lung injury model, which means the local administration of lipopolysaccharide plus mechanical ventilation.

Daisy Martinon graduated from the University of California, Irvine with a bachelor of science in biochemistry and molecular biology. She later received a master of science in biochemistry from California State University, Long Beach. Previous to joining the Arditi Laboratory in August 2018, Martinon worked at Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science in the department of cellular and molecular pharmacology. Using animal models of stress, she studied innate stress-coping mechanisms that could lead to the development of psychiatric disorders like depression. In the Shimada Laboratory, Martinon provides laboratory technical support to study the immunological mechanisms involved in the development of ventilator-induced acute lung injury.