Lab Members

Thassio Ricardo Ribeiro Mesquita, PhD, earned a master of science in physiology from Federal University of Sergipe in Brazil, along with a joint PhD in physiology and pathophysiology at Paris-Sud University in France and Federal University of Sergipe. Mesquita’s research interests include molecular aspects of cardiac electrophysiology.

Yen-Nien Lin, MD, PhD, is an Interventional electrophysiologist in the Cardiovascular Center at China Medical University Hospital. He earned his doctorate from the China Medical University in 2019. In his graduate work, Lin focused on prehospital predictors of initial shockable rhythm in out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. He joined Marbán Lab and Cingolani Lab as a visiting postdoctoral scientist in 2019. Lin currently investigates the efficacy of CDC-derived exosomes to treat arrhythmogenic cardiomyopathy.

The research interests of James Dawkins, DVM, focus on the biological pacemaker, biological treatment of ventricular tachycardia and acute respiratory distress syndrome.

Lizbeth Sanchez graduated with a bachelor of science in microbiology from California State University, Los Angeles.  Sanchez’s research interests include molecular biology, generating gene therapy alternatives and gene therapy applications for biological pacing.

Asma Nawaz completed her undergraduate degree in biomedical engineering from the University of Southern California in 2019. During her studies, she took an interest in electrical engineering and pursued a project to create a respiratory station for tetraplegic patients to enable them to clear their blocked airways independently, which she did with a team, using a combination of circuitry and a variety of engineering coding software. Following graduation, Nawaz joined the Cingolani Lab as a research associate with a keen interest in utilizing her coding skills to help process experimental data, as well as expanding her knowledge of wet-lab and technical lab procedures. Currently, she is facilitating data analysis and visualization for ongoing experiments, as well as seeking to find novel methods to use her MATLAB skills to create tools for simplifying routine manual analysis of data.