2021 Young Investigator Draft

Dr. Mossa, Ph.D. is a postdoctoral research fellow in the De Rubeis lab at the Seaver Autism Center for Research and Treatment at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. She has worked on mouse models for rare neurodevelopmental disorders since her undergraduate studies. She joined the De Rubeis lab in July 2020 and is studying the mechanisms of DDX3X syndrome, a rare neurodevelopmental condition affecting predominantly females. Her goal is to lay the groundwork for the development of novel therapeutics for DDX3X syndrome. Prior to joining De Rubeis lab, Dr. Mossa studied mouse models of two rare neurodevelopmental disorders. While in these labs, she discovered fundamental mechanisms underlying two rare diseases and targeted them with pharmacological agents, thus laying the groundwork for new therapeutic avenues.

Dr. Nagpal received her Ph.D. in Biochemical Engineering and Biotechnology from the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, India. She joined the Agarwal lab at Boston Children’s Hospital in 2016 where she has been developing small molecule strategies to modulate human telomerase in the rare degenerative disease, dyskeratosis congenita (DC). Her work in the past few years has discovered novel chemicals that have the potential to restore telomere maintenance in stem cells derived from patients with DC. Dr. Nagpal is driven to improve the drug-like properties of these molecules to develop the first systemic treatments for DC, pulmonary fibrosis, and other rare telomere biology diseases.

Dr. Quinn, Ph.D. began his scientific career at The University of Manchester and continued his development in the Novel Therapies Division of Manchester-based biotech Epistem. He subsequently undertook a Masters in Molecular Medicine at Brunel University where he fostered a deep enthusiasm for research. After beginning his doctoral studies at Leiden University, Dr. Quinn applied his passion for research to an entirely new domain—he began investigating the pathobiology of inherited retinal dystrophies (IRDs). Following the receipt of his Doctorate, Dr. Quinn joined Drs. Stephen H. Tsang and Irene H. Maumenee’s team at Columbia University in order to continue developing his IRD research. He is developing novel gene-editing and gene-augmentation strategies, in addition to repurposing prior FDA approved drugs. Dr. Quinn plans to begin his own independent academic career as a Principal Investigator, developing novel therapies and elucidating molecular mechanisms of IRDs.

Dr. Ling has a keen interest in using cutting-edge genetic tools to develop treatment strategies for human diseases. She earned her Ph.D. in pharmacology from the University of Houston in 2018 where she published three peer-reviewed papers as the first author and received a Future Faculty Fellowship in 2015. Dr. Ling is currently a postdoctoral researcher in the laboratory of Dr. Steven Gray at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. As a postdoc, she has been leading preclinical studies to establish an AAV-based gene therapy strategy for SURF1-related Leigh syndrome, a rare and devastating mitochondrial disease that typically presents in infancy and has no current treatment options. As this work moves into clinical trials, Dr. Ling’s future research endeavors include developing novel gene therapy strategies for mitochondrial diseases and other neurodegenerative diseases using mitochondria as a target.

Dr. Sheppard is an Attending Physician in the Division of Human Genetics and a postdoctoral fellow in the Center for Applied Genomics under the mentorship of Dr. Hakon Hakonarson at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP). She completed her undergraduate degree at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, then attained her MD, Ph.D. at the University of Massachusetts Medical School and completed her combined pediatrics and medical genetics residency at CHOP. She is currently completing a master of science in translational research at the University of Pennsylvania. Her translational research focuses on the genetics and potential tailored therapeutics of vascular anomalies. Her accolades include the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia Distinguished Research Trainee Award (2019) and the Association for Clinical and Translational Sciences Outstanding Postdoctoral Trainee Award (2020).

After completing his undergraduate work at Appalachian State University in 2012, Dr. Hines went to the University of South Carolina where in 2018 he completed his PhD in Biological Sciences. While at South Carolina, Dr. Hines received the Presidential Fellowship, the Sloan Minority Ph.D. Fellowship from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, and the Kathryn Hinnant-Johnson Memorial Fellowship for research in the field of genetics. Currently, Dr. Hines is a postdoc at The Jackson Laboratory in Bar Harbor, Maine where he studies the cellular and biochemical mechanisms underlying the rare disorder Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease (CMT), an inherited peripheral neuropathy that causes loss of sensory and motor function. Part of Dr. Hines’ current project was recently funded by NINDS through a Research Supplement to Promote Diversity in Health-Related Research. He is excited to continue growing his expertise in axon biology and to help find treatments for rare diseases.

Dr. Eyo was born in Nigeria and grew up in several different countries. He immigrated to the United States in 2003 to pursue undergraduate studies at Northwest Missouri State University. He then went on to graduate school at the University of Iowa. Following his Ph.D studies, Dr. Eyo joined the lab of Dr. Long-Jun Wu, first at Rutgers University in New Jersey, then at Mayo Clinic in Minnesota to study microglial-neuronal communications. In August 2018, Dr. Eyo started his independent lab in the Department of Neuroscience and the Center for Brain Immunology and Glia (BIG) at the University of Virginia to continue his research on microglia with a focus on the developing brain. Away from the lab, Dr. Eyo enjoys time with his blessed family including his wife, two sons, and daughter.