Meet our team!
Principal Investigator
Dr. Natalia Gomez-Ospina, MD, PhD
Principal Investigator
Dr. Gomez-Ospina was born and raised in Medellin, Colombia. She began her undergraduate studies in petroleum engineering at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia before moving to Colorado. She double majored at the University of Colorado Boulder, completing her bachelor’s degree in Molecular Cellular and Developmental Biology and Biochemistry. She graduated summa cum laude and wrote an honors thesis entitled “Role of the quiescent center in the regeneration of the root cap in Zea Mays.” She then completed her combined MD, Ph.D., at Stanford Medical School, where her Ph.D. work focused on understanding the novel functions of voltage-gated calcium channels. After completion of her dual degrees, she did her preliminary year in internal medicine at Santa Barbara Cottage hospital before starting a residency in Dermatology at Johns Hopkins Hospital. She completed a residency in Medical Genetics at Stanford which was followed by post-doctoral research in Pediatric Stem Cell transplantation. As a post-doc, she began the development of a genome editing strategy in stem cells as a curative therapy for metabolic diseases. Her current research aims to develop treatments for patients with genetic disorders with a particular focus on lysosomal storage diseases.
As a board-certified Medical Geneticist., Dr. Gomez-Ospina's clinical responsibilities include the clinical evaluation and diagnosis of patients with suspected genetic conditions. She also manages the treatment of some of these diseases at Stanford by overseeing the enzyme replacement service and leading the Program for Inherited Metabolic Diseases (PIMD), which aims to promote the preclinical development of gene and cell-based therapy approaches for metabolic diseases.
Post-doctoral Fellows
Edina Poletto, PhD
Post-doctoral Fellow
Edina has always worked with genetic diseases, from molecular diagnosis to development of new therapies. She joined the lab in 2019 as a Visiting Student during her PhD, and rejoined us in 2022 as a post-doc, working on the late-stage preclinical development of a therapeutic platform based on genome edited hematopoietic stem cells.
Fun Facts: She was a match and donated hematopoietic stem cells to an anonymous recipient in 2025! She enjoys hiking, renaissance fairs, and feeding Brazilian cheese bread to lab members. She is also a proud mom of two fluffy cats.
Hyunmin Cho, PhD
Post-doctoral Fellow
Hyunmin is a stem cell biologist interested in new therapeutic strategies for patients with genetic disorders. My current research goals are the utilization of hematopoietic stem cells, CRISPR/Cas9 mediated genome editing, and improvement of therapeutic efficiency of stem cell therapy. I get great pleasure when my research efforts support my goal of connecting a bench to bedside.
Previous Institution: Seoul National University
Staff
Pasqualina (Lina) Colella, PhD
Senior Research Scientist
Lina is focused on developing improved HSPC-based approaches to treat neurometabolic diseases. Lina received her MS in Biology at the University of Naples Federico II (Italy), her PhD in Human Genetics from Open University (UK) at the Telethon Institute of Genetics and Medicine (TIGEM, Italy) and was awarded Postdoctoral fellowships from Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (EU) and Genethon (France). Lina is interested in developing effective gene and cell therapies for untreatable diseases and has expertise in the field of in vivo AAV gene therapy and genome editing for inherited retinal degenerations and lysosomal storage diseases.
Annel Andrea Leon
Research Assistant
Andrea is an undergraduate at Stanford majoring in bioengineering. She is currently working on a project that aims to demonstrate a missense mutation in the DNASE1L3 gene results in abnormal enzyme activity leading to inability to degrade DNA. In the future, Andrea hopes to pursue both medicine and research. In her free time, she enjoys playing tennis, dancing bachata, and baking.
Juan Jose Vasquez, PhD
Research Scientist
Juan specializes in lysosomal biology and the molecular mechanisms underlying lysosomal storage diseases. His work focuses on identifying and characterizing genes responsible for novel lysosome-related disorders and understanding how mutations in lysosomal enzymes and trafficking pathways lead to cellular dysfunction. He combines cell biology, functional genomics, and molecular imaging approaches to dissect lysosomal dynamics in engineered cell models. His long-term goal is to bridge fundamental discoveries in lysosomal biology with translational research that enables new treatment strategies for rare metabolic diseases.
Yaneth Perez-Rodriguez
REACH Postbac Scholar
Yaneth recently graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), earning a Bachelor of Science (BS) in Molecular, Cell and Developmental Biology. During her time at UCLA, she was involved in student organizations like the Latino Student Health Project and in research in the Arboleda lab. Currently, she is a REACH Postbac Scholar for the Stanford School of Medicine. This experience is integral to her goal of becoming a medically trained scientist (MD/PhD), allowing her to bridge laboratory findings to clinal treatments.
Graduate Students
Jessica Arozqueta Basurto, MS
Graduate Student
Jessica is a PhD student in the Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine program. Her research focuses on investigating how cells migrate from bone marrow to the brain for microglia cell replacement therapy. Her academic and research work aligns with advanced topics in stem cell biology and its applications in disease modeling and therapy development. Outside of the lab, she likes to hike, dance, paint, visit museums, and try out new cuisines.
Allan Feng
Medical Student
Allan is from Alabama and completed undergrad at Stanford. He is still here and is pursuing an MD and MS as a Berg Scholar. In the Gomez-Ospina lab, he is developing a new mouse model for neuronopathic Gaucher disease and testing therapeutic interventions such as gene therapy. Outside of lab, he enjoys playing soccer and surfing.
Fun fact: Allan is waiting for the cat distribution system to deliver him a cat. He is also open to foster.
Undergraduate Students
Sophia Trabanino
Undergraduate Student
Sophia is an undergraduate at Stanford University majoring in biology with a focus in biochemistry. She is currently working on a project that aims to understand how stem cells migrate from bone marrow to the brain, work that aims to advance potential treatments for lysosomal storage diseases that affect the central nervous system. Looking ahead, Sophia hopes to pursue a career as a physician while continuing her involvement in research. Outside of the lab, she enjoys baking, painting landscapes, and playing golf.
Andrea Roman-Fernandez
Undergraduate Student
Andrea is a sophomore at Stanford and is pursuing a career as a physician.
Lab Alumni
Luisa N. Pimentel-Vera, PhD
Past Post-doctoral Fellow
Luisa worked on developing genome-edited stem cell therapies for Gaucher disease.
Moises Rivera
Past lab manager
Moises graduated from San Jose State University while working in biotech since 1990. He first joined Dr. Theo Palmer's lab in 2005 and later joined the Gomez-Ospina lab.
María Valentina Suárez-Nieto
Medical Student at Stanford University School of Medicine
Her research project involved developing stem cell therapies. She is currently pursuing a career as a physician-scientist.
Ruhi Sayana
Medical Student at Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania
Ruhi's project involved developing cellular tools to enable the rapid analysis of lysosome metabolomics.
Samantha Scharenberg
MD/PhD student at Stanford University School of Medicine
Technically never an official member of the lab. Sam trained with Dr. Gomez-Ospina. She worked on Gaucher disease
Timothy
Past lab mascot
Tim was our lab mascot from 2019 to 2022. Building management removed him 😤.
Alvaro Morin
MD/PhD student at Stanford University School of Medicine
He worked on developing a stem cell therapy for a devastating disease known as Krabbe.
Guilherme Baldo, PhD
Visting Scholar
Gui hung out with us for a couple months. He is a professor at Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil.
Marc Gastou, PhD
Past Post-doctoral Fellow
He worked on a cure for Gaucher disease type 1 and an approach that could help the neuronopathic forms like type 2 and type 3. Currently in industry.
Thomas Veltman, PhD
Visiting Scholar
Thomas continues to work on the development of point-of-care blood ammonia sensor .
Jackie Amorin
Past lab manager
Jackie is now a graduate student as UCSD
Eduardo Tejeda-Polanco
Research Assistant
Eduardo is currently pursuing a masters degree.
