Team

Dr. Priyanka Mohapatra

Postdoctoral Research Associate, Department of Pharmacology and Regenerative Medicine

Email: pm50@uic.edu
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Research Focus
Human organoid models of lung regeneration and fibrosis.

Research
Priyanka’s research focuses on understanding the transcriptional networks that regulate human alveolar type 2 (AT2) cell identity using CROP-seq. A second research project examines how somatic mutations contribute to the development and progression of pulmonary fibrosis. Her work uses human organoid models to investigate mechanisms involved in lung regeneration and fibrosis.

Education and Training

• Postdoctoral Research Associate, Lung Biology, University of Illinois Chicago, 2024–Present
• Ph.D., Cancer Biology, Institute of Life Sciences, Odisha, India, 2018–2024
• M.Sc., Annamalai University, Tamil Nadu, India, 2015–2017
• B.Sc., Ravenshaw University, Odisha, India, 2012–2015

Awards and Honors

• Gold Medal for academic excellence during B.Sc., Ravenshaw University, 2015
• Gold Medal for academic excellence during M.Sc., Annamalai University, 2017
• Qualified the Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE), 2017
• Awarded the Innovation in Science Pursuit for Inspired Research (INSPIRE) Fellowship by the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India, 2018
• Best Poster Presentation Awards at international conferences in 2019, 2022, and 2023

Dr. Utkarsh

Research Specialist, Department of Pharmacology and Regenerative Medicine

Email: uutkar2@uic.edu

Research Focus
Histological tissue analysis, whole-slide imaging quantification, and digital pathology workflows.

Research
Utkarsh’s research focuses on studying the alveolarization of respiratory bronchioles in neonatal and pediatric cases. The work involves histological tissue analysis, whole-slide imaging, quantitative image analysis, and digital pathology workflows to characterize structural changes in developing lung tissue.

Education and Training

• M.D.

Jacob Schumacher

Research Technician, Department of Pharmacology and Regenerative Medicine

Email: jschu43@uic.edu

Research Focus
Regenerative medicine, cellular biology, and stem cell research.

Research
Jacob’s research focuses on understanding the effects of NKX2.1 overexpression in proximal basal cells. His work contributes to broader studies in regenerative medicine, cellular biology, and stem cell research.

Education and Training

•  B.S., Biology

Candelaria De La Rosa

Graduate Student, Graduate Education in Medical Sciences (GEMS), Department of Pharmacology and Regenerative Medicine

Email: cdelaro@uic.edu

Research Focus
Stem cell biology and regenerative medicine.

Research
Candelaria’s research interests center on stem cell biology and regenerative medicine, with a focus on understanding cellular mechanisms involved in tissue repair and regeneration.

Education and Training

•  B.S., Microbiology, University of Michigan

Santhosh Reddy

Email: skata9@uic.edu

Research Focus
Deep learning and medical image analysis, with an emphasis on computational methods for understanding lung tissue structure.

Research
Santhosh’s research focuses on developing and evaluating deep learning methods for analyzing lung histology images. His work includes tissue segmentation, image registration, and 3D reconstruction to support quantitative characterization of lung tissue structure.

Education and Training

• B.Tech., Computer Science and Engineering, SRM Institute of Science and Technology, India, 2024
• M.S., Computer Science, University of Illinois Chicago (UIC), USA, 2026

Research Interests

• Machine Learning
• Deep Learning
• Computer Vision
• Medical Image Analysis
• Computational Biology