Scientific Advisory Board

Sudiksha Rathan Kumar is a postdoctoral fellow in Pediatric Neurology at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, focusing on developing models and therapeutics for rare pediatric neurological diseases. Her passion is using stem cells, gene therapy, and drug development to treat rare diseases and she has experiences in neurology, gastroenterology, microbiology, and multiple cellular and animal models. She received her Ph.D. in Cell and Developmental Biology from Vanderbilt University.

Elvin Lauron, Ph.D., is a molecular immunologist who brings over 15 years of hands-on experience in immunology, virology, and drug development. Elvin has guided multidisciplinary teams in advancing next-generation CAR T therapies, from the earliest concepts through IND clearance. His collaborative spirit and innovative mindset have led to new patents and contributed to a COVID-19 treatment that received Emergency Use Authorization from the FDA. Elvin’s research is widely published and has been presented at major scientific conferences. Known for mentoring and empowering high-performing teams, Elvin thrives on building cross-functional partnerships and translating cutting-edge science into meaningful therapies for patients.

Robert Lee, Ph.D. is a protein engineer with extensive experience in drug development. Robert has wide-ranging experience in protein and antibody engineering, with projects ranging across the fields of bispecific antibodies, ligand-receptor interactions, checkpoint inhibitors, polyketide synthases, alternative scaffolds, biosensors, and more. He has led and contributed to numerous antibody discovery and development campaigns using immunization, phage display, and yeast surface display. Robert also has experience in cell therapy, having worked on CAR-T cell and TIL research and development. He has authored articles in many peer-reviewed journals and is an inventor on several patents. Robert completed his doctoral and postdoctoral studies at Stanford University, during which he was an NSF Graduate Research Fellow, and is currently a Scientist at Propeller Bio.

Dr. Yongjie Ma is a research scientist at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. His research focuses on gene editing and stem cell engineering to develop advanced disease models for investigating the mechanisms underlying cancer-related metabolism. His work integrates genome engineering technologies with stem cell–based platforms to uncover metabolic vulnerabilities that may inform future therapeutic strategies. Prior to that, he conducted postdoctoral research at the University of Georgia, where he studied nuclear receptors and lipid metabolism in the context of obesity, diabetes, and prostate cancer.

Juan Nieto, Ph.D., is an immunologist specialized in inflammatory diseases, cancer, and translational medicine. His career is driven by a central goal: to simplify complex immunology and integrate cutting-edge technologies to reveal how immune cells function in health and disease. From his early work on inflammation and the microbiota in gastrointestinal disorders to his current focus on advanced single-cell and spatial genomics, Dr. Nieto’s expertise bridges biology, technology, and clinical applications.

Jesús Contreras Rodríguez earned his B.S. in biochemistry from the Arizona State University and Ph.D. in immunology from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine under the mentorship of Dr. Nliabh Shastri & Dr. Scheherazade Sadegh-Nasseri. He is currently a postdoctoral research fellow in the Department of Pathology under Dr. J. David Peske.