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The Team

  • Dr. Francesca Soncin

    Dr. Francesca Soncin

    Dr. Soncin studied Pharmaceutical Chemistry and Technologies at the Universita' di Torino, Italy. She received an MRes in Biological Sciences and a PhD in Stem Cell Biology from the University of Manchester, UK. She then moved to California to train in induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC) for disease modeling at the Sanford Burnham Institute, and finally joined Dr. Parast at UC San Diego to investigate trophoblast differences in early placenta development between mouse and human. She established her independent research lab in November 2020 where she is studying the transcriptional and epigenomics signature of trophoblast stem cells in the developing placenta. She is also highly interested in comparative placentation and has started various collaborations with the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance to continue the legacy established by Dr. Bernischke at UC San Diego.

  • Ryan Kittle

    Ryan Kittle

    SRA and lab manager

  • Ruben Calderon

    Ruben Calderon

    Ph.D. student in Biological Science

  • Sampada Kallol

    Sampada Kallol

    Postdoctoral fellow

  • Walee Shaik

    Walee Shaik

    Undergraduate student

Past Lab Members

Alex Mitre, CIRM Bridges student, California State University, Channel Island