Matthew Inlay, PhD
Associate professor (minlay@uci.edu)
Matthew Inlay received his Bachelor’s degree from UC Berkeley in 1997, then moved to UC San Diego for graduate school. There he joined the Yang Xu lab and did his thesis work in Immunology on the regulation of V(D)J recombination by the immunoglobulin kappa light chain enhancers. Upon receiving his Ph.D. in Biology in 2003, he moved back to Northern California in 2005 to join Irv Weissman’s lab at Stanford University for his post-doc. There he studied lymphocyte development, hematopoietic stem cell biology, and subsequently embryonic hematopoiesis. In 2013, Matt returned to Southern California to join the Sue and Bill Gross Stem Cell Research Center at UC Irvine as an assistant professor, where he now resides with his wife, son, and daughter.
Angel Ayala, MS
Phd student (laayala1@uci.edu)
Angel earned his B.S. in Biology from Cal Poly Pomona. After graduating, he joined San Francisco State University as a CIRM fellow, where he completed his masters thesis in the laboratory of Marius Wernig MD, at Stanford University. As a CIRM fellow Angel studied microglia replacement as a potential strategy to treat neurological disorders. After leaving Stanford, Angel joined UCI as a PhD student in the laboratory of Dr. Inlay. Currently he is studying glucocorticoid-induced reduction of graft-versus-host disease, a complication associated with bone marrow transplantation. Apart from lab, Angel enjoys spending time with his wife, two daughters, and cat, and is an avid collector of vinyl records.
Gabby Hisoire
Undergraduate researcher (ghisoire@uci.edu)
Gabby was born and raised in Douglas Massachusetts and attended high school in Rhode Island. After her own personal experiences with an autoimmune disease, she decided to apply to UCI to participate in undergraduate research and learn more about immunology. Her research in the lab focuses on culturing T cells in a closed culture system to mimic how bone marrow donor cells are collected in an apheresis bag with limited gas exchange. She treats these cells with various compounds including glucocorticoids in an effort to reduce GVHD following an allograft by means of graft manipulation. After her time at UCI, she hopes to further her biological education in graduate school. Apart from lab, she enjoys spending time with her family, dogs, and gecko and she also enjoys going to alternative concerts with her friends.
Alizeh Ahmedani
Undergraduate researcher (aahmedan@uci.edu)
Alizeh is an undergraduate student at UCI majoring in biological sciences. In the lab, she focuses on closed culture of T cells using various drug cocktails in an effort to mimic how bone marrow grafts are treated in a clinical setting. Outside of lab, she enjoys baking, playing with slime, and traveling.