Postdocs
  • Aysegul Kavas, PhD--Dr. Kavas used her background in tissue engineering to help advance the autologous serum project.
  • Kyeongwoo Jang, PhD--though his time in the DiLeo lab was brief, Dr. Jang was instrumental in finalizing some polymer synthesis procedures for retinal gene therapy. 
  • Parissa Ziaei, PhD--currently at Pace Life Sciences. Dr. Ziaei was the lead researcher on our pre-intravitreal injection work.
  • Michael Washington, PhD--currently at Reaxis, Inc. Dr. Washington never met a material he couldn't optimize or characterize. 

Graduate students
  • Liza Bruk, PhD--currently at Advanced NanoTherapies, Inc. Liza's thesis work focused on drug delivery to ear for acute otitis media and tympanic membrane perforation. She was the first member of the DiLeo Lab and absolutely critical to our early survival. 
  • Jorge Jimenez, PhD--currently at BD. Dr. Jimenez was the lead researcher on our cysteamine delivery project and had a massive impact on many other projects. They were equally well-qualified to design biomaterials as they were to give a lecture on public health disparities. To date, one of the greatest achievements from the DiLeo lab was their flawless performance in the 2016 AGEP retreat Best Mentor/Mentee Pair Competition.

The first and only graduate of the DiLeo Lab Entrepreneurship Boot Camp
  • Valerie Quickel--currently at Harvard Business School. Ms. Quickel was a marketing major who took a chance on a gap year in a bioengineering lab. It is the unwavering belief of this PI that she can do any task set before her, business or science, better than most. Also a great baker.
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Technicians
  • Daniel Bigley, BS--currently at Thomas Jefferson University Sidney Kimmel Medical College. Mr. Bigley was a neuroscientist who taught himself to be a polymer chemist during his time working on our retinal gene therapy project. His contributions have had a lasting impact on the lab, both scientifically and culturally.
  • Jayde Resnick, BS--currently a Registered Nurse at Allegheny Health Network. In hindisght, we should have all know Ms. Resnick would end up in nursing. Her calm, confident attitude made her the "animal whisperer" and she was an invaluable member of our team during her time in the DiLeo lab. 

Medical Students
  • Joshua Ong, MD--currently a Resident physician at University of Michigan. It is because of the efforts of Dr. Ong that members of the DiLeo (almost) went to space. The global pandemic won that round, but we haven't given up yet.
  • Anthony Hanna--Lewis Katz School of Medicine (Temple). Prototyping and design guru who landed a non-existent summer research position through self-motivation and initiative. 

Undergraduate Students
  • Emma Phelps--University of Pittsburgh. Emma started with a writing assignment for our cystinosis work and ended up on the bench running immunoassays. She was a total rockstar for all of it.
  • Alana Cabrera-Minier--University of Puerto Rico. Alana helped characterize drug delivery materials for our combination therapy project in glaucoma, and was notably more excited than anyone has ever been before to get her first academic research experience.
  • Lindsay Helsel--Carnegie Mellon University. AIChE poster awardee and another invaluable researcher on our ear delivery projects. 
  • Meera Sakthivel--University of Pittsburgh. Co-author on rare disease review, future physician, and all around all-star in the early days of our cystinosis project.
  • Kate Dunkelberger--University of Pittsburgh. Most likely to find the "needle in a haystack" paper to fix drug loading issues in a project she's not even working on. Also great with ear drug delivery.
  • Andrea Biernbaum--University of Pittsburgh. HPLC protocol troubleshooter and lab baked goods co-purveyor alongside Ms. Quickel.
  • Lauren Krzystowczyk--Birmingham Southern College. Hydrogel characterization expert and the most calm and collected public speaker we've ever seen.
  • Ande Greco, BS--St. Vincent College. Least likely to be discouraged by negative results. Ande relentlessly pursued drug release profiles for our ear delivery projects.
  • Nate Myers, BS--University of Pittsburgh. Resident prototyping expert and novelty 3-D printed eyeball aficionado. 

High School Students
  • Maya Groff--Shadyside Academy. As capable as any graduate student and likely to be my boss someday. Maya performed corneoscleral permeability testing for novel microneedle enhancement techniques.