Pioneers
Meet the team behind this cutting-edge research.
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Our Team
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Birgitt Schüle, MD, is an Associate Professor in the Department of Pathology, Stanford University School of Medicine. Her research focuses on medical genetics and stem cell modeling to unlock disease mechanisms and pathways leading to neurodegeneration in Parkinson’s disease and related disorders, and to develop new therapeutic strategies to advance precision medicine.
She received her medical training from the Georg-August University Göttingen and Medical University Lübeck, Germany (1993 - 2001) and completed doctoral degree in medicine (Dr. med.) in neurophysiology at the Georg-August University Göttingen (2001). During her neurology internship from 2001 to 2002 at Medical University of Lübeck with Prof. Christine Klein, Dr. Schüle studied genes for inherited forms of Parkinson’s disease and dystonia. From 2003 to 2005, she completed a postdoctoral fellowship in human genetics with Prof. Uta Francke at Stanford University School of Medicine. From 2005-2019, Dr. Schüle led key clinical research programs and biospecimen repositories for neurogenetics, translational stem cell and brain donation at the Parkinson’s Institute and Clinical Center. |
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Faria Zafar, MS is a Life Science Research Professional II in the Schuele lab with more than five years of experience in patient- derived human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). Her passion for science and research escalated by understanding that research with stem cells can be a valuable guide to explore diseases like Parkinson’s in vitro. She has broad tissue culture experience in iPSCs, neuronal differentiation, MEA, Immunofluorescence, q-PCR, CRISPR and mouse in-vivo surgery.
She received her Master of Science (M.S.) in Stem Cell Biology from San Jose State University and a Bachelor’s degree from the University of California at Berkeley with a major in cell & developmental biology. |
Alejandra Torres, MS
Life Science Research Professional I |
Alejandra ('Ale') Torres, MS is a Life Science Research Professional I and earned her Masters in Biochemical Sciences from UNAM Mexico. She is currently working on optimizing a neural dopaminergic differentiation protocol of iPSC lines, as well as studying the immunofluorescence of such cells and conducting biochemical assays of iPSCs.
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Laurin Heinrich, Ph.D. is a dedicated Postdoctoral Research Fellow specialized in neuroscience and neurophysiology. Driven by her passion to improve therapeutic strategies for neurodegenerative and neurodevelopmental disorders, she seeks to uncover and understand the mechanisms underlying severe diseases such as Parkinson's. She thereby incorporates an interdisciplinary approach combining human iPSC modeling and CRISPR screening with molecular biological and novel electrophysiological techniques.
During a 6 months postdoctoral fellowship at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Laurin contributed to the development of a functional cortico-striato-nigral neuronal microcircuit using human-derived iPSC (2020). She completed her doctoral thesis in the lab of Prof. Dr. Carsten Duch at the Institute of Developmental Biology and Neurobiology (IDN) at the Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz (2016-2019), where she investigated the neuronal function of α2δ calcium channels subunits. She received her Master of Science (M.S.) with a major in Neurobiology from Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz (2013-2015) and a Bachelor’s degree from the Technical University Kaiserslautern (2010-2013). |
Vasavi Nallur Srinivasaraghavan
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Vasavi Nallur Srinivasaraghavan, BS is a CIRM/SCILL Intern currently pursuing her Master’s degree at San Jose State University. She received her Bachelor’s degree in Biotechnology from Anna University, India. Her project is the design of a multi-well qPCR assay to study the gene expression of neuronal differentiation in induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) to cortical neurons and characterization of alpha-synuclein knock-out iPSC lines.
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Max Chen
CIRM/SCILL Intern |
Max Chen, BS is a CIRM/SCILL intern and pursuing his Master’s degree at San Jose State University. He received his Bachelor’s degree in Molecular and Cellular Biology from University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. His current project is developing human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived neuronal circuits for Parkinson’s Disease to assist with the Brain-on-a-Chip project.
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De’Angelo is an Undergraduate Student (Class of 2023) at Stanford working towards his Bachelor’s Degree in Biology on the Neurobiology Track and a second major of Mathematical and Computational Science on the Biology Track. He has plans to become a pediatric neurosurgeon. He supports the lab with data analysis and expansion microscopy.
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Andres Michel
Undergraduate Research Assistant |
Andres Michel is a sophomore at Stanford majoring in Bioengineering (Class of 2023). He plans to pursue a PhD, and attend medical school. He has experience as a second assistant for surgeons. Currently, he is an intern for Student Clinical Opportunities for Premedical Experience program shadowing surgeons at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center.
His role at the lab includes reviewing path case reports about Parkin Parkinson’s disease, and organizing a database of antibodies barcoded with imaging results. Additionally, Andres is working on a collaborative project between the Schuele lab and Dr. Fernandez’s lab at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) to study genetic determinants and penetrance of Spinocerebellar Ataxia Type 10, a genetic disorder that causes cerebellar degeneration and affects motor abilities because of a mutation in the ATXN10 gene. |
Manchos
Collaboration Liaison |
Manchos is a good boy and is always happy to meet new people. Manchos is such an important asset to the Schuele lab because he attracts people from all throughout Stanford. He supports interdisciplinary collaborations in the lab because of his great smile and charming cuddles. Manchos is currently seeking a career in the fashion industry although he is specialized in food tasting and receiving hugs.
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