Dr. Lay Teng Ang is a Siebel Scholar and Instructor for the Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine at Stanford University. As the mentee of Dr. Philip Beachy, her research seeks to overcome major challenges associated with utilizing regenerative tissue as a clinical therapy for single ventricle heart disease. Here, she will create a co-culture of endothelial, smooth muscle, and myocardial cells to build a vascularized heart organoid model. This platform will overcome a big bottleneck in cardiovascular tissue engineering by enhancing cell viability, further advancing our ability to manufacture cardiac tissues. Dr. Ang received her Bachelor of Engineering from the National University of Singapore and her PhD from the University of Cambridge. 

Dr. Hananeh Fonoudi is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Northwestern University. Under the mentorship of Dr. Paul Burridge, Dr. Fonoudi will expand our understanding of Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome (HLHS) pathology. She will use HLHS patient-derived induced pluripotent stem cells to create 3D organoids. By interrogating these organoids through imaging, genetic and cellular analyses, and high throughput drug screening, she will transform our ability to model HLHS and at the same time generate a new platform for target-based drug discovery. Dr. Fonoudi received her Bachelor and Master of Science from the University of Tehran and her PhD from the University of New South Wales. 

Dr. Sanjeev Ranade is a Staff Research Scientist at the Gladstone Institutes. As the mentee of Dr. Deepak Srivastava, Dr. Ranade will investigate how the misregulation of neural crest cells contributes to single ventricle etiology. Leveraging novel mouse models and human pluripotent stem cells, his work will uncover gene regulatory programs and spatiotemporal origins of impaired outflow tract development – ultimately adding to our understanding of regulatory mechanisms governing progenitor cell differentiation in normal cardiogenesis and in single ventricle. Dr. Ranade received his Bachelor of Science from James Madison University, his Master of Science from Northeastern University, and his PhD from Scripps Research.