Senior Research Investigators
Lesley Chaboub, Ph.D.
Senior Research Investigator
Dr. Lesley Chaboub received her bachelor’s degree from the University of Versailles in France and her Master’s degree from Purdue University (West Lafayette, IN). She then pursued her Ph.D. from Baylor College of Medicine (Houston, TX) in the program of Developmental Biology. Her project focused on embryonic development of astrocytes, and how developmental programs could be re-utilized in adult or embryonic neurological disorders. Her postdoctoral work at the Houston Methodist hospital continued to build her expertise in neuroscience and glial cells. Dr. Chaboub is proficient in many pre-clinical animal models and associated techniques, as well as multiple cell-based assays for neuroscience.
Dr. Chaboub joined Dr. Weissman’s lab in March 2024 as a Senior Research Investigator. Her broad expertise in the CNS field will be an asset in adapting the LPNs platform for mRNA delivery in the central nervous system space. Her interest particularly lies in understanding how mRNA therapeutics, and LNPs targeting can be harnessed for the treatment of neurological disorders.
Garima Dwivedi, Ph.D.
Senior Research Investigator
Dr. Garima Dwivedi obtained her master’s degree in Biotechnology in India following which she worked in a Biopharma company developing products for wound healing and cell therapy. She received a Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering from Polytechnique Montreal in Canada in 2017. Her thesis focused on identifying the role of bone marrow progenitor cells in cartilage tissue repair variability and strategies to augment cartilage repair using chitosan and platelet rich plasma. She was a postdoctoral associate at MIT and Harvard University from 2017 to 2021. Her project focused on developing an in vitro microphysiological system from human knee joint to study the role of mechanical stress and inflammation in musculoskeletal disease biology on Earth and in Space. Dr. Dwivedi joined Dr. Drew Weissman's lab in 2021 where she is working on the development of mRNA vaccines against multiple infectious diseases. Dr. Dwivedi is the manager of the Engineered mRNA and Targeted Nanomedicine Core.
Qin Li, M.D., Ph.D.
Senior Research Investigator
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Dr. Qin Li received her Medicine and Ph.D. degree from the Wuhan University, China. She has worked in multiple outstanding research institutes for over 10 years in the United States. Dr. Li has diverse expertise from her research experience in developmental biology, hematology, immunology and cancer biology. She is proficient in animal models as well as novel technologies, including genome editing, library screening, flow cytometry, gene expression analysis, and cancer profiling.
Dr. Qin Li joined Dr. Drew Weissman's lab in 2018. As a project leader, she leads collaborative network with research centers in NIH Collaborative Influenza Vaccine Innovation Centers (CIVICs program). Her focus is to develop a universal mRNA vaccine which can provide long-lasting protection and induces broadly protective immunity against multiple strains of influenza virus, including those that can cause pandemics. Dr. Li also leads projects studying the distribution and toxicity of mRNA vaccine.
Xiomara Mercado-Lopez, Ph.D.
Senior Research Investigator
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Dr. Mercado-López received her B.S. from the University of Puerto Rico in 2004 and her doctorate in microbiology from the University of Puerto Rico Medical Sciences Campus in 2010. Her thesis work focused on the characterization of the immune response after Flavivirus sequential infections and DNA vaccine immunization in the mouse model. After graduating, she moved to the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, where she initiated her postdoctoral training at the laboratory of Dr. Carolina López. At UPenn, Xiomara studied viral genomic motifs and their immunostimulatory activity and developed a short and potent RNA oligonucleotide adjuvant derived from a virus defective genome. In 2013, she joined the Biology department of the University of Puerto Rico in Arecibo as a virology and immunology assistant professor. In addition to teaching and mentoring students, she organized public health awareness projects to promote effective education on infectious diseases and vaccines at the university and in the surrounding communities. In January 2019, she joined Dr. Drew Weissman's lab as a Senior Research Investigator. As a molecular virologist, her primary interests are vaccine development against viral diseases (Influenza viruses, Flavivirus, Alphavirus, and Coronavirus) and therapeutics against herpesviruses.
Irina Shkundina, Ph.D.
Senior Research Investigator
Dr. Irina Shkundina completed her Ph.D. in the laboratory of Dr. Michael Ter-Avanesyan, Moscow, Russia. Her Ph.D. thesis was exploration of variability phenomenon of the yeast prion [PSI+]. During her Ph.D. years Irina acquired skills in yeast genetics, biochemistry, and molecular biology. Her biochemical and molecular biology expertise was further developed during her first postdoc in Russia in the lab of Dr. Konstantin Severinov, where she performed studies of natural peptide antibiotic of E. coli microcin B. In 2016 Dr. Shkundina moved to the U.S. and joined Dr. Alexander Mazin’s laboratory at Drexel University College of Medicine. There she worked on human DNA repair mechanisms, namely, development of novel small molecule inhibitors of RAD51 recombinase for cancer therapy. In 2021 Irina joined the lab of Dr. Christine Eischen at Thomas Jefferson University, where she contributed to the projects on DNA repair and B-cell lymphoma. In March 2023 Irina joined Dr. Drew Weissman’s lab and is working on applications of mRNA-LNPs for cancer therapy.
Istvan Tombacz, Ph.D.
Senior Research Investigator
Dr. Istvan Tombacz received his diploma and doctorate in molecular biology from the University of Szeged, Hungary. He worked in the group of Prof. Imre Boros on eukaryotic gene expression regulation, using fruit flies as a model. After gaining additional experience in labs in Hungary, Istvan joined Dr. Drew Weissman’s lab as a postdoc in 2017. His main projects involve adapting the mRNA-LNP platform for applications other than vaccines, mainly in vivo gene knock in. Additionally, he works on developing a SARS-CoV-2 vaccine that targets more conserved antigens than the Spike protein in order to be protective against rapidly emerging mutations. He is also involved in in vivo targeted mRNA-LNP projects.
Jibin Zhou, Ph.D.
Senior Research Investigator
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Dr. Jibin Zhou received his B.S. in Medicine (M.D. equivalent) from Wuhan University and Ph.D. from Xi'an Jiaotong University in China. He joined Dr. Drew Weissman's lab in 2017. His research work focuses on the following three projects: (1) Generation of plasmids that are used to synthesize mRNAs, involving operating the BioXp system to de novo synthesize genes, codon-optimizing, and optimizing the mRNA untranslated regions (2) Development mRNA vaccines against Helicobacter pylori infection (3) Targeted lipid nanoparticles for the specific delivery of mRNA.