iPSC Core Members
Wenli Yang, Ph.D.
Director, iPSC Core Facility
wenliyan@pennmedicine.upenn.edu
1-215-746-0589
Wenli Yang earned her Ph.D. in molecular genetics from the University of California, Los Angeles where she studied the role of lipid modifications in small G-protein signaling in the fission yeast. After obtaining her Ph.D., she trained as a postdoctoral fellow with Dr. Bruce Spiegelman at Harvard Medical School where she focused on molecular mechanisms of adipocyte development and function. After postdoctoral training, she worked briefly in biotech where she led efforts in metabolic disease drug discovery. Wenli is interested in using human pluripotent stem cell derived cell lineages to study human diseases and development, with a particular interest in diabetes.
She joined the University of Pennsylvania in October 2009 to establish the human induced Pluripotent Stem Cell (iPSC) Core facility within the Institute for Regenerative Medicine. She is currently Research Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Perelman School of Medicine and the director of the iPSC Core.
Feikun Yang, Ph.D.
Research Specialist
feikun.yang@pennmedicine.upenn.edu
215-746-4667
Feikun received his PhD in Veterinary Biology from Ludwig-Maximilians University Munich, where he studied the effects of donor cell type, epigenetic status, and chimeric embryo complementation on somatic cell nuclear transfer efficiency in large animals. He had his postdoctoral training at University of Pennsylvania and New York University, where he studied the cell cycle regulation during meiosis and mitosis as well as the lineage specific differentiation of iPSCs.
In the Core, Feikun focuses on gene editing in iPSCs using Crispr-Cas9 based technology. He is also differentiating various iPS lines into skeletal muscle myocytes.
Jingli Cai, Ph.D.
Scientific Lab Manager
jingli.cai@pennmedicine.upenn.edu
215-746-4667
Jingli received her Ph.D. degree in Neurobiology and anatomy from the University of Utah, where she studied embryonic neural stem cells and later moved to embryonic stem cell field. Jingli has a solid background in induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC) reprogramming, maintenance, characterization, and differentiation.
In the core, Jingli focuses on reprogramming human peripheral blood mononuclear cells to iPSCs with Sendai virus or episomal vectors, differentiating patient and control iPSC lines into cardiomyocytes, hepatocyte-like cells, retinal pigmented epithelium cells, neural progenitors and mature neurons. She is also piloting on various iPSC derived mature cells.
Alumni
Effie Huang
Matthew Stout PhD-Research Associate Scientist, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia
Ruilan Yan
Juan Arbelaez
Jenny Lu
Zhaorui Lian- Laboratory manager, Coriell Institute
Ying Liu PhD-Associate Director, Sanofi, Waltham, MA
Jianting shi- Data Analyst, J&J Innovation Medicine
Hailey Edelstein- Chemical and Biological Engineering PhD candidate, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL
Daniel Lai MD-Resident, Penn Medicine
Alexandra Ballard
Christine Lam- MD candidate at UCLA
John McCormick
Melinda Geovorgian
Kate Slovik-Senior Associate Scientist, Carisma Therapeutics, Philadelphia, PA
Subshri Sahu PhD
Rachel Truitt PhD- Senior Scientist, United Therapeutics Corporation, Manchester, NH
Sijia Yang- Biomedical engineering PhD program, Penn State University