Program and Lab Management
Administrative Support
Sharon Taffet, M.A.
Administrative Coordinator
she/her/hers
Sharon Taffet graduated from the George Washington University with a Master of Arts in 1984. She joined the Weissman lab in 2020 and provides administrative support to Dr. Weissman and his team. Ms. Taffet is a creative artist and experienced designer. She has also held numerous board positions and raised hundreds of thousands of dollars while working in myriad volunteer capacities in the non-profit sector. She brings with her strong fundraising, project management and event planning experience.
Lab Management
Houping Ni, M.D., M.S.
Weissman Lab Manager and Research Specialist
she/her/hers
Dr. Houping Ni received her M.D. from Hengyang Medical College in China in 1984 and her Master of Science in Applied Statistics from Villanova University in 2006. She is one of Dr. Weissman’s longest-serving colleagues, working in his lab since 1998.
In the Weissman lab, Dr. Ni serves as the Lab Manager, maintaining lab functions as well as overseeing ordering and other administrative tasks. She also performs several important quality control tests for a variety of different mRNA vaccine projects in the lab.
Chiaki Noguchi, B.S.
Kreider Lab Manager and Research Specialist
she/her/hers
Chiaki Noguchi received her Bachelor of Science degree in Food Science from Nakamura Gakuen University in Japan. She began her professional career as a Research Technician in the Department of Molecular Biology (Dr. Katsuyoshi MIhara’s lab) at Kyushu University, Japan, and later at the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology (Dr. Paul Russell’s lab) at The Scripps Research Institute in San Diego, California.
She subsequently served as a Laboratory Manager in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (Dr. Eishi Noguchi’s lab) at Drexel University College of Medicine in Philadelphia, a position she held for over 20 years.
Since April 2025, she serves as Lab Manager for Dr. Edward Kreider. In this role, she is responsible for organizing and manage the day-to-day laboratory operations, ensuring efficient workflow and resource allocation, overseeing purchasing and vendor relations, and supporting ongoing research projects through experimental work.