Speaker Biosketches

Stem Cells, Cell States, and the Origins of Ovarian Cancer

Alexander Nikitin, MD, PhD, is a professor of Pathology at Cornell University and a cancer and stem cell biologist with more than 30 years of research experience. His work focuses on understanding how alterations in tissue development, regeneration, and cellular states contribute to cancer initiation and progression, particularly in ovarian and endometrial cancers. His laboratory has developed highly accurate mouse models of human cancers, identified cancer-prone stem and precursor cell populations in the female reproductive tract, and advanced understanding of p53-regulated pathways and stem cell pathology. Dr. Nikitin previously led the Cornell Stem Cell Program and has made extensive contributions to graduate, postdoctoral, and undergraduate education, and mentorship.

Virginia received her Bachelor of Science from the UCLA in Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology. She worked as a post-baccalaureate research fellow at the NIH developing induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) models of human hepatocytes to study and treat Hepatitis C Virus infection. In 2013, Virginia began her Ph.D. training at Northwestern University, beginning her journey in developing iPSC-based models for the investigation of reproductive and pregnancy disease. In 2021, she published her work deriving iPSC-derived decidual stromal cells (dESC) and a 3D coculture model with decidual epithelial organoids that was able to measure epithelial-stromal cell signaling. Virginia is currently an assistant project scientist in the Parast Lab at the UCSD. As a postdoctoral fellow, she continued to develop iPSC models of the maternal-fetal interface, with a focus on the maternal immune cells, decidual natural killer cells (dNK). She is now utilizing these iPSC-derived cells to model disease-associated functions of decidual cells and interactions between dNK, dESC, and iPSC-derived placental extravillous trophoblast cells.

Tissue-specific dysregulation of the glucocorticoid receptor in preterm newborns with respiratory distress syndrome

Eugenia Mata-Greenwood, PharmD, PhD, is an associate professor at the Lawrence D Longo Center for Perinatal Biology at Loma Linda University. Her research interests lie in identifying molecular mechanisms of variability to therapeutic strategies in the perinatal period that result in reduced efficacy and/or adverse effects. In particular, her lab investigates the determinants that results in decreased efficacy of vitamin D supplementation strategies for the prevention of preeclampsia and fetal growth restriction, as well as that of antenatal corticosteroids for the prevention of neonatal respiratory distress. For this purpose, she employs both In vivo and human ex vivo approaches to uncover functional dysregulation of vitamin D and glucocorticoid receptors.

Sonnet Jonker, PhD, is a professor of basic science at Loma Linda University, and a developmental physiologist and cell biologist. She leads a lab focused on how hemodynamic, endocrine, metabolic, and environmental signals regulate cardiac development, and what the consequences of altered cardiac development are for the fetus. Her laboratory has developed highly translatable fetal models of congenital disease, anemia, and hyperlipidemia, has elucidated how cardiomyocyte growth pathways are coordinated in the fetal heart, and has explored the co-regulation of coronary and myocardial growth in development. Dr. Jonker works closely with clinician-scientists to address questions that are relevant to clinical outcomes in infants, with the goal of identifying opportunities to improve neonatal resilience. Her research has been supported by the NIH, American Heart Association, American Physiological Society, and numerous foundations including Additional Ventures. 

Vito D. Imbasciani, PhD, MD, completed his undergraduate studies at New York State University and then earned a master’s degree and PhD in musicology from Cornell University. He wrote his doctoral dissertation in Rome, Italy, as a Fulbright Scholar. After several years teaching at the University of Florida and Middlebury College, he turned his attention to medicine and graduated from the UVM Larner College of Medicine. Dr. Imbasciani completed surgical and urologic residencies at Yale-New Haven Hospital and the West Haven (Connecticut) VA Hospital. He was commissioned in the Medical Corps of the United States Army in December 1986 and served as State Surgeon for the California Army National Guard after 9/11/2001.  He retired in 2014 with the rank of colonel after 27 years of service and four combat deployments to Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and Landstuhl, Germany. 

Dr. Imbasciani has practiced urologic surgery in Los Angeles since 1991, and with Kaiser Permanente since 1997. He is presently the Past President of the Los Angeles County Medical Association and the past President of the California Urologic Association. He was a member of the California Medical Association's Board of Trustees for ten years. He also served on the Board of the Southern California Permanente Medical Group (Kaiser Permanente) from 2003-2013 and was its Director of Government Relations from 2007-2015. He served as the Secretary of the California Department of Veterans Affairs under Governors Brown and Newsom and, as a member of the Governor's Cabinet, he also served on the Board of the California Housing Finance Agency, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Honor Committee, and the Governor's Military Council. Governor Newsom nominated him to be the Chairman of the Board of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, the state’s $12 billion genetic and stem cell research agency in 2023.