Former Members

Postdoctoral Trainees 

  • Asun Solans. 2003-2005.
    Current position: 
    Regulatory Affairs Associate at the Biotech company NUFARM (Barcelona, Spain).
  • Andrea Zambrano. 2003-2006.
    Current position: Clinical doctor, a radiologist in Washington DC.
  • Karine Gouget. 2006-2008.
    Current position: Clinical Research Associate II at PAREXEL (Paris, France)
  • Dr. Xiaoping Zhu. 2009- 2010
    Current position: Postdoctoral Fellow at the Systems Biomedicine Lab, Houston Methodist Research Institute.
  • Darryl Horn. 2010-2011
    Current position: Associate Professor, DeVry University – South Florida Area, FL
  • Catherine Trivigno. 2010- 2011
    Current position: Postdoctoral Associate at the Scripps Institute (Florida).
  • Alejandro Ocampo. 2011-2012.
    Current position: Assistant Professor of Pharmacology at the University of Lausanne (Switzerland).
  • Flavia Fontanesi. 2005-2013.
    Current position: Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Biochemistry at the University of Miami (FL).
  • Iliana Soto. 2012-2015.
    Current position: Postdoctoral Associate at Harvard University. Boston (MA).
  • Myriam Bourens. 2011-2017.                                                                                                                                           Current position:

Graduate Students

  • Darryl Horn, Ph.D. 2010. Project: Role of Cmc1p, a new COX assembly factor. Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology. University of Miami Miller School of Medicine.  Current Position: Associate Professor, DeVry University – South Florida Area, FL
  • Alejandro Ocampo, Ph.D. 2011. Project: Mitochondrial function in yeast models of polyglutamine disorders and aging. Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology. University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. Current position: Assistant Professor of Pharmacology at the University of Lausanne (Switzerland).
  • Ileana C. Soto, Ph.D. 2011. Project: Insights into the roles of Mss51 in the biogenesis of subunit 1 of mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase. Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology. University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. Current position: Postdoctoral Associate at Harvard University. Boston (MA).
  • Jingjing Liu, Ph.D. 2012. Project: Regulation of mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase composition by oxygen and oxidative stress. Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology. University of Miami Miller School of Medicine.  Current position: Assistant Professor at Soochow University (PRC)Suzhou, China.
  • Dasmanthie de Silva, Ph.D. 2015. Project: Role of the DEAD-box helicase Mrh4 in S. cerevisiae mitochondrial ribosome assembly. Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology. University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. Current position: Postdoctoral Associate at UC Berkeley University (CA).
  • Ya-Ting Tu, Ph.D. 2016. Project: Role of the DEAD-box helicase DDX28 in human mitochondrial ribosome assembly. Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology. University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. Current position: Postdoctoral Associate at Stanford University (CA).
  • Rui Zeng, Ph.D. 2017. Project: The assembly pathway of the Saccharomyces cerevisiae mitochondrial large ribosome subunit. Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology. University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. Current position: Postdoctoral Researcher at Abcam (China).
  • Hyun-Jung Kim. 2018. Project: Role of the GTPase MTG1 in human mitochondrial ribosome assembly in health and cardiac disease. Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology. University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. Current position: Postdoctoral Associate at Stanford University (CA).

Undergraduate Students (Honors thesis) with Barrientos:

  • Ansel Amaral, Senior Honors thesis project: Mitochondrial Physiology in a yeast model of Parkinson’s disease. Graduated in 2007 with Honors Summa cum laude. Currently M.D./ Ph.D. following his Internal Medicine Residency at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, Illinois.
  • Philip Chong, Senior Honors thesis project: Mitochondrial Physiology in yeast models of Huntington’s disease. Graduated in 2010 with Honors Summa cum laude.
  • Ryan Werner, Senior Honors thesis project: Investigations into the mitochondrial functions of nuclear-encoded translational factor Mss51. Graduated in 2010 with Honors Summa cum laude.
  • Shea Hughes, Senior Honors thesis project: The role of Cox24 in cytochrome c oxidase biogenesis. Graduated in 2012.
  • Enrique Garcia. Project: Characterization of human cytochrome c oxidase assembly factors. 2011-2013. Currently following an M.D.-Ph.D. program at Columbia University (NY)
  • Danielle Buoquio. Project: Role of Mrh4 in the assembly of yeast mitoribosomes. Graduated in 2014. Currently following a Ph.D. program at UCLA (CA)
  • Sarah Poliquin. Project: Role of Mss116 on mitochondrial translation. Graduated in 2015. Currently following a Ph.D. program at Stony Brook University (NY)
  • Erin Smith. Project. Assembly of the yeast mitochondrial ribosome large subunit. Graduated in 2017.

Undergraduate Students (Honors thesis) with Fontanesi:

  • Suhas Seshadri. Project: Role of the yeast protein Sov1 in mitochondrial gene expression. Graduate in 2019. Currently following an MD program at the University of Miami, Miller School of Medicine.
  • Van Minh. Project:  Engineering mitochondrial RNA-specific Pumilio homology domains. Graduate in 2019. Currently following an MD program at Nova University.
  • Zoe Cosner. Project: Mitochondrial supercomplex assembly in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Graduated in 2017. Currently following an M.D. program at the John Hopkins University (Baltimore)
  • Charlotte Gerrity. Project: Effect of cyclodextrin on mitochondrial biogenesis. Graduated in 2017. Currently following an M.D. program at Duke University.

Visiting/Exchange Students:

  • Rodrigo de Oliveira, Universidade do Minho, Braga, Portugal. 2004.
  • Paula Clemente, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas-Universidad Autonoma de Madrid, Madrid, Spain. 2010.
  • Constanza Moren, Cellex-IDIBAPS, Facultat de Medicina-University of Barcelona, Hospital Clínic de Barcelona, Spain. 2010.
  • Marco Tigano, University of Parma, Parma, Italy. 2012.
  • Teresa Lobo, Hospital 12 de Octubre, Madrid, Spain. 2016.
  • Viktoriia Bazylianska, Wayne State University, Detroit, IL (USA). 2016
  • Manon Delcourt, Université de Mons, Mons, Belgium. 2017.

Former Visiting Professors:

  • Dr. Paula Ludovico, Universidade do Minho, Braga, Portugal. 2004.
  • Dr. Mario Barros, University of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil. 2015.
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