PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Luis Garza MD PhD
Principal Investigator

Cornell University BA

University of Pennsylvania MSTP MD-PhD

University of Michigan Dermatology Residency

University of Pennsylvania Research Fellowship

Board Certified in Dermatology

Dr. Garza practices dermatology at Johns Hopkins Outpatient Center. His clinical interests include general dermatology and wound healing. Click here for Dr. Garza’s clinical page.

LABORATORY STAFF

Sam (Seakwoo) Lee PhD
Senior Research Specialist & Lab Manager

BS, Kookmin University

PhD, Florida State University

Postdoctoral Fellowship, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine

Research Faculty, University of Maryland Baltimore

Ang Li PhD
Senior Research Specialist
Yingchao Xue PhD
Research Associate

BS, Tianjin Medical University (2008-2013)

PhD, Peking Union Medical College(2013-2018) & Johns Hopkins University (2015-2018)

Hobbies include hiking, walking, and yoga. 

Saifeng Wang PhD
Senior Research Specialist

PhD, Chinese Academy of Sciences 2012

Post-doctoral fellowship, NIH NIAID

POSTDOCTORAL FELLOWS

Minji Park PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow

Ph.D Seoul National University(2022)

Minji enjoys spending time with her child and watching movies.

She also likes swimming and would like a trip to everywhere in the USA with her husband and baby.

GRADUATE STUDENTS

Charles Kirby
Graduate Student

A BCMB Ph.D. graduate student born in New York City, Charlie ironically loves the outdoors and camping. He studied viruses during undergrad at Virginia Tech and as a specialist at Johns Hopkins, before realizing his love for Regeneration Biology.  In his free time he’s either fixing his house, going on birding trips or playing guitar in a PhD band!

Hana Minsky
Graduate Student

Hana is an MD/PhD student who is completing her PhD in the Pathobiology graduate program. During her undergraduate at UC Davis, her research background started in plant biochemistry before moving into disease biology. Hana enjoys weightlifting, Ultimate Frisbee, hiking, and cooking. 

Amy van Ee
Graduate Student

Amy first joined Dr. Garza’s lab as an undergraduate student at Johns Hopkins studying Biomedical Engineering in 2018. She has since returned to the lab as an MD-PhD student continuing to pursue her studies in Biomedical Engineering. Beyond her research interests of regeneration, Amy enjoys making crafts, learning how to play the guitar, hiking, and staying connected with her family back in Irvine, California.

Elizabeth Winnicki
Graduate Student

Elizabeth is an MD-PhD Candidate from Honolulu, Hawaii, in the Biochemistry, Cellular, and Molecular Biology (BCMB) Graduate Program. Beyond her passion for skin regeneration, computational biology, and medicine, she enjoys artistic pursuits, reading, running, hiking, and the nature. Elizabeth loves spending time with family and friends and expanding her breadth of knowledge about the world through cultural activities and travel.

CLINICAL STAFF

Leigh Curvin-Aquilla
Nurse Practitioner
Nina Rossa Haddad MD
Nina Rossa is an MD who joined Hopkins right after completing her medical training in Beirut, Lebanon. She is now a post-doctoral fellow in our Lab.
She enjoys traveling, cooking (and making people taste her Lebanese dishes), reading, and makes sure to spend some quality time with her husband and family every once in a while
Arieana Johnson
Clinical Coordinator

Arieana is from San Diego, CA and received a bachelors in chemistry from JHU in 2023 

LAB ALUMNI

Kaitlin Williams
Graduate Student

Kaitlin finished her PhD in the Garza Lab in 5/2024. She is currently completing medical school at Johns Hopkins.

Eddie Martinez
Postdoctoral Fellow

Eddie did his master's and a post doc in the Garza Lab until 06/2024. He is currently a post doc in Jacksonville, FL

Aiden Willis
Junior lab manager

Aiden did his undergraduate work in the Garza Lab and stayed on as a laboratory technician/junior lab manager/clinical technician. He is now a medical student at McGovern Medical School at UTHealth Houston

Beita Badiei
Research year fellow

Beita took a year off of medical school to do a research fellowship in the Garza Lab from 2023-2024. She is currently finishing medical school at the University of Maryland 

UNDERGRADUATES

Visit this link to see our undergraduate student roster