Tao Lab Members

Current lab members:

Patrick Roddy, M.S.
roddyp@musc.edu

Patrick joined the lab right after its opening at the end of 2017. As a founding member of the lab, Patrick is a Research Specialist II and serves as the lab manager. Patrick has a M.S. degree from OSU and has over 20 years of research experiences. He is in charge and an expert of histology analysis.

Shuang Li, Ph.D.
lish@musc.edu

Shuang is a postdoctoral scholar who joined the Tao lab in March 2019. She received a B.S. in Biological Technology from Lanzhou University (China) in 2013, then a PhD in Developmental Biology from Fudan University (China) in 2018. She is working on the role of Pitx2 in angiogenesis after myocardial infarction using CRISPR, transgenic mouse and cell models.

Mary Mohr
mohrm@musc.edu

Mary is a third-year graduate (PhD) student who joined the Tao Lab in June 2019. She received a B.S. in Genetics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She then worked as a research associate at the University of Wisconsin studying glaucoma and presbyopia. Her research in the Tao Lab focuses on cardiomyocyte death and fibrotic scar formation in the infarcted mouse heart.

Allison Trouten, M.S.
trouten@musc.edu

Allison is a second-year graduate (PhD) student who joined the Tao Lab in May 2020. She received a B.S. in Biology from Duquesne University. She then worked for a contract research organization and received her M.S. in Entrepreneurial Biotechnology from Case Western Reserve University. Her research in the Tao Lab focuses on the interaction between transcription factors Pitx2 and Nrf2 and how their interaction mediates cardiac regeneration. Additionally, Allison is working on utilizing bioinformatics software to analyze the lab's sequencing data.

Alex Hammond
hammonal@musc.edu

Alex joined the lab in June 2020 as a Research Specialist I. Alex graduated from IUPUI with a B.S. in Biology from the Purdue School of Science. Currently, he is involved in Dr. Shuang Li’s project and investigating the role of Pitx2 in angiogenesis. In the near future, Alex plans to go directly into industry.

Rebecca Stairley
stairley@musc.edu

Rebecca joined the lab in July 2020. She graduated with a B.S. in Biology from Agnes Scott College in 2017, where her interest in biomedical research first began. After college, she had the opportunity to work with Dr. Norris at MUSC and pursue research in Cardiovascular Biology and Valve Diseases as a lab technician. Working closely with the graduate students fostered her passion for research, and she joined the PhD program in MUSC in 2019. Her interest in cardiovascular biology led her to join the Tao lab, where she is excited to begin work with induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) to study cardiomyocyte regeneration. Her project will use genetic (CRISPR) screens to identify genes that aid in cell survival in order to develop novel therapies for myocardial infarction.

Lab Alumni:

Eva Schaible was the first trainee in the Tao lab. As a summer student in the CGS SURP program, Eva was involved in the establishment of the routine lab work and cell/animal systems for the projects we are working on today. Eva is currently a 2nd year medical student in the Creighton University School of Medicine, Nebraska.