People
Jennifer Davis, PhD
Assistant Professor, Bioengineering & Pathology
Director, UW Center for Cardiovascular Biology
Director, UW Institute for Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine (ISCRM)
Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Molecular and Cardiovascular Biology, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center
Ph.D. Molecular & Integrative Physiology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, 2007
M.A. Exercise & Nutritional Science, San Diego State University, 2001
B.S. Kinesiology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, 1996
Dr. Davis, a cellular and molecular physiologist, uses genetic engineering to study the biology of cardiac wound healing and remodeling. Specifically, she investigates the role of scar tissue in repair processes and how it affects heart muscle function and prevents regeneration. Dr. Davis identified a key set of molecular signals that activate scar-forming myofibroblast cells, and she has successfully engineered them to either promote or block scarring, both at the cellular level and in genetically modified mice. Dr. Davis earned her Ph.D. in Molecular & Integrative Physiology at the University of Michigan, followed by postdoctoral training at the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Heart Institute. In 2014, she won the Louis N. & Arnold M. Katz Basic Science Research Prize for Young Investigators from the American Heart Association.
Postdoctoral Fellows
Darrian Bugg, PhD
Darrian is interested in understanding fibroblast cell states in chronic and acute myocardial injury. Darrian uses genetic mouse models to probe unbiasedly the different cell states and how they affect disease progression. Ultimately she hopes to utilize basic biological approaches to reduce the fibrotic response seen in both acute and chronic disease and combine it with regenerative therapies to reduce cardiac dysfunction over time.
Ph.D. Pathology, University of Washington, Seattle, 2021
B.A. Molecular Cellular and Developmental Biology, University of Colorado, Boulder, 2014
Sasha Smolgovsky, PhD
Sasha is studying mechanisms of fibrosis in heritable etiologies of heart failure, with a particular interest in how fibroblast:immune cell crosstalk mediates cardiac decompensation and pathological remodeling of the extracellular matrix in response to cardiomyocyte dysfunction. She uses mouse models of heritable dilated cardiomyopathy along with histological and flow cytometric approaches to relate changes in fibroblast activity and inflammation with cardiac pathology across time. In addition to science, Sasha loves playing Dungeons and Dragon, watching horror movies, and doing anything cold-weather related during the Fall/Winter.
B.S. in Microbiology and Biological Sciences (Cell and Molecular Physiology Concentration); California Polytechnic University, San Luis Obispo
M.S. in Biological Sciences (Regenerative Medicine Specialization); California Polytechnic University, San Luis Obispo
PhD in Immunology; Tufts University
Abby Nagle, PhD
B.A. Molecular and Cell Biology, UC Berkeley 2016
Abby is interested in using stem cell derived cardiomyocytes to learn how heart cells develop and maintain the contractile machinery needed for the heart to pump. She is currently studying the mechanotransduction of environmental cues that mediate sarcomere assembly, and how this process is disrupted in disease. In her spare time she enjoys playing Dungeons and Dragons and rooting for her favorite college football team.
Acting Instructors
Elaheh Karbassi, PhD
Graduate Students
Kalen Robeson, BIOE PhD Program
B.S. Biological Sciences, Ohio University, 2017
Kalen works as a co-mentored Ph.D. student in the Regnier and Davis labs developing novel tools to treat heart disease. With a focus on tissue engineering and gene therapy, Kalen is working to translate emerging ideas and techniques in bioengineering into medical treatments and therapies. This work focuses on using dATP as a small molecule therapy to enhance cardiomyocyte contraction and modulate cardiac myofibroblast transdifferentiation.
Bella Reichardt, BIOE PhD Program
B.S. Biomedical engineering, University of Wisconsin, Madison 2019
Bella is a Bioengineering PhD Student. She is interested in understanding the plasticity of the myocardium throughout disease progression and is working to define the link between epigenetic-transcription patterns and mechanical disequilibrium in hypertrophic and dilated cardiomyopathies.
Charlie Thel, Molecular and Cellular Biology MSTP program
B.S. Biochemistry and Economics, University of Virginia
Likitha Nimmagadda, BIOE PhD Program
B.S.
Research Staff
Ambika Gunaje – Research Scientist and Lab Manager
B.S. Biology, Vijaya college, Mulki, Karnataka State 1991
Amy Gifford, M.S.
B.S. Criminal Justice and Forensic Science, Seattle University, 2022
M.S. Lab Medicine and Pathology, University of Washington, 2025
Amy completed her masters in the Davis lab understanding the impacts different fibroblast cell states have in chronic heart disease, focusing specifically on fibrosis during the developmental period in mice. She is continuing this work after completion of her Masters in the lab. During her spare time, Amy loves to cook, play basketball, and watch true crime documentaries.
Undergraduates
Mia Mason, Amber Lyu, Sebastian Lorete, Abdel Ibrahim
Past Members
Dessirée Ortaç- Research Scientist
B.S. Biology, University of Washington, Bothell 2023
Logan Bailey, PhD 2023
Logan is an MD/PhD student in the UW Medical Scientist Training Program. His work focuses on elucidating the mechanisms controlling cell fate and differentiation with the hopes of leveraging this knowledge to inform novel regenerative medicine therapies.
Ross Bretherton, PhD 2023
Ross is a Bioengineering PhD student jointly mentored by Jen Davis and Cole DeForest. He is interested in using engineered hydrogels to recapitulate the mechanical and biochemical cues of diseased matrix in the context of cardiomyopathies.
Emily Olszewski, PhD 2022
Emily is using three-dimensional imaging to characterize fibroblast morphology and anatomical niches in the heart. She is interested in how cardiac fibroblast physiology and the biochemical and mechanical properties of the extracellular matrix affect cardiac vascular structure and function.
Kristin Zabrecky, DVM
Clinical Veterinarian – Washington University St. Louis
Danny El-Nachef, PhD
Senior Scientist – Sana Biotechnology
Peter Kim, PhD
Scientist – Seattle Children’s Hospital
Peter’s research focused on investigating mechanoregulation of myofibroblast fate and function. Utilizing BioMEMs techniques, he recapitulated in vivo myocardial scar ECM topographies for assessing the topographic regulation of myofibroblast transdifferentiation.
Christina Jones, PhD
Kevin Shi, MS- BioE
Divya Lakshmanan – BioE Undergraduate
Kylie Beach – Microbiology Undergraduate
Anna Reese – Visiting Undergraduate, UCLA