BASIC RESEARCH TEAM

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Alfredo Quinones-Hinojosa, M.D.

Principal Investigator

Dr. Quiñones-Hinojosa — known to his patients as Dr. Q — is the William J. and Charles H. Mayo Professor and Chair of Neurologic Surgery at Mayo Clinic’s campus in Jacksonville, Florida. His research interest is in discovering new methods of delivering effective treatments for brain tumors in diverse populations and predicting prognoses for patients with brain tumors.

Full Bio

Rachel Sarabia Estrada, D.V.M., Ph.D.

Assistant Professor

Rachel Sarabia Estrada, D.V.M., Ph.D., assists in directing the Brain Tumor Stem Cell Research Laboratory, where she oversees and conducts preclinical studies that are leading to new treatments and methods of delivery for primary and metastatic tumors of the spine and brain. One of her main goals is to lead an integrated research team that focuses on translational and preclinical research to facilitate bench-to-bedside contributions.

Paula Valentina (Paula) Schiapparelli, Ph.D.

Research Associate

Dr. Schiapparelli’s research is focused on understanding the mechanisms by which glioblastoma cells migrate and invade the human brain. Her main project is to describe the mechanisms by which NKCC1 modulates the actin cytoskeleton to regulate cell shape, spreading and migration in glioblastoma.

Virginea de Araujo Farias, Ph.D.

Postdoctoral Fellow

Virgínea graduated in Biology at the State University of Paraíba on 2004 at her home town in Brazil. On September of 2006 moved to Spain to do her Master’s and PhD on Immunology at the University of Granada on the Molecular Oncology research. 

Beatriz Fernandez Gil Ph.D

Postdoctoral Fellow

Beatriz Fernandez Gil’s research focuses on evaluating the effects of melatonin on glioblastoma cells and the implication of melatonin in the mitochondrial metabolism as a synergetic drug to improve glioblastoma treatments.

Paola Suarez-Meade, M.D.

Postdoctoral  Research Fellow

Dr. Suarez Meade earned her medical degree from Anahuac University in Mexico City in June of 2020 where she graduated with honors in research. She spent her two last years of medical training at Médica Sur Hospital, a Mayo Clinic Care Network-member hospital. She first joined Dr. Quinones-Hinojosa's team in 2016 and has made several research contributions to the field of neurosurgery.

Mieu Brooks

Research Technologist

Mieu Brooks joined Dr. Quinones-Hinojosa’s team in August 2019 as a lab manager and research technician. Her responsibilities as lab manager include lab upkeep, logistics, team management, harvest of intraoperative tissue samples and establishment of novel brain cancer cell lines. 

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Tito G. Vivas-Buitrago, M.D.

Postdoctoral Fellow

Dr. Vivas-Buitrago’s project with the lab’s basic neurosurgery research team focuses on neurogenesis in the subventricular zone and the role it plays in brain cancer throughout its development and progression. He also works on emerging technology translation to the surgical and academic fields.
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Karim ReFaey, M.B., B.Ch.

Postdoctoral Fellow

As part of the Brain Tumor Stem Cell Lab’s basic neurosurgery research team, Dr. ReFaey focuses on understanding the formation of mature neuronal networks from neural stem cells by studying the topography effects on neuronal differentiation.
Concurrently, he contributes to the clinical neurosurgery team through development of several chapters and neurosurgical videos for the seventh edition of Dr. Quinones-Hinojosa’s “Schmidek and Sweet: Operative Neurosurgical Techniques.” 

Ricardo A. Domingo, M.D.

Postdoctoral Fellow

Dr. Domingo obtained his medical degree from Iberoamerican University in 2018 at Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. During his medical career, he worked as a research trainee at the Dominican Gamma Knife Center and the Iberoamerican University Research Department.​

Gaetano De Biase

Research Trainee

Gaetano De Biase graduated Summa Cum Laude, with honorable mention as top of the class, from Medical School Catholic University Sacro Cuore in Rome, Italy. He is currently a research trainee in the Neurological Surgery department with Dr. Alfredo Quinones-Hinojosa, at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville. He is currently working on several outcome-focused clinical translational projects in neuro-oncology and spine degeneration, as well as doing lab research on microfluidity and glioblastoma cell migration in the Brain Tumor Stem Cell laboratory.

Diogo Garcia, M.D.

Research Trainee

Diogo Garcia earned his medical degree from Faculdade de Medicina at the University of Porto, Portugal.
As a medical student in Portugal, Diogo was involved in basic research with a particular focus on cancer and immunology, having written a dissertation on the role of the immunologic and genetic context of colorectal adenoma, which was selected as one of the five best abstracts submitted to the European Congress of Pathology, 2019 in the digestive pathology category.

Andres Ramos-Fresnedo

Postdoctoral Fellow

Andres first joined Dr. Quiñones-Hinjosa’s team in 2016. A few years later he returned as a research trainee for a period of six months where he helped the clinical team with their research projects, mainly focusing on how the outcomes of different surgical techniques impact the quality of life of neurosurgical patients. 

During his time working with the team, he has volunteered in Dr. Quiñones’ non-profit organization Mission:BRAIN during their outreach trips to Mexico City.

Carlos Perez-vega

Dr. Perez-Vega graduated with honorable mention from Tecnologico de Monterrey School of Medicine, in Guadalajara, Mexico. He is currently a post-doctoral research fellow in the Mayo Clinic Department of Neurologic Surgery under the mentorship of Dr. Alfredo Quiñones-Hinojosa. As a medical student, Dr. Perez-Vega worked as a research trainee in the Tecnologico de Monterrey Research Department, with a main focus on Pediatric Neurosurgery. He spent his last two years as a medical student in multiple institutions including the National Institute of Medical Science and Nutrition, and the National Institute of Cancer in Mexico City. Dr. Perez-Vega first joined Mayo Clinic as a visiting medical student for three months during the summer of 2019, when he had the opportunity to work on clinical research and shadow Dr. Quiñones-Hinojosa in the Department of Neurologic Surgery. Afterwards, he completed Sub-Internships in the University of California San Diego and Mayo Clinic in Rochester. Dr. Perez-Vega´s current research interests include brain and spinal cord tumors, with a focus on prognostic factors and efficacy of treatment alternatives. He aspires to make a substantial contribution to medical literature, and one day accomplish his dream of becoming a Neurosurgeon.

Henry Ruiz 

Dr. Ruiz-Garcia's research focuses on the modulation of tumor microenvironment in glioblastoma, aiming to improve therapies using bioengineered stem cells. His clinical research looks for improving outcomes on patients with brain tumors through brain mapping and minimally invasive approaches. 
Dr. Ruiz-Garcia graduated from National University of San Marcos (UNMSM), the oldest university in the Americas. Here, he graduated with highest honors and obtained the first place in the National Examination for Internship Qualification (EsSalud) and the National Examination for Medical Students.   
Henry believes in helping others. He spent his rural service in an underserved community and currently coordinates the efforts of Mission:BRAIN for Peru. He also enjoys running and playing guitar

Michael Pullen

Mike Pullen graduated with a B.S. in biomedical engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology with a pre-health concentration. While at Tech Mike worked for Atlanta Falcons Sports Medicine and Johnson and Johnson (Ethicon). He currently serves as the co-founder and CEO of LZRD Tech, a performance textile technology company based in Atlanta, Georgia.
During his time at Tech Mike was awarded the “Outstanding Entrepreneur Award” by the department of Biomedical Engineering. He was the Georgia Tech nominee for both the Forbes 30 under 30 list, and the ACC InVenture prize for which he was a finalist.

Mike also serves as a research engineer in the Department of Neurosurgery at the Mayo Clinic in Florida under the mentorship of Dr. Alfredo Quinones and Dr. Chris Fox. Mike focuses his research on medical innovation but also participates in both basic and clinical projects. He plans to attend medical school after the completion of his time at the Mayo Clinic. Mike has a passion for expanding healthcare accessibility through low cost technology and hopes to bring technical solutions to the mission:brain foundation. Mike drove the formation of the mission:brain chapter program and acts as one of its primary coordinators. ​

Joao Paulo Almeida

Bio coming soon

Andrea Otamendi

Bio coming soon

McKinley Roberts

Bio coming soon

Siddarth Chatti

Bio coming soon

Olu Akinduro

Bio coming soon