BASIC RESEARCH TEAM

Shape Divider - Style tilt

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

Full Bio

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

Full Bio

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. 

Full Bio

Rawan M. Alkharboosh

Doctoral Student

Rawan Alkharboosh’s research involves isolating human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) derived from human fat (adipose) tissue directly from patients in the operating room and modifying the hMSCs with nanoparticles to target and combat brain cancer.

Full Bio

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

Full Bio

Carla A. Vazquez Ramos

Special Project Associat

Carla Vazquez Ramos’ work is focused on local and systemic therapy for glioblastoma using verteporfin-loaded microparticles and nanoparticles, and on using melatonin as an enhancer for temozolomide in glioblastoma

Full Bio

Cesar Garcia

Special Project Associate

Cesar A. Garcia is a recent graduate of Yale University who received his B.S. in Molecular, Developmental, and Cell Biology. In the past, he has worked on projects dealing with the construction of vascular grafts and the development of nanoparticle drug delivery systems targeting GBM tumors under the mentorship of Dr. Anjelica Gonzalez and Dr. Jiangbing Zhou. ​

Full Bio

Paola Suarez-Meade, M.D.

Postdoctoral  Research Fellow

Dr. Suarez-Meade earned her medical degree from Anahuac University in Mexico City. She spent her two last years of medical training at Medica Sur Hospital, a Mayo Clinic Care Network member hospital

Full Bio

Danielle Devine

Clinical Research & Laboratory Administrative Assistant

Danielle Devine is the administrative assistant for research in the Mayo Clinic Department of Neurosurgery. She is responsible for handling all administrative aspects of Dr. Alfredo Quinones-Hinojosa’s Lab: Brain Tumor Stem Cells Research Lab, Dr. Kaisorn Chaichana’s Lab: Metastatic Brain Cancer Laboratory and Hugo Guerrero-Cazares, PhD., Lab: Neurogenesis and Brain tumors lab. Danielle has been with Mayo Clinic for six years in various roles as well as ten additional years in other healthcare customer service industries. ​

Full Bio

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. 

Full Bio

Alexandra R. Bechtle

Graduate Research Education Program (GREP)

Alexandra Bechtle’s research is focused on modifying human adipose-derived cells for glioblastoma treatment. She is specifically interested in understanding the therapeutic potential of nonvirally engineered adipose cellular components from the stromal vascular fraction (SVF) and exploring how SVF treatment affects the self-renewing capacity of the brain tumor initiating cell population in glioblastoma. ​

Full Bio

NEUROSURGERY CLINICAL AND TRANSLATIONAL TEAM
​
​

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.
​

Full Bio

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.” 

Full Bio

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.​

Full Bio

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.

Full Bio

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.

Full Bio

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.

Full Bio

Elizabeth Delgado

Administrative Assistant

Elizabeth has over 20 years of experience providing administrative support. She has worked in otolaryngology at the University of Miami School of Medicine; risk management for the government of Orange County in Orlando, Florida; as well as Mayo Clinic’s Department of Orthopedics from 2004-2010 as medical secretary for Mary I. Connor, M.D., chair of the Department of Orthopedic Surgery.

Full Bio