Jayakrishna Ambati, M.D.  Principal Investigator

Jayakrishna Ambati is Professor of Physiology and Professor & Vice-Chair of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences at the University of Kentucky. He holds the Dr. E. Vernon Smith & Eloise C. Smith Endowed Chair in Macular Degeneration Research. His scientific aspirations are to identify the molecular mechanisms underlying the development of AMD, determine the triggers of the angiogenic switch that converts this disease from an atrophic to a neovascular phenotype, and to develop novel therapeutics to prevent and treat this blinding condition. He is the first ophthalmologist to win the Doris Duke Distinguished Clinical Scientist Award and a Burroughs Wellcome Fund Clinical Scientist Award in Translational Research. He was also elected to The American Society for Clinical Investigation. He also serves on the Editorial Board of Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Sciences. He is the 2010 ARVO Cogan Awardee. His wife Kameshwari and he derive the greatest joy from playing with their daughters Meenakshi and Vidya.

Mark Kleinman, M.D. Post-doctoral Fellow

Dr. Kleinman is a senior post-doctoral fellow after joining the lab in 2006. He came from New York University where he completed both his M.D. and a surgery internship. Mark originally hails from Durham, NC but grew up primarily in Milwaukee, WI before attending The Taft School in Watertown, CT and Emory University in Atlanta, GA. It was at Emory that he forged his interests in vascular biology as a research assistant in the Greuntzig Lab for Invasive Cardiology, the birthplace of coronary angioplasty. During his medical education, he continued with his research with studies in microvascular biology and tissue engineering under the direction of Geoff Gurtner, M.D., a plastic-surgeon scientist now at Stanford University. Dr. Kleinman’s research at NYU significantly contributed to the field of stem/progenitor cell biology and anomalous vascular growth, in particular with proliferating infantile hemangioma, for which he was awarded the Weston Research Grant. His research interests are focused on defining the molecular interface of angiogenic mediators and the biologic spectrum of immune-related inflammation. He will be continuing on in the Department as a resident beginning in July 2008. Mark thoroughly enjoys spending time with his wife, Blythe, son, Matai, and daughter, Meilin Grey. His luxuries include exploration of the culinary arts, composing, arranging, playing, and listening to music of diverse genres, and traveling.

Wongil Cho, Ph.D. Post-doctoral Fellow

Dr. Cho was born and raised in Jeon Ju, South Korea, a small city in the southwest part of the nation. As an undergraduate, he studied Clinical Laboratory Science at Health Science College of Yonsei University. Thereafter, Wongil worked at Inha General Hospital at Sungnam, Korea for 2 and half years as a laboratory technician. In 1997, with strong motivation for pursuing an academic career, he entered graduate studies in medical college of Hanyang University in Seoul with a double major in Human Gross Anatomy and Cell Biology. Meanwhile, Dr. Cho worked as an instructor of Human Gross Anatomy, Histology and Neuroanatomy and as a Neuroscience researcher. After being awarded his Ph. D., Wongil came to US and worked as a postdoctoral fellow at UNC Chapel Hill in the Cell and Developmental Biology Department from 2003 to 2005. He then moved to University of Kentucky and worked in Spinal Cord and Brain Research Center for 2 years before transferring to Dr. Ambati’s lab in September 2007. Dr. Cho’s current research interests are the effects of immune receptor activation on AMD pathogenesis and ocular angiogenesis. Outside of the lab, he enjoys spending time with his wife, Junghee, son, James and daughter, Hannah and playing tennis with friends.

Hiroki Kaneko, M.D./Ph.D. Post-doctoral Fellow

Dr. Kaneko was born and raised in Okazaki, Japan. He got his MD in 2002 at Nagoya University and completed his residency in Nishio Municipal Hospital where he had trained as a general ophthalmologist. In 2004, he was returned to the university and received demanding but rewarding training in both surgery and biochemistry as a Retina/Vitreous specialist over four years. He started his research fellowship at UK in April 2008 after finishing his PhD at Nagoya University. He is knowledgeable in the subjects of retinal pathology and electrophysiology, and largely contributes to the in vivo works in our laboratory. Hiroki enjoys spending time with his wife, Izumi who is a pianist as well as his daughter, Yumi, and son, Kiyoshi. He loves playing sports, especially golf and skiing. He also enjoys listening to Jazz piano.

Romulo Albuquerque, D.D.S./Ph.D. M.D. Student

Upon completing a DDS from the University of Pernambuco-Brazil in 2000, Dr. Albuquerque joined the residency and Masters Degree Program in the Orofacial Pain Center at the University of Kentucky. After completing his residency, he aspired to become a physician-scientist and gained acceptance to the UK MD/PhD program. Romulo’s previous research experiences are in the field of orofacial pain epidemiology and functional neuroimaging studies. During the three years of training, he was directly involved in the development and execution of several research projects in collaboration with faculty and other residents which yielded several publications in the field. He joined the Ambati Lab in 2005 and significantly contributed to studies on the role of complement mediated VEGF expression. In 2006, Dr. Albuquerque was awarded a RPB Medical Student Fellowship to study the role of soluble VEGFR-1 in corneal avascularity. Currently, he is working on his dissertation in the Department of Ophthalmology & Visual Sciences/Physiology, under the mentorship of Dr. Ambati. Romulo’s new research efforts have focused on the discovery and characterization of alternative novel endogenous soluble factors that modulate the growth of blood and lymphatic vessel with a particular interest in specific inhibitors of lymphangiogenesis. The absence of lymphatic vessels in the cornea affords its immunological privilege, which is critical for the success of corneal transplantation. Romulo enjoys his time away from the lab with his lovely wife, Lisandra usually cycling, running, or exploring the Bluegrass countryside.

Judit Baffi, M.D./Ph.D. Assistant Professor

Dr. Baffi earned a MD/PhD from Semmelweis University Medical School, Budapest, Hungary. She did postdoctoral studies as a Fogarty International Fellow in clinical neuroscience in the National Institute of Neurological Diseases and Stroke, and in ocular immunology and gene therapy in the National Eye Institute in the National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland. Her research focuses on dissecting molecular mechanisms in age related macular degeneration. When she is not at work she spends her time with her husband Jassir and her lovely children, Lili and Sami.

Sami was born in Bizerte (Tunisia). After earning his PhD from the National Polytechnic Institute of Lorraine (INPL) France, he joined several national and international teams as a post-doctoral fellowship including the National Veterinary Institute of Nantes (ENVN, France) where he worked on molecular mechanisms of antibiotic resistance in Campylobacter and The Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Pharmacology at West Virginia University where he studied lipogenesis and fatty acid metabolism. He has also worked as a contractual professor for one year in ENITA Bordeaux (France) and then he joined the Catholic University of Leuven (Belgium) as a visiting scientist for 4 years where he investigated the molecular mechanisms for peripheral and central regulation of energy homeostasis. At 2008 he joined the Ambati lab and his research focuses on dissecting molecular mechanisms in age related macular degeneration. Outside of the lab, Sami enjoys spending time with his wife, Marie-Jeanne, daughter Jalila and son Noham. He also enjoys playing and coaching soccer with friends.

Dr. Satofuka joined our lab in April 2009 from Tokyo, Japan. He graduated from the Keio University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan (M.D.) in 1999, where he completed a residency (1999-2001) and clinical fellowship (2004-2005) in the division of Vitreoretina, in the Department of Ophthalmology. Prior to joining our laboratory, Shingo worked as a research fellow (2005-2009) in the Laboratory of Retinal Cell Biology, Keio University School of Medicine and was awarded a Ph.D. in 2007. His research interests there had focused on the association of renin-angiotensin system, and particularly the (pro)renin receptor, with ocular diseases. He elucidated that (pro)renin receptor-mediated signal transduction and tissue renin-angiotensin system, in general, contributed to ocular inflammation and neovascularization. His many in vivo techniques will contribute to our lab in the near future. Shingo enjoys his life in Lexington with his lovely wife, Naoko, daughter, Misaki and son, Shinsuke.

Matt grew up in Lexington, KY where he has lived all of his life. He came to the university in 2001 where he received a B.S. in Agricultural Biotechnology with minors in computer science and the classics. From there, he continued to graduate school at UK in 2005 and in 2008 was awarded a MS in Pharmaceutical Sciences, with a concentration in bioinformatics and a certificate in applied statistics. He joined Dr. Ambati’s lab in July 2008 and is responsible for placing/tracking orders, maintaining equipment and dealing with the business aspects of the lab. He also assists with cell culture work, genotyping, running FACS experiments, in vivo experiments and institutional protocols as well as anything else that he is called upon to take care of. While away from work, Matt spends most of his time teaching his martial arts students in UK's Shaolin-Do club, practicing trumpet, tinkering with electronics, blogging, and playing classic video games with his brother and friends.

Robin King, B.S. Manager/Scientist II

Robin handles several aspects of the daily operations of the laboratory including management of our transgenic mouse colony, the largest at University of Kentucky. She is also skilled in immunohistochemistry and other antibody based molecular techniques.

Martha Grace Green, M.D. Post Doctoral Scholar

Kuniharu Saito, M.D./Ph.D. Post Doctoral Scholar

Li Xu, B.S. Research Technician

Gary Pattison, B.S. Mouse Colony/Breeding Specialist