Graduate Students

Accordion Group

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  • Chris M Li, B.S.

    Chris

    MSTP Student

    cml229@med.miami.edu

    Diabetes Research Institute, Room 2008
    1450 NW 10th Avenue
    Miami, FL-33136
    Office: 305-243-7867

    Chris earned his BS in Biology from the University of Florida in 2017. In 2018, he began medical school as part of the Medical Scientist Training Program at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. In June 2022, Chris started his PhD in Microbiology and Immunology at the Islet Immunoengineering Lab at the Diabetes Research Institute under the mentorship of Dr. Alice Tomei. Chris received an F31 Fellowship from NIDDK in 2022.

  • Ilaria Pasolini, M.S.

    Ilaria

    PhD student


    ixp419@miami.edu


    ​Diabetes Research Institute, Room 2006
    1450 NW 10th Avenue
    Miami, FL-33136
    Office: 305-243-7867

  • Leonor Teles, B.S.

    Leonor

    PhD student

    lnt273@miami.edu

    Diabetes Research Institute, Room 2006
    1450 NW 10th Avenue
    Miami, FL-33136
    Office: 305-243-7867

    ​Leonor earned her B.S. in Biomedical Engineering with a minor in Chemical Engineering from the University of Rochester in May 2021. Leonor started her Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering in the Islet Immunoengineering Lab at the Diabetes Research Institute under the mentorship of Dr. Tomei in August 2021. She is currently engineering a biomaterial platform to deliver stromal cells for antigen-specific immunomodulation for type 1 diabetes. She has also earned 5 poster/oral awards at several conferences during her PhD studies. Leo leads the BME Student Career Development Seminars and is the President-Elect of the National Student Section of the Society for Biomaterials. In her free time, Leonor likes to garden, hike and attend music festivals.

  • Zachary Wilkes, B.S.

    Zach

    PhD student

    zxw284@med.miami.edu

    ​Diabetes Research Institute, Room 2008
    1450 NW 10th Avenue
    Miami, FL-33136
    Office: 305-243-7867

  • Marvin Mendoza Jr., M.S.

    Marvin

    PhD student

    mam851@miami.edu

    Diabetes Research Institute, Room 2018
    1450 NW 10th Avenue
    Miami, FL-33136
    Office: 305-243-7867

    Marvin earned his BS in Biotechnology and Biomedical Sciences from the University of Central Florida in 2022. In 2024, he completed his Master's thesis at UCF investigating the effects of pathological differentiation on endothelial biomechanics. Marvin has begun his PhD in Molecular and Cellular Pharmacology, joining the Diabetes Research Institute's Immunoengineering Lab under Dr. Alice Tomei. He was also awarded the McKnight Doctoral Fellowship from the Florida Education Fund in 2024.

  • Kathrin Zbinden, M.S.

    Kate

    PhD student

    kfz12@miami.edu

    Diabetes Research Institute, Room 2018
    1450 NW 10th Avenue
    Miami, FL-33136
    Office: 305-243-7867


    ​Kathrin obtained both her BSc. in Biology and her MSc. in Biomedical Sciences at the University of Zurich, Switzerland. In her master's thesis she looked at the role of Toll-like receptors in Experimental Autoimmune Encephalomyelitis but her interest in Type 1 Diabetes research lead her to research internships at Helmholtz Munich, Germany and the La Jolla Institute for Immunology in San Diego. She joined the Tomei lab in March of 2025 to pursue her PhD in Microbiology and Immunology.

  • Estefania Esparza, B.S.

    MS student

    exe305@miami.edu

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