Liang Ma, PhD, Assistant Professor at the Glenn Biggs Institute for Alzheimer’s and Neurodegenerative Diseases and the Department of Pharmacology at UT Health San Antonio, earned his PhD degree in Human Genetics from the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences in the laboratory of Dr. Yong-Gang Yao. As a graduate student, Dr. Ma’s research focused on identifying genomic variants associated with increased schizophrenia risk using a large independent homogenous Han Chinese cohort. He evaluated Han Chinese GWASs, CREB1 signal pathways, and a mitochondria gene.
He performed his postdoctoral work at the Lieber Institute at Johns Hopkins medical campus under the supervision of Dr. Daniel Weinberger and Dr. Joel Kleinman, where he identified SNX19 by incorporating multi-omics data generated from 495 postmortem brains. Then, he moved to Stanford University in the laboratory of Dr. Sundari Chetty, where he determined CYP2D6.
Luis Aguirre, MS, is a research assistant focusing on brain omics data analysis at the Ma lab. He received his master’s degree in Bioinformatics and his undergraduate degree in Biological Sciences at the University of Texas at El Paso. His master projects revolve around advancing our understanding of rotifer phylogeny, where he developed a Python pipeline to automate the genome assembly process and developed a GenBank sequence retriever tool that facilitates rotifer phylogeny studies.
Felix Borrego is an undergraduate student at the University of Texas at San Antonio, majoring in Biology with a minor in Computer Science. Mr. Borrego is excited to be part of Dr. Ma’s lab where he will have the opportunity to apply his skills and delve into neuroscience research. With an emerging interest in bioinformatics, he is passionate about the fusion of biology and technology. He is eager to use this research experience to broaden his horizons and explore how the integration of bioinformatics and neuroscience can unlock new possibilities to prepare him for future challenges he may encounter in his professional journey.
Christopher Reyes is a 2024 graduate from the University of Texas at San Antonio and holds a Bachelor’s degree in Medical Humanities with a minor in Biology. With an interest in genomic biology and regenerative medicine, Christopher is excited about the prospect of merging these passions in the burgeoning research environment of Dr. Ma’s laboratory. They look forward to the opportunity to contribute to our understanding of genetics and cellular biology, and to grow as a young researcher.
