Welcome to the Reina Lab

Postdoctoral Fellow

Violante completed her Ph.D. in Molecular Medicine at Vita-Salute San Raffaele University in Milan, Italy. Fascinated by how T cells adapt to different environments in the body, she joined the Reina Lab aiming to uncover mechanisms and contribute to the development of novel immunotherapies for prostate cancer.

Postdoctoral Fellow

Masato completed his PhD in Immunology at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology. During his PhD, he studied how T cells adapt to plasma membrane damage stress. This led to his broader interest in how T cells adapt to different tissue environments.
At the Reina lab, he will study how intestinal T cells respond to dietary nutritional signals.

BMS PhD Student

Xinjian recently received her bachelor’s degree in Molecular, Cell, and Developmental Biology from UCLA, where she conducted her undergraduate research on iPSC-derived CAR-T immunotherapy. She is currently a 1st year BMS PhD student in the Reina Lab studying the effects of lipid metabolism on tissue residency and function of T cells.

BISB PhD Student

Harrison is a 1st year BISB student in the Reina Lab focusing on applying new spatial transcriptomics techniques to map T-cell response in a spatial context.

BISB PhD Student

Ethan is a 1st year BISB PhD student in the Reina Lab working on the integration and analysis of multimodal spatial data.

Lab Manager & Research Tech II

Vida is a Research Tech II who received a bachelor’s degree in biology from UC San Diego. She received undergraduate and post-grad research training in Ananda Goldrath’s Lab at UCSD. She is pursing a career in medicine and is preparing to apply to medical school.

Research Tech II

Susanne is a Research Tech II who received the bachelor’s degree in Biotechnology at Universitat Politècnica de València, in Spain. She got her master’s degree in Cancer, Stem Cells and Developmental Biology from Utrecht University, during which she conducted research on tumor immunology at the Princess Maxima Center and the Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute. She is now joining the Reina Lab to explore the tumor microenvironment focusing on understanding how T-cell-tumor cell interactions fate T cell infiltration within the tumor. Susanne is also in the process of applying to PhD programs.

Computational Intern

Jack is an undergraduate student at UCLA studying Computational and Systems Biology with a specialization in bioinformatics working in conjunction with the Ay Lab to learn about spatial transcriptomics and epigenetic methods of analysis.

Student Trainee

Leichu Liang is an undergraduate student at UCSD, majoring in Molecular and Cell Biology with a minor in Chemistry. Her research interests focus on immunotherapy and its applications in targeting tumor cells. She aspires to work in the pharmaceutical industry in the future. Outside of research, she enjoys collecting succulent plants and fishing.

Student Trainee

Kathy is an undergraduate student at UC San Diego majoring in Neurobiology with a minor in Chemistry. She is currently focused on characterizing immune cells in the mouse eye in the Reina Lab, with a particular interest in how immune responses influence ocular health and disease. Kathy aspires to pursue a career in medicine, studying the neural and immune mechanisms underlying sensory and cognitive disorders. Outside of the lab, she enjoys going on sunset walks and trying new coffee shops.