Meet the Team

Postdocs​
​Dr. Ivana Apicella, PhD, a research associate of the Center for Advanced Vision Science (CAVS) at the University of Virginia. She joined the Ambati Lab in March 2017. She obtained her PhD in molecular and cellular biotechnology in Napoli, Italy. Her interests are in the field of angiogenesis, particularly the role of the VEGF family in physiological and pathological processes. Her attention is focused on understanding molecular mechanisms behind the development of wet and dry age-related macular degeneration and in the identification of new therapeutic drugs. In her free time, she loves exploring nature, reading books, and volunteering for the International Center, leading Italian cooking and cross stitch classes.
​Dr. Shaobin Wang, PhD, an assistant professor of the Center for Advanced Vision Science (CAVS) at the University of Virginia, obtained a PhD in pathology from China's Center For Disease Control And Prevention. His postdoctoral training, on ocular disease, occurred at the Medical School of Yale University. Dr.Wang has investigated congenital retinal disease and developed scaffold for optimizing stem cell transplantation on retinal pigmentosa and worked on AAV vector and CRIPSR/Cas9 based strategy for the study on eye disease and therapeutic development. Dr.Wang joined CAVS in August of 2017 to investigate stem cell based-human disease modeling and novel signaling/therapeutic targets for age-related macular degeneration (AMD).
​Dr. Yosuke Nagasaka, MD, PhD, is a research associate of the Center for Advanced Vision Science in the University of Virginia School of Medicine. He was born and raised in Nagoya, Japan. He graduated from Kansai Medical University in 2011. After clinical residency, he joined the ophthalmology department in the Nagoya University Graduate School of Medicine. He went to graduate school for laboratory research skills, while working as an ophthalmologist in hospitals. He received his PhD after four years of training. His specialty is retinal disease and retinal cell biology. He joined Dr. Ambati's lab in July 2018, investigating the mechanism of age-related macular degeneration. In his spare time, he spends time with family.
​Dr. Praveen Yerramothu, PhD, completed his 5-year Integrated Master's degree in Optometry and Vision Sciences at the School of Medical Sciences, University of Hyderabad in the year 2013.  His research interests include studying the role of inflammasomes, NLRP3 in specific for therapeutic benefits of eye diseases. At the University of Virginia he will pursue his Postdoctoral training with Professor Jayakrishna Ambati, where he will be working on the role of the NLRP3 inflammasome in retinal diseases such as diabetic retinopathy and age-related macular degeneration. Outside of work he loves photographing birds and even has a blog (mybirdadventures.com) currently under development.
​Dr. Felipe Pereira, MD, is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Center for Advanced Vision Sciences (CAVS) at the University of Virginia. He completed his Residency in Ophthalmology and his clinical and surgical retina fellowship at the Federal University of São Paulo, Brazil. After his training, Dr. Pereira was working as a trauma and posterior segment surgeon in São Paulo. He joined Dr. Ambati's lab in May 2019 with particular interest to research the molecular mechanisms and therapeutic targets of age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and diabetic retinopathy.
​Dr. Peirong Huang, MD, is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Center for Advanced Vision Science (CAVS) at the University of Virginia. She graduated from Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine. She completed her residency and worked as an attending ophthalmologist at the Shanghai General Hospital. She joined Dr. Ambati's laboratory in October of 2019 as a postdoctoral fellow. Her interests are focused on the study of molecular mechanisms and potential drug development with respect to age-related macular degeneration.
Staff