Lab Members
Our Staff
Internal Medicine Residency – New York University/Bellevue Hospital Center, New York, NY
Gastroenterology Fellowship – Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA
Dr. Khan is a virologist with extensive experience in cell and molecular biology. His research experience encompasses numerous fields of virology with special emphasis on viral immunology, antiviral research, vaccines, and pathogenesis. He obtained his Ph.D. in 2011 from Jiwaji University, India, working on prophylactic and therapeutic measures against tropical arboviruses such as Dengue and Chikungunya. He then joined the department of medicine, UC, San Diego as a postdoctoral researcher, where he primarily focused on identifying novel mechanistic insights and therapeutic targets of HBV and HCV induced hepatitis. In 2016, he was promoted as Project Scientist and served as a co-investigator for an NIH-funded R01 grant. He has > 25 research articles to his credit and serves as an invited referee for several articles submitted to leading journals in the field of virology. His long term career goal is to develop novel therapeutic strategies for the treatment of chronic liver diseases and viral hepatitis.
Our Fellows
Ailis Grieshaber graduated from the University of Idaho with a BS in Biochemistry and a minor in Microbiology. For her undergraduate research, she studied the role of innate immune cells in eye injury recovery. She joined the Liver Diseases and Virology section in August 2022 where her current research involves characterization of new SARS CoV-2 antivirals.
Dr. Inuzuka obtained his MD from Kyoto University in 2006. He then received a clinical training as an intern at Kyoto University Hospital and Osaka Red Cross Hospital. He worked as a Physician in Gastroenterology and Hepatology at Osaka Red Cross Hospital for 4 years. He received basic research training in molecular and cell biology and virology at Kyoto University, where he obtained his Ph.D. in 2016. After winning a Japan Society for the Promotion of Science scholarship, Dr. Inuzuka spent 2 years as a postdoc fellow at National Center for Global Health and Medicine in Japan working on investigation of the relationship between genetic changes and pathogenesis of hepatitis B virus. From 2018, he has worked with Dr. T. Jake Liang at the Liver Diseases Branch of NIDDK, NIH. Dr. Inuzuka’s current research at NIH focuses on understanding host factors associated with hepatitis B virus infection.
Dr. Eun Sun Jang graduated and received her M.D., PhD. from Seoul National University College of Medicine, South Korea. She has worked as an associate professor at Seoul National University Bundang Hospital since 2011. She joined Dr. Liang's lab in Jan 2022 as a special volunteer. Her current research focuses on understanding the role of interferon-lambda gene SNP associated with viral hepatitis in stem cell-derived in vitro models.
Chris was previously a post-baccalaureate IRTA in Dr. Liang’s lab from 2017 to 2019 where he subsequently matriculated to medical school at Wake Forest University School of Medicine. He is currently a fourth-year medical student completing a research elective in the LDB and is applying for Internal Medicine residency programs in hopes to pursue gastroenterology. His current research involves characterization of single variable domain on a heavy chain (VHH) nanobodies against HCV infection and elucidation of potential host dependency factors involved in HBV infection in a murine cell line.
Mr. Jaime Sanchez graduated from Autonomous University of Nayarit, México in 2013 with a Biological and Pharmaceutical Chemist degree. Currently he is a PhD student in the Molecular Biology in Medicine program at the University of Guadalajara, Mexico. His research is to study the protective effect of plant molecules in vitro and on hepatocarcinogenesis model in vivo.
Dr. Karim Mouzannar started his scientific journey at Université Saint-Joseph in Lebanon with a B.S. in Biochemistry. He then traveled to Paris and earned a M.S. in Molecular and Cellular Biology from Université Pierre et Marie Curie. Afterwards, he went to the infectiology research hub of Lyon and pursued a PhD. in Virology from Université Claude Bernard. His work identified the bile acid nuclear receptor, FXR alpha, as a proviral host factor for Hepatitis B Virus that is inhibited by ligands in vitro and in vivo. Subsequently, he traveled to the US and joined Dr. Jake Liang’s team at the NIH to pursue his work on HBV therapeutic development.
Dr. Seung Bum Park graduated from Yonsei University with a B.Sc in biotechnology in February 2005, University of California, Davis with a M.Sc in immunology in June 2006, and University of California, Merced with a Ph.D in immunology/virology in August 2015. His current research is to develop novel therapeutic strategies for the treatment of SARS-CoV-2 infection.
Anne Schauer graduated from the University of Maryland with a BS in Biological Sciences. She worked at NIAMS in 2019 researching systemic lupus and its ties to the STAT4 gene. Her current research in the Liver Disease Branch at NIDDK involves the hepatitis viruses and its replication. Anne plans to pursue her Ph.D. in genetics and immunology.
Ms. Regina Umarova graduated from New Mexico Highlands University with a B.S. in biology in 2014, and University of Texas at El Paso with a M.S. in bioinformatics in 2018. She joined LDB-NIDDK in February 2019 as a Bioinformatics Analyst.
Dr. Zhang’s research focuses on the liver diseases in virology, immunology, cell biology, and therapeutics. She is conducting her current research in the Liver Disease Branch of NIDDK from 2016. Her research involves developing and exploring different genotypes HBV. She also learn to do some research on screening HBV drugs.