Faculty & Staff
Phone:
(352) 273-8738
Email:
mahyaaghaee@ufl.eduDepartment:
MD-PULMONARY SYSTEMS MEDICINE
Venkata Sai Narayana Bavisetty Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Associate
Phone:
(352) 273-8738
Phone:
(352) 273-8738
Email:
quindel.jones@ufl.eduPhone:
(352) 273-8718
Email:
bflorence@ufl.eduDepartment:
MD-PSYCHIATRY
Czerne M Reid Ph.D.
Instructional Associate Professor, Psychiatry & Affiliate Associate Professor, Journalism
Phone:
(352) 273-8738
Email:
stsiorintsoa@ufl.eduDepartment:
MD-PULMONARY SYSTEMS MEDICINE
Henrique de Assis Lopes Ribeiro
Research Assistant Professor
Courtesy Faculty
Please contact Dr. Reinhard Laubenbacher with interest in joining our Courtesy Faculty.
Phone:
(352) 273-8738
Email:
f.castiglione@ufl.eduPhone:
(352) 273-8718
Phone:
(352) 273-8738
Email:
b.min@ufl.eduPhone:
(352) 273-8738
Email:
kschlauch@ufl.eduStudent Research Employees
The Laboratory for Systems Medicine mentors UF students who are also employees. Please reach out to our faculty members if you are interested in being included in a research project.

Phone:
(352) 273-8738
Email:
chackoemily@ufl.edu
Phone:
(352) 273-8738
Email:
sean.hershkowitz@ufl.edu
Phone:
(954) 588-1196
Email:
kent.phipps@ufl.edu
Phone:
(352) 392-1721
Email:
olivia.maule@ufl.eduGraduate Research Students
The Laboratory for Systems Medicine mentors Graduate students from various schools. Please reach out to our faculty members if you are interested in being included in a research project.
Kyle Adams
I graduated from the University of Florida in 2022 with a double major in mathematics and statistics. I taught high school mathematics for a year and I am now a graduate student in the mathematics department here at UF. I work with Dr. Helen Moore on mathematically modeling breast cancer tumor dynamics. My research interests currently lie broadly in applied mathematics, but specifically include mathematical oncology.

Raja Al-Bahou
UF MD Scholar
Research with Dr. Helen Moore.

Lindsey Brinkley
UF MD Scholar
Research with Dr. Helen Moore.

Julia F. Bruner
UF MD – Ph.D. Scholar
Research with Dr. Helen Moore.

Austin Edwards
I am a second-year Medical Student at the University of Florida, with a foundation in biology, chemistry, and leadership. Currently, I am working under the mentorship of Dr. Moore, focusing on the development of a mathematical model of glioma and its interaction with the glioma immune-microenvironment.
In this role, I am involved in exploring the intricate dynamics between glioma cells and the immune system within the tumor microenvironment. Our research aims to elucidate the mechanisms of tumor growth, immune evasion, and potential therapeutic targets. By integrating mathematical modeling with experimental data, we strive to advance our understanding of glioma biology and contribute to the development of treatment strategies.
My work involves collaborating with a multidisciplinary team to ensure our model accurately reflects the complexity of glioma-immune interactions. This experience has not only enhanced my analytical and research skills but also reinforced my commitment to pursuing a career in medical research and oncology.

Undergraduate Research Students
The Laboratory for Systems Medicine mentors Undergraduate students from various schools. Please reach out to our faculty members if you are interested in being included in a research project.
Rohun Gargya
UF Undergraduate Scholar
Research with Dr. Luis Sordo Vieira

James Golabek
UF Undergraduate Scholar
Research with Dr. Cory Brunson

JB Gracey
UF Undergraduate Scholar
Research with Dr. Cory Brunson

Sofia John
I am a third-year Statistics major and Women’s Studies minor at UF. I have been working on a project to create an agent-based model of bleomycin-induced pulmonary fibrosis with Dr. Sordo Vieira and Dr. Wheeler. It is our hope with this model to be able to better understand the mechanisms which induce fibrosis in the lungs. My interest in computational modeling began in high school after I participated in an internship with the Integrated Mathematical Oncology department at Moffitt Cancer Center. There I worked on differential equations to model dormancy in multiple myeloma with Dr. Miller and Dr. Basanta. Outside of research, I volunteer in the Pediatric Cardiac ICU and the Pediatric ICU at Shands Children’s Hospital through a student organization called Dream Team and I also work with the Alachua County Victim Services and Rape Crisis Center as a helpline volunteer.

Bhavya Kambara
I am a first-year Data Science major on the pre-health track at the Univeristy of Florida. I am currently working with Dr. Helen Moore and my partner to develop a computational model for the cellular dynamics of the disease Sarcoidosis. The purpose of our research is to understand which cell types have the greatest impact on the progression of the disease in patients through the use of differential equations and computer science modeling. We aim to deepen our understanding of the disease and contribute to the development of more advanced, targeted treatment options. I am interested in interdisciplinary research because it provides me the opportunity to expand my knowledge into creating solutions to real-world problems. The multidisciplinary research allows for me to combine my passions in computer science and medicine to make a lasting impact.

Achyudhan Kutuva
I am a second-year undergraduate student at the University of Florida double majoring in Microbiology and Cell Sciences, Data Science in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. I currently work with Dr. Ribeiro to investigate gene regulation and expression in lung-based epithelial cells in response to COVID-19 to develop a Boolean network model. This model will tie together various signaling pathways of inflammation response to stochastically understand the biological effects of the novel coronavirus.

Chhavi Pokharna
I am a first-year biomedical engineering major on the pre-health track at the University of Florida. Currently, I am working with Dr. Helen Moore and my research partner to develop a mathematical model for the cellular dynamics of the disease Sarcoidosis. The significance of this project is to find therapeutic targets that have the biggest impact on the disease by understanding the different cell types through the use of differential equations and coding. Our goal is to understand this disease and contribute to the limited knowledge there is to receive more advanced and helpful treatment options.Â

Giuseppe Scibilia
I am a freshman at The University of Florida currently studying mathematics. I am working with Dr. Moore to create a model of the microenvironment that interacts with myeloma cells. This model will be created by determining equations which modeling the kinetics of the microenvironment. With this, we hope to find new signaling pathways essential to myeloma cells which we can block using medication. We can then simulate millions of trials using our model, varying multiple elements of the treatment process, with the goal of determining a new, or optimizing a current, treatment regimen for multiple myeloma.

Alice Zhang
UF Undergraduate Scholar
Research with Dr. Cory Brunson

Alexandra Haddad
I am a first year undergraduate student at the University of Florida studying health science with a minor in French on the pre-med track, interested in pursuing a career in anesthesiology. I’m currently a part of Dr. Helen Moore’s research working with a team of advanced thinkers to apply mathematics to the medical field as a way of finding cures for many different types of diseases. The team is creating models of these diseases with each arrow (typically signifying cell loss or cell gain) having an equation behind it so it can be better understood which mechanisms to focus one when creating treatments. We hope to give patients with these diseases and conditions a better chance at overcoming them.

High School & Middle School Research Students
The Laboratory for Systems Medicine mentors students in High School and Middle School. Please reach out to our faculty members if you are interested in being included in a research project.
We are proud to mentor students from the Orlando Math Circle.

Former Lab Members
Adi Cohen
I graduated from the University of Florida pre-med program with a major in Biology and minors in Disabilities in Society and Health Disparities in Society. I worked with Dr. Brunson on a systematic review of medical literature to determine how patient similarity–based individualized modeling is conducted using retrospective data. I currently attend Nova Southeastern University for medical school to further my passion for medicine and healthcare.

Ryan Elkind
I am a third-year Mathematics and Economics double major at the University of Florida, with a mathematical background in topological data analysis. I am working with Dr. Brunson on an analysis of the structure and function of glomerular capillaries. Using computational methods, we aim to characterize the three-dimensional structure of the glomerular capillary network, with the objective of providing useful insight into glomerular function.

Baylor Fain
A bio-physicist that applies computational and mathematical techniques, commonly used in Physics, to solve important problems in virology, epidemiology, public health and beyond.
Areas of Interest:
Agent-based models
Non-markovian processes
Master equations
Inquiry-based learning

Nobel Chowdary Mandepudi
Nobel was a Graduate Research Assistant with Dr. Brunson on the CTSI Precision Health Initiative Pilot Award project “Efficient Modeling of Individualized COVID-19 Mortality Risk”. He completed a Master’s degree in the Department of Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) and is currently interning at Arm.

Bhuvan Muvva
UF Graduate Scholar
Research with Dr. Cory Brunson

Lisa M. Oppel
Lisa received her BFA from College of Fine Arts in 2010. She has since worked in the realms of ideas and budgets on film sets and later in the UF College of Medicine. Lisa took a promotion with the UF College of the Arts as Grants Accountant.

Abhinav Penmetcha
I am a Biology major and Bioinformatics minor at UF and will be graduating in May 2024. I am working with Dr. Brunson on a project to analyze the relationships between race/ethnicity, socioeconomic determinants of health, clinical profiles, and post-transplant survival in lung transplant patients through statistical modeling. With these models, we hope to gain a better understanding of the set of interaction effects between these variables to gauge the historical and current statuses of disparities in lung transplantation.

Bruce Shapiro
I was Research Assistant Professor in the Laboratory for Systems Medicine. I managed the standup of the lab’s physical presence in the College of Medicine and tracked all room remodeling from inception to completion. I am currently Associate Professor of Mathematics at Rock Valley College.

Yara N Skaf
Areas of Interest:
Biomedical informatics
Computational biology
Mathematical data science
Topological Data Analysis (TDA)

Igor Sokolov
I am a UF class of 2023 mathematics major with a physics minor working with Dr. Brunson and Dr. Sordo Vieira on creating a software package to perform analysis on signal transduction networks using minimal functional routes, graph expansion and the route modulus. I hope that this work will prove a valuable tool for researchers and further our understanding of static boolean networks.

Kristina Suarez
I graduated from the University of Florida with a BS in Mathematics and plan to attend medical school in Fall 2023. I am working with Dr. Brunson on a study of the structure and function of glomerular capillaries using network and topological analysis.

Van Thuy Truong
I am a pharmacist by training and an applied mathematics PhD student with AstraZeneca and University of Leeds, UK. I am working on combining agent-based models with pharmacokinetic-pharmacodynamic models (simulated as ODEs and PDEs) to predict tumour growth and interaction with immune cells during mono and combination therapy. I am visiting the systems medicine lab to work with Dr. Fonseca and learn about techniques to fit ODEs to my agent-based model for predicting tumour behaviour and optimising treatment schedules.

Melody Walker
I was a Postdoctoral Associate in the Laboratory for Systems Medicine. I performed biological experiments on endothelial cells and monocytes as well as worked on a mathematical model of endothelial cells. I am now a Postdoctoral Fellow for the College of Pharmacy at UF.

Veronika Zeindl
I graduated from the Technical University of Munich with a MS in Mathematics. I worked with Dr. Walker on understanding the sensitivity analysis method eFAST. The ultimate goal is to use eFAST to analyze and reduce agent-based models.

Xinya Zhang
I am a third-year Statistics and Mathematics major and Computer Science minor at UF. I am working with Dr. Brunson on a project that compares conventional statistical learning models with individualized cohort models on clinical diagnosis. I plan to attend graduate school in biostatistics or data science, and I wish to work with healthcare data science in the future.

Ivan Ramirez Zuniga
I was a postdoctoral associate in the Laboratory for Systems Medicine, working with Dr. Sordo Vieira, where I developed mathematical models of the immune response to Aspergillosis. Currently, I am an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mathematics, with a courtesy appointment in the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the University of Texas at Tyler.

Samantha Williams
UF Graduate Scholar
Research with Dr. Cory Brunson
