Principal investigator
Ron Parchem Ph.D.
Ron Parchem received a B.S. from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and his Ph.D. from University of California, Berkeley. He did his post-doctoral studies at University of California, San Francisco until he began at Baylor College of Medicine in 2015.
Jacqueline G Parchem, MD
Dr. Parchem is a maternal-fetal medicine physician-scientist dedicated to improving maternal and child health through basic and translational research on pregnancy disorders. Her research focuses on the biology of the placental trophoblast and leverages human clinical samples, cell culture, and mouse models to understand how trophoblast stress leads to complications, including preeclampsia, birth defects, and stillbirth. She is a PI and co-director of the Mother Baby Biobank at UTHealth Houston. Dr. Parchem is also passionate about the inclusion of pregnant people in research, reducing disparities in maternal and perinatal health outcomes, and supporting the development of early-career scientists.
Assistant Professor, Division of Maternal-Fetal Medicine, Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences
The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston
Adjunct Faculty, Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Baylor College of Medicine
RACHEL KEULS
Rachel is a graduate student in the Development, Disease Models, and Therapeutics program. Her early work focused on how miRNAs from pluripotent embryonic stages are retained for multipotent potential. Her more recent work aims to understand how the maternal environment is communicated to the developing embryo. Rachel received a B.S. in biological sciences from Salisbury University in 2016 and started in the DDMT program at BCM in 2019. Rachel has presented her work at international conferences, won numerous awards, and published multiple papers.
Ivanshi patel
Ivanshi is a graduate student in the Parchem lab. Prior to joining grad school, Ivanshi completed her Bachelor's in Biotechnology at NIT Durgapur, India. She moved to the United States in 2017 to pursue a Master's degree in Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine at University of Southern California, Los Angeles. As a Developmental Biology grad student in the lab, her research focuses on understanding the role of members of the microRNA family MIR302 in neural fate specification, brain morphogenesis, and neural tube birth defects such as congenital hydrocephalus.
ziyue (ZOEy) YANG
Before joining the Development, Disease Models, and Therapeutics graduate program, Zoey earned her B.S. in Biological Sciences from Nankai University, China. She is interested in building mouse models to study pancreatic cancer.
MARA CARDENAS
Mara graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a B.S. in Neuroscience. She then joined the Center for Cell and Gene Therapy at Baylor College of Medicine as a research technician working on T cell therapies for leukemia and lymphoma. She is currently a student in the Development, Disease Models, and Therapeutics graduate program and is studying the role of miRNAs in tumor-immune cell interactions and other aspects of the tumor microenvironment in pancreatic cancer.
MARGARET “MEG” HARRINGTON
Meg graduated from Vassar College with a B.A. in Biology. She then worked as a research technician at the University of Michigan, assisting with developing a brain tissue clearing and expansion protocol. She is currently a graduate student in the Cancer and Cell Biology program and is interested in studying cancer stem cells and how diabetes contributes to Alzheimer’s disease.
Dilean J Murillo GONZÁLEZ
Dilean got her B.S. in Cellular and Molecular Biochemistry from the University of Texas at El Paso. She is currently a graduate student in the Neuroscience program and is interested in studying how maternal diabetes affects neural tube closure and the role of micro RNAs in this phenomenon.
Kadeshia Campbell
Kadeshia holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology from Tougaloo College and a Master of Science degree in Biology, with an emphasis in Environmental Toxicology, from Texas Southern University. Currently, she serves as the laboratory manager for the Parchem lab at Baylor College of Medicine and is also the Program Manager for Dr. Jacqueline Parchem at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, within the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Sciences. Kadeshia is dedicated to advancing the understanding of how environmental factors impact fetal growth.
Madison Vu
Madison graduated from The University of Texas at Austin in 2024 with a B.S. in Cell and Molecular Biology. She recently joined the Parchem lab as a research assistant and is interested in studying the cellular changes that occur during pancreatic tumorigenesis. She is also interested in studying the implications of preeclampsia during pregnancy by using patient-derived clinical samples to elucidate disease mechanisms in the placenta.
Previous lab members
Akihiko Miyauchi, MD
Uchi is interested in investigating brain development and neurodevelopment as well as on the effecs of microRNAs on the pathogenesis and prognosis of brain tumors, especially gliomas
Specialty:
Pediatrics, Pediatric Neurology, Inherited metabolic disorders, Developmental Disabilities, Gene therapy.