Members

Izabela M. Hawro, MS

Izabela joined our lab in April  2023 as a graduate student in the GEMS program. Izabela graduated in 2018 from the University of Warsaw (Poland) with a Master of Science Degree with a Major in Biotechnology. In addition, she spent one year at the University of Virginia (USA) as a Fulbright Scholar learning protein purification and crystallization. From 2019 to 2022, Izabela worked as a full-time research assistant at the University of Wuerzburg (Germany) and the Institute of Experimental Biology of the Polish Academy of Sciences.

Before joining our lab, Izabela published two research articles  (PMID: 32271995, 33949105), and a review article (PMID: 32466765). In addition, she presented her data at the 62nd International Conference on the Bioscience of Lipids in Montreal, Canada in 2022.

In 2023, Izabela has been awarded the Research Experiences for Graduate and Medical Students of the Endocrine Society.

        Alumni of Cordoba Lab

Dr. Marta Sierra-Cruz

Marta joined our lab in September 2022 as a postdoctoral research associate. She received her PhD from Universitat Rovira i Virgili in spring 2022. Her research interests were focused on how the grape seed’s proanthocyanidins could modulate the intestinal alterations caused by the diet and the aging process. During her PhD, she has published 5 peer-reviewed papers and has worked as a visiting graduate student in the University of Teramo (Italy). She has also presented her work in two international conferences:

• 4th European Summer School in Nutrigenomics (University of Camerino, Italy).
• International Congress in Biomedical Sciences: Epidemics, endemics and persistent and emergent pandemics (Bucaramanga, Colombia). Best poster awarded.

Dr. Samuel M. Lee

Sam joined our group as a postdoctoral research associate in August 2019. He received his PhD from University of Adelaide in 2017, and he spent a year as a postdoctoral fellow in Northwestern University. In our lab he has published three manuscripts and one review article as first author. He was also awarded the followings:

• Honorable mention certificate – poster in the 2019 Research Forum of the College of Medicine
• Poster of Distinction – Liver meeting 2021
• Poster award – UIC Diabetes and Obesity Research Day 2021
• Poster award / oral presentation – UIC Diabetes and Obesity Research Day 2022
• Honorable mention certificate – poster in the 2022 Research Forum of the College of Medicine.

Dr. Lee is a Senior Research Specialist in the CCVR of UIC.

Angelie Bacon

Jose Muratalla

Jose Muratalla graduated in 2020 with a major in  Biochemistry and a minor in Spanish.

He joined our lab in January 2018 and he is a research fellow of the Latin@s Gaining Access to Networks for Advancement in Science.  He was a fellow of CAMP I at the University of Chicago, and will be this summer in CAMP II. He had volunteered at the  CommunityHealth Clinic in West Town as a Spanish Medical Interpreter and a Spanish Health Education Instructor for patients with diabetes. The American Heart Association awarded him with one of five scholarships nationwide: EmPOWERED to Serve (https://www.empoweredtoserve.org/index.php/meet-your-2018-empowered-to-serve-scholars/). The Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute named him a CHCI-United Health Foundation Scholar Intern, and just recently, CommunityHealth named him the Health Education Volunteer of the Year. In addition, in the summer of 2018 he served as program coordinator and mentor for the Summer Youth Mentorship and Promotion of Literacy Program for high school students interested in heath related careers of the Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago.

Jose has been awarded a Summer Research Fellowship by the Endocrine Society in 2020. Also, he was awarded the Chancellor’s Undergraduate Research Award in the Spring and Summer 2020.

He is presenting of an abstract “Hepatocyte Peroxisome Proliferator-Activated Receptor Gamma (PPARG) Offsets the Anti-Steatogenic Effects of Thiazolidinediones in Obese Male Mice,
Jose T Muratalla, Samuel M Lee, Pablo Remon-Ruiz, Gregory H Norris, and Jose Cordoba-Chacon, PhD” selected for oral presentation in ENDO Online 2020 (to be presented on June 9th at 11am.

Eram Fatima

Hanin El-Khateeb

Hanin was a Junior Pre-med student pursing a Biology degree at UIC. She graduated by LAS and Honors College in December 2019 and she hopes to attend medical school and continue research in the future.

Hanin joined the lab in August 2018 and has been awarded the honors college undergraduate research grant in the Spring 2019 to compare the effect of gender and hepatocyte PPARg KO in the development of diet-induced NASH. She completed her BIOS-399 (Independent research, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences) and her capstone research project: Effect of a diet and the knockout of hepatocyte Peroxisome Proliferator-Activated Receptor gamma (Pparg) in Non-Alcoholic Steatohepatitis (NASH) in Male and Female Mice, in our lab in the Fall 2019.

Danielle Pins, BS.

Danielle received her undergraduate degree in Biology from The University of Tampa in May 2017. She graduated on the Dean’s List within the College of Natural Health and Sciences.

Danielle  joined our lab December 2017 as a Research Specialist. She is currently researching the mechanisms of PPARy in the liver and the role it plays in regulating steatosis.

Dr. Gregory H. Norris

Greg was a postdoctoral research associate in our group from May 2018 to May 2019. He received his PhD from University of Connecticut in 2018.

Apoorva Tummala, BS

Apoorva joined our lab in January 2017 and she worked in our group until the end of the summer 2018. Apoorva graduated in Spring 2018 BS Biological Sciences and BA Economy within the GPPA-Medicine and in Honors College. In our lab,  she completed her BIOS-399 (Independent research, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences) and her capstone research project: Determining if loss of hepatocyte PPAR signalling has effects on postprandial dyslipidemia, in our lab in the Spring 2018.

She presented her work in the 2018 Student Research Forum (April 11th 2018, UIC) with an abstract entitled “Hepatocyte PPARgamma regulates intestinal fat absorption and hepatic clearance of postprandial triglycerides”.

Also, she was awarded with:

• Honors College Undergraduate Research award (Spring 2017)
• Honorable mention certificate in the defense of a poster in the 2017 Research Forum of the College of Medicine
• Endocrine Society’s Summer Research Fellowship (06/2018-08/2018)

Apoorva has been quantifying fatty acid composition of  livers and other tissues in several mouse models. In addition, she is learning how to extract lipids from different biological samples and how to use gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS).

Zachary White, BS

Zachary White graduated in the spring 2018  with a major in  Biological Sciences. Currently, he is working as a research specialist in the department of Pharmacology at UIC.

Zac joined our lab in February 2017 and he was an active member of the lab until May 2018. He was measuring the expression of key genes involved in the lipid and glucose homeostasis in livers and adipose tissues of mouse models that have been fed special diets.

Zac presented his work in the 2018 Student Research Forum (April 11th 2018, UIC) with an abstract entitled “Mice fed a diet that contains trans10/cis12-conjugated linoleic acid develop lipodystrophy and hepatic steatosis but can control glucose levels”

Amna Haider, BS.

Amna Haider graduated in the spring 2018  with a major in  Biological Sciences and a minor in Psychology.

Amna joined our lab in April 2017 and she was an active member of our group until May 2018. She was measuring the expression of key genes involved in the lipid and glucose homeostasis in livers of mouse models with alteration of hepatocyte-specific genes that were fed with special diets that promote non-alcoholic steatohepatitis.

Amna completed her BIOS-399 independent research project in our lab during the Spring 2018, and she presented her work in the 2018 Student Research Forum (April 11th 2018, UIC) with an abstract entitled “Hepatocyte PPARgamma plays a significant role in the development of non-alcoholic steatohepatitis induced by methionine and choline deficient diets”