Rashnonejad Lab Staff

Afrooz Rashnonejad, MSc, PhD
Principal Investigator

Afrooz Rashnonejad, MSc, PhD, is an assistant professor in the Department of Pediatrics at The Ohio State University College of Medicine and principal investigator in the Jerry R. Mendell Center for Gene Therapy at the Abigail Wexner Research Institute at Nationwide Children’s Hospital. Dr. Rashnonejad served as the chair of the American Society of Gene and Cell Therapy (ASGCT)’s New Investigator Committee. She is a member of the ASGCT’s Prenatal Cell + Gene Therapy Committee. Dr. Rashnonejad was twice awarded the “Excellence in Research Award” at the ASGCT annual meetings. She was also honored with the President’s Prize at the 24th annual meeting of the World Muscle Society in 2019.

Dr. Rashnonejad earned her doctorate in Biotechnology from Ege University, Turkey, in 2017, after completing two master’s of science degrees in Microbiology, and Stem Cell. During her doctoral studies, she developed an in-utero (AKA prenatal or fetal) gene therapy for Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA). During this period, she also worked in Dr. Guangping Gao (her PhD co-advisor)’s lab in the Center for Gene Therapy at the University of Massachusetts Medical School as a visiting scientist to master large-scale recombinant AAV production. She then completed postdoctoral training in the lab of Scott Harper, PhD, at the Mendell Center at Nationwide Children’s Hospital. During her postdoc, Dr. Rashnonejad developed RNA targeting AAV.CRISPR-Cas13 and U7-snRNA mediated exon skipping to treat autosomal dominant inherited Facioscapulohumeral Muscular Dystrophy (FSHD).

Daniella Munezero, PhD
Postdoctoral Researcher

Daniella Munezero, PhD, joined Rashnonejad Lab in 2023. Her research focuses on testing the in vivo efficacy and safety of AAV-based gene therapies for various genetic disorders in the lab.

Dr. Munezero holds a bachelor of science in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from California Baptist University in Riverside, California, and a doctorate degree in Pharmaceutical and Pharmacological Sciences from West Virginia University. In her previous work, she generated various murine models using CRISPR/Cas9 technique to comprehend the role of Heat Shock Protein 90 (HSP90) system in vision. Her research shed light on the indispensable role of HSP90 in photoreceptor neurons, explaining the reason for visual disturbance observed in patients during clinical trials of HSP90 inhibitors-based therapy to treat cancer.

Arun Kumar Paripati, PhD
Postdoctoral Researcher

Arun Kumar Paripati, PhD, joined Rashnonejad Lab in 2023. His work focuses on understanding the mechanism of ACTA1 disease and investigating the mitochondrial dysfunction in these patients. He received a 2-year postdoctoral fellowship for Academic Diversity at Nationwide Children's Hospital.

Dr. Paripati received his master’s degree from Pondicherry University, and doctorate from the University of Hyderabad, India. His doctoral research focused on understanding the mitochondrial quality control and inter-organelle communication of mitochondria.

Fatemeh Mehryab, PharmD
Postdoctoral Researcher

Fatemeh Mehryab, PharmD, joined the Rashnonejad Lab in March 2024. Her research focuses on the development and evaluation of the biodistribution of AAV-based fetal gene therapies for neuromuscular diseases.

Dr. Mehryab graduated from Shahid Beheshti Medical University, where she conducted her thesis on a vascular delivery system using extracellular vesicles (EVs). Following graduation, she continued her studies on nanoscale therapeutics as a research and formulation development scientist at the Royan Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Technology.

Jingting Zhu, PhD
Sr. Research Associate and Lab Manager

Jingting Zhu, PhD, joined Rashnonejad Lab in 2022. Her work focuses on developing IPSC disease models derived from patients-derived cells and differentiating them into 3D organoids to investigate disease mechanisms and test new gene therapies. Her current research focuses on developing various ex vivo models of peripheral neuropathies to investigate the efficacy of gene therapies before testing them in animal models.

Dr. Zhu received her bachelor’s and doctorate degrees in Biological Sciences at Liverpool University. Her postdoctoral research at the Center for Vaccine and Immunity at Nationwide Children’s Hospital focused on the pathogenesis associated with the hepatitis virus.

Daniel Bouch
Graduate Research Associate

Daniel Bouch joined the Rashnonejad Lab as a doctoral student in 2024. His work focuses on AAV capsid engineering and ACTA1 gene therapy.

Before joining the Biomedical Sciences Graduate Program at The Ohio State University, Daniel received a dual bachelor’s degree in Biomedical Sciences and Business from Florida State University.

MK McCulloch
Graduate Research Associate

MK McCulloch joined the Rashnonejad Lab in 2024. She received her bachelor’s degree in Biological Sciences from Ohio University in 2023 and is now a doctoral student at The Ohio State University in the Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology program. Her current research focuses on developing a gene therapy for peripheral neuropathy CMT1B.

Russell Chuah
Research Assistant

Russell’s current research focuses on developing novel gene therapies for mitochondrial disorders affecting the brain and muscles. He received his bachelor’s degree in Molecular Genetics from The Ohio State University in 2022, and he hopes to begin graduate school after acquiring lab experience and beginning to publish papers.

Kimberly Jordan
Administrative Support III

Kim, a certified executive assistant professional with a background of 22 years of administrative experience, is responsible for performing a wide variety of complex administrative tasks for faculty in the Mendell Center. She joined the team in 2022.