Baker Lab Staff
Linda Baker, MD
Principal Investigator
Linda.Baker1@NationwideChildrens.org
Linda A. Baker, MD is a board-certified pediatric urologist and co-director of the Kidney and Urinary Tract Center at Nationwide Children's Hospital and professor of urology at The Ohio State University. Dr. Baker specializes in complex genitourinary surgical reconstruction and contributes to new discoveries for children with prune belly syndrome; kidney stones, disorders of sexual development; cryptorchidism; testicular torsion; and congenital female vaginal anomalies. She has spearheaded a thriving pediatric urology research program that has been NIH-funded since 2001. With a personalized medicine approach, she recruits individuals affected with genitourinary disorders and uses cutting edge DNA next generation sequencing technologies to discover their causes.
Her service includes numerous ad hoc and standing NIH study sections, Society for Pediatric Urology Research Grants Committee chair, past AUA Practice Guidelines Committee, and past chair of the AUA Research Grants and Investigator Support Committee. She has authored 23 book chapters and over 120 publications, has a medical device patent, has held 32 national/international visiting professorships, and coauthored the 2014 AUA Cryptorchidism Practice Guidelines. As a national leader in corrective vaginal surgery, she has been course director since 2013 for the international live surgery training course webinar, "Vaginoplasty for Birth Defects of Surgical Complications and the Oral Buccal Mucosa Technique." While in Texas, she was a Castle Connolly "Top Doctors” 2014-2021, a Texas Monthly magazine’s “Texas Top Doctors” 2010–2021 and a D Magazine “Best Pediatric Specialists in Dallas” 2004-2021.
Nathalia Amado, PhD
Senior Research Scientist
Nathalia.Amado@NationwideChildrens.org
Born and raised in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Nathalia earned her doctorate degree in Molecular and Developmental Biology at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro and Harvard Medical School. She furthered her research by pursuing postdoctoral training at Boston Children’s Hospital (Harvard Medical School), with a focus on the study of brain and head development as well as Wnt signaling.
Following her postdoctoral training, Dr. Amado joined the Baker Lab in 2019 in Dallas, Texas. Later, she relocated with Dr. Baker to Nationwide Children's Hospital to continue her dedicated research on the genetics of urological congenital conditions.
Chaitrali Atre
Research Associate
Chaitrali.Atre@NationwideChildrens.org
Chaitrali Atre was born and raised in Pune, India. Chaitrali graduated with her masters of science in microbiology from University of Pune and master's in biology from The University of Texas San Antonio. She is currently working as a research associate in the Baker Lab at Nationwide Children’s. Chaitrali’s research work involves working with iPSCs generated from the patient fibroblast and gaining extensive hands-on experience in in-vitro techniques other cell and molecular biology techniques essential for iPSC research.
Karunya Albert, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow
Karunya.Albert@NationwideChildrens.org
Born and raised in Tamilnadu, India, Dr. Karunya Albert earned her doctorate degree in Molecular Science from National Chiao Tung University, Hsinchu, Taiwan. It was there that she began her postdoctoral research in tumor and microenvironment. Later, she continued her postdoctoral work at The Ohio State University, where she delved into the study of human glioblastoma and their extracellular vesicle (EVs) from brain tissues and biofluids. Currently, Dr. Albert serves as a postdoctoral scientist under the guidance of Dr. Linda Baker. Her research in Dr. Baker's lab revolves around creating induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) and isolating EVs from prune belly syndrome patient samples, aiming to study the mechanism of disease.
Nixon Raj, PhD
Bioinformatic Postdoctoral Fellow
Nixon.Raj@NationwideChildrens.org
Born and raised in Tamilnadu, India, Dr. Nixon Raj earned his doctorate in Computational and Systems Biology from National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, Taiwan. Dr. Nixon is expert in Biomolecular Dynamics and Bioinformatics. Currently, he serves as a postdoctoral scientist in Dr. Baker's lab, where he focuses on bioinformatics and computational biology projects. His research involves analyzing multi-omics data to understand the underlying genetics of congenital genitourinary conditions and deciphering the functional aspects of proteins involved in these conditions.
Darria Streeter
Senior Research Associate
Darria.Streeter@NationwideChildrens.org
Born and raised in Columbus, Ohio, but Darria is a world traveler at heart. They received their bachelor's degree in Chinese with a minor in Biology from The Ohio State University. In the Baker Lab, Darria focuses on reprogramming fibroblasts from individuals with prune belly syndrome (PBS) into induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) to advance research on PBS and other genitourinary diseases. Looking ahead, they aspire to continue their global adventures and pursue graduate studies in ethnopharmacology, aiming to bridge the gap between traditional and western medicine.
Justin Wobser
Research Associate
Justin.Wobser@NationwideChildrens.org
Justin earned his master's degree in Public Health from Cleveland State University and has aspirations of attending medical school. His expertise lies in caring for and maintaining the Baker Lab mouse colonies, as well as conducting highly technical mouse urinary bladder cystometry measurements to evaluate bladder function. Additionally, he plays a crucial role in organizing the laboratory research efforts at the national Prune Belly Syndrome Network Annual convention held in Columbus, Ohio. Furthermore, Justin is involved in performing cellular function validation experiments for new prune belly syndrome candidate genes.
Isaac Lowry
Research Aide
Isaac.Lowry@NationwideChildrens.org
Isaac was born in Columbus and grew up in Granville, Ohio. He graduated from Granville High School and now attends Brown University, pursuing a bachelor of science in mathematics-computer science. He is also a part of the program in liberal medical education at the Warren Alpert Medical School. Isaac has been with Baker Lab since 2023 when he joined as a part of the Student Urinary Tract Program of Education and Research. His research with the lab involves identifying and validating possible adrenoceptor expression differences in prune belly syndrome. Isaac plans to begin medical school after completing his undergraduate studies.
Binta Mboob
Research Aide
Binta.Mboob@NationwideChildrens.org
Binta Mboob was born in the United States and grew up in Gambia, West Africa. She is currently a senior undergraduate student at The Ohio State University, majoring in molecular genetics with a minor in neuroscience, aspiring to pursue a career in medicine. Since the summer of 2024, Binta has been employed as a research aide in the Baker Lab at Nationwide Children's Hospital and is an alumna of the Student Urinary Tract Program of Education and Research. Her research seeks to elucidate how human mutation in filamin A might contribute to neurological conditions, providing insights into the development and potential treatment strategies for these disorders.