The Vanderbilt Dermatology Translational Research Clinic has several openings to join the our team. Interested candidates, please see the Open Positions page for more information.

We are a multidisciplinary team of clinicians and engineers whose mission is to seamlessly integrate patient care, clinical investigation and fundamental technology research with applications in dermatology, oncology, hematology and other specialties.

Faculty

Eric Tkaczyk, M.D., Ph.D.

Assistant Professor of Dermatology
Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering
Director, Vanderbilt Translational Research Clinic
Associate Professor, Department of Physiology, University of Tartu, Estonia
 

Inga Saknite, Ph.D.

Adjoint Assistant Professor of Dermatology

Dermatology Translational Research Clinic

Senior Researcher at the University of Latvia

 

Postdoctoral Fellow

Andrew McNeil

Andrew McNeil, Ph.D.

Postdoctoral Research Fellow

  • Medical image computing, deep learning for medical image segmentation and biomarker discovery

 

Research Assistants

Bohan Jiang, B.S.

Research Assistant

  • Medical image processing and analysis with deep learning

Madeline Marks, B.S.

Clinical Research Coordinator

  • Protocol development and implementation

Tyra Silaphet, B.S.

Research Assistant

  • Mpox data management and image analysis
 

Rachel Weiss, B.S.

Research Assistant

 

Undergraduate Student

Juan Alvarez

Undergraduate Student
  • De-identification of Medical Photographs

 

Medical Students and Residents

Sage Iwamoto

Medical Student
  • Noninvasive cutaneous imaging with reflectance confocal microscopy and line-field confocal optical coherence tomography

Dhruv Patel

Medical Student
  • Identification of adherent & rolling leukocytes in Reflectance Confocal Microscopy

Hayden Smith

Medical Student
  • Dynamic indentation of skin analysis, biomechanical properties of skin

Katie O' Connell, M.D., M.S. 

Resident
  • Biomechanical properties of skin, rheum-derm and oncoderm mechanical device application

 

Research Volunteer

Michael Pogharian

Postbac Research Volunteer
  • Deidentification of sensitive patient photos

 

Alumni

 

Sahil Patel

Undergraduate Student, Neuroscience and Philosophy

  • Biomechanical properties of the skin

Shramana Ghosh, Ph.D.

Postdoctoral Research Fellow

  • Mechanical device design; characterization of viscoelastic and biomechanical parameters of biomaterials

Siddharth Shah

Undergraduate Student, Computer Science

  • Ultrasound image segmentation, core scripts
Shinwho Photo

Shinwho Kwun

Undergraduate Student

  • Spectral imaging, patient home photography, protocol development and implementation

Austin Cronin, B.S.

Role on Team: Research Assistant/Engineer
 
Next Position: Biomedical Engineering PhD Student at Purdue University
 
 

Adam Hetzler, MD, Ph.D.

Role on Team: Medical Student (2021 - 2022)

Next Position: Dermatology Residency at Geisinger

Alina Zufall Headshot

Alina Zufall, M.D.

Role on Team: Patient home photography (selfies) (2021 - 2022)

Next Position: Dermatology residency at New York Medical College

Xiaoqi Liu, Ph.D.

Role on Team: Post Doctoral Research Fellow (2019 - 2021)

Next Position: Seminary at Los Angeles

Laura X Baker (née Wang), M.D.

Role on Team: Medical Student (2018-2021)

Next Position: Dermatology residency at UCSF

Zijun Zhao, B.S.

Zijun Zhao, M.D.

Role on Team: Medical Student (2019-2021)

Next Position: Medicine residency at Santa Clara Medical

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Randall Patrinely, M.D.

Role on Team: Medical Student (2019-2021)

Next Position: Dermatology residency at Vanderbilt

Kelsey Parks, M.D.

Role on Team: Medical Student (2019-2020)

Next Position: Dermatology residency at Vanderbilt

Yvette Ssempijjay, B.S.

Yvette Ssempijja, M.D.

Role on Team: Medical Student (2019-2020)

Next Position: Dermatology residency at University of Washington

Zain Khera, B.A.

Roles on Team: VUMC Student Worker (2019-2020) and Research Analyst I (2020)

Next Position: Medical Student at NYU

 

Tahsin Reasat, M.S.

Tahsin Reasat, M.S.

Role on Team: Graduate Student (2017 - 2019)
 
Next Position: Computer science Ph.D. student at Vanderbilt
Jianing Wang, M.S.

Jianing Wang, Ph.D.

Role on Team: Graduate Student (2017 - 2019)
 
Next Position: Senior Research Scientist at Siemens Healthineers

Fuyao (Joanna) Chen, B.S.

Role on Team: Research Assistant/Engineer (2017-2019)

Next Position: MD/PhD Student at Yale

 

Laura Dellalana, M.D.

Role on Team: Medical Student (2017-2018)

Next position: Dermatology residency at Vanderbilt

 

Jocelyn Gandelman, M.D.

Role on Team: Medical Student (2017-2019)

Next position: Dermatology residency at UCSF
 

Kathy Zhang

Role on Team: Undergraduate Student (2018-2019)

Next Position: Undergraduate Student at Vanderbilt

 

Alexis Hood, B.S.

Role on Team: Medical Student (2018-2019)

Next Position: Medical Student at Meharry

 

Mihkel Põldemaa, M.Sc.

Role on Team: Masters Degree Candidate in Biomedical Engineering and Medical Physics from the University of Tartu and Tallinn University of Technology (2016-2018)

Next Position: Cybernetica AS