Members

Current Members

Peng Mao, PhD

Associate Professor

Dr. Mao obtained his Ph.D. degree from Peking University in China. He received his post-doctoral training with Dr. Michael (Mick) Smerdon at Washington State University (WSU). Afterwards, he worked with Dr. John Wyrick at WSU as an Assistant and Associate Research Professor and continues his close collaboration with Dr. Wyrick. He started his independent career at the University of New Mexico Comprehensive Cancer Center in 2019, and established a successful DNA repair group in Albuquerque. In 2024, he moved to New York to start a new journey at Stony Brook University. Dr. Mao likes sports, particularly soccer and college football.

Mingrui Duan, PhD

Research Assistant Professor

Dr. Duan received Ph.D. from Peking University in China. She was initially trained as a biochemist in graduate school and has successfully extended her skills to genomics and bioinformatics. She is interested in understanding the mechanism by which enhanced DNA repair capacity in cancer cells leads to drug resistance in chemotherapy. Dr. Duan likes playing piano.

Allyson Hoag

Graduate Student

Allyson obtained her Bachelors of Science in Biochemistry from the University of Michigan – Dearborn, and after graduating she worked as a lab technician at the Henry Ford Health System and the University of Michigan – Ann Arbor. She is currently a 4th year PhD student in the Biomedical Sciences Graduate Program (BSGP) at the University of New Mexico and is studying DNA repair defects in genetic disorders. Allyson enjoys reading, being outdoors, and spending time with her cat, Peppermint.

Bastian Stark

Postdoctoral Research Scientist

Dr. Stark obtained his PhD from Washington State University in Dr. John Wyrick's lab. He is working on UV damage repair and melanoma mutation signatures using sequencing and bioinformatics approaches. He joined the Mao lab in Jan 2025.

Qin Liu

Research Support Specialist

Ms. Liu joined the lab in Nov 2024. She helps other lab members generate CRISPR-Cas9 knockout cells.

Ayman Khalifa

Postdoctoral Research Scientist

Dr. Ayman Khalifa earned his Ph.D. in molecular biology through a joint supervision program between Zagazig University, Egypt, and the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), where he focused on stem cell fate in aging and wound healing. In 2025, he joined Stony Brook University as a postdoctoral researcher, where his work focuses on DNA damage repair mechanisms. Outside the lab, he enjoys running, swimming, walking, and exploring new environments while staying active.

Alumni

Po-Hsuen Lee

Dr. Lee worked in the Mao lab from 2022 to 2024 as an Associate Scientist. He helped the lab establish CUT&RUN assay and contributed to several projects. Dr. Lee was unable to relocate to NY with the lab due to family reasons, but we deeply miss him and appreciate his hard work!

Jenna Ulibarri

Jenna worked in the Mao lab from 2019 to 2022 as a Research Technician and is one of the founding lab members. Although Jenna did not have reserach experience when first joined the lab, she showed us her incredible talent to learn new techniques including PCR, cell culture, DNA isolation, protein extraction and detection, yeast mutant generation, CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing, and so on. She participated in many projects in the lab and co-authored three papers. She is currently a graduate student at Washington University in St. Louis.

Tanisha Medha

Tanisha joined the Mao lab in her freshman year at UNM. She is from Canada and is a delightful person to work with. She mainly worked on bioinformatics to analyze transcription factor binding sites.

Jasmine Meltzer

Jasmine is an undergraduate student at Clemson University in South Carolina. She worked in the lab in 2021 through UNM Undergraduate Pipeline Network (UPN), a program which allows students to explore their interests in research and health sciences. Jasmine did an amazing work during the 8-week summer program by studying CAN1 mutation frequency in yeast cells upon exposure to MNNG. Her data served as the foundation for the whole-genome mutation sequencing experiment we subsequently conducted in the lab.

Deanna Garcia

Deanna worked as a UPN student in 2022. She is currently an undergraduate student at New Mexico Tech.

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