The Team
Marlin Touma, MD, PhD
Dr. Marlin Touma is an Associate Professor-in-Residence, David Geffen School of Medicine, Department of Pediatrics. She joined the Division of Neonatology in 2011 after completing her fellowship program at Boston Children’s Hospital/Harvard University. Dr. Touma received her medical education from Damascus University and obtained her PhD in Molecular, Cellular, and Integrated Physiology as an UCLA-STAR fellow in 2015 under the mentorship of Dr. Yibin Wang. Currently, Dr. Touma directs the UCLA Congenital Heart Defects Research Program. She is the founder and the Principal Investigator of the Neonatal/Congenital Heart Laboratory and BioCore for Congenital Heart Defects (CHDs) at UCLA. Dr. Touma is the recipient of Child Health Research Center K12 award, the CDI-Today & Tomorrow Children’s Fund; the American Academy of Pediatrics Outstanding Research Award; the Manton Center Award for Gene Discovery, Boston Children's Hospital; the David Geffen School of Medicine Research Innovation Award; and the 2018 American Heart Association Career Development Award. More Recently Dr. Touma was awarded the 2019 High Priority "Bridge Fund" Award and an R01 from the NIH/National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.
Zubin Mehta, MD
Dr. Mehta is a Clinical Fellow in the Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine Fellowship Program, Department of Pediatrics, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. As a Postdoctoral Fellow, Dr. Mehta Joined the Neonatal/Congenital Heart laboratory in Spring 2020. His project is to investigate the role of alternative RNA splicing in regulating the chamber- specific maturation of neonatal heart by utilizing deep RNA sequencing platform and systematic bioinformatics analysis tools. Dr. Mehta is the recipient of the 2021 Board Stem Cell Research Center (BSCRC) fellowship training program award on his project, and the 2021 fellowship award in Clinical Informatics.
Tatiana Hage
Undergraduate Student, UCLA College of Life Science, SRP99 Minor in Biomedical Research Training Program. Tatiana is interested in sequence analysis for identifying genetic variation and transcription factor binding motifs using bioinformatic predection tools.
Rabekah Alfred
Undergraduate Student, UCLA College of Life Science, SRP99 Minor in Biomedical Research Training Program. Rabekah is interested in functional annotation and pathway analysis of RNA-seq/gene expression datasets.
Xuedong Kang
Staff Research Associate III
Zhao Yan
Staff Research Associate III
VISITING SCHOLARS
Alexander Barsegian, MD (2018-2021)
Dr. Barsegian graduated from Crimea State Medical University, Ukraine in 2012. In 2018 he joined Neonatal/Congenital Heart Laboratory at UCLA as visiting assistant project scientist, where he acquired advanced skill in seuence variation analysis using DNA microarray data. In 2021 Dr. Barsegian was accepted to the internal medicine residency program in Brookdale University Hospital Medical Center, New York.
Hranush Danelyan (2018-2021)
Dr. Danelyan joined Neonatal/Congenital Heart Laboratory at UCLA as visiting assistant project scientist. Her work was focused on performing comprehensive phenotypic analysis of congenital heart disease using electronic echocardiography reports. In 2021 Dr. Danelyan was accepted to the pediatrics residency program in University of California.
Hapet Shaybekyan, MD (2019-2021)
Dr. Shaybekyan joined Neonatal/Congenital Heart Laboratory at UCLA as visiting assistant project scientist in 2019. His work was focused on elucidating teh role of mitochodrial translation elongation factor (TSFM) in a rare form of congenital heart disease. In 2021 Dr. Shaybekyan was accepted to the family medicine residency program in Adventist Family Medicine program, California.
ALUMNI
Congratulations to our students Heidi Wang, Iven Lopez, and Reant Mapue for being accepted to Medical school.
Heidi Wang (2013-2014)
Undergraduate Student.
Current Position: Medical Student at University of Pennsylvania.
Iven Lopez (2015-2017)
Undergraduate Student, UCLA College of Life Science, SRP99 Minor in Biomedical Research Training Program.
Upon completing his undergraduate degree, Ivan joined the Integrative Biology and Physiology M.S. program at UCLA. His work was focused on studying the genetic regulation of Kdm3b in neonatal heart.
Current Position: Medical Student at Stanford University, Stanford, California.
Reant Mapue (2017-2020)
Undergraduate Student, UCLA College of Life Science, SRP99 Minor in Biomedical Research Training Program. As an undergraduate laboratory assistant, he independently performed numerous lab techniques that ranged from DNA & RNA extractions, genotyping and quanitative real time PCR.
Current Position: Medical Student at Rush Medical College, Chicago, Illinois.
Contact Us
MRL Building
Lab 3447/3457
Office 3762
675 Charles E. Young Drive
Los Angeles, CA 90095
Office: 310-825-6478
[email protected]
UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine Department of Pediatrics
Division of Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine
10833 Le Conte Avenue, B2-375 MDCC
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1752
Marlin Touma, MD, PhD
Dr. Marlin Touma is an Associate Professor-in-Residence, David Geffen School of Medicine, Department of Pediatrics. She joined the Division of Neonatology in 2011 after completing her fellowship program at Boston Children’s Hospital/Harvard University. Dr. Touma received her medical education from Damascus University and obtained her PhD in Molecular, Cellular, and Integrated Physiology as an UCLA-STAR fellow in 2015 under the mentorship of Dr. Yibin Wang. Currently, Dr. Touma directs the UCLA Congenital Heart Defects Research Program. She is the founder and the Principal Investigator of the Neonatal/Congenital Heart Laboratory and BioCore for Congenital Heart Defects (CHDs) at UCLA. Dr. Touma is the recipient of Child Health Research Center K12 award, the CDI-Today & Tomorrow Children’s Fund; the American Academy of Pediatrics Outstanding Research Award; the Manton Center Award for Gene Discovery, Boston Children's Hospital; the David Geffen School of Medicine Research Innovation Award; and the 2018 American Heart Association Career Development Award. More Recently Dr. Touma was awarded the 2019 High Priority "Bridge Fund" Award and an R01 from the NIH/National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.