Forbes D. Porter, MD, PhD

Director

Forbes D. Porter earned his MD and PhD at the Washington University at St. Louis. He trained in both Pediatrics and Clinical Genetics at St. Louis Children’s Hospital and is board certified in both specialties. Dr. Porter is currently a Senior Investigator in the Program in Developmental Endocrinology and Genetics, NICHD, NIH, DHHS. His research is focused on disorders of cholesterol homeostasis. This includes both basic and clinical investigations into Smith-Lemli-Opitz syndrome, Niemann-Pick Disease, type C and hypocholesterolemic Autism Spectrum Disorders.

Vivek Mahadevan, MSc, PhD

Executive Director

Vivek Mahadevan earned his PhD in Neuroscience, Cell & Systems Biology from the University of Toronto in 2015. He completed his postdoctoral training at NICHD under Chris McBain in the Section on Cellular and Synaptic Physiology, established sc/snRNAseq, translatome assays to investigate GABAergic interneuron development across health and disease. Following MPRA assay development for gene therapy at Patch Biosciences and sc-atlas development for neuroimmune disorders at EMD Serono, Vivek returned to NICHD to establish novel single-cell and spatial transcriptomic workflows and to support diverse DNA/RNA sequencing protocols for NICHD labs. He currently performs operational oversight and deployment of new technologies at the MGC.

James R. Iben, PhD

Senior Bioinformatician

James Iben received his PhD in Molecular Biophysics from Johns Hopkins University in 2007. He completed his postdoctoral training at NICHD under Richard Maraia in the Section on Molecular and Cellular Biology where his primary research has revolved around the transcription and maturation of tRNA, developing a model for tRNA-driven translational gene regulation using next-generation sequencing as part of his research projects. James has developed custom bioinformatic tools and pipelines using current supported software for both specialized and common complex data analysis tasks. He currently works to advise or support through collaboration multiple NICHD labs with their bioinformatic needs.

Tianwei Li, PhD

Laboratory Supervisor

Tianwei Li earned his PhD in Biochemistry from The National University of Singapore. Tianwei completed his postdoctoral training and was a research fellow in the Laboratory of Biochemistry, NHLBI, where he studied the biological function of ubiquitin-like proteins using proteomic approaches. Then he continued his research in FDA on genomic variations and characterizations of microbes using next generation sequencing technologies. He has extensive experience in the application of molecular biology and biochemical techniques to study biological systems. In addition, Tianwei has mentored two PhD students and a couple of post-baccalaureate fellows and summer students in the NIH.

Christopher De Oliveira-Cordova, BS

Postbaccalaureate IRTA

Christopher De Oliveira-Cordova graduated with a B.S. in biology from New Jersey Institute of Technology in 2024. At NJIT, with McNair funding, he led a project focusing on the effects of microplastics on the transforming growth factor beta 1 (TGFB-1) pathway within the mouse placenta in Dr. Genoa Warner’s lab and streamlined scRNAseq sample preparation. This experience allowed him to advance molecular biology laboratory skills as well as expand interest across diverse scRNAseq and spatial transcriptomic platforms at the MGC. Christopher plans to attend medical school after completing the NIH post-bac IRTA fellowship.

Alumni

Elizabeth J Davis, BS, PhD student in the University of Minnesota Twin Cities

Cameron Padilla, BS, Medical student at the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Tucson

Rachel Lazris, BS, Medical student at the Emory School of Medicine

Joseph Zoeller, BS, Medical Scientist Training Program (MD/PhD) at the Baylor College of Medicine

Fabio Rueda Faucz, Scientific Director, HCA Florida Healthcare

Steven L. Coon, PhD, Retired