Visit the Alumni page for information on former lab members.

Sarah E. Sheppard, M.D., Ph.D., M.S.T.R.

Lead Investigator, Unit on Vascular Malformations

Phone: 240-578-5047
Email: sarah.sheppard@nih.gov

Lola Zerbib

Post-doctoral Fellow

Lola joined NICHD in June 2023 as a postdoctoral fellow. She graduated from Université Paris Cité (Paris, France) with a Master of Science in Pharmaceutical biotechnologies and advanced therapies, followed by a PharmD and a PhD in 2023 at Université Paris Cité (Paris, France). During her doctorate, Dr. Zerbib worked on PIK3CA-Related Disorders in the laboratory of Pr. Guillaume Canaud. She focused on modelling venous malformations in mice models to decipher the mechanisms underlying the Tie2/PI3K pathway and investigating on new targeted therapies to improve this disorder. Her current work focuses on specific genes causing complex lymphatic anomalies and drug discovery using zebrafish models.

Jessica Johnson

NIH Ox-Cam Graduate Student

Jessica, an NIH Oxford-Cambridge Scholar and Antarctic Scientist, is keenly interested in aerospace medicine, the study of sustainable human health in weightlessness and extreme (polar) climates. She received her B.A. in Astrogeophysics with Honors and a minor in German from Colgate University in 2022. 

She has conducted research and co-authored multiple papers discussing the climatic significance of boulder banding across Martian glaciers, the remote sensing of desert playa hydropatterns, and organic matter accumulation and electrical conductivity in Antarctic water tracks.  During 2022-23 austral summer, she completed a six-week polar expedition to the McMurdo Dry Valleys, Antarctica.

Prior to her DPhil, Jessica completed a Postbaccalaureate IRTA Fellowship, in which she designed a novel, in vivo protocol that disentangles diffusion frequency‐dependence, tensor shape, and relaxation within tissue microstructure using multidimensional diffusion MRI (MD-MRI).

She has been honored with the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship (GRFP), Antarctica Service Medal, and recognized as one of 100 Polar Women by the Women in Polar Science Network.

As an OxCam DPhil Scholar, Jessica studies the structural and fluidic mechanisms behind vascular malformations.

Rachel Amedume

Howard University Honors Biology Undergraduate Thesis Student

Rachel is an undergraduate research fellow in the Sheppard lab studying vasculature development and underlying mechanisms of lymphatic anomalies using the zebrafish model system. She has been a summer student in the lab for the past two summers and is now continuing her research for her senior thesis. She is currently a senior at Howard University in the Honors Biology program with a minor in Chemistry. She is passionate about continuing her research interest in the future as a physician scientist. In her free time, you can find her cooking, taking photos on her camera, or exploring new places and cultures.

Deena Zeltser, M.D.

Staff Clinician

Email: deena.zeltser@nih.gov

Dr. Zeltser received a B.A., cum laude, from the University of Pennsylvania in 2000, with a major in the history and sociology of science and a minor in religious studies. She received an M.D. from The George Washington University in Washington, DC, in 2005. 

After completing her residency in pediatrics at Northwestern University’s Children’s Memorial Hospital (currently known as Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago), Dr. Zeltser worked as a pediatric hospitalist at community hospitals in Chicago and its nearby suburbs. In 2010, she returned to Washington, DC, where she worked as a pediatric hospitalist at Children’s National Medical Center and at Holy Cross Hospital.

Dr. Zeltser joined NICHD in January 2017 as a pediatric staff clinician in the Office of the Clinical Director. She provides clinical support to NICHD research teams. She began working with Dr. Sheppard in 2022.

Dr. Zeltser was born and raised in Silver Spring, Maryland. She now lives in Chevy Chase, Maryland, with her husband and two children.

Kwabena Aboagye

Postbaccalaureate Fellow

Email: kwabena.aboagye@nih.gov

Kwabena studies lymphatic anomalies for Dr. Sheppard’s clinical research program. His focus includes participant recruitment and screening as well as extraction and analysis of clinical data. Kwabena is a recent graduate of Howard University with a B.S. in biology and a minor in chemistry. Prior to arriving at NIH, Kwabena worked as a pharmacy technician and a patient care associate at The Ohio State University. Kwabena is eager to continue his path toward becoming an M.D./Ph.D. In his free time, he loves playing basketball and soccer and weightlifting.

Ben Sempowski (he/him/his)

Postbaccalaureate Fellow

Email: benjamin.sempowski@nih.gov

Ben currently studies complex lymphatic anomalies using a translational model to understand the mechanisms of these anomalies, which inform more effective treatments. He recently graduated from Davidson College with a B.S. in biology and a minor in neuroscience. While at Davidson, he worked in the research lab of Dr. Barbara Lom, studying the development of the central nervous system in zebrafish. Ben is excited to take the next step in his journey toward an M.D./Ph.D. In his free time, he enjoys cooking, baking bread, or exploring the DMV.

Christopher Marshall

Research Specialist 1

Email: christopher.marshall@nih.gov

Chris has 9 years of experience in the NICHD zebrafish facilities, where he formerly worked as the animal health specialist and the technical trainer for the husbandry team. Prior to working with zebrafish, Chris studied organismal biology and ecology at Towson University, where he received his B.A. in biology in December 2011. During his time at Towson, he interned with the Maryland Department of the Environment in a lab that specialized in habitat assessments. His current goal is to transition his knowledge of zebrafish and the NICHD program into a role that directly supports the research of the Sheppard lab while also developing his own skills as a researcher. He is an avid outdoors enthusiast, a DC sports fan, and a proud father of two.

Luciana Daniela Garlisi Torales, M.D.

Visiting Postdoctoral Fellow

Email: luciana.garlisi@nih.gov

Daniela is an international medical graduate from Paraguay, and received her M.D. in 2022 from Facultad de Ciencias Medicas – Universidad del Pacifico. Her passion for research started in her second year of medical school when she worked with medicinal plants. She studied the impact of COVID-19 on medical education in Latin America. She is passionate about empowering other students to do research in Latin America. She is interested in doing clinical research in her country in the future.

Andrea Bowling, M.S.N., A.P.R.N., FNP-C

Family Nurse Practitioner

Email: andrea.bowling@nih.gov

Andrea Bowling has been with NIH for the past 4 years. She began with the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, working in neurosurgery with adults with incurable pain. She then moved to the National Human Genome Research Institute, where she focused on adult genetic disorders. At NICHD, she works with the Sheppard lab on a natural history study for patients with lymphatic anomalies and also consults on other clinical protocols. Andrea obtained her master of science in nursing from Georgetown University, and her registered nursing license from Stevenson University; she is currently in the process of obtaining her doctor of nursing practice degree as a psychiatric-mental health nurse practitioner. She has always loved research and would like to become a principal investigator, working on research dealing with the psychosocial perspective of patients with chronic illnesses. She loves spending her free time visiting with her family and friends, reading, and traveling.

Georgia Krikorian

Postbaccalaureate Fellow

Email: georgia.krikorian@nih.gov

As a fellow with the Office of Intramural Training and Education Postbac Enrichment Program, Georgia focuses on examining lymphatic vasculature development and underlying mechanisms of lymphatic anomalies, particularly using organoid modeling and the bench-to-bedside model. Before joining NICHD, she studied at Smith College in Northampton, MA, where she received her B.A. in biochemistry in May 2022. She discovered her passion for research during her undergraduate career in the laboratory of Michael Barresi, where she studied the regulation of radial glia development during neurogenesis in zebrafish. She is motivated to pursue an M.D./Ph.D. program and a career as a physician-scientist, where she hopes to utilize the tools of basic research to innovate new treatment modalities for complex conditions.