Mrs. Yang received her M.D. from Hunan Medical School, China. She has extensive research experience in molecular biology, neuroimaging, transgenic mouse models, and immunohistochemistry. Her current research focuses on breeding and maintaining two complex transgenic mouse lines to support studies of optic nerve injury and regeneration, aiming to continually enhance both morphological and functional recovery. In addition, she is interested in molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1) disease progression, with the goal of identifying potential therapeutic strategies and uncovering insights that may further promote optic nerve regeneration. My hobby finds joy and relaxation in planting and harvesting homegrown vegetables.

Ariya (Mohamad) Rahmdel obtained his master's degree in biomedical science from the Gachon University, South Korea in 2019. Since then, he has gained a broad range of research experience in stem cell biology, vision science (optic nerve and retinal regeneration), cancer biology, and cardiovascular research. 

Rusy (Hyemin) Lee is a PhD student in de Lima Lab in Cellular and molecular pathology program (CMP) at the University of Pittsburgh, School of Medicine. She earned a bachelor's degree in biotechnology from the University at Buffalo and continued her education at New York University and earned a master’s degree in biology. For her master’s thesis, she studied the development of somatosensory neurons in the little skate under Dr. Jeremy Dasen’s close supervision. Rusy is interested in studying retinal ganglion cell death and survival in relation to the disease. During her free time, she likes to sing and listen to other music.

I am a neuroscience researcher focusing on central nervous system (CNS) regeneration and neuroimmune repair, and I received my Ph.D. in Neurogenetics from Nagoya University, where I developed integrative approaches to study spatial cellular dynamics in the injured brain; during my doctoral training, I established an optimized click chemistry–based whole-brain proliferation imaging pipeline by combining tissue clearing, light-sheet fluorescence microscopy, and atlas-based quantitative mapping, enabling high-resolution, system-level analysis of proliferating neural progenitors across multiple CNS disease models, including stroke, glioma, and spinal cord injury; my research experience also includes neural stem cell–based regenerative strategies, biomaterial scaffold–assisted repair, and translational models such as traumatic brain injury, along with work on tumor microenvironment–mediated immune regulation, which has shaped my broader interest in neuroimmune interactions across disease contexts; in the Silmara de Lima lab, I am particularly interested in understanding how neuroimmune signaling and spatial cellular organization coordinate tissue repair, especially in the visual system, and I aim to integrate advanced 3D imaging, quantitative spatial analysis, and functional validation to identify mechanisms that can be translated into therapeutic strategies, with the long-term goal of building an independent research program centered on spatial neuroregeneration and immune-mediated repair with clinical relevance.