Principal Investigator
JungA Alexa Woo, PhD
Associate Professor, Department of Pathology
Case Western Reserve University, School of Medicine.
Dr. Alexa Woo, Associate Professor of the Department of Pathology at Case Western Reserve University, completed her Master’s degree at Seoul National University and her Ph.D. at Byrd Alzheimer's Institute, University of South Florida. She became an assistant professor at USF in 2017, moved to CWRU in 2021, and was promoted to Associate Professor with tenure in 2024. Her research focuses on GPCR-beta arrestin signaling in multiple neurodegenerative diseases, including AD, FTD, PD, and ALS. Dr. Woo’s lab also works on the mitochondrial protein CHCHD2 in neurodegenerative diseases. Dr. Woo serves on NIH study sections and extramural grant review panels.
Research Associate/Postdoctoral Fellows
Hyunkyoung Lee, PhD
Research Associate
Dr. Lee received her B.S. degree in genetic engineering at Cheongju University, South Korea. And She has completed her Ph.D. degree from Seoul National University, majoring in Neuroscience. During her post-doctoral studies, she has conducted research in various areas of neuroscience, including neuroinflammation, itch, pain, and animal behavior. In 2024, She moved to CWRU as a Research Associate. Her research focuses on mitochondrial protein CHCHD2 and CHCHD10 in neurodegenerative diseases.
Jin Han, PhD
Postdoctoral Researcher
Jin Han received his Ph.D. degree from Kyungpook National University, majoring in Medical Science with a focus on Rheumatology and Neuroinflammation. His research experience includes investigating neuroinflammation and glial cell activation in neurodegenerative diseases, with a particular interest in the complement system, blood-brain barrier integrity, and astrocyte-microglia interactions. He has also studied osteoarthritis and acute kidney injury using various in vivo models and molecular biology techniques. In 2025, he joined CWRU as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow and is currently exploring novel mechanisms of neuroinflammatory regulation in Alzheimer's disease and related disorders.
Ashwini Shivalinga
Collaborative Ph.D. student
Ashwini received her Master’s degree in Biological Sciences from Bangalore University in 2015. She joined the lab as a collaborative student from CSIR-Central Food Technological Institute, Mysuru, Karnataka, India. Her research focuses on understanding the effect of alkaloids on Tau aggregation inhibition and its related cellular markers of Alzheimer's disease in in-vitro and in-vivo models.
Undergraduates
Khoi Tran
Sophia Kim
Alumni
Pamela Espinoza Gonzalez (2019-2021)