Xiaofeng Jia, MD, MS, PhD, FCCM, is the director of Neurosurgical Stem Cell Research and the director of the Translational Neuroengineering and Neuroscience Laboratory, a Professor of the Department of Neurosurgery, Orthopaedics, and Neurobiology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, and the adjunct Professor in the Fischell Department of Bioengineering at University of Maryland College Park, and the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Johns Hopkins University. He has been a faculty member at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, since 2007.

His current research interests include regenerative medicine, stem cell therapy, brain monitoring and therapeutic hypothermia, peripheral nerve injury and regeneration, spinal cord injury, and bone regeneration. He has been a Chartered member of the NIH ANIE study section and has been serving as an ad-hoc member of 8 NIH study sections, DOD CDMPR, USAMRDC, VA, NSFC, European Commission REA; AHA, SCCM et al.

Dr. Jia is a fellow of the American College of Critical Care Medicine (FCCM), a fellow member (basic science) of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS) and American Association for Hand Surgery (AAHS). Dr. Jia has served as the Chair of the Research Section Steering Committee, Discovery Steering Committee, and the Discovery Oversight Committee, Scientific Review Committee member, and is a Congress Program Committee member of the Society of Critical Care Medicine (SCCM). He is the section Editor in Chief of International Journal of Molecular Sciences, and the Associate Editor for Frontiers in Immunology, Frontiers in Neuroscience, and Frontiers in Neurology. He has authored 158 refereed journal papers, 90 of them as the first or corresponding author, with more than 200 invited or platform presentations, and has carried out research funded by NIH RO1, MSCRF, DARPA, AHA, et al.

He received the Annual Research Awards from AAHS in 2008. His research work was highlighted in NIH Research Matters and NIH 2015 Research Highlights. He is a recipient of the Society of Critical Care Medicine 2021, 2022, and 2023 Star Research Achievement Award.

Xiao Liu, MS, MD
Postdoctoral Fellow, 2021
Graduation Date: MS (2020), MD (2017)

Dr. Liu obtained her Medical Doctor degree and Master of Science (Neurology) degree from Wuhan University. Dr. Liu finished her residency training in the Department of Neurology and Neurological Critical Care. She has a strong background in electrophysiological assessment of cognitive performance and chronotype, with a focus on cognitive recovery after ion channel diseases, including the comorbidity of migraine and epilepsy. She then became a doctor in Department of Critical Care at Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University, gaining experience in post-care after cardiac arrest.

Currently, she is a postdoctoral fellow in Prof. Jia’s lab at the University of Maryland in Baltimore. Her research mainly focuses on treatment (stem cell therapy, targeted temperature management and neuroprotective drugs) for global cerebral ischemia after cardiac arrest and the related mechanisms.

Chunfang Qiu, MD, MS, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow, 2023
Graduation Date: PhD (2017), MS (2014), MD (2011)

Dr. Qiu received her PhD from Sun Yat Sen University, China in 2017. She has worked as a physician in the neurosurgical ICU department for six years. She has a broad background in neurosurgery intensive care medicine, and she has been interested in the neuronal regeneration and repair effects of stem cell therapy on global ischemic brain injury because of cardiac arrest. Dr. Qiu has been working as a postdoc focused on the neuroprotective effects of neuronal stem cells on ischemic brain injury caused by cardiac arrest since September 2023.

Anam Anjum, PhD
Postdoctoral fellow, 2024
Graduation Date: PhD (2023)

Dr. Anjum received her PhD from The National University of Malaysia in 2023. She worked on Spinal cord injury models and nerve regeneration studies. She was awarded an excellent thesis award and was nominated for the Gold award for the University. She completed her Master's in 2017 from The National University of Malaysia.

In 2012, she was awarded a Pharm-D degree from the University of Sargodha, Pakistan, and received a Gold medal for scoring the highest marks. She also worked as a Postdoc at the Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology, Warsaw, Poland, in 2023 (6 months) on brain neuroplasticity and MMP9 activity.

She is interested in the neuronal regeneration pathways and nerve repair effects of stem cell-derived exosomes against peripheral nerve injury. Dr. Anam's primary research focus is the neuroprotection and neuroregeneration effects of extracellular vesicles or stem cells on peripheral nerve injury.

Zhulin Wang, MS, MD
Postdoctoral Fellow, 2024
Graduation Date: MS (2016), MD (2012) 

Dr. Wang obtained his Medical Doctor from Qingdao University School of Medicine and Master of Science (Cardiac Surgery) degree from Tongji University School of Medicine, China. Dr. Wang finished his residency training and fellow training in the Department of Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) at Shanghai Children’s Medical Center (SCMC), China. He later became an attending physician in the PICU at SCMC, gaining extensive clinical experience in treating asphyxial brain injuries in children. 

Currently, He is a postdoctoral fellow in Professor Jia’s lab at the University of Maryland in Baltimore. His research mainly focuses on neuroregenerative therapies and the underlying mechanisms following brain injury related to cardiac arrest.

Songah Chae, MS, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow, 2025
Graduation Date: PhD (2022), MS (2019)

Dr. Chae earned her PhD in Animal Science from Washington State University in 2022. She worked on Perinatal and Cell Biology, focusing on mechanisms and treatments of metabolic diseases at the cellular and molecular levels, particularly on intestinal health. Mostly, she has experienced a CRISPR-Cas9 genetic modifying tool to establish knock-out/knock-in models. 

Her current interest is to see the effect of metabolically glycoengineered (MGE) neural stem cells therapy on brain ischemic injuries after cardiac arrest (CA).

Meaghan Harley-Troxell, MS, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow, 2025
Graduation Date: PhD (2025), MS (2023)

Dr. Harley received her MS and PhD degrees from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. She has a broad background in nerve tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. Her research primarily focused on combining the use of carbon-based nanomaterials and stem cell therapies for nerve repair and regeneration. Currently, Dr. Harley’s primary research focus is understanding and enhancing the neuroregenerative effects of sugar-analog modified adipose stem cells for treating peripheral nerve injuries.

Joy Amaka Odigbo, BS
PhD Student, 2025
Graduation Date: 2024 (BS)

Joy earned her bachelor’s degree in Bioengineering from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, graduating summa cum laude in 2024. She gained extensive experience through internships at leading healthcare and pharmaceutical companies, including Abbott, Medtronic, and Amgen, where she developed expertise in computational modeling and hands-on research in industry settings. Joy has since shifted her focus toward stem cell therapies and is currently pursuing her PhD in the Fischell Department of Bioengineering at the University of Maryland, College Park. She works as a graduate research assistant in Dr. Jia’s lab in Baltimore.

Abel Keiji Lindley, BS
PRISM Program Summer 2025, Class of 2028 
University of Maryland School of Medicine

Abel Lindley earned his BS Phi Beta Kappa in Neuroscience and Behavioral Biology at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. He is currently a second-year medical student at the University of Maryland School of Medicine and has conducted bench research on stem cell-based therapies for peripheral nerve regeneration.