People
Core Personnel
Xiaonan Li
Faculty Director
Xiao-Nan Li, Ph.D., M.D., is the Rachelle and Mark Gordon Endowed Professor in Cancer Research at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. He joined Lurie Children’s in 2018 as director of Pediatric Xenograft Modeling at the Manne Research Institute and Professor of Pediatrics at Feinberg. Dr. Li came from Baylor College of Medicine. He actively participates in National Cancer Institute-sponsored research consortia and is one of the world’s foremost experts on pediatric xenograft modeling, which produces the most accurate recreation of how tumors in children will respond to anti-cancer drugs.
Nayereh Haack
Assistant Director
Nayereh Haack brings extensive experience in preclinical testing, study design and analysis, animal models of disease, IACUC compliance, team management and collaboration to this position. She has spent the past 7 years working with NU researcher Joe Moskal – first in his spin-out company, Naurex, and then at Aptinyx – and most recently in the role of senior research manager. Her prior experience includes stints at Abbott and Abbvie as a research pharmacologist and GD Searle.
Grace Ma
Research Associate
Quanhong (Grace) has over 15 years of academic laboratory research experience. She received her PhD in the field of cell biology from Peking Union Medical College where her focus had been on the molecular mechanisms of mice spermiogenesis as well as erythropoiesis using mice model. Grace’s did her postdoc fellow training at the University of Illinois in Chicago where she focused on the function analysis of Asxl2, an enhancer of trithorax and polycomb in isolated neonatal mouse cardiomyocyte in transgenic mice. She previously worked as a research lab manager in image (MRI) translation laboratories of Dr. Zhouli Zhang at both Northwestern University and the University of California at Irvine. She is proficient in mammalian cell culture and all basic cellular and molecular techniques. She also has experience in cancer research biology and has worked with different animal models.
Iwona Stepien
Sr. Core Specialist
Iwona Stepien has more than 10 years of laboratory research and management experience with an extensive background in the care and use of animals for research. She previously worked in academic laboratories at Northwestern University as well as the University of Buffalo, and has a BA from the University of Lublin, Poland.
Victoria Bariani
Research Associate
Victoria received her Ph.D. in Biological Sciences from the University of Buenos Aires, where she characterized the effects of maternal obesity during pregnancy and on offspring development in a murine model. Her postdoctoral research was focused on the basic research of uterine fibroids pathogenesis. She has a broad background in reproductive sciences and brings experience in cellular and molecular biology techniques, animal models, primary and cell lines cell culture, organoids development and culture, and the ability to adapt to new methodologies.
Advisory Board
Alex Stegh, PhD
Sui Huang, MD, PhD
Panos Ntziachristos, PhD
Diana Berger, DVM
