Current Team Members
Younggeon Jin, D.V.M., Ph.D.
Principal Investigator · Assistant Professor, Department of Animal and Avian Sciences; Affiliate Assistant Professor, Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine
Dr. Jin earned his D.V.M. from Jeju National University and his Ph.D. in Comparative Biomedical Sciences from North Carolina State University, where he then completed five years of postdoctoral research in the Gastrointestinal Physiology Laboratory studying intestinal barrier function. He joined the University of Maryland in 2019 and founded the Jin Lab to study intestinal stem cells and their niche in gut repair and development. He teaches ANSC445 (Comparative Gut Physiology and Diseases) and ANSC401 (Animal Growth and Development for Production Agriculture), served as guest editor for Biomedicines, and serves on the programming committee of the Gastrointestinal and Liver Physiology section of the American Physiology Summit.
Hammed Ayansola, M.S.
Ph.D. Candidate (2022 to present)
Studies intestinal mesenchymal stromal cells in piglet gut development and MSC priming for IBD. Defended his dissertation in October 2026. Recipient of the Ann G. Wylie Dissertation Fellowship and the APS Steven M. Horvath Research Recognition Award.
Bereket Girma, M.S.
Ph.D. Student (2025 to present)
Works on E-cadherin in colonoid regeneration and built the lab’s AI-guided organoid imaging system. Recipient of the AGNR Graduate Student Merit Scholarship.
Jiecheng Chen
M.S. Student (2025 to present) · Undergraduate Researcher (2023 to 2025)
Joined the Jin Lab as an undergraduate researcher in 2023 and continued as an M.S. student in 2025. Studies E-cadherin loss in intestinal stem cells during colitis repair using mouse models.
Past Jin Lab members.
Undergraduate Researchers
Lauren Kim · Ellie Kim · Veronica Brickhaus · Allison Riesner · Sarah Hong · Jazmine Campbell · Kylen Tow · Khalila Yanviery
Alumni
Graduate alumni: Jain Kim, M.S. (Ph.D. student, 2021 to 2025; first author, Biomedicines 2025; APS John Forte Distinguished Abstract Award)
Undergraduate alumni (2019 to 2025): Zoe Gruskin, Corina Miko, Om Desai, Rachel Phan, Iman Khan, Sarah Vaughn, Lucille Pellegrino, Yusef Zaman, Sahithi Muthyala, Mustafa Khalid, Sneha Umma D’Andrea, Vanshika Garg, and the Gemstone Honors team (Alisa Forsberg, Isha Yardi, Aaliyah Arpon, Michaela Bell, Katie Brown, Ananya Krishnan, Ryan Margolis, Laura Marhefka, Jerry Yang).
Where our alumni go: Since 2019, 26 undergraduate researchers have trained in the Jin Lab. Alumni have gone on to medical schools including Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Stony Brook, and the University of Maryland; veterinary school at Tufts; Ph.D. programs; and research positions at the University of Pennsylvania, GSK, and Miltenyi Biotec.
Ellie Kim presents her undergraduate research poster.