Osena Research Group
Principal Investigator
Dr. Ayalew Ligaba Osena
Associate Professor
Laboratory of Plant Molecular Biology and Biotechnology
Email: alosena@uncg.edu
Phone: 1-336-256-0328
Office: 308 Sullivan Science Building
visiting scholar
Postdoctoral researcher
Dr. Ephraim Aliu
Laboratory of Plant Molecular Biology and Biotechnology
Email: E_aliu@uncg.edu
Graduate students
Abreham Bekele Alemu
Ph.D. candidate (since Aug. 2022)
Temesgen Dagnaw Sendek
Ph.D. student (since Aug. 2024)
Obssi Desalegn Hora
Ph.D. student (since Aug. 2025)
Tariq Shah
Ph.D. student (since Aug. 2025)
Farzana Akter
Ph.D. student (since Aug. 2026)
Shannon Lumpkin
M.S. student (since Aug. 2025)
undergraduates
Bubacarr Jallow
Since September 2023
Nicholas Yeboah
Since Aug. 2024
Jair Ortez
Since Aug. 2025
Kaylen Williamson
Since Jan. 2026
Alumni
Dr. Wanli Guo
Visiting scholar from Zhejiang Sci-Tech University
Dr. Mohammad Salehin
Post doctoral researcher
Dr. Sang Chul Choi
Post doctoral researcher
Dr. Muhammad Numan
Ph.D. (2021 – 2025)
Dr. Raza Ullah
Ph.D. (2021 – 2025)
Dr. Barbara Amoah
Part-time researcher
Anastasia Romanov
M.S. (2022 – 2024)
Former postbac and Undergraduates
Eric Whisnant
Postbac (2022-2024)
Sean Williams
Postbac (2023)
Carlos Morales-Sanchez
Postbac (2023)
Michael Mcrae
Postbac (2023)
Alyssa Hill
Postbac (2023)
Willy Pina
Postbac (2022)
Norvinyo Abiti
Postbac
Austin Cotten
Postbac
Kaleigh Roe
Postbac
Amber Fairchild
Undergraduate (2024)
Adalynn Parrish
Undergraduate (2025)
Cindy Lin
Undergraduate (2025)
H’Yin Siu
Undergraduate (2026)
Eesha Somarpu
Undergraduate (2026)
Luis Rivera
Undergraduate (2026)
H’Yin Siu
Undergraduate (2026)
High Shool interns
Ayur Anchan
North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics (2026)
Claire Slate
Draelos scholar (2026)
Chloe Nyamongo
Draelos Scholar
Emma Smith
Cornerstone Charter Academy (Draelos Scholar)
Udaya Sri Parthiban
Early College at Guilford (Since August 2025)
Rachael Jones
Penn-Griffin School for the Arts (Draelos scholar)
Yukta Paduru
Green Home High School
Former Undergraduate and postbac students
OAkel Parrish
Undergraduate student since May 2025
Eesha Somarpu
Undergraduate student since August 2025
Alexandro Fernandez (Summer 2025)
Smit Prajapati
Undergraduate Since Spring 2025
Former Undergraduate and postbac students
Jasmin Galbreath
(Undergraduate student- Since August 2024)
Lea Behnke
Undergraduate student-Since June 2024
Stacy Mabiala
Undergraduate student- Since August 2024
Angela Riano Mendez
Undergraduate student- Since August 202
Maggie ODaniel
Former Lab members
Postbac student-since June 2023
Seren Wang
Undergraduate student-Since May 2024
Terranee Anderson
Postbac student- Since August 2024
Tanner Lyons
Undergraduate student- Since August 2024
__________________________________________________________
Mohamed Nisar
(High School Volunteer since August 2024)
Nishitha Daniel
From Early College at Guilford
Since Summer of 2023 (Draelos Scholar)
Volunteer student researcher
Summer 2024 interns from high schools
Deniz Keser
Graduated from Grimsley High School
Draelos Scholars
Ehshi Na
From Early College of Forsyth
Meredith Presnell
From Early College of Guilford
Adam Tart
From Wesleyan Christian Academy high school
Shivani
Green Level High School
Summer 2023 interns from high schools
Deniz Keser
From Grimsley High School
______________________
Alexis Croatt (Draelos Scholar)
From Corner Stone High School
___________________________________________________________________
Former lab members
Dr. Wanli Guo
Visiting scholar from Zhejiang Sci-Tech University
____________________________________
Dr. Barbara Amoah
Part-time researcher
___________________________________________
Dr. Mohammad Salehin
Post doctoral researcher
Dr. Sang Chul Choi
Post doctoral researcher
______________________________________________________________
Eric Whisnant
Postbac student- April 2022-July 2024
__________________________________________________________
Victoria Cook
Undergraduate student- January 2024-May 2024
____________________________________________________
Christian Keith
Undergraduate student- August 2022-Decemeber 2023
____________________________________________________
Daniel Araya
Undergraduate student- August 2021- May 2024
____________________________________________________
Sean Williams
Postbac student Summer 2023
__________________________________
Carlos Morales-Sanchez
Postbac student Summer and Fall 2023
_____________________________________
Alyssa Hill
Postbac Fall 2023
___________________________________________________
Michael Mcrae
Postbac Fall 2023
________________________________________________________
Willy Pina
Postbac student-Since April 2022
Abdalkader Salaimah
Undergraduate student
Jade Lyons
Undergraduate student
Norvinyo Abiti
Post-bac
Austin Cotten
Post-bac
Kaleigh Roe
Post-bac
Peyton LaBonte
Undergraduate
Jenna Wammock
Undergraduate
Katherine Craib
Undergraduate
Sunshine Alvarez
Kale-kidan Berhe
Quashawn Chedwick
Christopher Cotter
Winta Daniel
Myia Hall
Juan House-Hernandez
Niska Majumdar
Emiri Michishita
Daniel Park
Aashika Ramkumar
Helina Talbot
___________________________________________________
Fatima Shahid
Undergraduate student-Since September 2021
Scarlett Perez
Undergraduate student-Summer 2021
Aliya Warris – Summer 2021
Undergraduate student-Summer 2021
______________________
Colt Russel
Undergraduate student-Since September 2021
________________________________________________
Jaime Richardson
________________________________________________________________________
Hisham Mohamed
Undergraduate student-Since August 2022
________________________________________________________________________