Osena Research Group

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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

Learn More about Dr. Osena

visiting scholar

Dr. Kassahun Tesfaye

Professor of Genetics, Addis Ababa University

Director General, Bio and Emerging Technology Institute (BETIn)

Learn More about Dr. Tesfaye

Postdoctoral researcher

Dr. Ephraim Aliu

Summer 2026

Laboratory of Plant Molecular Biology and Biotechnology

Email: E_aliu@uncg.edu

Learn more about Dr. Aliu

Graduate REsearchers

Abreham Bekele Alemu

Ph.D. candidate (Aug. 2022)

Temesgen Dagnaw Sendek

Ph.D. candidate (Aug. 2024)

Obssi Desalegn Hora

Ph.D. student (Aug. 2025)

Tariq Shah

Ph.D. student (Aug. 2025)

Farzana Akter

Ph.D. student (Aug. 2026)

Shannon Lumpkin

M.S. student (Aug. 2025)

postbac and undergraduates

Bubacarr Jallow

September 2023

Nicholas Yeboah

August 2024

Jair Ortez

August 2025

Kaylen Williamson

January 2026

Luis Rivera

Undergraduate (2026)

Anthony YassaYassa

Postbac (August 2026)

Elnata Zewdu

August 2026

Anthony Harvin

Aug. 2026

Lily Houck

August 2026

Natania Abera

August 2026

Alumni

Dr. Wanli Guo

Visiting scholar from Zhejiang Sci-Tech University

Dr. Mohammad Salehin

Postdoctoral researcher

Dr. Sang Chul Choi

Postdoctoral 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 (April 2022 – July 2024)

Sean Williams

Postbac (2023)

Carlos Morales-Sanchez

Postbac (Summer – Fall 2023)

Michael Mcrae

Postbac (Fall 2023)

Alyssa Hill

Postbac (Fall 2023)

Willy Pina

Postbac (April 2022)

Norvinyo Abiti

Postbac

Austin Cotten

Postbac

Kaleigh Roe

Postbac

Amber Fairchild

Undergraduate (2024)

Seren Wang

Undergraduate (May 2024)

Lea Behnke

Undergraduate (June 2024)

Jasmin Galbreath

Undergraduate (Aug. 2024)

Stacy Mabiala

Undergraduate (Aug. 2024)

Tanner Lyons

Undergraduate (Aug. 2024)

Angela Riano Mendez

Undergraduate (Sept. 2024)

Smit Prajapati

Undergraduate (Spring 2025)

Oakel Parrish

Undergraduate (May 2025)

Adalynn Parrish

Undergraduate (2025)

Alexandro Fernandez

Undergraduate (Summer 2025)

Cindy Lin

Undergraduate (2025)

H’Yin Siu

Undergraduate (2026)

Eesha Somarpu

Undergraduate (2026)

Maggie ODaniel

Undergraduate

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

Former Lab members

Postbac student-since June 2023

Terranee Anderson

Postbac student- Since August 2024

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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

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Alexis Croatt (Draelos Scholar)

From Corner Stone High School

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Former lab members

Victoria Cook

Undergraduate student- January 2024-May 2024

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Christian Keith

Undergraduate student- August 2022-Decemeber 2023

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Daniel Araya

Undergraduate student- August 2021- May 2024

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Sean Williams

Postbac student Summer 2023

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Abdalkader Salaimah

Undergraduate student

Jade Lyons

Undergraduate student

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

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Fatima Shahid

Undergraduate student-Since September 2021

Scarlett Perez

Undergraduate student-Summer 2021

Aliya Warris – Summer 2021

Undergraduate student-Summer 2021

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Colt Russel

Undergraduate student-Since September 2021

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Jaime Richardson

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Hisham Mohamed

Undergraduate student-Since August 2022

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