Our Team | Sheehan Lab

Principal Investigator

Dr. Vivien A. Sheehan

Principal Investigator

Dr. Vivien Sheehan is a physician scientist dedicated to improving the lives of individuals with sickle cell disease of all ages. Vivien earned a PhD in Biochemistry from Texas A&M before entering medical school at Emory University School of Medicine. At Emory, Dr. Sheehan was inspired by her patients with sickle cell disease, and decided to devote her career to sickle cell research and patient care.

She then went on to complete a med-peds residency and two fellowships, pediatric Heme Onc at St Jude Children's Research Hospital and Internal Medicine Hematology at the University of Tennessee. Dr. Sheehan spent 8 years at Baylor College of Medicine, developing her research program, which includes omics, transition from acute to chronic pain, fetal hemoglobin regulation, gene therapy and red cell rheology research.

Vivien moved to Atlanta in 2020 and is now an Associate Professor of Pediatrics at Emory University School of Medicine, where she directs their translational sickle cell disease research program.

Contact

✉ vivien.sheehan@emory.edu

Lab Management

Britney Hernandez

Lab Manager

Lab manager overseeing daily operations and project management.

Contact

✉ britney.hernandez@emory.edu

Faculty & Fellows

Dr. Justin J. Yoo

Junior Faculty

Junior faculty member leading multiple research initiatives.

Contact

✉ justin.yoo@emory.edu

Dr. Ashwin P. Patel

Research Assistant Professor

Research Assistant Professor focusing on statistical analysis and clinical study design.

Contact

✉ ashwin.patel@emory.edu

Dr. Ugochukwu Agbakwuru, MD, MPH

Pediatric Hematology/Oncology Fellow

Clinical fellow focusing on sickle cell disease research.

Contact

✉ ugo.agbakwuru@emory.edu

Dr. Kennedy N. Goldsborough

Post-doctoral Fellow

Post-doctoral fellow focusing on IHP and microglia research.

Contact

✉ kennedy.goldsborough@emory.edu

Research Staff

Dr. Anupama Priyadarshini

Staff Scientist

Staff scientist leading various research projects.

Contact

✉ anupama.priyadarshini@emory.edu

Erica E. Evans

Lead Research Assistant

Lead research assistant managing multiple projects.

Contact

✉ erica.evans@emory.edu

Michael 'Alex' Pendergast

MSP Graduate Student

Graduate student in the MSP program.

Contact

✉ alex.pendergast@emory.edu

Zak Kostamo

Research Specialist

Research specialist supporting lab projects.

Contact

✉ zak.kostamo@emory.edu

Jonathan Wade

Research Specialist

Jonathan is a Research Specialist in the Sheehan Lab. His bench work includes LoRRca ektacytometry, flow cytometry, and mouse bone marrow engraftment studies evaluating novel therapeutics. Additionally, Jonathan has developed tools in R to streamline data preprocessing and quality control and contributes to database integration and design for the lab's growing OMICs database. He earned his B.S. in Neuroscience from Furman University and will be enrolling in medical school this fall.