Dr. Brisa Palikuqi (she/her) is an incoming Assistant Professor at the Yale Stem Cell Center and the Department of Comparative Medicine at the Yale school of Medicine. Brisa is originally from Albania. She received her PhD at Weill Cornell Medicine training with Dr. Shahin Rafii. As a graduate student, Brisa devised a platform for vascularizing organoids and tissue explants in vitro. In 2020, she joined UCSF and continued her training as a postdoctoral fellow in Dr. Ophir Klein’s lab focusing on the role of blood and lymphatic paracrine factors in intestinal regeneration and disease. In her independent lab, Brisa aims to understand the complexities of endothelial cell paracrine signaling in tissue regeneration. The overarching goal is to take advantage of in vitro and in vivo models to induce regeneration on demand for precision medicine.

Brisa is the recipient of several fellowships and awards including the NIH F32 Kirschstein Training Fellowship through NIDDK, Program in Breakthrough Biomedical Research Postdoctoral Grant, the California Institute of Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) postdoctoral fellowship, and several traveling and poster awards. In her free time, Brisa enjoys doing yoga, exploring different neighborhoods and cities through walking, and hanging out with her two cats.