Current Lab Members

Stephanie L. Gaw, MD, PhD

Associate Professor
Maternal Fetal Medicine, Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Sciences

Dr. Gaw is a practicing Maternal-Fetal Medicine physician and scientist who studies the impact of infectious diseases on fetal growth and development, and particularly how this is mediated by the placenta. She has a long-standing interest in global health. She served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Honduras in 1998-2001. She has over 20 years of experience studying malaria both in the laboratory and in the field. She has led collaboratorative research in malaria in Uganda, Zika virus in Brazil, and most recently COVID-19 in pregnancy. Her work has been funded by the National Institutes of Health, the Reproductive Scientist Development Program, the Foundation for the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and the CDC Foundation.

UCSF Profiles
GoogleScholar
Email: [email protected]

Sirirak Buarpung, DVM, PhD

Lab Manager

Dr. Buarpung earned her Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree from Chulalongkorn University in Thailand. She completed her PhD in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynaecology, and Reproduction, focusing on male gamete preservation and assisted reproductive technologies, with the aim of developing techniques applicable to the conservation of endangered wild felids. Following her postdoctoral training, Dr. Buarpung worked for two years at a fertility clinic, where she contributed to the establishment of a preimplantation genetic screening system and supported clinical operational workflows. Her experience has deepened her passion for the science of pregnancy. Since joining the Gaw Lab in 2018, Dr. Buarpung has played an active role in supporting all ongoing research projects.

Nida Ozarslan, MD

Postdoctoral Research Associate

Dr. Ozarslan first joined the Gaw Lab in 2017 as a visiting summer research volunteer while pursuing her medical studies at Marmara University School of Medicine in Istanbul, Türkiye. She continued her work on RNAseq analysis of maternal monocytes and fetal Hofbauer cells in placental malaria throughout the rest of her medical education, and graduated in June 2021. She joined the Gaw Lab as a postdoctoral researcher in October 2021, to continue her work on malaria in pregnancy, and the impact on maternal-fetal inflammation on pregnancy outcomes.

Hsuan-Yuan (Sherry) Wang, PhD

Postdoctoral Research Associate

Sherry was born and raised in Taiwan. She earned her Bachelor of Science in Medical Science from National Tsing Hua University in Hsinchu, Taiwan, and completed her Ph.D. in Immunology at Duke University in 2024 under the mentorship of Dr. Sallie Permar, focusing on congenital cytomegalovirus (CMV) transmission and vaccine development. She then joined the laboratories of Dr. Klaus Früh and Dr. Daniel Malouli at Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) as a short-term postdoctoral researcher, where she finalized the revision of her second first-author publication and contributed to a collaborative project on viral vector vaccine design. In April 2025, Sherry joined the Gaw Laboratory as a postdoctoral researcher, with her current work focuses on immune responses at the maternal-fetal interface.

Christine Blauvelt, MD

Assistant Professor, Maternal-Fetal Medicine and Reproductive Genetics

Dr. Blauvelt is a maternal-fetal medicine physician at UCSF. She graduated from the UPenn Perelman School of Medicine and completed her residency and fellowship training at UCSF. Her research and clinical interests include pregnancy-associated infections, sepsis, and placental disorders of pregnancy including fetal growth restriction, preeclampsia, and preterm birth. Her research work within the Gaw Lab is focused on placental and immune responses to infections in pregnancy.

Stephanie Tsoi, MD

Assistant Adjunct Professor, Pediatric critical care specialist

Dr. Tsoi is a pediatric critical care intensivist at UCSF. She graduated from UCLA School of Medicine and completed her residency and fellowship at UCSF. Her research and clinical interests include critically-ill patients with neonatal and pediatric pulmonary hypertension. Her research work within the Gaw Lab is specifically focused on using the placenta to investigate the fetal origins of pulmonary hypertension, aiming to better understand early insults and disease mechanisms that could change how we prevent, prognosticate, and treat pulmonary hypertension.

Megan Chidboy

Staff Research Associate

Megan graduated from UC Berkeley, majoring in Nutritional Sciences. She first joined the Gaw Lab in 2019 as a student in the UCSF/Kaiser Permanente Undergraduate Research Internship (URI) Program, where her project was "Characterization of Fc gamma receptors: IgG, how does it get from mom to baby?" She has continued to work in the Gaw Lab in projects related to COVID-19 in pregnancy and placental explants as ex vivo models of inflammation. She is also an active member of the U.S. Air Force Reserve.

Amayrani Morales

Clinical Research Coordinator

Amayrani graduated from UC Berkeley with a degree in Integrative Biology and a minor in Chicanx Studies. She joined the Gaw Lab in 2024. She has extensive experience in coordinating large projects and community engagement. Before joining the Gaw Lab, she contributed to projects exploring the impact of environmental factors on pregnancy and child development. She also served as a Health Advocate in the Alameda Health System, and as a team leader for tutors and mentors in the East Bay. Amayrani is interested in translating scientific research to inform policy decisions and amplify advocacy efforts.

Current Lab Members