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.
Sirirak Buarpung, DVM, PhD
Lab Manager
Dr. Buarpung is a graduate of veterinary medicine from Chulalongkorn University in Thailand. She earned her doctorate in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynaecology and Reproduction, studying male gamete preservation and assisted reproductive technologies aiming to develop the techniques for endangered wild felids conservation. After her postdoctoral training, Dr. Buarpung worked in a fertility clinic for 2 years. She worked on preimplantation genetic screening and assisted with operational workflow. With all that, she has become fascinated by the science of pregnancy. Dr.Buarpung joined the Gaw Lab in 2018 and supports all of the projects in the group.
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.
Emilia Basilio, MD, MPH
Maternal-Fetal Medicine Fellow
Dr. Basilio is a third year maternal-fetal medicine fellow at UCSF. She graduated from UC Irvine School of Medicine, and completed her residency training in OB/GYN at UCSF. Emilia joined the Gaw Lab in 2020. Her project is to understand the impact of wildfire smoke on pregnancy outcomes, with her co-mentors Dr. Amy Padula and Dr. Josh Robinson.
Anju Ranjit MD
Maternal-Fetal Medicine Fellow
Dr. Anju Ranjit is a third-year fellow in Maternal and Fetal Medicine at University of California, San Francisco. She completed her medical training in Nepal and her OBGYN residency from Howard University Hospital in Washington DC. She has an MPH from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. She has completed a post-doctoral research fellowship and worked as a Research Associate at Center for Surgery and Public Health at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard School of Public Health. Her research work with the Gaw Lab is focused on fetal growth restriction in malaria, including study of fetal-maternal vascular dynamics in malaria. Her other research interest includes obstetric disparities, outcomes research and implementation of evidence-based obstetrics for high-risk pregnancy in low resource settings.
Christine Blauvelt, MD
Maternal-Fetal Medicine Fellow
Dr. Blauvelt is a maternal-fetal medicine fellow at UCSF. She graduated from the UPenn Perelman School of Medicine and completed her residency training in OB/GYN at UCSF. Her research and clinical interests include pregnancy-associated infections, sepsis, prediction and prevention of preterm birth, and quality improvement. Her research work within the Gaw Lab is focused on systemic and placental immune responses to infections in pregnancy. She is studying the impact of antepartum infections on placental function, pregnancy outcomes, and the neonatal immune system.
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.
Corina Mong
Lab Assistant
She joined the Gaw Lab in 2023 and is working on projects related to COVID-19 and malaria in pregnancy
Suchaya Osatis
Lab Assistant
Suchaya graduated from Imperial College London with a Master's degree in Molecular Medicine. Her scientific journey began with lab work involving fetal stem cells in diseased mouse models. She gained experience in immunology and cancer biology through roles in British and Belgian biotech companies and has extensive experience working with cells including her tenure at AstraZeneca's Global Cell Bank. She joined Gaw Lab in 2024.
Karissa Choi
Undergraduate Researcher
Karissa Choi is a fourth-year undergraduate student at UC Berkeley, double majoring in Molecular Cell Biology and Public Health. She joined the Gaw Lab in 2023 and is working on projects related to COVID-19 infections and vaccination in pregnancy. She is interested in pursuing a career in medicine.