Hypoxia Lab
Our Team
Principal Investigator
Erica Heinrich, PhD
Assistant Professor
UCR School of Medicine
Division of Biomedical Sciences
Dr. Erica Heinrich is an assistant professor in the Division of Biomedical Sciences at the UC Riverside School of Medicine at UC Riverside. She completed her PhD at the University of California, Irvine with Dr. Timothy Bradley and her postdoctoral fellowship at the University of California, San Diego with Dr. Frank Powell and Dr. Tatum Simonson. Her research examines the integrative physiology of hypoxic stress in humans, with a specific focus on the impact of hypoxemia on immune function.
Email: erica.heinrich@medsch.ucr.edu
Office: School of Medicine Research Room 101
Phone: (951) 827-9198
Graduate Students
Karapet Mrktchyan
PhD Candidate
Karapet is a fourth year PhD student. His research examines the physiological and psychological mechanisms underlying the sensation of dyspnea, or shortness of breath.
Office: School of Medicine Research Building Room 130
Email: karapet.mkrtchyan@email.ucr.edu
Abel Vargas
PhD Student
Abel is a second year PhD student. His dissertation research examines the impact of hypoxia and environmental stress on immune function.
Office: School of Medicine Research Building Room 130
Email: abel.vargas@email.ucr.edu
Undergraduate Students
Allyson Phan
Undergraduate Student
Allyson is studying adaptations to vascular shear stress in high-altitude adapted populations. She is particularly interested in the genetic and epigenetic regulation of VCAM1 in high-altitude groups with Chronic Mountain Sickness.
Lab Alumni
Postdoctoral Alumni
Kristina Bergersen, PhD
Krissie investigated the impacts of COVID-19 on immune function and disparities in COVID-19 health outcomes across populations in Inland Southern California in collaboration with Dr. Meera Nair's lab.
Graduate Alumni
Kathy Pham, PhD
Kathy's dissertation research examined the impact of high-altitude exposure on inflammation and immune function.
Inflammatory Profiles and Immune Responses to High-Altitude Acclimatization
Shyleen Frost, PhD
Shyleen's dissertation research examined epigenetic mechanisms of high-altitude adaptation.
Exploring Physiological Plasticity and Epigenetic Mechanisms in High-Altitude Adaptation
Sunny Virk, MS
Sunny's masters thesis investigated the epigenetic mechanisms by which hypoxia impacts immune function. He used in vitro and in vivo high-altitude exposure models to determine the impact of hypoxia on DNA methylation and histone modifications.
Hypoxia Modulates Histone H3 Modification Patterns in Human Peripheral Immune Cells
Email: sunny.virk@email.ucr.edu
Veronica Penuelas, MS
Veronica's masters thesis examined the long-term impact of COVID-19 on the neural control of breathing and the role of systemic inflammation in changes in ventilatory chemoreflexes.
Systemic Inflammation and Control of Breathing Patterns in Humans with History of COVID-19 Infection
David Ghukasyan, MS
David's masters thesis identified biomarkers of stress erythropoiesis occurring during acute high altitude travel.
Extramedullary Stress Erythropoiesis as an Adaptive Response to High-Altitude Hypoxemia
Medical student alumni:
Andrew Dong
Carlos Rubio
Isuru Karunatillaka
Lucia Hong
Brian Chan
Anser Qazi
Undergraduate alumni:
Miriam Agaibi
- Honor's Capstone Thesis: Sociodemographic contributors to hypoxia and hypercapnia-induced dyspnea
Taleen Shomar
Natalie Dennis
Ledia Nasr
Borena Lonh
- Chancellor's Research Fellow: A critical analysis of the Respiratory Distress Observational Scale
Lorenzo Bazzani
Saheli Shah
Marco Cordero
Keval Parikh
- Honor's Capstone Thesis: Inflammatory Gene Expression during Acute High-Altitude Exposure
Nikhil Puvvula
Britney Oeung