Luke Daniel Ofria
Research Associate
Sanford Stem Cell Institute
Summary
Luke earned his B.S. in Bioengineering from UC Berkeley in 2021 and afterwards moved back home to sunny San Diego to work in the biotech industry. He worked for two companies in the three years he spent in industry, performing CRISPR Cas9-mediated gene editing and high-throughput screening of oligonucleotide-based medicine (OBM) therapeutics via next-generation screening (NGS).
In 2025, he gained his M.S. in Bioinformatics from Johns Hopkins University, where he worked with Dr. Cho and Dr. Kathuria. In Dr. Cho's lab, Luke leveraged optogenetic and optical mapping tools for the study of iPSC-derived cardiomyocyte organoids. In Dr. Kathuria's lab, he performed multi-omic analyses of iPSC-derived multi-region brain organoids.
Currently, Luke is working with the Yeo Lab as a Research Technician. When he is not in lab, he loves going on long hikes, surfing, snowboarding, and going to music festivals.
Education
B.S., Bioengineering, UC Berkeley, 2021
M.S., Bioinformatics, Johns Hopkins University, 2025
Publications
Kshirsagar, A., Mnatsakanyan, H., Kulkarni, S., Guo, J., Cheng, K., Ofria, L. D., ... & Kathuria, A. (2025). Multi‐Region Brain Organoids Integrating Cerebral, Mid‐Hindbrain, and Endothelial Systems. Advanced Science, 12(33), e03768.
Kim, C., Ofria, L. D., Kshirsagar, A., Gomez Flores, E., Kulkarni, S., Liu, A. Y., ... & Tilton, M. (2025). Paracrine Bone-Derived Senescent Secretome Induces Spatially Patterned ECM and Biomechanical Vulnerability in Human Brain Organoids. bioRxiv, 2025-08.
Ofria, L. D., Sosnowski, D. W., Pantula, A., Joshi, K., Maher, B. S., & Kathuria, A. (2026). Dual Transcriptomic and Epigenomic Signatures of THC Exposure in Human Prefrontal Cortex Development. bioRxiv, 2026-01.