Donor Testing Lab
Monica Ochoa, Technical Services Director
Monica brings over two decades of expertise in blood services and healthcare to her role as the Technical Services Director at Stanford Blood Center. Since joining SBC in 2001, she has been instrumental in driving the organization’s mission forward.
With a diverse background, Monica has held various pivotal positions within SBC, including Production Laboratory Operations Manager and Components Laboratory Supervisor. Her multifaceted experience also encompasses roles such as Laboratory Project Manager, Quality Assurance Specialist, and Laboratory Technician, demonstrating her versatility and dedication to the field.
Prior to her tenure at SBC, Monica honed her skills as a phlebotomist at the Blood Center of the Pacific and served as a Peer Educator at the Stanford Patient Education Center. Her journey in healthcare began in Mexico, where she graduated from medical school and initially served as an MD Supervisor in Guadalajara.
Outside of work, Monica values family time, often watching her son’s sports games. She enjoys traveling and hiking, finding solace in nature. This balance between work and personal life reflects Monica’s commitment to both her career and her passions.
Technical Services Leadership
- David Lancaster, Hospital Inventory Management Supervisor
- Krystal Macias, QC Testing Lab Supervisor
- Desireny Mateo, Testing Laboratory Supervisor
- Liem Nguyen, Testing Laboratory Operations Manager
- Dane Panesa, Testing Laboratory Supervisor
- Mayra Ramirez, Laboratory Supervisor
- Connie Ruizzorrilla, QC Testing Lab Supervisor
- Denise Williams, Laboratory Supervisor
HLA Lab
Dr. Bing (Melody) Zhang, CLIA Director, HLA Lab
Dr. Bing (Melody) Zhang is a Clinical Associate Professor in the Department of Pathology at Stanford University School of Medicine, and serves as Co-Director for the Histocompatibility & Immunogenetics Laboratory. She is also an attending pathologist practicing at the Stanford Molecular Pathology Service.
Dr. Zhang completed her clinical pathology residency training as well as subspecialty training in molecular genetic pathology, clinical genomics, and HLA at Stanford. She is board-certified by the American Board of Pathology in Clinical Pathology and Molecular Genetic Pathology. She is also a certified and fully credentialed HLA laboratory director by the American Society for Histocompatibility & Immunogenetics (ASHI) for the following areas: Solid Organ Transplantation – Deceased Donor, Solid Organ Transplantation – Live Donor, HSC/BM Transplantation – Related Donor, HSC/BM Transplantation – Unrelated Donor, Histocompatibility Testing for Other Clinical Purposes, and Transfusion Support.
Dr. Zhang currently serves as the Co-Chair of the American Society for Histocompatibility and Immunogenetics Science and Technology Initiatives Committee, and is a member of the Cellular Therapy and Basic Science Subcommittees. She also serves as a member of the CAP/ACMG Biochemical and Molecular Genetics Committee and ClinGen – Platelet Disorders Variant Curation Expert Panel.
Dr. Zhang’s primary research interests include new assay development and evaluation for the diagnosis and monitoring of patients receiving hematopoietic stem cell transplantation or solid organ transplantation, NGS-based T/B cell receptor clonality/MRD/repertoire testing, and HLA-related disease association/drug hypersensitivity testing.
Dr. Maneesh Kumar Misra, Co-Director, HLA Lab
Dr. Maneesh Kumar Misra, MS, PhD, F(ACHI) is the Co-Director of the Histocompatibility, Immunogenetics and Disease Profiling Laboratory, and is the Associate Professor of Clinical Pathology. He is certified by the American College of Histocompatibility and Immunogenetics.
His research and scholarly interests include allogeneic transplantation, autoimmunity, hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, immunogenetics, and solid organ transplantation. His research mainly focuses on the detection and functional characterization of alloantibodies in the setting of clinical allogenic transplantation. He has identified and characterized several novel HLA alleles, authored more than 23 peer-reviewed publications, and coauthored a book.
He received his PhD from Banaras Hindu University Institute of Medical Sciences in India, and subsequently held research positions at the Sanjay Gandhi Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences. He has completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine, and an American Society for Histocompatibility and Immunogenetics approved Director-in-training clinical fellowship in transplant immunology and immunogenetics at the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine. After finishing his clinical fellowship at the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine, he became an Assistant Professor and the Associate Director of the Transplant Immunology and Immunogenetics Section before moving to Stanford University.
Dr. Marcelo Fernández-Viña, Senior Investigator, HLA Lab
Marcelo Fernández-Viña, PhD, F (ACHI) is a Professor for the Department of Pathology at Stanford University Medical School and is the Director of the Histocompatibility & Immunogenetics Laboratory at the Stanford Blood Center.
Dr. Fernández-Viña has worked in the fields of histocompatibility and immunogenetics since 1982. He earned a degree in biochemistry from the School of Basic Sciences in Rosario, Argentina, and his PhD in internal medicine from the University of Buenos Aires Medical School in Argentina. Previously, he was a Professor in the Department of Laboratory Medicine at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. He has over 240 peer-reviewed publications, many of them focusing on HLA variation in multiple world populations, identifying susceptibility and resistance factors for diseases, and the impact of HLA mismatches in allogeneic transplantation. He has also written 59 book chapters.
Dr. Fernández-Viña has held the positions of President Elect, President and Past President of the American Society for Histocompatibility and Immunogenetics. He has served as a member of the Board of Directors United Network for Organ Sharing, Consultant for Donor Searches for the National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP); and on the Department of Health & Human Services’ Advisory Council on Blood Stem Cell Transplantation. He is Councilor and current President of the International HLA and Immunogenetics Workshop and is a member of the World Health Organization’s Nomenclature Committee for Factors of the HLA System. He has vast expertise in histocompatibility and tissue matching as well as in genetic mapping of susceptibility to autoimmune disorders. He serves as HLA Expert Consultant for the NMDP for the HRSA contract and is a member of the Histocompatibility Advisory Group for NMDP. He is also Section Editor of Human Immunology and an Advisory Board Member of the International Journal of Immunogenetics.
HLA Lab Leadership
- Gulpan Bains, HLA Administrative Manager
- Vanessa de Lima, Pre-Analytics Processing Supervisor, HLA Lab
- Megan Jeracki, HLA Laboratory Supervisor
- Arianne Mankey, HLA Clinical Lab Operations Manager
- Benjamin Miller, HLA Laboratory Supervisor
- Sarah Pihl, Quality Assurance and Administrative Supervisor
- Todd Shawler, HLA Laboratory Supervisor
- Kenneth Yim, HLA Laboratory Supervisor
Flow Cytometry Lab
Flow Cytometry Lab Team
- Khoa Nguyen, Flow Cytometry Lab Manager
- Cherie Barclay, Life Science Research Assistant
- Joanne Bautista, Life Science Research Assistant
- Farkhondeh Ziaei, Life Science Research Assistant
Stanford Blood Center
Dr. Edgar Engleman, SBC Medical Director
Harpreet Sandhu, CEO
Dan Gross, COO
Dr. Suchi Pandey, Chief Medical Officer
Dr. Tho Pham, Chief Medical Officer
Daniel Boñaga, Quality and Regulatory Affairs Director