Current Members

Ignacio Fernandez Mata, PhD

Ignacio Fernandez “Nacho” Mata, PhD is the principal investigator of the Mata Lab. He studied biology at the Universidad de Oviedo in Spain, where he later obtained a PhD in neurogenetics. He has been researching the genetics of neurological disorders, especially Parkinson’s Disease, since 2001. He has been very fortunate to have trained with some of the best in the field at the Mayo Clinic, the University of Washington, and the VA Puget Sound. In 2006, Nacho was invited to a meeting by SOLAMA, the Latin American movement disorder society, in Lima, Peru. There he had the opportunity to meet some incredible movement disorder specialists from several Latin American countries who were very eager to have access to genetic testing for their patients. Nacho offered to help, and LARGE-PD was born. He began working at the Cleveland Clinic in September of 2018. Nacho hopes to do everything possible to advance the field of Parkinson’s disease, which will help to provide better care for patients and hopefully be able to slow or stop the disease all together someday soon. In LARGE-PD, his motivation is to ensure that these advances apply to everyone, regardless of their ethnicity or country of origin. He wants to assist in building the necessary resources, both physical and in terms of personnel, to allow scientists in Latin America to perform high-quality research locally. Finally, Nacho would like to educate clinicians, researchers, and most importantly patients about genetics research and the importance of their participation, ensuring that these populations are not left behind. Outside the lab, Nacho enjoys traveling, biking, hiking, camping, and spending time with family.

Miguel Inca Martinez

Miguel Inca Martinez is the lab manager of the Mata Lab. He studied biology at Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos and obtained his master’s degree in human genetics at Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia in Peru. He has been working with neurogenetic diseases such as Huntington’s disease, spinocerebellar ataxia, Parkinson’s Diseases, and others since 2012. Miguel began his training at the Neurogenetics Research Center in Lima, Peru. In 2012, he began collaborating on the recruitment process of the LARGE-PD project in Peru, and by 2014, under the supervision of Nacho, he made a rotation at the University of Washington and the VA Puget Sound. Having the chance to learn about the clinic and the individuals affected by neurogenetic diseases, including Parkinson’s, linked a history to the samples with which he had always worked. This experience helped Miguel to understand how important this work can be for every affected person. His personal motivation behind his work with LARGE-PD is knowing that all the information that they produce as scientists will be used in favor of an individual and their family, regardless of their ethnicity or region of origin. In his free time, Miguel enjoys cooking Peruvian food and traveling.

H. Mauricio Chaparro-Solano, MD, MS

H. Mauricio Chaparro-Solano is a Fulbright scholar and Molecular Medicine PhD student at Cleveland Clinic. He obtained his medical degree from Universidad del Rosario, Colombia, where he also obtained a Master of Science in Human Genetics and worked for several years as a professor and researcher. Additionally, he has clinical experience in the diagnosis, genetic counseling, and treatment of hereditary and genetic conditions. He is passionate about personalized and precision medicine and is convinced of the importance of ensuring access to genomic public health for all populations. Currently, he is working on understanding how genetics is involved in the variability in response to treatment of Parkinson’s disease.

Nicolas Gutierrez

Nicolas Gutierrez is a Program Manager for the Mata Lab. He received a bachelor’s degree from Johns Hopkins University, where he studied neuroscience and psychology. Nicolas has worked in several research laboratories prior to arriving in the Mata lab, with a focus on neuroscience-oriented labs. He started working at the Cleveland Clinic in 2019 as a research coordinator in the department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. He joined the Mata team to further pursue research on Parkinson’s disease, and to contribute to LARGE-PD’s mission to work with Hispanic communities. Nicolas is incredibly interested in neurodegenerative diseases and their pathophysiology, genetics, and treatment.

Thiago Peixoto Leal, PhD

Thiago Peixoto Leal has Bachelor’s in computer science (Universidade Federal de São João del Rey, Brazil) and Master’s and PhD in Bioinformatics (Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Brazil) and has worked as a postdoctoral fellow at Mata Lab since April 2021. He previously spent nearly ten years working at the Human Genetic Diversity Laboratory (LDGH) with one of the greatest population geneticists in Brazil. They made many great achievements in the studies of Latin Americans, including mapping the admixture of Brazilian populations and inferring their admixture dynamics. They also investigated Native American populations in Peru, as well as how different African groups contributed to the formation of American populations during the African Diaspora. Recently he has devoted his research to understanding the impacts of admixture and the role of sex chromosomes in the onset and progression of Parkinson disease.

Emily Leininger

Emily Leininger earned her Bachelor of Science in Biology from Cleveland State University in May 2025. She is currently working as a Research Technician II, bringing prior experience from the Genomic Medicine Biorepository (GMB) at the Cleveland Clinic. Emily is passionate about advancing genetic research and is particularly interested in exploring the genetic underpinnings of Parkinson's Disease in her current laboratory role.

Valerie Rico

Valerie Rico is a research coordinator for the Mata Lab. She earned her bachelor's degree in Neuroscience from Brown University. Prior to joining the Mata Lab, she worked as a coordinator for projects focused on research ethics in Alzheimer's disease and human neurotechnology. Valerie is passionate about health equity and community-based organizing. She is interested in exploring how science research can be leveraged to address inequities in clinical care and healthcare systems more broadly. Outside of work, Valerie enjoys spending time with her pets, building Legos, and competing in triathlons.

Kamilah Zembower

Kamilah is a Research Technologist II at the Mata Lab. She is a certified Medical Laboratory Scientist (ASCP) and holds a Bachelor’s degree in Clinical Laboratory Science. She joined the Mata Lab in September 2024, driven by a desire to broaden her expertise beyond the clinical laboratory setting and gain deeper insight into the research processes that support the development of modern medicine and data-driven healthcare.

Emily Waldo

Emily Waldo is a bioinformatics technologist in the Mata lab. She joined the lab in July of 2023, following her graduation from Oberlin College with a BA in Biology, and has been thrilled to expand the her knowledge of neurodegenerative diseases and their genetic basis. She is particularly interested in local ancestry analysis, whole genome and long-read sequencing, and population-specific variants.

Research Students

Felipe Duarte-Zambrano, MD

Felipe Duarte-Zambrano is a Research Scholar at the Mata lab. He received his medical degree from the National University of Colombia. He is passionate about bringing together the clinical and basic neurosciences. Specifically, uncovering the genetic underpinnings of complex neurological traits and their application in precision medicine. He strongly believes in the importance of genomic research in underrepresented populations to leverage personalized care for all, and hopes to embody that premise in the future as a physician-neuroscientist.

Hannah Goo

Hannah Goo is a research student for the Mata Lab. She is an undergraduate student at Case Western Reserve University studying Chemical Biology and Psychology with goals of pursuing medicine in the future. Some of her interests include genomics research and she believes that diverse representation is important in the scientific community.