Dr. Johanna Nunez is one of the newest additions to the Levi Laboratory as one of the senior resident research fellows at UTSW. She is a Northern California native who attended the University of California, Davis for undergrad and earned her B.S. in Neurobiology, Physiology, and Behavior with a minor in Anthropology. After college she worked at the UC Davis Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences studying cognition and memory though fMRI analysis. She then made the cross-country journey to the Medical University of South Carolina where she developed her love for surgery and received her MD. Dr. Nunez then matched into General Surgery at UT Southwestern and just completed her third year of training and is excited to join the Levi Lab for a 2-year research fellowship. She is passionate about burn surgery and plans on attending a burn and critical care fellowship upon the completion of her surgical training. Dr. Nunez’s research interests include burn injury and reconstruction outcomes, wound healing and regeneration, and heterotopic ossification.
Dr. Nunez’s work in the lab includes animal surgeries, immunofluorescence histology, imaging, and histological preparation/processing. Projects of interest include resident macrophage (CD169+) role in formation of heterotopic ossification along with investigation and validation of short wave infrared laser technology and its utility in evaluation of burn depth in patients.
Her hobbies and activities outside of the lab include basketball (huge Warriors fan), singing, and traveling.
We are very excited to see her work and accomplishments as an expert in the clinical domains and questions regarding the furthering of surgical patient care.