Student Profiles
Francesco Cimino
Francesco.cimino@downstate.edu
Program: Molecular and Cellular Biology
B.S. Fordham University
Thesis Laboratory: Undecided
Research Interests & Experience: My previous research experience includes developing protein-based cancer therapeutics while at Fordham, and several years studying cancer metabolism at Memorial Sloan Kettering. I have a broad range of research interests including neurodegenerative diseases, cancer biology, and metabolism.
Gabriela Giordano
gabriela.giordano@downstate.edu
Program: Molecular and Cellular Biology
B.S. Brandeis University
Thesis Laboratory: Undecided
Research Interests & Experience: Background in basic molecular biology research, specifically eukaryotic transcription processes and bacterial DNA repair.
Hunter Rice
Program: Neural and Behavioral Sciences
B.S. Cornell University
Thesis Laboratory: Undecided
Research Interests & Experience: My research background is in basic neurobiology, specifically modulatory dopamine pathways, and clinical neurology, as it relates to traumatic brain injuries and anti-seizure medications. My current research interest is in traumatic brain injuries and post-traumatic epilepsy.
Rana Azab
Program: Neural and Behavioral Sciences
B.S. City college of New York
Thesis Laboratory: Undecided
Research Interests & Experience: I am Interested in deciphering the biochemical pathways in neurodegenerative diseases with a focus on causative gene mutations seen in degenerative diseases such as Lewy body dementia and Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
Lianlen Joy Go Distor
lianlenjoy.distor@downstate.edu
Program: Molecular and Cellular Biology
B.S. Loyola Marymount University (BS Biochemistry-ACS certified, and MS Healthcare Systems Engineering)
Thesis Laboratory: Undecided
Research Interests & Experience: PhD in Molecular and Cellular Biology student, MS Healthcare Systems Engineer, and BS Biochemistry (and minor in Biology) graduate with experience in hypoglycemic effects, student dietary patterns, antibacterial activity, diabetes, and COVID-19's impact on youth. Additionally, Lianlen has clinical experience at Stanford University, worked in research at Kaiser Permanente, collaborated with UNESCO, and holds a patent related to her research in Diabetes. Skills include research methodology, data analysis, scientific writing, and collaboration within multidisciplinary teams. Interested in research related to cancer, cardiology, and learning/memory.
Madhavi Jere
Program: Neural and Behavioral Sciences, MD/PhD
B.S. Vassar College
Thesis Laboratory: Undecided
Research Interests & Experience: Molecular Neuroscience
Anushka Phadnis
Program: Molecular and Cellular Biology
B.S. University of Skövde
Thesis Laboratory: Undecided
Research Interests & Experience: My previous research spans from nutritional biology (understanding molecular effects of using iron supplements from different sources at molecular level) to cancer biology (developing therapeutic modalities targeting epigenetic regulators). I am extremely interested in pursuing research in either stem cell biology or cellular signaling.
Catherine Solis
Program: Neural and Behavioral Sciences
B.S. Syracuse University
Thesis Laboratory: Undecided
Research Interests & Experience: I have a strong interest in the mechanisms of learning and memory in psychiatric disorders.
Johanna Steinbrecher
johanna.steinbrecher@downstate.edu
Program: Molecular and Cellular Biology
B.S. BS from Oregon State University; MS from Illinois Institute of Technology
Thesis Laboratory: Undecided
Research Interests & Experience: My research career has spanned a variety of topics in both academia and industry and includes contributions to the fields of DNA repair, fungal evolution, allergic tolerance, radiobiology, and immunoassay development. I deeply enjoy applying the process of scientific discovery to improving human life.
Kianna von Maydell
kianna.vonmaydell@downstate.edu
Program: MD/PhD
B.S. Mills College
Thesis Laboratory: Undecided
Research Interests & Experience: Background in mammalian functional genomics and enhancer biology, interested in evolutionary developmental biology, gene therapy and functional genomics.
Tadeusz Wroblewski
taduesz.wroblewski@downstate.edu
Program: MD/PhD
B.S. University of Denver
Thesis Laboratory: Undecided
Research Interests & Experience: I am interested in computational genetics and research related to health disparities.
Evan Davis
Program: Molecular and Cellular Biology, MD/PhD
B.S. Stony Brook University
Thesis Laboratory: John Danias, MD/PhD, Departments of Opthalmology and Cell Biology
Research Interests & Experience: My background includes structural biology research using cryo-EM while at Stony Brook and codon analytics and transcriptomics at SUNY Albany. I'm interested in diseases of the eye, specifically glaucoma and macular degeneration, and enjoy learning and employing computational methods to solve biological problems.
Sonal Dharani
Program: Molecular and Cellular Biology
Sunday Joseph Fajobi
Program: Neural and Behavioral Sciences
B.Pharm. Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife
Thesis Laboratory: Undecided
Research Interests & Experience: My previous research was in neuropharmacology. I am currently interested in neurodegenerative diseases, particularly Alzheimer’s disease therapeutics.
Tarek Khashan
Program: Neural and Behavioral Sciences
B.S. West University of Timisoara
Thesis Laboratory: Undecided
Research Interests & Experience: Background in Neuroimmunology, Stem Cell Modeling, Neurodevelopmental and Neurodegenerative diseases, and cell isolation from fresh post-mortem brain tissue.
Interested in investigating the impact of cognitive state-altering methods on brain oscillations in vivo, and the molecular and cellular outcomes of these changes, such as: changes in gene expression, DNA methylation, synaptic plasticity, chromatin remodeling, and mitochondrial function of neurons, through different modeling approaches.
Syamantak Mukherjee
syamantak.mukherjee@downstate.edu
Program: Neural and Behavioral Sciences
B.S: Pune, India
Thesis Laboratory: Undecided
Research Interests & Experience: I started my research journey by studying Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma and how Epstein-Barr Virus is involved. However, having always been interested in neuroscience, during the final year of my graduation, I got the opportunity to work on therapeutics of Parkinson's Disease by targeting epigenetic modulators. My future goals lie in understanding the cellular and molecular underpinnings of neurodegeneration and memory dysfunction.
Lina Pedraza Ortiz
lina.pedrazaortiz@downstate.edu
Program: Molecular and Cellular Biology
Dativo Sanchez-Gonzalez
dativo.sanchez-gonzalez@downstate.edu
Program: Molecular and Cellular Biology
Fathema Z. Uddin
Program: Molecular and Cellular Biology, MD/PhD
B.S. The City College of New York (CUNY)
M.S. The City College of New York (CUNY)
Thesis Laboratory: Undecided
Research Interests & Experience: I have a strong interest in the field of Oncology. My previous research includes conducting CRISPR screens to discover drug targets in rare lung cancers with poor response to current therapies, including subtypes of lung adenocarcinoma and small-cell lung cancer. I also completed my Master’s thesis at The City College of New York where I investigated chemotherapy-induced cognitive-impairment in a rodent model. I aspire to continue building my investigative skills with my emergent medical knowledge at SUNY Downstate and bring innovative therapies for cancer patients.
Amelia Biswas
Program: Neural and Behavioral Sciences
B.S. Caldwell University
Thesis Laboratory: Undecided
Shreya Desikan
Program: Molecular and Cellular Biology, MD/PhD
B.S. Carnegie Mellon University
Thesis Laboratory: Chongmin Huan MD, PhD; Department of Cell Biology
Research Interests & Experience: My PhD Thesis is focused on studying defective Germinal Center B Cell tolerance in Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE/Lupus). Specifically, I am investigating how increases in immunoregulatory genes due to inadequate X Chromosome Inactivation (XCI) contribute to a novel B Cell tolerance pathway studied by our research team. With this work, we hope to elucidate a novel mechanism to improve our understanding of the gender and racial bias of SLE. I have previous experience studying pediatric autoinflammatory disease and hematopoietic stem cell generation in vitro in both academic and pharmaceutical settings. My clinical interests are largely focused in Obstetrics and Gynecology (OB/GYN).
Michelle Lam
michelle.lam-grad@downstate.edu
Program: Molecular and Cellular Biology
B.S. New York University
M.S. Fordham University
Thesis Laboratory: Thomas Postler, PhD (IAVI)
Research Interests & Experience: Immunology, public health, and vaccine development.
Molly Leitner
Program: Neural and Behavioral Sciences
B.S. Hamilton College
Thesis Laboratory: Undecided
Research Interests & Experience: My previous research interests and experience were in neurodegenerative diseases and metabolism. Currently I am interested in psychiatric disorders.
Xiang Li
Program: Molecular and Cellular Biology.
Tyler Lu
Program: Molecular and Cellular Biology
B.S. Rutgers University
M.S. Rutgers University
Thesis Laboratory: Undecided
Research Interests & Experience: I'm interested in neurovascular biology. In particular, I want to develop and work with stem cell-derived in vitro models of the blood brain barrier in the context of various diseases.
Pargol Mashati
Program: Molecular and Cellular Biology
B.S. Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences
M.Sc. Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences
Thesis Laboratory: Prem Premsrirut, MD, PhD; Department of Cell Biology
Research Interests & Experience: My main research interest is on cancer biology. My previous research was on lymphoblastic leukemia and currently I'm working on colorectal cancer.
Scott McElroy
Program: Neural and Behavioral Sciences
B.S. University of Minnesota - Twin Cities
Thesis Laboratory: Salvador Dura-Bernal
Research Interests & Experience: Formerly involved in the study of addiction and reward guided decision making using in vivo mouse models, my focus has since shifted to computational neuroscience. Currently, I am interested in studying the underlying mechanisms of disease states using data driven multi-scale models of the brain.
Daniel Mishan
Program: Neural and Behavioral Sciences.
Riley Morrone
Program: Neural and Behavioral Sciences
B.S. Virginia Tech
Thesis Laboratory: Peter Bergold, PhD; Department of Pharmacology and Physiology
Research Interests & Experience: My thesis work investigates the role of Tau protein isoform expression in histological and behavioral outcomes of Traumatic Brain Injury using in vivo models.
Leibish Nash
Program: Neural and Behavioral Sciences
M.A. University of Rochester
Thesis Laboratory: Jeremy Coplan, MD; Department of Psychiatry
Research Interests & Experience: Investigating molecular underpinnings, including PKMZeta, of learning and memory mechanisms in non-human primates.
Andrew Patera
Program: Molecular and Cellular Biology, MD/PhD
B.S. Johns Hopkins University
Thesis Laboratory: Prem Premsrirut, MD, PhD; Department of Cell Biology
Research Interests & Experience: My previous research in materials chemistry led to my interest in working on fabrication of biomedical devices and exploring probe-target interactions for sensing. Additionally, my clinical interests are in radiology, immunology, and infectious disease.
Anika Sanjana
Program: Neural and Behavioral Science
B.S. Caldwell University
Thesis Laboratory: Undecided
Research Interests & Experience: My background is in traumatic brain injury, chronic pain, and chronic stress in rodents. My interest is traumatic brain injury.
Radhika Singh-Agarwal
Program: Molecular and Cellular Biology
B.S. University of Delhi
M.S. Johns Hopkins University
Thesis laboratory: David Christini, PhD, Department of Physiology and Pharmacology
Research Interests & Experience: My research experience is with pluripotent stem cells and differentiating them to different cell types as a method to study human development and disease-modeling.
Andrew Wang
Program: Biomedical Engineering, MD/PhD
B.S. University of California, Berkeley
Thesis Laboratory: Jin Montclare, PhD; Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, NYU
Research Interests & Experience: Biomaterials for drug delivery, sensing, molecular imaging; Cardiovascular health.
Mia Yabut Wiese
mariamiacarmencita.wiese@downstate.edu
Program: Molecular and Cellular Biology
B.S. Yale University
M.S. New York University
Thesis Laboratory: Joseph Scandura MD PhD, Heme-Onc at Weill-Cornell Medicine
Research Interests & Experience: Hematopoiesis, vascular, and stem cell biology.
Post-Graduate MD/PhD
Rachel Furhang
Program: Neural and Behavioral Science
B.S. CUNY- College of Staten Island, Macaulay Honors College
Thesis Laboratory: Peter Bergold, PhD; Department of Pharmacology and Physiology
Research Interests & Experience: Chronic effects of brain injury, neurodegeneration, and the influence of sex on recovery from injury.
Dzov (Zoe) Singman
Program: Neural and Behavioral Science, MD/PhD
B.S. Stevenson University
Thesis Laboratory: Jacquelyn Meyers, PhD; Department of Psychiatry
Research Interests & Experience: Eating disorder and substance use disorder comorbidity.
Isaac Vingan
Program: Neural and Behavioral Science, MD/PhD
B.S. Binghamton University
Thesis Laboratory: Juan Marcos Alarcon, PhD; Department of Pathology
Research Interests & Experience: My project is focused on investigating the neuro-molecular changes that coincide with behavioral experiences in mice. Specifically, we are looking at the transcriptomic make up of the dorsal hippocampal network following the recall of a cognitively demanding behavioral paradigm known as active place avoidance. We plan to implement a variety of molecular techniques to interrogate the coincident transcriptional changes, such as, but not limited to: Bulk RNA-Seq, snRNA-Seq and Spatial Transcriptomics.