- PhD students
YEAR 7+
Jennifer Park
My research project aims to lay the foundation for targeting TIM gain-of-function as a way to sensitize cancer cells to oncogene-induced DNA replication stress. Our goal is to provide mechanistic insight into how deprotection of stalled forks potentiates oncogene-induced senescence (OIS) and how pre-malignant cells under replication stress overcome OIS and establish oncogenic transformation Advisor: Hyungjin Kim YEAR 6
Jay Gupta
Inhibiting FABP5 to reduce Nociceptor Hyperexcitability and Spontaneous Pain induced by Spinal Cord Injury Advisor: Michelino Puopolo 
Kathryn Malone
Assessing the effect of importing alpha localization on breast cancer migration and metastasis Advisor: Christopher Brownlee 
Andrew Resnick
Studying the role and function of Neutral Sphingomyelinase 2 in Breast Cancer Advisor: Christopher Clarke 
Zijian Shao
Dystrophins in Oligodendrocytes: New Insight into Brain Phenotypes in Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy Advisor: Holly Colognato 
Isaiah Taylor
Elucidating the effects of microgravity on skeletal homeostasis Advisor: David Komatsu YEAR 5
Gabriel Brill
I am studying the lipid mediated affects of IAPP on pancreatic beta cell insulin secretion and pancreatic beta cell toxicity Advisor: Dan Raleigh 
Arafat Khan
The role of DNA replication proteins in coordinating DNA damage responses and cellular senescence mechanisms when challenged with cytotoxic chemotherapy agents. Advisor: Hyungjin Kim 
Rideeta Raquib
Investigating how diverse membranes impact diacylglycerol O-acyltransferase 2 (DGAT2) activity and structurally characterizing a critical substrate donor enzyme in a unique bacterial sphingolipid pathway Advisor: Michael Airola 
Nathaniel Sweet
I am studying how diapause programs suspend developmental processes with no adverse affect on life Advisor: Chi-Kuo Hu 
Tuba Thakir
Studying how tumor-derived PTHrP–induced hypercalcemia drives cardiac dysfunction and arrhythmias in cancer cachexia Advisor: Tobias Janowitz YEAR 4
Javier Anduaga
Small and large molecule drug discovery for protein tyrosine phosphatases in metabolic disease, cancer, and neurological and neurodevelopmental diorders Advisor: Nicholas Tonks 
Jack Bauer
Yarrowia lipolytica origin licensing: structural biology, biochemistry, binding/kinetics Advisor: Lemor Joshua-Tor 
William Noah Brett
I have two research projects : 1) Investigating the role of cell cycle transcription factors in multiciliogenesis, and 2) Determining the role of DNA damage checkpoint proteins in multiciliogenesis Advisor: Ute Moll 
Adriana DiBua
Characterization of novel astrocyte subtype in HIV-induced neuropathic pain Advisor: Shao-Jun Tang 
Mark Maurelli
Niacin as an analgesic against nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor (NRTI)-induced pain Advisor: Shao-Jun Tang 
Cuilee Sha
Necrotizing enterocolitis is a gastrointestinal disease of prematurity that results in neurodevelopmental delay and impairments in surviving patients. My research project uses both in vivo and in vitro models to elucidate key molecular and cellular factors that link the gut and brain in this devastating condition Advisor: Helen Hsieh YEAR 3
Ana Candia Flores
AMPK role in regulating oligodendrocyte myelination and differentiation Advisor: Holly Colognato 
Julia Gattozzi
Dissecting cellular heterogeneity and mechanisms of treatment resistance in castration resistance prostate cancer Advisor: Flaminia Talos 
Chelsea Kirkland
Leveraging DNABERT for Cancer Genomics: A Deep Learning Approach to Uncovering Disrupted Gene Regulation in Colorectal Cancer Advisor: Ramana Davuluri 
Matthew Licht
Understanding the mechanisms of drug resistance, discovering drugs capable of overcoming resistance, and building tools to accomplish the former tasks Advisor: Ivet Bahar 
Ruby Pan
Investigating the role of CCDC186 in neurodevelopmental epilepsy Advisor: Ken-ichi Takemaru 
Laurel Schappell
Features and consequence of microglial phagocytosis of neutrophils in ischemic stroke Advisor: Neil Nadkarni YEAR 2
Salma Balogun
Studying alternative polyadenylation (APA) in podocyte injury and glomerular disease, focusing on kidney-specific genes and the therapeutic modulation of APA isoforms using antisense oligonucleotides. Advisor: Shipra Agrawal 
Brian Farrell
Abl Kinase Allosteric Resistance Mechanisms Advisor: Markus Seeliger 
Michael Fiore
Characterization of specific disease associated variants (DAVs) in the C- Terminal domain of the GluN2B subunit of N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptors Advisor: Lonnie Wollmuth 
Sabrina Hafeez
Elucidating the role of NMDA receptors on the development of neural crest cells. Advisor: Benjamin Martin 
Rulan Jiang
Structural and Functional study of INO80 chromatin remodeler in DNA damage response Advisor: Dongyan Tan 
Natalie Lo
My project studies how genotoxic anti-cancer therapies trigger DNA replication fork instability to modulate cell fate from therapy-induced senescence towards cell death in the context of ovarian cancer Advisor: Hyungjin Kim 
Alexander Rhee
William Sander
Early epigenetic reprogramming primes the emergence of revival stem cells following intestinal injury Advisor: Agnieska Bialkowska 
Yushan Wang
Determining Chronic Arsenic Exposure Links to Brain Vascular Damage and Dementia Advisor: Ke-Jian Liu YEAR 1
Labiba Aziz
Allison Galante
Structure of peptide-NMDAR interaction in alzheimer's disease Advisor: Hiro Furukawa 
David Guber
Minxin Huang
Jaden Jimenez
Raisa Karim
characterizing the role of Klf5 in DSS-induced colitis (inflammation and recovery) using a VillinCreERT2 Klf5 fl/+ mouse model Advisor: Agnieska Bialkowska 
Yuxuan Lin
Investigating the role of TH in Pituitary Stem Cell Differentiation Advisor: Leonard Cheung 
Aaron Lyons
Shreya Madan
Abigail Murthy
Stilianos Papazahariou
Identifying epigenetic lesions in IDH-mutant gliomas Advisor: Gilbert Rahme 
Andrew Smith
Jasmine Stansil
Advisor: Shao-Jun Tang 
Katelyn Thompson
Naomi Young
- MS students
CURRENT STUDENTS
Morgan Flaherty
Mohamed Abdullah Hasanin
Kirankumar Sriramulu Indhu Kumar
Danielle Lambadis
Samira Akthar Uzzaman
Samantha Rose (Rosie) Walter
Jina Yim
Jiaying Zheng