Our People

Minna Mohamed

Hometown: Khartoum, Sudan

Major: Systems/Behavioral Neuroscience
Research interest: Understanding the effects of traumatic brain injuries on the brain and behavior as well as the hormonal mechanisms associated with them across different stages of development.

Joshua Jeyandran

Hometown: Delaware, OH  

Major: Medical Anthropology  
Research interest: I study ocular biomechanics, focusing on how the eye responds to external forces, the progression of diseases like glaucoma and keratoconus, and their disproportionate impact on ethnic minorities.

Nallely Segura

Hometown: Immokalee, Florida  

Major: Biology  
Research interest: My research focuses on using community-based approaches to analyze neighborhood factors and how they play a role in substance abuse (alcohol and tobacco) in Latino youth.

Aaron Smith

Hometown: Akron, OH  

Major: Biology  
Research interest: My research studies how viral infections in respiratory system drives asthma and the role allergic diseases have in influencing certain immune responses.

Vince Kawana

Hometown: Dublin, OH  

Major: Biochemistry  
Research interest: My research Focuses on understanding how interactions between oral microbes affect the transition of oral health disease.

Liam Garrison

Hometown: Portsmouth, OH  

Major: Biochemistry  
Research interest: My research Peptide delivery of cell-mediated immunotherapeutic STING agonist.

Muskan Moni

Hometown: Columbus, OH  

Major: Neuroscience   
Research interest: My research in Dr. Pitter’s radiation oncology lab investigates the mechanisms driving radiation resistance in Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma & my research examined the timeline of induction and repair of radiation-induced DNA damage using immunofluorescence.  

Fikir Arega

Hometown: Columbus, OH   

Major: Neuroscience
Research interest: My research is on the development and optimization of operant behavioral testing using touchscreen chambers for research using mouse models.  

Journee Byrd-Allen

Hometown: Cleveland, Ohio   

Major: Pyschology   
Research interest: This summer, my research at Nationwide Children's Hospital focused on a systematic review examining stress and coping mechanisms in Black birthing communities, identifying effective interventions to improve birth outcomes, while also conducting a comprehensive literature review on racial disparities in the frequency of bullying and the dynamics of friendship formation and maintenance.  

David Torres

Hometown: New Albany, Ohio

Major: Food Science & Technology and Sustainable Agriculture   
Research interest: I'm conducting a systematic review on growth charts for children with genetic disorders and developing a survey to investigate how acculturation in immigrant families influences the eating habits of their children.  

Morgan Mack

Hometown: Pataskala, OH   

Major: Biology  
Research interest: In the Gunderson lab, I focused on initiating lymphocyte formation in tumors to help improve breast tumor response rate to immunotherapy.

Sean Matambo

Hometown: Naperville, Illinois    

Major: Pyschology
Research interest: Understanding the cellular mechanisms of cellular membrane repair.   

Julie Martinez

Bella Donnelly

Hometown: Dayton, Ohio   

Major: Biology
Research interest: I’m involved in dental research studying different potential treatments to mediate the oral biological defects of X-linked hypophosphatemia.