I was born and raised in the Columbus area and went to THE Ohio State University for undergrad, graduating in 2021. Throughout undergrad I was a research intern at The Institute for Genomic Medicine at Nationwide Children's Hospital which revealed my passion for genetics research of pediatric diseases. After graduating, I moved labs within NCH and worked for a year in the Center for Gene Therapy where I gained experience and new perspectives on the field of rare diseases and the development of treatments for them. I am hoping to pursue a career in pediatric rare disease research, and am excited to see how my time in the Biomedical Sciences Graduate Program helps get me there.
I grew up in the suburbs of Chicago, Illinois. I went out west to Los Angeles, where I completed my Bachelor of Science at Harvey Mudd College in 2018. During my undergraduate studies, I completed my senior research thesis in Dr. Daniel Stoebel's lab studying the stress response in related strains of enteric bacteria. I took two gap years after graduating to pursue an opportunity in industry research at a start up company, A2 Biotherapeutics. There, I gained experience innovating and engineering adoptive cell therapies in the CAR-T and TCR-T cell space. I am beyond excited to deepen my knowledge of immunology at the Ohio State. As an MSTP student, I aspire to pursue research questions that reveal pathways and mechanisms that can be harnessed for the benefit of human health and push forward our understanding of the immune system.
I was born in New Taipei City, Taiwan. I graduated from National Taiwan university with a degree in microbiology and immunology. During my time at NTU, I worked in a lab focusing on immunotherapy and gene therapy. Under the guidance of Dr. Mou, my two major projects during my master’s degree, one focusing on protein engineering through directed evolution in vivo improving the protein activity within a short evolution time and taking into clinical application effectively. The other one is bacteria-based immunotherapy which takes advantage of tumor targeting and serves as vectors driving the drugs to the tumor microenvironment specifically. Through these two projects I learned, my interests and competence are related to the cancer research and immunology area. I am excited to pursue my PhD in Ohio State University’s Biomedical Sciences Graduate Program. Understanding the need for cancer research, I look forward to training with its outstanding faculty and contributing to microbiology and immunity.
For my undergraduate education, I attended The College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts where I earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Biology. After graduation, I began my research career in Dr. Christopher Breuer’s lab at Nationwide Children’s Hospital. My work thus far has been focused on tissue engineering as a viable strategy to produce novel biomaterials and improve patient outcomes. The multifaceted clinical applications of tissue engineering sparked my interest in the field of translational medicine, which I hope to explore further through the Biomedical Sciences Graduate Program at Ohio State University.
I am from Jinan, China. I studied computer science at the City University of Hong Kong. In July 2020, I graduated with the Bachelor of Science in Computer Science degree of First-Class Honors. I joined the Biomedical Science Graduate Program in May of 2021. Currently, I work in Dr. Kin Fai Au’s lab. We are focusing on developing computational and statistical methods for analyzing biological data. To be more specific, our lab members are handling third-generation transcriptome and epigenetics sequencing data, which can contribute to the study of breast cancer and stem cell. For my research interests, I am interested in creating easy-to-use software to accelerate bioinformatics analysis and developing efficient computational methods to discovering novel biological findings from highly complex biological data.
I am from Jinan, Shandong, China, and hold a Bachelor’s and master’s in computer science. I joined the Biomedical Science Graduate Program in August of 2024. Currently, I work in Dr. Elshad Hasanov’s lab. I am dedicated to researching brain metastasis and hope to incorporate machine learning or deep learning into my research.
I made up my mind to keep studying biology after participating in the 2017 and 2018 International Genetically Engineered Machine competition (iGEM). The giant jamboree held in Boston is a great carnival for all the students and scientists working in synthetic biology. Though it is a really new area, the combination of engineering and biology provides numerous solutions towards different fields of the society and human lives, such as environment, energy and medication. The project of team TU Delft has left me with great impression this year, who provided a great solution of genetic doping. It made me feel excited to see researchers could put theories into practice and solve real problems. Though I believe synthetic biology provides a prospective, natural and efficient answer to these problems, the new area needs a boost. I wish to make contributions to the development of synthetic biology and reveal the mechanism of how our body works together. The four years of study brings me the fundamental knowledge of biology. Now I hope to become a specialist from my graduate study and learn how to become a scientist.
I was born in China but spent my teenage years in New York, where I attended high school near Westchester, NY. I graduated from the University of California, Davis, with a major in Statistics and a minor in Economics. I earned two master’s degrees: one from the University of Pennsylvania and one from Tulane University. These experiences have allowed me to combine my interests in both healthcare and quantitative science. My research focuses on biomedical informatics, and what excites me most about it is its capability to bridge the gap between theoretical models and experimental observations. This belief drives my interest in using and developing advanced statistical methods and computational tools for genomics research.
I am from Hefei, China. I enrolled in the Bioinformatics program at the Dalian University of Technology in 2018. After receiving my bachelor's degree, I continued to navigate into the field of Bioinformatics at the University of Copenhagen and received my master's degree. In the fall of 2024, I joined the BMI program under the supervision of Dr. Lijun Cheng. Currently, I focus on utilizing deep learning methods to optimize CRISPR sgRNA design.
I'm from China. I came to the US in 2019 and attended the Ohio State University in Columbus, OH. I will graduate in May 2021 with my MS program in the college of public health. During these two years, I am a member of Dr. Lang Li's lab in the college of medicine. Our research focuses on extracting phenotypes of diseases or adverse drug events from medical-related literature with natural language processing algorithms. The main purpose of our study is to build a comprehensive corpus that includes diseases/adverse drug events and corresponding phenotypes. My personal research interests are in how we can improve the natural language processing algorithms to extract the phenotype more comprehensiveness with less missing. In other words, I am interested in how to realize data reuse in the realm of medicine.
Born and raised in Lanzhou, China (famous for its beef noodles), I was lucky to attend Tianjin Nankai High School for my senior high, where my interest in biology and computer science first started. I continued my academics and research at the Dalian University of Technology for 4 years, graduating in the summer of 2022. In the fall of the same year, I joined the BMI program under the supervision of Dr. Cheng to continue my research in cancer and immunotherapy. Go Buckeyes!
I grew up in the Washington DC area, and attended Ohio State for my undergraduate education. I majored in Mathematics and Physics, graduating in 2018. At OSU I joined the lab of Dr. Richard Fishel in the Department of Cancer Biology and Genetics. In his lab I worked on implementing new methods of florescent labeling proteins, which I used to design new single molecule assays and develop a drug screen. As a graduate student in the BSGP I plan to continue research with Dr. Fishel, and will be working on understanding the underlying molecular mechanism behind Huntington’s disease. Outside of the lab I love reading, boardgames and cooking.
I was born in Mexico City, raised in Los Angeles, California and graduated high school in Newark, Ohio, just east of Columbus. I continued my academic career at The Ohio State University, graduating Cum Laude with a Bachelor of Arts in Spanish Linguistics and Bachelor of Science in Microbiology. As an undergraduate I was involved in various organizations supporting the Latino community on campus as well as the greater Columbus area. During the summer of my junior year I participated in Ohio State’s Summer Research Opportunities Program (SROP), whose aim is to introduce underrepresented minority groups to academic scientific research. I worked under the guidance of Dr. Dehua Pei in the Department of Chemistry on recombinant protein production and enzymatic amino acid synthesis. I currently work in the laboratory of Dr. Kristine Yoder studying retroviruses like HIV. Specifically, we focus on the integration step of the retrovirus life cycle, in which the viral cDNA is inserted into the host genome. My project aims to characterize the real time kinetics of this process using a combination of biochemical and single-molecule (sm-) imaging techniques, including sm-magnetic tweezers and sm-Total Internal Reflection Fluorescence Microscopy (TIRF-M). My research has revealed the possibilities of using single molecule techniques to better understand complex biological systems. I look forward to pursuing my interests and gaining fundamental research training from the multitude of expert faculty in this program.
I’m from Phoenix, AZ. I graduated from Arizona State University with my Bachelor and Master of Science in Biological Sciences. I am now a Research Fellow in the Biomedical Sciences Graduate Program. As of June 2021 I am rotating in Dr. Timothy Cripe’s lab at Nationwide Children’s Hospital. The lab’s research focuses on developing targeted therapies for pediatric tumors. The team investigates the use of viruses that selectively infect and kill cancer cells. My personal goal is to develop safe and effective immunotherapies for translation to the clinic.
Lynn Marcho is from Gresham Oregon and graduated from the University of Maine in 2010 with a bachelor’s degree in Molecular Biology and a double major in Biochemistry. She has worked for the US Department of Agriculture, and more recently at The Ohio State University as a Research Associate for several years. The projects she has contributed to have varied from discovering genetic variants of agricultural diseases, to improving vascular surgery techniques, to creating viruses. She has a passion for interdisciplinary collaborations to solve complex problems and believes they result in major breakthroughs for the patient that could not be achieved by a single researcher alone. Her current research interests lie in developing new treatments for breast cancer patients with a focus on translational science and experimental therapeutics.
I was born and raised in St. Louis, Missouri. I attended college at the University of Missouri-Columbia, otherwise known as Mizzou, completing my Biological Sciences degree in 2018. After graduating, I received a position at the Cytogenomics and Molecular Pathology Laboratory at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, where I performed FISH (fluorescent in-situ hybridization), chromosomal microarray, and chromosome analysis to identify genetic abnormalities in clinical patients with various hematologic malignancies. In addition, I performed prenatal testing of products of conception, amniotic fluids, and chronic villi samples to help identify prenatal genetic disorders. During my time at the lab, I also performed research, examining the complex interaction of the tumor microenvironment in patients with multiple myeloma and other plasma cell neoplasms, identifying new targets for therapy. I joined the BSGP at OSU in 2021, with interests in CAR T-cell therapies and mechanisms of resistance in pediatric leukemia and lymphomas. In the future, I hope to make novel discoveries about cell-signaling interactions and support the development of anti-cancer agents through translational research.
I grew up in the suburbs of Minneapolis, Minnesota. I went to the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities where I completed my Bachelor of Science in Microbiology. Here, I joined Dr. Gary Dunny's lab examining the role of extracellular DNA in enterococcal biofilms and characterizing the role of autolysins in eDNA release. Subsequently, I obtained my Master of Public Health in Epidemiology with a minor in Biostatistics from the University of Minnesota, School of Public Health. During this time, I completed my thesis in Dr. Amy Linabery’s lab at Children’s of Minnesota investigating pediatric mild traumatic brain injury recovery using time-to-event and generalized linear mixed effect modelling and participated in the Uganda Research Training Collaborative examining surgical antibiotic prophylaxis in the context of antimicrobial resistance. Outside of research, I have two amazing dogs – Riley and Francis – who I love to go hiking with and take agility for fun classes! I am very excited to begin my MSTP training here at OSU.
I was born in Atlanta, GA, and I grew up in Cumming, GA. I joined the Biomedical Sciences Graduate Program in Summer 2022 after earning my Bachelor of Science degree in Microbiology from the University of Georgia in May of 2022. While at UGA, I worked in the lab of Dr. Eric Harvill, studying the host-pathogen interactions of Bordetella spp. infections. My work focused on the btrS gene, known to encode a sigma factor with immunomodulatory properties, and the differential immune cell populations recruited upon infection with a mutant lacking this gene. Since moving to Columbus, I have joined the lab of Dr. Adriana Forero, where I am joining a project investigating the host immune response associated with the formation of RNA:DNA hybrids in various cellular processes. I have also begun a project investigating the roles of these RNA:DNA hybrids in herpesvirus pathogenesis. I am excited to continue my work in host-pathogen interactions while expanding into the field of interferon-driven immunopathology.
I was born and raised in Madrid, Spain. I got my bachelor's degree in Biology at Universidad Autonoma de Madrid and then I did a Master's in Cell Biology and Genetics obtaining the degree from the Universidad Autonoma de Madrid, the Universidad Complutense de Madrid and the Universidad de Alcala de Henares. My thesis to obtain my bachelor's and master's degree focused on chromosome segregation during male meiosis in mice. Afterwards, I did an internship at the University of Birmingham where I worked on a research project on the effect of cisplatin on meiosis using Daphnia magna as an animal model. In the same year, after finishing my internship, I worked for two years at the university Rey Juan Carlos in collaboration with one of the most prestigious scientific institutes in Madrid, IDiPaz. In those two years, my research project consisted in using mesoporous silica nanoparticles applied to triple negative breast cancer. However, my dream has always been focused on studying the brain and now, I have the great opportunity to work in neurosciences under the supervision of Dr. Maria Ariza. My graduate student project focuses on studying the effect of herpesvirus proteins on neuronal cells.
My name is Michael Meyerink, and I am originally from South Carolina. My research career began in cellular biology with a specific focus on identifying differential gene expression in the adipocytes of female Drosophila Melanogaster; the goal of the research was to identify if there are subpopulations of adipocytes that played a role in inter-organ communication. I would later transition into the field of addiction neuroscience, where I studied the neurobiological changes induced by stress in the Pentapartite synapse within the Nucleus Accumbens of rodents. The overall aim of this research was to understand how acute stress increases the susceptibility to develop substance use disorders. Currently I would like to move towards translational research with a specific focus in cardiovascular science.
I am an international student from China, Beijing. Before I came to the US, I studied at Beijing University of Agriculture for my bachelor degree major in biotechnology. After graduation, I had nearly six years working experiences in the pharmaceutical field, including Product Line Supervisor in R&D department for molecular product research. I was graduated from IIT with an excellent performance, major in Cell and Molecular biology with master degree in 2018. I have worked with Dr. Alessandro Parodi in Dr. Malik`s lab in UIC Department of Pharmacology as a research assistant for nearly one year. In this work we demonstrated that macrophage exposed to antagonist inducers like IL4 and LPS favor mitochondrial toxicity and inflammatory phenotype. After graduate from IIT, I came to Dr. Zhao`s lab as a research associate. Our major goal is to investigate the role, especially the anti-inflammation function, of PTMs, like methylation, ubiquitination, phosphorylation, ISGylation on proteins to response to the bacteria or virus induced pulmonary inflammation disease, acute lung disease, idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, sepsis etc. It is my honor to join in the BSGP and follow with Dr. Yutong Zhao and Dr. Jing Zhao, who provied me strong academic atmosphere, free research environment and seasoned scholars. O-H-I-O!
I started my pursuit of translational research a decade ago during my undergraduate at University of Waterloo, Canada, as we learned about failed clinical and public health initiatives supported by solid basic research. This observation led Dr. Ward and I to planning a personalized education and work plan, which would expose me to multiple sectors that must work together for basic research to yield public health benefits. Since then, I have worked and learned from a dozen clinical research teams specializing in 10 medical disciplines across two countries, while attaining my graduate education in public relations and pharmacology. Dr. Joseph Kitzmiller’s background, research in pharmacogenomics, and vision of translational research resonates with mine thus, making his lab the ideal place for me to learn. I will be working in the field of pharmacogenomics, specifically with statin myopathies and utilizing biomedical informatics to set the stage for new clinical trials.
I am from San Diego, California. I went to the University of California San Diego, where I earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Biochemistry and Cell Biology in June 2017. During my time at UCSD I worked in Dr. John Yates III’s lab at the Scripps Research Institute. I worked in the field of proteomics, studying fruit fly hybrid proteomes as well as developing a method for accurate quantification at protein levels. I also volunteered at UCSD Moore’s Cancer Center where I worked with newly diagnosed patients. My senior year at UCSD, I worked briefly in a lab at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography studying deep sea sediment samples. Since graduation, I have been working as a lab manager for Dr. Derek Welsbie at UCSD Health studying glaucoma and neuron degeneration. Through both my experiences in research labs as well as my time volunteering at the cancer center, I have found my interest in medical research.
I graduated from the University of Puerto Rico in Rio Piedras with a Bachelor of Biology with a focus on Cellular Molecular Biology. During my undergraduate career, I worked in Dr. Patricia Burrowes’s lab investigating the effects of the pathogenic chytrid fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis in a population of coqui frogs at El Yunque Rainforest in Puerto Rico; and how these species were able to survive the disease considering interactions with the environment, host, and skin microbiome. I also was chosen to participate in the Institutional Award for Undergraduate Student Training (IAUST) summer internship at Nationwide Children’s Hospital. Under the direction of Dr. Kim Mcbride, I investigated whether the Potassium Inwardly Rectifying Channel Subfamily J Member 2 gene (KCNJ2) contributes to congenital bicuspid aortic valve disease. After graduating from the University of Puerto Rico, I was selected by the Discovery PREP program at The Ohio State University to gain more research experience for graduate school. I conducted research under the mentorship of Jeffrey Parvin, where I studied MHC-1 expression in cancer. Cancer cells often decrease MHC-1 expression to escape immune surveillance. Our goal was to increase MHC-1 expression modulating the Transporter Associated with Antigen Processing 2 (TAP2). My project consisted of testing whether inhibition of predicted kinases for possible phosphorylation sites in TAP2 will increase MHC-1 levels. My current research interests lie in cardiovascular and muscle physiology as well as cell biology. I am looking forward to learning new things every day and work towards a goal that could help others someday as I pursue my goal of becoming a research scientist.
I am originally from Pittsburgh, PA, and I moved to Columbus in 2017 to begin my undergraduate degree at Ohio State University. I graduated from Ohio State in May of 2021 with my Bachelor's of Science in Biomedical Engineering. I will be staying in Columbus to begin the Biomedical Sciences Graduate Program in June of 2021. My personal research interests focus on the mechanical and biological pathways of cancer metastasis. I am interested in using these pathways to further understand how metastasis occurs and how we can block these pathways to prevent it.
I was born and raised in Youngstown, Ohio, and attended Youngstown State University where I received a B.S in Biology with double minors in Chemistry and Music in 2019. During my senior year of college, I completed an undergraduate honors thesis studying vancomycin-resistant enterococci present in a lake near the university that was contaminated with human waste. My undergraduate thesis introduced me to the field of microbial ecology and curated an interest in microbiome science and host health. This interest led me to pursue a master’s degree in Comparative Biomedical Sciences here at The Ohio State University under the direction of Dr. Vanessa Hale. Throughout my master’s degree, I studied the urine microbiota in dogs. Specifically, I studied the microbial diversity and composition in urine from dogs with and without bladder cancer. I am also fortunate to have my first-author manuscript accepted for publication titled “Evaluating Extraction Methods to Study Canine Urine Microbiota” where I evaluated extraction methods suitable for canine urine microbiota studies. In BSGP, I am excited to continue my passion for microbiome science and its influence on host health and disease.
I'm from a small town in Ohio called Circleville. I graduated from The Ohio State University in the winter of 2020 with a Bachelor of Science in Microbiology. During my undergraduate studies, I spent time in the Tsichlis Laboratory working on projects regarding the genome-wide role of IWS1 in RNA processing for lung adenocarcinoma. Beginning in the summer, I will be performing laboratory rotations. My current research interests are focused on immuno-oncology and how potential cures can be found for cancer by using the body's immune system.
I grew in Appomattox, a small town in central Virginia in USA, where I developed a fascination for science but especially chemistry. At the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, Virginia, I studied chemistry for my Bachelor of Science degree and after graduating began working within the pharmaceutical industry. For a short period of time, I joined the post-baccalaureate IRTA program at the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) under Dr. Marilyn Huestis studying bio-analytical analysis of substances of abuse. From there, I shifted back into industry and joined Battelle Memorial Institute as a bio-analytical chemistry technician for 3 years then switched to microbiology at the Biomedical Research Center (BRC) for an additional 5 years. Within the BRC I supported research on vaccine efficacy for a variety of pathogens including Bacillus Anthracis, Francisella tularensis, Zika, Ebola viruses, and SARS-CoV-2. I conducted a variety of assays in our BSL2 and BSL3+ facilities to evaluate vaccine efficacy, additionally I contributed to the development of a novel detection assay for microneutralization titers of SARS-CoV-2 during the pandemic. It was during this time that I felt a renewed sense of interest in the underlying science of this research and decided to pursue a PhD. Here at OSU my research in Dr. Adriana Forero’s lab focuses on extrinsic factors that affect the anti-viral immune response through interferon signaling pathways.
I was born and raised in the city Sirsi in the state of Karnataka of India. I earned a degree of Bachelor of Engineering in Biotechnology in September 2014 from People’s Education Society Institute of Technology (PESIT) in Bangalore. In PESIT, I had the opportunity of working as an undergraduate research assistant under Dr. Shantha Lingaiah where I worked on micropropagation and biochemical analysis of the plant Averrhoa bilimbi. I completed my bachelors with my major project on ‘Structural elucidation of Humic and Fulvic acids’, under the guidance of my academic mentor, Dr. V Krishnamurthy. Following this, I had the privilege of working as an undergraduate research assistant during the summer of 2014 in Michigan State University under Dr. Phanikumar Mantha on identifying parsimonioius statistical models for E coli levels at fresh water beaches in Lake Michigan . My past experience in research has motivated me to continue research by becoming a doctoral student. I have joined the Strohecker lab where I am working on understanding the role of novel autophagy regulators in lung cancer using advanced microscopy and mouse genetics. I look forward to increasing my knowledge in autophagy and cancer biology. I am proud to be a part of Biomedical Sciences Graduate Program.
I am from Braintree, Massachusetts. I attended the University of Connecticut in Storrs, CT and graduated in May 2018 with a Bachelor's of Science in Molecular and Cell Biology. Since graduating, I have been working as a research technician at Dana Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, MA in the Center for Immuno-Oncology where we conduct immune monitoring of patients on active immunotherapy clinical trials to investigate biomarker discovery utilizing flow and mass cytometry. My research interests are broad and include cancer immunology, genetics, and therapeutic discovery.
I was born and raised in Alexandria, VA as a Buckeye fan. In 2017 I moved to Columbus to begin my undergraduate studies where I earned a BS in molecular genetics in May of 2021. Volunteering in Dr. Parvathi Ranganathan’s lab during undergrad, I continued to work as a technician for a year before joining the BSGP. There I gained an appreciation for immunology, which led me to this program where I can further pursue my research interests.
I was born and raised in Roanoke, Virginia. I attended High Point University (HPU) in High Point, NC, where I earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Biochemistry in May of 2024. During my time at HPU, I worked in two undergraduate labs, working with ESKAPE pathogens and flavoproteins. I had the opportunity to begin research during the first week of classes at HPU with ESKAPE pathogens, but it was not until my first summer at HPU that I knew graduate school was something I wanted to pursue. I participated in a Summer Undergraduate Research Program, which introduced me to the wonderful world of proteins, specifically flavoproteins. I then spent the next 2 years researching a putative flavoprotein from Thermus thermophilus as well as several other putative flavoproteins. My current research interests include microbial pathogens, proteins, genetic disorders, and rare diseases.
I am from Tehran, Iran. I attended Islamic Azad University Science and Research Branch, Tehran and graduated in September 2015 with my Master of Science in Molecular Genetics. In June of 2021, I will move to Columbus in order to matriculate into the Biomedical Science Graduate Program. I am going to be a member of Dr. David Carbone’s lab at OSUCCC-James Cancer Hospital and Solve Research Institute. Our research focus is on genetics, immunotherapy and tumor-associated immunosuppression mechanisms in lung cancer. The lab primary interests include the development of molecular biomarkers to guide patient’s management and therapy as well as molecular profiling of lung cancer due to development of therapeutic strategies. Regarding to my interests and goals, I hope that with my studies I can contribute to the understanding and development of novel ways of cancer treatment.
