A biotechnology predoctoral training grant from the NIH National Institute for General Medical Science pays stipend, tuition and fees for ten predoctoral fellows, with the Duke Graduate School contributing an eleventh and twelfth fellowship for non-US citizens.
Fellows
Hamidreza Arzaghi
Hamidreza earned his B.S. in Cellular Molecular Biology from the University of Guilian and his Masters from Iran University of Medical Sciences. He is in the Samira Musah lab using CRISPRa/i technology to precisely regulate gene expression in human podocytes. This approach aims to uncover key molecular pathways involved in podocyte injury and repair.
Sophia Colmenares
Sophia earned her B.S.E. in Chemical and Biological Engineering from Princeton University. She is in Daniel Reker's lab focusing on applying machine learning to investigate how molecular interactions influence drug metabolism.
Rachel Conover
Rachel has a combined B.S. and M.S. from Northeastern University in Bioengineering. She is a PhD student in the lab of Charlie Gersbach.
Stefan Golas
Stefan received his B.S. from University of Massachusetts, Amherst in Chemical Engineering. Hi is advised by Emma Chory.
Jake Klimek
Jake earned his BSE in Chemical and Biological Engineering from Princeton University. He is in the George Truskey lab studying Programmable Protein Degraders for Selective Progerin Knockdown in a Microphysiological Model of Progeria.
Bridget Linders
Bridget earned her B.S. in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Colorado, Boulder. She is in the Matthew Becker lab studying Self-Assembling Hydrogel Microparticles for Guided Nerve Regeneration.
Chanell Mangum
Chanell earned a B.S. in Bioengineering from North Carolina A & T University. She is a Ph.D student in Charlie Gersbach's lab studying Orthogonal Screening Approaches to Identify Novel Therapeutic Vulnerabilities in NF1 Neurofibromas and MPNSTs.
Mark Ochoa
Mark earned his B.S. in Physiology and Neuroscience/Chemistry at the University of California - San Diego. He is in Aravind Asokan's lab studying Engineering immunosuppressive strategies to reduce anti-AAV innate and adaptive immune responses.
Erica Peng
Erica received her B.S. from The University of California, San Diego in Bioengineering and Biotechnology. She is advised by Ashutosh Chilkoti.
Jeremy Thomas
Jeremy earned his B.S. in Biomedical Engineering from Texas A&M University. He is a PhD student in the lab of Tatiana Segura.
Kyra Van Batavia
Kyra earned her B.S. in Biomedical Engineering with an emphasis in Cell and Molecular Bioengineering from the University of Minnesota - Twin Cities. She is in John Hickey's lab studying Massively Parallelized T Cell Stimulation and Characterization for Enhanced in vivo Function.