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Alyaa Dawoud

May 26, 2023

Alyaa Dawoud
adawoud@unc.edu 

Originally from: Cairo, Egypt 
Previous institutions: German University in Cairo 
Research interests: Cancer Biology, Immunology, Molecular Biology

“I am interested in studying cancer immunotherapy as well as the molecular mechanism in cancer, particularly brain cancer.”

Katherine Descant

May 26, 2023

Katherine Descant
katherine_descant@med.unc.edu 

Originally from: Louisiana, USA 
Previous institutions: Reed College 
Research interests: Neurobiology

“I’m interested in pursuing neuroscience research that explores the connection between neural circuit development and modulation with behavior. Specifically, what happens when these circuits are misregulated as a lens for better understanding neuropsychiatric and neurodevelopmental disorders.”

Michael Sullivan

May 26, 2023

Michael Sullivan
michsull@ad.unc.edu 

Originally from: California, USA 
Previous institutions: California State University – Fullerton 
Research interests: Cancer Biology, Nanomedicine, Translational Medicine

“I am interested in developing therapeutics for various cancers and diseases using RNA and RNA delivery. I hope to connect this research to translational medicine or pharmaceutical industry.”

Emily Hand

May 26, 2023

Emily Hand
emhand@unc.edu 

Originally from: Wisconsin, USA 
Previous institutions: University of Wisconsin – Oshkosh 
Research interests: Bacteriology, Pathogenesis & Infection, Translational Medicine

“I am interested in the intersection of microbial pathogenesis and translational/public health applications. Broadly, this includes infectious diseases, the microbiome, translational/clinical research, and epidemiology.”

Claire Reist

May 26, 2023

Claire Reist
reist@ad.unc.edu 

Originally from: North Carolina, USA 
Previous institutions: Rollins College 
Research interests: Biochemistry, Immunology, Translational Medicine

“I am interested in translational research with a biochemistry/molecular biological approach to understanding mechanisms of disease and identification of potential therapeutic approaches toward treatment. My previous work has focused on airway infection of Cystic Fibrosis and other respiratory diseases. I would like to continue working in a lab whose focus is producing applicable results that directly benefit human health and accelerate the movement of scientific discoveries into clinical practice.”

Emma Huang

May 26, 2023

Emma Huang
yuchenh@unc.edu 

Originally from: North Carolina, USA 
Previous institutions: National Defense Medical Center 
Research interests: Bioinformatics, Computational Biology, Genetics

“I would like to focus on developing statistical methods for modeling the effect of genetic variation among immunologic phenotypes in lung diseases, especially asthma.”

Brian Pyo

May 26, 2023

Brian Pyo
brianpyo@email.unc.edu 

Originally from: Seoul, South Korea 
Previous institutions: Korea University 
Research interests: Pharmacology, Systems Biology, Toxicology

“I am interested in how xenobiotics (drugs, nutrients, environmental contaminants, etc.) positively or negatively affect human health. I’m also interested in developing and utilizing systems biology multi-omics approach to answer these scientific questions.”

Paolo Guerra

May 26, 2023

Paolo Guerra
pguerra@unc.edu 

Originally from: Arizona, USA 
Previous institutions: University of Arizona 
Research interests: Cancer Biology, Cell Biology, Molecular Biology

“I enjoy understanding the cell’s regulation of post translational modification of proteins. Understanding how this mechanism can change a cell’s function and even a cell’s fate is fascinating. It’s also a great area to research as it provides a great deal of therapeutic targets for disease.”

Archishma Kavalipati

May 26, 2023

Archishma Kavalipati
askav@unc.edu 

Originally from: California, USA 
Previous institutions: University of California – San Diego 
Research interests: Bioinformatics, Computational Biology, Genomics

“My primary interest is understanding the functions of intronic DNA sequences and noncoding RNA. I’m interested in contributing to the development of methods and algorithms to uncover these functions with respect to their role in human disease. Specific areas of interest include cancer development and women’s health.”

Marcin Ogrodniczuk

May 26, 2023

Marcin Ogrodniczuk
marcino@ad.unc.edu 

Originally from: Pennsylvania, USA 
Previous institutions: East Stroudsburg University of Pennsylvania 
Research interests: Bacteriology, Pathogenesis & Infection, Pathology

“I’m interested in microbiology and infectious disease research. I am particularly interested in the use of animal models to understand immune system mechanisms.”