Meet Our Students

2025 Trainees

Alex Horowitz

Mentor: Akhil Chawla, MD

Project Title: Correlation of Circulating Tumor DNA with Risk Factors and Prognostic Outcomes in Pancreatic Cancer

Kaitlyn Hurka

Mentor: Patricia D. Franklin, MD, MPH

Project Title: Utilization of Patient Reported Outcome Measures to Assess Knee Osteoarthritis Outcomes among Patients with Diabetes

Kwonjae Lee

Mentor: Anna Pfenniger, MD, PhD

Project Title: The Impact of Titin Truncating Variants on Skeletal and Cardiac Muscle in a Porcine Model of Atrial Fibrillation and Heart Failure

Juan McCook

Mentor: Matthew Feinstein, MD

Project Title: Immunologic and Inflammatory contributors to HIV-Related Heart Failure with Preserved Ejection Fraction (HFpEF)

Iqra Mohammed

Mentor: Praveen Thumbikat, PhD

Project Title: The Impact of PD-1 Knockdown in CD4+ T Cells and Sensory Neurons on Neuroimmune Interactions in Chronic Pelvic Pain Models: Investigating Sex-Specific Differences

Hasan Munshi

Mentor: Susan Quaggin, MD

Project Title: Identification of Cellular Determinants Impacting Mesangial Cells in IgA Nephropathy

Krishay Sridalla

Mentor: David Bentrem, MD & Joshua Meeks, MD, PhD

Project Title: Optimizing Cost-Effectiveness in Bladder Cancer Detection: A Refined Diagnostic Approach for Asymptomatic Microhematuria

Melinda Xu

Mentor: Lindsay Allen, PhD

Project Title: Cost-Effectiveness Analysis of Pediatric Food Security Interventions

2024 Trainees

Devin Srivastava

Mentor: Satish Nadig, MD, PhD

Project Title: Examining Therapeutic Indications of Connexin 43 Modulation in Organ Pretreatment for Transplantation

Rhea Sharma

Mentor: Zachary Dietch, MD, MBA

Project Title: Prevalence and Correlates of Cognitive Impairment and Patient-Reported Outcomes After Kidney Transplantation

Olise Oputa

Mentor: Faraz Ahmad, MD, MS

Project Title: A Novel Approach to Understanding Clinical Inertia in Diabetic Patients with Hypertension

Divy Kumar

Mentor(s): Zach Wood-Doughty, PhD, Vinayak S. Rohan, MD, Satish Nadig, MD, PhD

Project Title: Predicting Optimal Kidney Transplant Time for Diabetic Kidney Disease (DKD) Patients

Austin Chen

Mentor: Jacqueline Burke, PhD

Project Title: Novel Nanomedicine Increases Tolerance-Associated Species in the Gut Mibrobiota of Non-Obese Diabetic Mice

Parker Jones

Mentor(s): Hadijat Makinde, PhD, Deborah Winter, PhD

Project Title: Characterizing the Contributions of Myeloid Cells to Limited and Diffuse Cutaneous Systemic Sclerosis

Simone Gottlieb

Mentor: Jaehyuk Choi, MD, PhD

Project Title: Characterizing the Tumor Cells and Tumor Microenvironments of Cytotoxic Cutaneous T cell Lymphomas

Julia Greenwood

Mentor: Amani Fawzi, MD

Project Title: Characterizing Pericytes and Retinal Vasculature in Normal Human Postmortem Eyes

2023 Trainees

Iris Bai

Mentor: Hassan Ghomrawi, PhD, MPH

Project Title: Examining the association between heart rate variability(measured by a consumer wearable)and pain in pediatric patients undergoing appendectomy

Megan Ezeude

Mentor: Jaehyuk Choi, MD, PhD

Project Title: Molecular analyses of cutaneous lymphomas in skin of color

Taylor Keys

Mentor: Tara Lagu, MD, MPH

Project Title: Development, Validation, and Results of Model to Measure Rates of Cardiac Rehabilitation Use after Myocardial Infarction or Cardiac Surgery

Oluwadamilola Omojola

Mentor: Lisa Hirschhorn, MD, MPH

Project Title: Sexual Health and Functioning in Older Adults in Countries in Africa

Hannah Soltani

Mentor: Amy Paller, MD

Project Title: Identifying Druggable Targets of Acanthosis Nigricans via Bulk Transcriptomics

Fatoumata Sylla

Mentor: Patricia Durkin Franklin, MD, MPH

Project Title: Investigating the Impact of a Web-Based Decision Aid in Shared Decision Making When Treating Hip and Knee Arthritis

Connor Workman

Mentor: Amisha Wallia, MD; Vehniah K Tjong, MD

Project Title: The Epidemiology of High School Sports Injuries Related to Obesity and Chronic Disease: A National 10-Year Comparison and Retrospective Cohort Analysis