Alumni
Alumni
2024 MD/PhD Graduates
Since the University of Rochester began training MD/PhD physician-scientists in 1958, the program has progressively grown and innovated. As of May 2024, the program boasts over 220 graduates and produces an average of eight new physician-scientists each year. The 2023-2024 academic year will mark our 51st consecutive year of MSTP funding and 66th year training physician-scientists.
Alumni are invited to keep the program abreast of their personal and career successes through the MSTP office. Please also consider getting involved with our program through teaching our students in the MSTP curriculum, participating in symposia and retreats, hosting our students and alumni interviewing for residency and fellowship, and more. Finally, alumni are invited to support the continued success and growth of our program by making a gift to the program.
| Trainee | Degree Program | Thesis Title | Grad Year | Residency | Current Position |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| John Bennett | Chemistry | Chemoenzymatic Scaffold Diversification of Natural Products via Cytochrome P450-Catalyzed C—H Oxyfunctionalization | 2025 | Internal Medicine - Ohio State University | Residency |
| Gary Ge | Optics | Reverberant Elastography and Speckle Analysis for Brain Characterization | 2025 | Diagnostic Radiology - UCSF (prelim year at Providence Health in Oregon) | Residency |
| Briaunna Minor | Immunology, Microbiology & Virology | Implications for Targeting Tumor Associated Neutrophils to Attenuate Estrogen Mediated Lymphangioleiomyomatosis Progression | 2025 | Internal Medicine (ABIM Research Track) - Vanderbilt | Residency |
| Catherine Pizzarello | Immunology, Microbiology & Virology | Effects of Dietary and Environmental Exposures on Infant Immune Development | 2025 | Psychiatry (Research Track) - Ohio State University | Residency |
| Michael Sportiello | Immunology, Microbiology & Virology | Investigating CD8 T cell tissue resident memory phenotype, function, metabolic activity, and differentiation | 2025 | Internal Medicine (Research Track) - Emory University | Residency |
| Samuel Weisenthal | Biostatistics | Relative Sparsity and Optimality-based Reward Learning with Applications to Medical Decisions and Toxicology | 2025 | Family Medicine - Penn State Hershey | Residency |
| Hannah Bell | Immunology, Microbiology & Virology | The Function of Type Three Secretion System Protein VopZZ in Vibrio cholerae Infection | 2024 | Anatomic and Clinical Pahology - University of Rochester/Strong Memorial Hospital | Residency |
| Udaysankar Chockanathan | Neuroscience | Variations in neuronal population activity across behaviors, brain regions, and disease | 2024 | Psychiatry - University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) | Residency |
| Ian DeAndrea-Lazarus | Translational Biomedical Science | Anticipatory Biasing of Visuospatial Attention in Deaf Native Signers | 2024 | Internal Medicine - UT Dell (TX) | Residency |
| Karl Foley | Neuroscience | Protein phosphatase 1 isoforms differentially regulate synaptic transmission and plasticity | 2024 | Pediatrics (Medical Genetics) - Children's National Medical Center, DC | Residency |
| H. Mark Kenney | Cell Biology of Disease (Pathology) | Elucidating the Mechanisms of Lymphatic Muscle Cell Dysfunction in Arthritic Flare | 2024 | Dermatology; University of Rochester/Strong Memorial Hospital | Residency |
| Shuyang "Sue" Qin | Immunology, Microbiology & Virology | Effects of Intertumoral Heterogeneity on Immunosuppression and Immunotherapy Resistance in Synchronous Melanoma | 2024 | Dermatology - Oregon Health and Science University (prelim. Year at University of Rochester/Strong Memorial Hosptial) | Residency |
| Keshov Sharma | Neuroscience | Amygdala-Prefrontal Circuits Implicated in Expression Perception | 2024 | Neurological Surgery - University of Rochester/Strong Memorial Hospital | Residency |
| Frances "Fara" Zakusilo | Neuroscience | Protective mechanisms in Naked Mole Rat CNS: roles of extracellular matrix and astroglia | 2024 | Diagnostic Radiology - Mount Sinai (prelim. year at NYU, Surgery) | Residency |
| Annette French | Brain & Cognitive Sciences | Perceptual Processes Underlying Depth Judgement of Moving Object During Self-Motion | 2023 | Psychiatry (Research Track) - UNC Chapel Hill | Residency |
| Aditi Misra | Biomedical Engineering | Transcriptomic Analysis of Neonatal Cardiac Regeneration and Scar Resolution | 2023 | Internal Medicine (Research Track) - Baylor College of Medicine, Houston | Residency |
| Keshia Mora | Biomedical Engineering | Multiaxial and multiscale strain assessment of the impinged Achilles tendon insertion | 2023 | Pathology - University of Pennsylvania | Residency |
| Jerry Saunders | Cell Biology of Disease (Pathology) | A novel combination therapy enhances recovery following radiation exposure | 2023 | Pathology - Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai | Residency |
| Arun Venkataraman | Physics | How fast can we go? Optimizing Diffusion MRI (dMRI) Acquisition | 2023 | Radiology - University of Pennsylvania (prelim. year at SUNY Upstate) | Residency |
| Jesse Wang | Translational Biomedical Science | A Patient-Centered Digital Scribe | 2023 | Internal Medicine - University of Pittsburgh Medical Center | Residency |
| Brendan Whitelaw | Neuroscience | Mechanisms of ATP-dependent microglial process motility | 2023 | Neurology - Washington University, St. Louis | Residency |
| Jonathan Bartko | Cell Biology of Disease (Pathology) | Characterizing Context-Specific Roles for CHOP in ER Stress Signaling and Neurodevelopment | 2022 | Vascular Surgery - Case Western/Univ Hsp Cleveland Med, OH | Residency |
| Michael-John Beltejar | Biomedical Genetics | Understanding the Genetic Basis for Bone-Matrix Quality | 2022 | Emergency Medicine - University of Rochester/Strong Memorial Hospital | Residency |
| Booyeon Han | Immunology, Microbiology & Virology | Characterizing and Targeting the Pancreatic Tumor Draining Lymph Node to Enhance Antitumor Responses in Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma | 2022 | Surgery-General, Stanford Health Care, CA | Residency |
| Laura Owlett | Neuroscience | Modulation of acute inflammation and Alzheimer’s disease pathology by Gas6-Axl interaction | 2022 | Child Neurology - University of Rochester/Strong Memorial Hospital | Residency |
| Rohith Palli | Biophysics, Structural & Computational Biology | Executable models of signaling pathways and application to HIV | 2022 | Internal Medicine - University of Rochester/Strong Memorial Hospital | Residency |
| Elizabeth Saionz | Translational Biomedical Science | Time is Vision: Properties of Vision Early after Occipital Stroke and Capacity for Recovery | 2022 | Neurology - Mayo Clinic School of Grad Med Educ-FL | Residency |
| Colleen Schneider | Brain & Cognitive Sciences | The post-stroke brain: A comprehensive, longitudinal assessment of vascular, neural, and perceptual changes | 2022 | Peds-Physical Med & Rehab - University of Colorado School of Medicine | Residency |
| Matther Tanner | Biomedical Genetics | mRNA splicing is a marker of molecular pathology and response to therapeutics in myotonic muscular dystrophy | 2022 | Internal Medicine - University of Washington Affil Hospitals | Fellow, Hematology and Medical Oncology, University of Washington |
| Dawling Dionisio-Santos | Neuroscience | Ameliorating Alzheimer’s Disease tau pathology through immunomodulation: A novel role for interleukin 4 and glatiramer acetate | 2021 | Neurology - University of Rochester/Strong Memorial Hospital | Fellow, Neurology, URMC |
| Scott Friedland | Biomedical Genetics | Arid1a, a subunit of the SWI/SNG chromatin remodeling complex, is a barrier to KrasG12D-driven tumorigenesis | 2021 | Internal Medicine (Research Track) - Ohio State University Med Ctr | Fellow (PSTP), Hematology/Oncology - Ohio State University Med Ctr |
| Allison Li | Cell Biology of Disease (Pathology) | Regulation of hematopoiesis in the bone marrow microenvironment | 2021 | Internal Medicine - Yale-New Haven Hosp, CT | Fellow, Medicine, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center |
| Hayley Martin | Epidemiology | Assessing the impact of Group Prenatal Care on Breastfeeding Behavior and Motivation | 2021 | Pediatrics - Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) | Residency |
| Andrew Smith | Immunology, Microbiology & Virology | Role of a polymerase defect in function of the live attenuated influenza A virus | 2021 | Emergency Medicine - University of Rochester/Strong Memorial Hospital | Attending Physician, University of Florida, Gainsville |
| Emily Wu | Immuonlogy, Microbiology & Virology | The Role of TNF-α in the Genesis of Inflammatory Interstitial Lung Disease in Rheumatoid Arthritis | 2021 | Internal Medicine - St Joseph Mercy-Ann Arbor-MI | Fellow, Hospice and Palliative Care, UC Davis Medical Center |
| Andrew Allbee | Biomedical Genetics | Lmx1a is required for Drosophila ovary stem cell niche formation and organogenesis | 2020 | Fellow, Hematopathology - Mass General Brigham | Pathology-Anatomic and Clinical - Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania |
| Nicolas Goldstein | Health Services Research | Disproportionate Premature Birth in Women of Low Socioeconomic Status: A Psychological and Physiological Stress Explanation of Financial Risk Removal | 2020 | Pediatrics - Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) | Fellow, Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine - Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) |
| Adnan Hirad | Translational Biomedical Science | Midbrain Axonal Injury is the Signature Neurotrauma of Subconcussion and Concussion | 2020 | N/A | Research Assistant Professor, Vascular Surgery - University of Rochester Medical Center |
| Maxime Jean | Immunology, Microbiology & Virology | The Dichotomy of Curaxin Compounds in HIV-1 Latency | 2020 | Neurology - University of Rochester/Strong Memorial Hospital | Fellow, Neuro-Oncology, University of Rochester/Strong Memorial Hosptial |
| Irina Lerman | Cell Biology of Disease (Pathology) | Neutorphil Elastase and SERPINB1 are Critical Regulators of Prostate Cancer Progression | 2020 | Dermatology; Internal Medicine - University of Rochester/Strong Memorial Hospital | Fellow, Dermatatopathology - University of Rochester/Strong Memorial Hospital |
| Aimee Morris | Neurobiology & Anatomy | Functional Brain Network Structure in Focal Embouchure Dystonia and Related Disorders | 2020 | Child Neurology - St Louis Childrens Hosp | Fellow, Movement Disorders - WashU Medicine |
| Daniel Savage | Optics | A Novel Non-Ablative Technique for Femtosecond Laser-Based Refractive Correction | 2020 | Ophthalmology - University of Rochester Flaum Eye Institute / Internal Medicine - University of Rochester/Strong Memorial Hospital | Fellow, Ophthalmology, University of Utah School of Medicine |
| Stephanie Syc-Mazurek | Neuroscience | The Molecular signaling pathways controlling apoptotic retinal ganglion cell death after axonal injury | 2020 | Neurology - Mayo Clinic School of Grad Med Educ | Fellow, Autoimmune Neurology, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN |
| Jomy Varghese | Biomedical Engineering | Salivary Gland Radiation Protection | 2020 | Anesthesiology - University of Michigan Hosps-Ann Arbor | Anesthesiologist, South Sacramento Medical Center |
| Jimmy Zhang | Pharmacology & Physiology | Mitochondrial Metabolism in Cardiac Ischemia-Reperfusion Injury | 2020 | Internal Medicine - Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai | Fellow - Mount Sinai Hospital |
| William Alexander | Biomedical Genetics | Oncogenic mutations and injury in the mouse liver | 2019 | Internal Medicine – University at Buffalo School of Medicine | Assistant Professor, Oncology; Palliative Medicine, Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center, University at Buffalo |
| Katherine Herman | Immunology, Microbiology & Virology | Spontaneous Immune Dysregulation in the Skin in the Absence of Wiskott-Aldrich Syndrome Protein | 2019 | Pediatrics – Boston Children’s Hospital | Instructor of Pediatrics, Pediatric Allergy/Immunology - University of Rocheseter Medical Center |
| Justin Komisarof | Biomedical Genetics | Patterns in dysregulated, non-mutated cancer mediator gene expression | 2019 | Internal Medicine – University of Rochester/Strong Memorial Hospital | Fellow, Hematology/Oncology, Baylor College of Medicine |
| Nguyen Mai | Neuroscience | Lung-brain immunological coupling mediates neutrophil de-priming and neuroprotection following cerebral ischemia-reperfusion | 2019 | Neurology Residency – University of California, San Francisco (prelim year at University of Rochester/Strong Memorial Hospital) | Neurologist, Kaiser Permanente San Francisco Medical Center |
| Evan McConnell | Neuroscience | The role of astrocytes in noradrenaline mediated attenuation of motor tics | 2019 | Radiology-Diagnostic Residency – University of Rochester/Strong Memorial (prelim year at Rochester Regional Health) | Instructor, Imaging Sciences, University of Rochester/Strong Memorial Hospital |
| Salvador Pena | Cell Biology of Disease (Pathology) | Hypoxia and the Mitochondrial Unfolded Protein Response | 2019 | Anesthesiology – Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center | Clinical Assistant Professor of Anesthesiology, Wake Forest Univ. School of Medicine |
| Benjamin Plog | Cell Biology of Disease (Pathology) | Novel Insight into Regulation of Glymphatic Flow with Implications for Traumatic Brain Injury | 2019 | Neurological Surgery – Barnes-Jewish Hospital | Residency |
| Samuel Carrell | Biomedical Genetics | Testing the limits of antisense oligonucleotide treatment for myotonic dystrophy Type 1 | 2018 | Neurology – Hospital of the University of PA | Instructor of Neurology, University of Pennsylvania |
| Amit Chowdhry | Statistics | Missing data in Meta-Analysis | 2018 | Radiation Oncology – Univ. Rochester/Strong Memorial Hospital (prelim year at SUNY Upstate Medical Univ.) | Assistant Professor, Radiation and Oncology - University of Rochester Medical Center |
| Andrew Cox | Immunology, Microbiology & Virology | Increasing the safety of the Live Attenuated Influenza Virus Vaccine | 2018 | Pediatrics – Cincinnati Children’s Hospital | Associate Director of the Center for Excellence in Vaccinology, Rochester General Hospital Research Institute |
| Alison Moynihan | Immunology, Microbiology & Virology | Mechanisms of CD4+ T cell motility in the inflamed dermal interstitium | 2018 | Dermatology, Research Track – UPMC Medical Education, PA | Assistant Professor, Dermatology - University of Rochester Medical Center |
| Andrew Shubin | Biomedical Engineering | Poly(ethylene glycol) Hydrogels for Salivary Gland Regeneration | 2018 | General Surgery – University of Texas Southwestern Medical School | Assistant Instructor, Surgery, UT Southestern Medical Center |
| Aisha Siebert | Translational Biomedical Science | Parasitoid wasp (Nasonia) venoms: high throughput approach to functional characterization and translational application to drug discover | 2018 | Urology – Northwestern University, Feinberg School (Chicago) | Clinical Fellow, Urology - Boston Children's Hospital |
| Adrianne Chesser | Neuroscience | Selectively Enhancing Clearance of Pathological Tau Through the Use of Phytochemical Compounds | 2017 | Family Medicine - Allina Family Residency Program, Minnesota | Family Medicine Physician - Health Partners Park Nicollet |
| Youssef Farhat | Biomedical Engineering | Identification of PAI-1 as a Biological Target for the Promotion of Scarless Flexor Tendon Healing | 2017 | Pathology – Medical College of Wisconsin Affiliated Hospitals | Pathology Specialist of Southeast Michigan- Ascension |
| Jonathan Langdon | Biomedical Engineering | Development of Single Track Location Shear Wave Viscoelasticity Imaging for Real-Time Characterization of Biological Tissues | 2017 | Radiology, Diagnostic - Yale-New Haven Hospital, CT | Assistant Professor, Radiology and Biomedical Imaging; Co-Section Chief, Ultrasound, Radiology & Biomedical Imaging, Yale School of Medicine |
| Rialnat "Bisi" Lawal | Cell Biology of Disease (Pathology) | Osteolineage Notch Ligand Jagged 1 Regulates Bone Homeostasis and Parathyroid Hormone-Dependent Long-Term Hematopoietic Stem Cell Function | 2017 | Internal Medicine - University of Rochester/Strong Memorial Hospital | Hematologist, NIH Clinical Center, Bethesda, MD |
| Emily Walters | Biomedical Genetics | Non-Mutated Mediator Genes in Diverse Epithelial Cancer Types | 2017 | Anesthesiology – UCLA Medical Center, CA | Adjunct Professor - Pittsburg State Univ; Physician Anesthesiologist - Freeman Health Systems, Joplin, MI |
| Danielle deCampo | Neuroscience | An Extended Amygdala Path with Implications for Early Life Stress | 2016 | Child Neurology - Johns Hopkins Hospital, MD | Attending Neurologist, Neurology and Pediatric Epilepsy Program, CHOP |
| Laura Fornarola | Pharmacology & Physiology | The Role of PIN1 in Neuronal Programmed Cell Death Following Trophic Factor Deprivation | 2016 | Anesthesiology - University of Rochester, Rochester, NY | Anesthesiologist, Westide Anesthesia Associates of Rochester |
| Natasha Golub | Epidemiology | Longitudinal Health Outcomes in Former Refugees | 2016 | General Preventive Medicine - Johns Hopkins/Bloomberg, MD | Internal Medicine Specialist - Greenville Hospital System Center for Refugee Health, Rochester, NY |
| Kevin Makino | Health Services Research | Income, Public Health Insurance Eligibility, and Children’s Insurance Status: Implications for Parental Distress, Parenting Behaviors and Child Socio-Emotional Health | 2016 | Pediatrics - University of Hawaii | Assistant Professor, Psyciatry, Child and Adolescent - University Hosptials/Cleveland Medical Center |
| Lisa Niswander | Cell Biology of Disease (Pathology) | Microenvironmental Regulation of Megakaryopoiesis and Thrombopoiesis by SDF-1 | 2016 | Pediatrics - Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) | Assistant Professor in Oncology, Department of Pediatrics, Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center Buffalo NY |
| Imran Punekar | Neuroscience | Impulsivity in Parkinson’s Disease | 2016 | Anesthesiology - University of Rochester/Strong Memorial Hospital | Pain Management Specialist - Manhattan, NY |
| Drew Scoles | Biomedical Engineering | Expanding the Application of Adaptive Optics Scanning Light Ophthalmoscopy | 2016 | Ophthalmology, Scheie Eye Institute, University of Pennsylvania. | Assistant Professor, Ophthalmology - Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) |
| Helen Wei | Neuroscience | Functional Hyperemia in Cerebral Capillaries | 2016 | General Surgery - University of Rochester/Strong Memorial Hospital | Assistant Professor, Acute Care Surgery, Trauma, and Surgical Critical Care, University of Kentucky HealthCare |
| Laura DiChiacchio | Biochemistry & Biophysics | Computational Prediction of RNA Secondary Structure with Applications to RNA Viruses | 2015 | Surgery, General - University Maryland Medical Center | Cardiac Surgeon at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center |
| Anat Kohn | Biomedical Genetics | The Role of RBPjk-Dependent Notch Signaling During Cartilage Development of the Limb Skeleton | 2015 | Internal Medicine - University of Rochester/Strong Memorial Hospital | Assistant Professor of Medicine, University of Pittsburgh and UPMC |
| Daniel Marker | Cell Biology of Disease (Pathology) | URMC-099, a Novel Kinase Inhibitor with Drug-like Properties, is Neuroprotective in Models of Human Immunodeficiency Virus Associated Neurocognitive Disorders | 2015 | Pathology - University of Pennsylvania Medical Center (Pittsburgh) | Assistant Professor of Neuropathology - University of Pittsburgh |
| Tristan Nicholson | Cell Biology of Disease (Pathology) | Estrogen receptor-alpha is a key mediator and therapeutic target in benign prostatic hyperplasia | 2015 | Urology - University of Washington Affiliated Hospitals, Seattle | Assistant Professor, Urology, Univ. Washington School of Medicine |
| Salvatore Priore | Chemistry | Discovery and Characterization of Influenza Virus RNA Secondary Structure | 2015 | Pathology - Hospital of the University of PA (Philadelphia) | Assistant Professor, Clinical Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Univ. of Pennsylvania |
| Jharon Silva | Immunology, Microbiology & Virology | Modeling the Effect of HIV-1 Induced Neuroinflammation on the Cerebral Vasculature: Acute Intracranial Exposure to HIV-1 Tat Leads to Dysregulation of Cerebrovascular Reactivity, While Chronic Tat Exposure Results in Reduced Vascular Density | 2015 | Emergency Medicine - University of Connecticut School of Medicine | Emergency Medicine Physician, Hospital of Central Connecticut |