Alex Bounoutas

I graduated in May 2001 with a B.S. in biological sciences (with a minor in chemistry and an option in genetics) from the Department of Biology at Carnegie Mellon University's Mellon College of Science. My undergraduate research experience dealt with nuclear organization and chromatin structure in D. melanogaster. In particular, my projects involved studying gene silencing caused by a specific form of position
effect variegation known as trans-inactivation. 

My research interests aren't entirely focused at this point, as I'm interested in several areas in cell and molecular biology. My plans after obtaining my Ph.D. from Columbia are uncertain, though I am likely to post-doc somewhere and then continue my career in academia.

In my spare time, I enjoy reading and relaxing, exercising, looking up how to spell the word "exercising," rock climbing, listening to music, and "getting jiggy with it." I'm not particularly well cultured, so I hope to experience more of the fine arts while in New York City. 

Roy Buchanan

I'm from Oregon, studied chemical engineering at Colorado School of Mines for undergrad, and worked in finance for a year in Houston. The last year was spent as a lab tech. at the U of Chicago. The lab work is very interesting and I enjoy reading and thinking about the science involved. My main interests currently are structural biology/biophysics and neurosciences. I enjoy reading, interesting movies, drawing poorly, motorcycles, and caffeinated stuffs.

Barrett Foat

Samuel Handelman

I was born into a family of itinerant academics in March of 1979 in Santa Cruz CA. I spent my childhoold migrating among university towns (Santa Cruz, Boston, Davis, Berkeley) and finally, by commodious vicus of recirculation, back to Santa Cruz and environs for my own BA. 

I've been playing the flute since I was 10; mostly classical, but I'm trying to branch into jazz. I also sing. I started as a soprano in the New England Conservatory Childrens Chorus and now I'm a baritone. I like movies such as the Fugitive, the Ipcress File, Fanny and Alexander and Raiders of the Lost Ark. Recently, I saw Memento. 

I pursued a dual degree in Biochemistry, Cell and Molecular Biology and Computer Science at the University of California, Santa Cruz, because I believe that biological research, when informed by 21st century computing and statistics, may, in our lifetimes, bring cures for diseases once throught hopeless. 

Shuzo Kaneko

I graduated with a Master's degree from the Cancer Research Institute in Kanazawa University, Japan. Two years ago, I came to NY and started my research in the Manley Lab as a technician. My current project is focused on mRNA processing and transcription. I enjoy playing baseball, watching MLB games. I love cycling.

Alyssa Klapper

Ana Kostic

Scott Lefurgy

Born and raised in Plymouth, MI, I graduated from the University of Michigan in 1999 with degrees in Biochemistry and Voice Performance. During those six years I did research in chemical education and photosynthesis, in addition to appearing in two operas and three song recitals. Following graduation, I worked one year at Pfizer in Ann Arbor, MI in a protein crystallography group.

After getting married to Christina Rohm on July 8, 2000, I started grad school at University of Wisconsin-Madison, where I worked in Ron Raines' group on the crystal structures of engineered proteins. I'm transferring to Columbia to study protein engineering and structure and so that Christina can pursue her operatic singing career in NYC.

My interests include singing, learning to play the guitar, teaching and C.S. Lewis. I'd like to be a professor when I finish school.

Erna Magnusdottir

I graduated from The University of Iceland in June 1999, with a B.Sc. degree in biochemistry. My undergraduate research experience was mainly of biochemical nature, where I did specificity analysis of the digestive enzyme, elastase, from cod. Since my graduation I have been working for a biotech company called deCODE genetics, in a group that focuses on finding a disease susceptibility gene for late onset Alzheimer's disease. 

What fascinates me most about cell biology are signal transduction networks and their seemingly endless complexity, so I would not be surprised if I ended up doing research in that field. 

I have more interests than biology though! My hobbies are mainly of outdoorsy nature, like running, hiking and biking and I just took up roller blading.

Corey Mandel

i graduated from the university of colorado at boulder with a ba in biochemistry and a ba in molecular biology. As an undergraduate i worked on protein structures using nmr. I hope to continue with structure research at columbia. In my spare time i like to play ultimate, ride my bike, swim and get drunk with friends.

Steven Marks

Jessica Melillo

I grew up in Shelton, a town in southern CT, with my mother and grandmother. For college, I ventured further south to attend Villanova University in Philadelphia. In May 2001 I graduated with a B.S. in Biology, a B.S.H. in Honors and a minor in Spanish. 

For all four years of college I worked in a Developmental Biology lab with Dr. Mary Desmond on a project examining the roles of Wnt-1, a mitogen, and Connexin-43, a gap junction gene, in brain growth and development in mice. In particular, the project investigated Connexin-43 as a compensatory gene for the Wnt-1 null mutation, which results in the absence of midbrain and anterior hindbrain regions by 9.5 d.p.c. I also have worked during summer months at Yale University on a project that generated, and subsequently characterized, a knockout mouse for AP-2, a transcription factor involved in both normal morphogenesis and oncogenesis. 

My research interests are broad and fall in the wide areas of developmental, cell and molecular biology. After obtaining my Ph.D., I plan to enter industry or biotechnology fields. 

In my spare time I like to read, dance, spend time with family and friends and do anything fun or relaxing!

Toshia Myers

Tim Riley

Born and raised in Southern California, I developed an early love of science and music. School bored the life out of me, so from the age of five, I put much more time into the guitar than science. After a marginal high school career, graduating 157th out of 180 in my class, I opted to pursue music and spent almost ten years playing in bands such as Agent Orange. I decided to go to college at 27 and graduated from UCLA in 2001. While at UCLA I worked in two labs. In the first, I studied cryptocrome-light-receptor-mediated flowering-time in Arabidopsis thaliana. In the second, I developed RNA and DNA detection protocols for use in a handheld pathogen/biowarefare-agent detection device being developed by labs in the engineering departments of UCLA and Cal Tech. My degree is in Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, so many of my scientific interests relate to host-pathogen interactions. I am also interested in many eukaryotic cell processes such as those that control the cell cycle, and my goal here at Columbia is to find a cool system to work on while developing as a scientist. I still play the bass and guitar everyday, and enjoy most of the other stupid crap that everybody says they enjoy (reading etc.). I am married; my wife's name is Emily (Sorry ladies). 

Yang Shen

This is my second year in America as a Chinese student. After receiving my B.S. in biotechnology at Peking University in China, I came to the States last summer. Heading back through my first year, I had a good time at the Interdepartmental Biological Sciences (IBiS) grad program at Northwestern University. There, I studied the interaction between Hsp70 and its cochaperone Bag1 by site directed mutagenesis. After that, I worked in a tissue engineering lab, concentrating on the behavior of the bladder stromal cells growing on biodegradable scaffolds. What's more, I just can't forget the incredible lake view from the windows of my previous labs! Maybe this is my destiny. I had decided to transfer from Northwestern to Columbia, and I did. So right now, I am looking forward to knowing all of you and waiting to explore broader biological science here. By the way, I like swimming, soccer, pingpong, and traveling. Now, I really appreciate if someone could tell me some details of football, besides, something about the Big Apple!

Margery Smelkinson

I grew up in Baltimore, MD and attended the University of Massachusetts at Amherst after high school.  I graduated in 2001 with a B.S. in biochemistry and molecular biology.  My research has been mainly biochemical.  I studied the co- and post-translational modifications that are required for Drosophila developmental protein, Wingless, to be secreted.  This protein is in the Wnt family of proto-onco genes and is essential for embryogenesis in invertebrates and vertebrates, including humans. 

Last semester I took a course in physical biochemistry and became very interested in NMR, EPR, and FRET as protein analyzation techniques.  I would like to broaden my research to encompass these techniques and I ultimately would like to work in cancer research. 

In my spare time, I enjoy going out to bars/clubs with friends, downloading free music off the internet, and sleeping.

Andrew Sproul

I was born in raised in 'Jersey, and not ashamed to admit it. I graduated from Boston University in 1997 with BA's in biology and philosophy. My first position after school was at Brigham and Women's Hospital studying the genetics of toxic shock syndrome in Staph. aureus. After that lab evaporated (from strange New England weather), I got a position at B.U. working for Sir Hans Kornberg studying carbohydrate uptake and metabolism in E. coli. In the past three years we defined a novel fructose metabolic pathway. This included the discovery of an isoform of ptsG (the gene encoding a transmembrane protein which normally is specific for glucose transport) which would allow diffusion of fructose, and the identification and characterization of a mannofructokinase (Mak) which phosphorylated the free fructose. Despite my positive experiences in the bug world, I plan to do research in a neurobiological topic. 

In my free time I like to play a variety of sports at a mediocre (or poor) level, practice tae kwon do, and read fiction novels and short attention- span magazines.

Adelene Tan

I was born in Toronto, though I also lived in Australia and Hong Kong. I returned to Canada for my undergraduate, at the University of Toronto, where I specialised in Molecular Genetics and Biology. 

My research experience has focused on transcription factors in the regulation of gene expression in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. I would like to continue studying gene expression, though I hope to gain experience in other fields, including developmental biology. 

In my spare time, I enjoy traveling, photography, theatre, reading, volleyball, and tennis. I intend to learn to spell the American way, and figure out Farenheit temperature. 

Vasupradha Vethantham

I am from India, with a masters degree in Biological Sciences from the Indian Institute of science and an undergraduate degree in Human Biology from the All India Institute of Medical sciences, New Delhi. My research experience has been somewhat varied. While a major chunk of my work was on prokaryotic protein synthesis, I have also worked on the molecular biology of rat spermatogenesis and some molecular genetics involving p53. I have been quite fascinated with the RNA world and my research interests are mainly in the field of mRNA processing. As far as my hobbies go, I would rate music as my all time favorite, I love to play on my Indian bamboo flute, listen to a lot of music, sing (when nobody's around) and try my hand at all instruments I find. I also do a lot of fiction reading. And I am really excited about being in New York.. its my first time outside India!!

Noelia Weisstaub