So who are we?

Rachel Mintz
President and Co-founder
[email protected]

Rachel is the president and co-founder of SBI. She is a junior majoring in biomedical engineering, with the hopes of pursuing an MD-PhD upon graduation. She was first exposed to synthetic biology as a member of the 2016 iGEM team, when she worked with seven other students to engineer a synthetic mosquito repellent that provides continuous protection. Through this experience, she realized that the Columbia community could benefit from an organization that spreads awareness about the positive applications of synthetic biology, and so SBI was born. Beyond her involvement with SBI, Rachel conducts research in Professor Kam Leong’s Stem Cell and Nanotherapeutics lab at CUMC. On campus, she is the Fundraising Lead of Columbia Against Cancer, an associate editor for the Columbia Journal of Global Health, and a Stressbuster Captain. Passionate about giving back to the community at large, she volunteers at Mt. Sinai St. Luke’s Hospital and works with the non-profit organization Chemocomfort, making care packages for patients undergoing chemotherapy. In her free time, she enjoys listening to music, going on walks, and watching sitcoms.

Jennifer Fang
Vice President & Project Leader for Systems Biology Workshop Series
[email protected]

Jennifer Fang is the secretary of Systems Biology Initiative and part of the outreach committee. She is a sophomore on the pre-med track pursuing a Biochemistry major in the Science Research Fellows Program and University Scholars Program in Columbia College. She currently works in the Wang Lab at Columbia University Medical Center to engineer CRISPR-based gene activators as universal promoters for high-throughput gene expression in bacteria. Her previous research includes expanding the applications and increasing the specificity of shRNA cancer gene therapy on the Columbia iGEM (international genetically engineered machine) team, discovering and designing new potential treatments for pancreatic cancer, and working on developing real-time medical image reconstruction from MRI and CAT scans using parallel computing and machine learning. On campus, she is involved in various musical and pre-professional clubs. In her free time she enjoys playing violin, cooking, and exploring literature.

Alex Kim
Secretary & Webmaster
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Alex Kim is a sophomore in the Columbia University Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science and plans to major in Biomedical Engineering with a concentration in Computer Science. He is the CUMC Liason for the American Physicians and Scientists Association (APSA) Chapter on campus, is webmaster and on the Internal Affairs committee member of the Systems Biology Initiative Club (SBI), an ER volunteer at the nearby Mount Sinai St. Luke’s Hospital, and financial lead of Columbia Space Initiative’s NASA Micro-G NEXT Mission Team. His previous research at Mt. Sinai Icahn School of Medicine involves researching novel computational methods of visualizing/analyzing methylation motifs in pathogenic bacterial strains. In his free time, he likes to cross up Brandon Cuevas in pickup basketball and write blogs.

Jason Mohabir
Secretary
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Jason Mohabir is a freshman deciding between majoring in computer science or biomedical engineering. He is especially interested in computational biology and analyzing large datasets through informatics. He has experience conducting research in the Department of Biostatistics at Rockefeller Hospital under the mentorship of Joel Correa da Rosa. Jason learned about synthetic biology through the community laboratory Genspace and iGem competition. On campus, he organizes events with the Columbia Science Review, serves as Outreach Chair for Columbia's American Physician Scientist Association, and is an Associate Editor for the Columbia Undergraduate Science Journal. Jason hopes to potentially pursue either an MD/Phd or PhD to help aide in the revolution of biomedicine that is combining fields such as biology, computation, engineering, and mathematics to conquer disease. In his spare time, Jason enjoys urban exploring, camping, reading existential literature, and listening to acoustic music.

David Carratu
Treasurer
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David Carratu is a sophomore biomedical engineering major. He is especially interested in tissue engineering, biomaterials and the creation of implantable medical devices. He has several years of medical research experience. At the Einstein College of Medicine he conducted an individual bioinformatics project by analyzing large gene expression data sets from DNA microarray experiments to determine the specificity of exhausted T cell gene expressions. At the Tufts University Silk Lab he helped test various methods for developing less expensive more efficient methods for the process of turning silkworm cocoons into pure silk protein fibers to be used in implantable medical materials and devices. On campus, David is on the Finance/Sponsorship committee for the FSAE racing team and a member of the Ski team. In his downtime David enjoys reading science fiction novels, exploring the neighborhoods of NYC, and listening to classic rock music.

Brandon Cuevas
Treasurer & Project Leader for Research Symposium
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Brandon Cuevas is a sophomore on the pre-med track majoring in Biomedical Engineering and minoring in Computer Science. On campus, Brandon is involved with the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers, Systems Biology Initiative and American Physician Scientist Association, holding positions as the community outreach chair, education/media committee member and Co-Medical School Liaison, respectively. He has done research on microtubules at the Hess lab at Columbia University, and is now doing research on pancreatic cancer with the Olive Lab at the Columbia University Medical Center. In his spare time, Brandon enjoys playing video games, watching comical YouTube videos, and collecting catchphrases to add to his lexicon. Cool beans, right?

Allison Hung
Project Leader for The Bio Strip
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Allison Hung is a sophomore in Columbia College studying biochemistry. She is especially interested in systems biology and protein biophysics. She has done research on protein folding algorithms in the Laufer Center for Physical and Quantitative Biology at Stony Brook University under the mentorship of Ken Dill. Since then, she has moved on to investigating cell metabolism and bile acid signaling at the Columbia University Medical Center. On campus, she runs the Pigeons of Columbia page, performs for lion dance, and is president of the Chinese calligraphy club. Allison hopes to pursue an MD/PhD and apply newfound biochemical knowledge to increasing access to healthcare. In her spare time, Allison enjoys rural exploring, not camping, reading essential literature, and listening to her heart.

Mojdeh Yadollahikhales
Project Leader for Modeling and Data Analysis
[email protected]

Jacky Cheung
Co-founder

Jacky is one of the co-founders of SBI. He is a current senior at Columbia College and studies both Computer Science and Biology and intends to pursue a MD after graduation. He has been involved on the Columbia 2015 and 2016 iGEM teams and was an undergraduate researcher at the Wang Lab at the Systems Biology Department at CUMC. His interests are in medical systems and leveraging biological and computational tools to improve patient care and outcomes. Currently, he is involved in at project at the Elhadad Lab at the Department of Biomedical Informatics at CUMC working on a patient summarization tool. In his free time, Jacky enjoys all things food related, getting into long discussions with friends about random stuff, making awful jokes, and playing video games.

Ben Kepecs
Project Leader for Faculty Interview

Ben is a sophomore in CC studying biochemistry and computer science, and hailing from beautiful Bronx, NY. He currently works in Dr. Tal Danino’s lab in the Department of Biomedical Engineering, investigating ways of engineering bacteria to detect and treat cancer. Ben enjoys rollerblading and reading (usually not at the same time) and hopes to attend graduate school in chemistry or biology-related field.

Lauren Sekiguchi
Team Member

IHello! My name is Lauren Sekiguchi, and I attend Columbia University's School of Engineering and Applied Science. I'm planning to major in Biomedical Engineering, and aspire to become a physician-scientist. I grew up in Westchester, NY, but consider Tokyo, Japan, to be my home. In my free time, I love to be around kids and enjoy making humerus puns!