Lab Alumni

Graduate students

1. Johanna Busch is an MSTP student who graduated in 2016. She is still living the physician-scientist dream as a very tired physician (in Texas).  Her TMI revelations are much missed.  

2. Mike Gallagher is a PhD student who graduated in 2017. He is still living the science dream as a postdoc at the Whitehead. We would miss him, but we still talk to him all the time.   

3. Maria Diaz-Ortiz is an MSTP student who defended her PhD in 2021. She is training to become a neurologist-neuroscientist, and she shares Alice's love of Jane Austen. 

Postdoctoral and clinical fellows

1. Lana Chahine worked with us as a movement disorders fellow. She is now an Assistant Professor of Neurology at the University of Pittsburgh. 

2. Christine Swanson was our first postdoc. She is now working for the NIH-NINDS.  

3. Christine Cooper worked with us as a movement disorders fellow. She is now an Assistant Professor of Neurology at the Medical University of South Carolina.

4. Michelle Fullard worked with us as a movement disorders fellow. She is now an Assistant Professor of Neurology at the University of Colorado.

5. Pilar Hernandez-Con is an MD-trained postdoc from Costa Rica. While in lab, she helped Jordan to manage the biobank. She is now doing a PhD in Epidemiology with plans to work in global health.

6. Defne Amado was an MD-PhD who was a postdoc in the lab. She is now an Assistant Professor of Neurology at Penn. Alice and she share the weird fact that they have both previously illustrated a book.

7. Rakshita Charan, PhD, Postdoctoral fellow. Rakshita went on Biogen as a Research Scientist in the Alzheimer's Disease and Dementia Research Unit (ADDRU) before then joining Flagship Labs. Her work is focused on finding therapies for neurodegeneration.

8. Fei Mao, MD PhD, Visiting scholar. Fei returned to China in January 2021 where he is a practicing neurologist in Shandong and continues to pursue research opportunities related to neurodegenerative diseases. 

9. Marijan Posavi, PhD, Postdoctoral fellow. Marijan went on to become a Senior Scientist at the University of New Mexico, but we still toast to him when we consume resveratrol-containing red wine. 

10. Elisia Clark, PhD, Postdoctoral fellow. Elisia went on to become an Associate Director of Research Programs for the Michael J. Fox Foundation. 

Undergrads/High school/Pre-med students

(Alice is VERY VERY PROUD that most of the people on this list is/will be a published author, and >6 of them have/will have first-author publications.)

1. Emily Ashbridge worked with us from high school onwards. She went on to the University of Chicago before moving on to a job in Pakistan.  

2. Kendra Davis was our part-time pre-med student in 2011-2012. She is now a neurology resident.

3. Katherine Li was a UPenn Vagelos program undergraduate student. She is now going to make tons more money than all of us and take us out on her corporate jet in the future.

4. Judy Qiang was a UPenn undergrad working with us until her graduation in June 2011, after which she worked with us for a year as a research specialist.  She went on to medical school at U Toronto.  

5. Nick Lim was our Pacific Northwest undergraduate student. He went on to medical school at Jefferson.  

6. Yosef Berlyand was a UPenn undergrad who then stayed on for a year as a research specialist. He went on to medical school at Harvard Medical School.  

7. Ryan Cherng was a UPenn undergrad who worked with us his senior year.  He went on to medical school at U Maryland.

8. Fortunay Diatta was our research specialist right after college. He went on to medical school at Penn.

9. Sarah Santucci was our summer student as an undergrad (and she and Alice belong to the Mississippi Club). She went to medical school at Penn.  

10. Nimansha Jain worked with the lab from the time she was a freshman in college. She is in the MD-PhD program at Wash U in St. Louis.  

11. Krisna Maddy was our undergraduate student from 2016-2018. She went on to become an MD student at U Miami (her hometown!).

12. Jordan Mak was a research specialist who joined the lab in summer 2014.  While in the lab he and Travis competed for the title of Tightest Error Bars.  He is now a pharmacist. 

13. Laura Baratta was a research specialist who joined the lab in 2017. Among many other talents (e.g. operatic singing, no joke), she is now an MD-PhD student at Washington University in St. Louis.

14. Daniel Kargilis was a Penn undergrad who worked with us until his 2021 graduation. He went on to medical school at Johns Hopkins.

15. Ben Padon was a Penn undergrad who worked with us until his 2021 graduation. He is exploring research interests en route to medical school.

16. Yunji Seo was a Penn undergrad who worked with us until 2022. She is in the Physician-Scientist program at Stanford.