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We are extremely proud of our lab alumni, who have gone onto a variety of positions in basic and clinical research. Many also plan to pursue graduate studies of one form or another. The list below shows what our alums are doing now.
Class of 2025
Class of 2025
Geoff and Michele at graduation in May 2025.
Michele Oldrati '25 is working as a clinical research coordinator at the Cellular Immunotherapy Team at MGH while he applies to medical school. In the Findlay Lab, he studied the ability of atlas gene orthologs to restore fertility in D. melanogaster males lacking their endogenous copies of atlas.
Class of 2024
Class of 2024
Brenna, Ishanpepe, Emily, Geoff, Kerry and Alex at graduation in May 2024.
Emily Gualdino '24 is working as a medical assistant prior to attending medical school. She worked in the lab for all four years at Holy Cross, first as a FRAP student and then as an independent researcher. Emily's project focused on demonstrating a role for the 3' UTR in the proper regulation of a de novo gene. She presented on this work at TAGC 2024 in Maryland.
Ishanpepe Jagusah '24 is currently teaching English in Kazakhstan as a Fulbright scholar! In the lab, she led our efforts to study the functions of a (different) de novo gene's 3' UTR, presenting on this work with Emily at TAGC 2024, and was a great mentor to our Seelos STEM Scholars in 2023-24. She plans to return to the US in the summer of 2025 to work in a clinical setting before applying to medical schools.
Brenna McCormick '24 is currently working in clinical research in genitourinary oncology at Dana Farber and will begin her Masters in Genetic Counseling at the University of Pennsylvania in the fall. In the lab, Brenna contributed to our functional characterization of the saturn gene and was a mentor to our Seelos STEM Scholars in 2023-24. She presented on this work with Alex and Kerry at TAGC 2024 in Maryland.
Kerry McDermott '24 completed an excellent Honors Thesis in the lab on her two projects, the functional analysis of goddard orthologs in D. melanogaster and a study of the sub-cellular localization of the Katherine Johnson protein. She is currently working as a clinical research coordinator in gynecologic oncology at Dana Farber while she applies to medical school.
Alex Thurber '24 is currently working in biotechnology consulting in Boston. In the lab, Alex characterized the functionality of different saturn orthologs in D. melanogaster to test the effects of the gene's rapid divergence between species. With Brenna and Kerry, he presented a poster on his findings at TAGC 2024.
Class of 2023
Class of 2023
Salim Metri '23 worked after graduation as a research associate at Geneius Biotechnology in Natick, MA, where he focused on a novel immunotherapy for cancer. He is currently a medical assistant at MGH and is applying to medical school. During his time in the lab, Salim studied the functional divergence of the saturn gene. He gave an excellent poster on his work at the 2023 Drosophila meeting in Chicago.
Class of 2022
Class of 2022
Sara Guay '22 is currently working as a research technician in the lab of Dr. Shyamala Maheswaran at Massachusetts General Hospital and will begin medical school in the fall. Shown above are Sara and Geoff at the Fly Meeting in April 2022, in San Diego. Sara gave an excellent platform talk on her research in the lab!
Class of 2021
Class of 2021
We graduated five outstanding seniors in the Class of 2021! Pictured above left to right, they are:
Jill O'Toole '21 worked as a Research Data Specialist in genitourinary oncology clinical research at Dana Farber after graduation. She then earned her Masters in Genetic Counseling at the University of Pennsylvania in May 2025 is currently working as a genetic counselor at Boston Children's Hospital.
Sarah Arnold '21 worked after graduate as a research technician in the lab of Dr. Mansi Srivastava at Harvard, studying regeneration in worms. She is now a graduate student (supported by a NSF Graduate Research Fellowship) in the lab of Dr. Leslie Babonis at Cornell University, where she focuses on evo-devo.
Andrew Ludwig '21 earned his DMD from Harvard Dental School in 2025 and is now an oral and maxillofacial surgery resident at Boston University.
Ryan Barrett '21 has worked at a zebrafish developmental genetics lab at MGH and is currently working in biotech. He will begin a PhD program in Biochemistry at the University of New Hampshire in Fall 2025.
Rebecca McSweeney '21 worked as a research technician in the lab of Dr. Yonatan Grad in the Harvard School of Public Health, studying drug resistance in gonorrhea. She started a PhD program at Emory University in Fall 2024.
Class of 2020
Class of 2020
While the COVID-19 pandemic prevented us from taking the customary picture, Allen Zou '20 graduated from the lab in 2020 and worked for two years as a clinical research coordinator in cardiology at Massachusetts General Hospital. He is currently in medical school at UMass Chan, right here in Worcester.
Class of 2019
Class of 2019
Grace, Brendan, Geoff, Emily and Fiona after graduation, May 24, 2019.
Emily Rivard '19 obtained her PhD with Dr. Cassandra Extavour in the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology at Harvard University. She will begin working as a postdoc at Cornell University in the Fall of 2025.
Brendan Kelly '19 completed a Masters in Entomology with Dr. Sarah Short at The Ohio State University. He then taught high school math and physics in his hometown of Holyoke, MA, and now works as a science librarian at UMass Amherst.
Fiona Busser '19 worked as a clinical research coordinator at the Lank Center for Genitourinary Oncology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston and is currently pursuing a joint DO/MPH degree at Midwestern University outside of Chicago.
Grace Fisk (née Mascha) '19 worked for two years as a nursing assistant in transplant medicine in Cleveland, OH. She completed her MD from UMass Chan Medical School in May 2025 and is beginning her residency in internal medicine in Cleveland.
Class of 2018
Class of 2018
Kaitlin, Purva, Geoff and Ryan after graduation, May 25, 2018.
Purva Rumde '18 worked as a research technician in the lab of Dr. Nicholas Dyson at MGH, studying the genetics of the tumor suppressor gene, Rb. She is currently in medical school at the University of Pittsburgh, where she will also pursue an extra year of research.
Ryan Snow '18 worked as a research technician in the Hurley-Yonker Lab at MGH, which focuses on the role of transepithelial neutrophil migration in diseases such as cystic fibrosis and pneumonia. He completed his MD at Brown University in 2024 and is currently doing his residency at Brown in internal medicine.
Kaitlin Kelleher '18 worked as a clinical research coordinator at the Lank Center for Genitourinary Oncology at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston before earning her nursing degree at Villanova University. She is currently a research nurse at Dana-Farber.
Class of 2017
Class of 2017
Meaghan, Ben, Geoff, Haylie and Kendra after graduation, May 26, 2017.
Ben Nicholson '17 worked for three years as a research technician in the lab of Dr. Shyamala Maheswaran at Mass General Hospital studying cancer genetics. He is currently pursuring a PhD in Cancer Biology at the University of Chicago.
Haylie Butler '17 graduated as the class valedictorian and spent the next year in Galicia, Spain, as an English Teaching Assistant in the Fulbright program. She then worked at Boston Healthcare for the Homeless before matriculating for an MD at Harvard Medical School. She is currently an OB/GYN resident at Mt. Sinai Hospital in New York City.
Kendra Kelly '17 worked for two years certified nursing assistant at a hospital in Maine and is currently a PA student at Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences in Boston.
Meaghan McKenna '17 is worked at Mass Eye and Ear in Boston and then obtained an MD at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill.
Class of 2016
Class of 2016
Mike, Max, Geoff, Meaghan and Anna after graduation, May 27, 2016.
Meaghan McGeary '16 earned her PhD at Yale University in Biological and Biomedical Sciences in the lab of Dr. Marcus Bosenberg, studying tumor heterogeneity in melanoma. She is currently an NIH F99/K00 postdoctoral fellow at MIT.
Anna Gubala '16 worked for a year at Newton-Wellesley Hospital in the Boston area before earning her MD from UMass Medical School. She completed her residency at UMass in internal medicine and is now doing a fellowship at UMass in cardiology.
Mike Kearns '16 is working as a research technician in the lab of Dr. Jean Zhao at the Dana-Farber Cancer Research Institute. The lab studies signaling pathways in normal and cancerous cells. His long-term goal is to attend medical school.
Max Kearns '16 spent 2016-17 in France and then earned a masters in Mathematics and Statistics at Georgetown. He currently works in data analytics.
Class of 2015
Class of 2015
Tery, Geoff and Kaitlyn after graduation, May 23, 2015.
Kaitlyn McGuinness (née Baranowski) '15 is worked for three years as a research technician in the lab of Dr. Catherine Wu at the Dana-Farber Cancer Research Institute before moving on to work in the biotech industry at Sanofi in Waltham, MA.
Tery Vinh '15 worked for two years as a clinical research assistant at the Eye Disease Consultants practice affiliated with Hartford Hospital, where she helped organize several national clinical trials and assisted in ophthalmic examinations. She then matriculated at UConn Medical School, where she earned an MD in 2021. Tery is now doing her residency in OB/GYN at Rutgers Newark Beth Israel Hospital.
Other Lab Alums
Nury Herrera '20 (FRAP Program, 2016-17)
Brandon Hwee '20 (FRAP Program, 2016-17)
Emilie Scott '19 (Spring and Summer 2017)
Gynesis Vance '22 (FRAP Program, 2018-19)
Elvis Perez '22 (FRAP Program, 2018-19)
Amanda Grace Wambui (Fall 2021-Summer 2023)
Josel Perez '26 (FRAP Program, 2022-23)
Stephanie Ribeiro '26 (FRAP Program, 2022-23)
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