2020-2022

Daniella is a third-year medical student who is interested in pursuing a career in surgery. She graduated from CUNY Queens College in 2018 with a Bachelor's in Neuroscience & Biology and a Chemistry Minor. In addition to her studies as a medical student, she has gone on to achieve her Masters's in Medical/Healthcare Simulation at NYIT. When she is not in the school or lab, she spends her time tutoring, working at a daycare center, or spending time with her two amazing sisters, mom, husband, and dog Oreo.

Mina is a third-year medical student who is interested in specializing in Pediatrics. She graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Biology from NYIT in 2021. She has worked on many different projects involving immunohistochemical techniques. Mina joined the lab to further her bench skills. She is looking forward to the upcoming project alongside the team. Mina joined the lab during the summer of 2022 and has worked on projects to understand how genes affect replication stress. 

Burcak is a third-year medical student who is interested in pediatric dermatology. She graduated from Stony Brook University in 2019 with a Bachelor of Science in Biology and has previously worked on post-transcriptional gene expression in order to find the function and biological properties of RNP's. She joined Dr. Zhang's lab in December of 2020 where she worked on validating the ER stress and ROS pathway in melanoma cells after CBD treatment. She continued her research through the summer after being accepted into the Summer Student Research Program Fellowship in 2021, where she presented her findings along with Samantha Cornwell and Jawad Ahmad. 

Noelle is a third-year medical student who was an Academic Medicine Scholar in Dr. Zhang's lab. She graduated from the New Jersey Institute of Technology in 2019 with a B.S. in Biology and also played D1 soccer. Noelle is interested in Emergency Medicine and Critical Care. Noelle knew that she wanted to use her scholar year to learn and develop new skills. She has always been interested in cancer biology so Dr. Zhang's Lab was an excellent fit. Having never done bench research before, this year has taught Noelle to be meticulous and detail-oriented, which directly translates to treating patients in high-acuity settings. When Noelle is not in the lab, you can find her teaching the 1st- and 2nd-year Anatomy, OMM, and DPR classes. Outside of school, you can find Noelle at the gym (she is also a certified personal trainer at F45), coaching youth soccer, being at the beach, or snowboarding!  

Samantha (Sam) Cornwell is a third-year medical student and current Academic Scholar working in the Zhang Lab.  She graduated with Honors in both Biochemistry and Psychology degrees from Virginia Tech in 2018 and is currently interested in pursuing her medical career in Emergency Medicine.  She has been a part of Zhang Lab on and off since 2021 and is excited to lead various projects in the upcoming year.  When not in the lab, you can find Sam teaching 1st and 2nd-year medical students at NYIT in anatomy, OMM, and DPR, and when not on campus, you can find Sam working out at OrangeTheory, exploring museums and cooking.

Sanket is a third-year medical student who is currently in his Scholar year of the Academic Medicine Scholar Program, with a focus on research. He graduated from Stony Brook University. Sanket is interested in Radiology. 

Alexa is a third-year medical student! Before attending NYITCOM, she studied Kinesiology at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, with a minor in psychology. Alexa then went on to do a post-baccalaureate program in pre-medical sciences at Columbia University in New York City. Between schooling, Alexa worked as a medical scribe, an ophthalmology technician, and a clinical research specialist. Alexa is extremely passionate about living an active and healthy lifestyle, peloton, cooking/baking, and playing with her two puppies.

Katherine is a fourth-year medical student. She received a B.S. in Integrative Neuroscience at Binghamton University. In Dr. Zhang’s lab, Katherine was involved in studying the ALT pathway and aging. Outside of medicine, she loves all things outdoors! She will be an Internal Medicine resident at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center next year.

Danny graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Neurobiology from Boston University. He is a current pediatrics resident at Advocate Children's Hospital in Park Ridge, IL. When he was a student at NYIT, he became an academic medicine scholar. Danny joined Dr. Zhang's lab to study telomere stress using super-resolution microscopy. Danny also contributed to several publications, particularly a review that summarizes the clinical implications of ALT-positive neoplasia. Danny is looking forward to a future in either general outpatient pediatrics or pediatric hematology-oncology. Danny has been featured on NYIT COM's Student Profile. Feel free to reach out to Danny if you have any questions! 

Rachel is a third-year medical student. She graduated from Stony Brook University with a B.S. in Biology with a specialization in developmental genetics and a minor in International Studies. Rachel attained her M.P.H. at Downstate Health Sciences University with a concentration in Epidemiology. In her free time, she loves to do arts and crafts, read, travel, and spend time with family, friends, and her amazing cat and dog. Rachel's personal interest in Dr. Zhang’s lab stems from wanting to learn more about cancer research.