Musically minded PhD candidate targets movement disorders through fruit flies
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Student Achievements
MCCB graduate students have been successful in publishing high-impact papers, obtaining independent fellowships, receiving institutional awards, and obtaining postdoctoral or industry positions at major institutions and pharmaceutical/biotech companies.
Publications
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The following is a list of selected recent student-led peer-reviewed research publications from 2023-present. The student’s name is in bold and the faculty thesis advisor’s name is underlined.
Mesenchymal Hippo signaling regulates intestinal homeostasis in adult mice.
Dang K, Singh A, Chen X, Cotton JL, Guo S, Hu X, Tao Z, Liu H, Zhu LJ, Ip YT, Wu X, Mao J. iScience. 2025 Jan 20;28(2):111847. Free PMC article.
Neuropilin-2-expressing breast cancer cells mitigate radiation-induced oxidative stress through nitric oxide signaling.
Kumar A, Goel HL, Wisniewski CA, Wang T, Geng Y, Wang M, Goel S, Hu K, Li R, Zhu LJ, Clark JL, Ferreira LM, Brehm MA, FitzGerald TJ, Mercurio AM. J Clin Invest. 2024 Oct 1;134(22):e181368. Free PMC article.
Calcineurin promotes adaptation to chronic stress through two distinct mechanisms.
Flynn MJ, Harper NW, Li R, Zhu LJ, Lee MJ, Benanti JA. Mol Biol Cell. 2024 Oct 1;35(10):ar123. Free PMC article.
The role of quiescent thymic progenitors in TAL/LMO2-induced T-ALL chemotolerance.
O'Connor KW, Kishimoto K, Kuzma IO, Wagner KP, Selway JS, Roderick JE, Karna KK, Gallagher KM, Hu K, Liu H, Li R, Brehm MA, Zhu LJ, Curtis DJ, Tremblay CS, Kelliher MA. Leukemia. 2024 May;38(5):951-962. Free PMC article.
FANCJ promotes PARP1 activity during DNA replication that is essential in BRCA1 deficient cells.
Cong K, MacGilvary N, Lee S, MacLeod SG, Calvo J, Peng M, Nedergaard Kousholt A, Day TA, Cantor SB. Nat Commun. 2024 Mar 23;15(1):2599. Free PMC article.
The calcium channel TRPC6 promotes chemotherapy-induced persistence by regulating integrin α6 mRNA splicing.
Mukhopadhyay D, Goel HL, Xiong C, Goel S, Kumar A, Li R, Zhu LJ, Clark JL, Brehm MA, Mercurio AM. Cell Rep. 2023 Nov 28;42(11):113347. Free PMC article.
Disruption of sugar nucleotide clearance is a therapeutic vulnerability of cancer cells.
Doshi MB, Lee N, Tseyang T, Ponomarova O, Goel HL, Spears M, Li R, Zhu LJ, Ashwood C, Simin K, Jang C, Mercurio AM, Walhout AJM, Spinelli JB, Kim D. Nature. 2023 Nov;623(7987):625-632. Free PMC article.
Reducing the inherent auto-inhibitory interaction within the pegRNA enhances prime editing efficiency.
Ponnienselvan K, Liu P, Nyalile T, Oikemus S, Maitland SA, Lawson ND, Luban J, Wolfe SA. Nucleic Acids Res. 2023 Jul 21;51(13):6966-6980. Free PMC article.
Phosphosite Scanning reveals a complex phosphorylation code underlying CDK-dependent activation of Hcm1.
Conti MM, Li R, Narváez Ramos MA, Zhu LJ, Fazzio TG, Benanti JA. Nat Commun. 2023 Jan 19;14(1):310. Free PMC article.
Fellowships
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The following is a list of fellowships recently funded to graduate students in MCCB from 2020-present.
| Student | Faculty advisor | Fellowship | Years |
| Lucas Restrepo | Eric Baehrecke |
Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award (NRSA) Individual Predoctoral Fellowship (F31): Identification of a putative mitochondria solute carrier that regulates mitophagy |
2024-2027 |
| Ayush Kumar | Art Mercurio |
Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award (NRSA) Individual Fellowship for Students at Institutions with NIH-Funded Institutional Predoctoral Dual-Degree Training Programs (F30): VEGF/Neurophilin-2 signaling and radioresistance in triple-negative breast cancer |
2023-2027 |
| Chaitanya Parikh | Marcus Ruscetti |
Pancreatic Cancer Alliance Fellowship: Modulating the immunosuppressive pancreas tumor microenvironment through intratumoral delivery of cytokine-encoding mRNAs |
2023-2025 |
| Sookyung Kim | Cole Haynes |
Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award (NRSA) Individual Fellowship for Students at Institutions with NIH-Funded Institutional Predoctoral Dual-Degree Training Programs (F30): Modulation of mitochondrial biogenesis by the Integrated Stress Response (ISR) |
2022-2027 |
| Kevin O'Connor | Michelle Kelliher |
Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award (NRSA) Individual Fellowship for Students at Institutions with NIH-Funded Institutional Predoctoral Dual-Degree Training Programs (F30): Targeting dormant leukemia-initiating cells in T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia |
2020-2024 |
| Melanie Walker | Art Mercurio |
Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award (NRSA) Individual Predoctoral Fellowship (F31): Integrin regulation of mammary gland development |
2020-2023 |
| James Shen | Eric Baehrecke |
Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award (NRSA) Individual Fellowship for Students at Institutions with NIH-Funded Institutional Predoctoral Dual-Degree Training Programs (F30): Discovery of a novel role of VPS13D in autophagy |
2019-2025 |
| Kevin Luk | Scot Wolfe |
NIH Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award (NRSA) Individual Predoctoral Fellowship (F31): Amelioration of Beta-hemoglobinopathies by efficient precise deletion of the +58 BCL11A enhancer using orthogonal Cas9-Cas9 chimeras |
2019-2021 |
Awards
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Many of our graduate students have won prestigious national and institutional awards for their academic scholarship, mentorship and community service. Below are lists of institutional awards received by MCCB graduate students from 2020-present.
National Awards
| Year | Student | Faculty advisor | Award |
| 2025 | Ayush Kumar | Art Mercurio | 2024 AMA Research Challenge Grand Prize Winner |
| 2024 | Chaitanya Naimesh Parikh | Marcus Ruscetti | AACR Scholar-in-training Award to attend the AACR Special Conference in Advances in Pancreatic Cancer Research |
| Chaitanya Naimesh Parikh | Marcus Ruscetti | Trainee Award by Aegean Conferences to attend the 6th International Conference on Cytokines in Cancer |
Institutional Awards
For more information on these awards, visit the Morningside Awards for Scholarship, Education, and Community Service website.
| Year | Student | Faculty advisor | Award |
| 2024 | Chaitanya Naimesh Parikh | Marcus Ruscetti | Riccio Award |
| 2023 | Cesar Bautista Sotelo | Mike Lodato | Dan Mullen Award for Scientific Achievement |
| Ailsa Jeffries | Mike Lodato | Dan Mullen Award for Scientific Achievement | |
| Ailsa Jeffries | Mike Lodato | Riccio Award | |
| Karthikeyan Ponnienselvan | Scot Wolfe | Riccio Award | |
| James Shen | Eric Baehrecke | Outstanding Thesis Research Award | |
| 2022 | Daniel Hidalgo | Merav Socolovsky | Chancellor’s Award |
| Daniel Hidalgo | Merav Socolovsky | Class Speaker Award | |
| 2021 | Daniel Hidalgo | Merav Socolovsky | Student Community Service Leadership Award |
| Daniel Hidalgo | Merav Socolovsky | Outstanding Student Mentor in the Classroom or Research Setting Award | |
| Sumeet Nayak | Sharon Cantor | Class Speaker Award | |
| 2020 | Dimpi Mukhopadhyay | Art Mercurio | Zelda Haidak Award |
| Sookyung Kim | Cole Haynes | Zelda Haidak Award | |
| Melanie Walker | Art Mercurio | Student Community Service Leadership Award |
Getting Results…
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PhD student studies cancer tumor cells; follows path of high school science teacher
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