Matriculating 2017

Undergraduate College: Colby College, 2014

Thesis Research Lab: Craig Peterson

Alexander.Baier@umassmed.edu

Jane Evelyn Chuprin graduated Magna Cum Laude from the University of Pennsylvania with a B.A in Molecular Biology and minor in Chemistry in 2017. She was the recipient of the “Chair’s Award for Excellence” given to the most distinguished biology student in the graduating class, and she successfully completed her biology honors thesis in the laboratory of Dr. Carl H. June, MD., studying T-cell activation in the context of CAR-T cell therapy prior to matriculating to UMass Chan.

Her current interests include characterizing immune cell response of disease processes in the direction of optimizing targeted medical therapies. She rotated with Dr. Ann Rothstein, PhD., studying immune cell response in systemic lupus erythematosus, and with Dr. Michael Brehm, PhD., studying intratumoral injections of immunotherapy in melanoma humanized mouse models. She is currently in the lab of Dr. Michael Brehm, PhD., studying the immune landscape of pancreatic adenocarcinoma using specialized humanized mouse models, large panel multi-parameter flow cytometry, and bioinformatic analysis (i.e. CITE-seq) as part of the UMass Cancer Avatar Institute.

Jane.Chuprin@umassmed.edu

Zach Dyer holds an AB in Creative Writing from Columbia University and an MPH in Maternal and Child Health from Boston University. For several years, Zach worked for the Worcester Division of Public Health as Deputy Director where his work focused on coalition building for health improvement, community engagement, and policy change. Zach remains active in local, state, and national boards including the Massachusetts Public Health Association Policy Council and the National Civic League’s Council of Advisors.

Zach’s research interests center on improving social determinants and reducing health disparities through broad, high-level systems change including payment reform and innovative risk adjustment modeling. He has rotated with and is currently advised by Dr. Jay Himmelstein and Dr. Arlene Ash in the department of Population and Quantitative Health Sciences.

Zachary.Dyer1@umassmed.edu

Sookyung Kim is a graduate of University of Massachusetts Amherst with a BS in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. Prior to joining the UMass Chan MD/PhD program, she conducted research in the labs of Dr. Cynthia Baldwin, where she identified WC1 homologues of bovine gamma delta T cells in sheep as part of her senior thesis work, and of Dr. Anna Greka, where she worked on developing targeted therapies for chronic kidney disease models and biomarkers for a rare kidney disease.

Her interests include understanding how cells respond to different stimuli such as infection, environmental cue/ niche, and available nutrients, with the goal of ultimately harnessing this knowledge to develop more targeted and more accessible therapeutics. She has completed rotations in the labs of Dr. Christopher Sassetti  (developing genetic engineering tools for mycobacterial chromosomes), Dr. David Guertin (developing tools to screen for proteins interacting with Sin1, 2, and Rictor and image lipid droplets in cancer cells), Dr. Cole Haynes (identifying alternative mitochondrial dysfunction regulators), and Dr. Michael Green (analyzing exome seq and RNA seq data of cancer cells and analyzing differential 3’ end polyadenylation site on brain tissue from individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder). In 2019, she joined the Haynes lab and is excited to contribute her efforts to deepening the understanding of how cells respond to mitochondrial stress.

Sookyung.kim@umassmed.edu

Hometown: Astoria, NY

Undergraduate College: SUNY Albany, 2017

Thesis Research Lab: Dr. Read Pukkila-Worley

Thesis Title: Suppression of sphingolipid catabolism by a nuclear hormone receptor promotes pathogen resistance in C. elegans

Clinical Interests: Internal medicine and gastroenterology

Hobbies: guitar, salsa

Mohamad.Nasrallah@umassmed.edu

Hometown: Philadelphia, PA

Undergraduate College: University of Pittsburgh, 2014

Thesis Research Lab: Dr. Sam Behar

Clinical Interests: OB/Gyn and family med

Hobbies: baking, feeding blueberries to my bearded dragon, sewing, karaoke

Abiola.Ogunsola@umassmed.edu