Our Scholars

In the U-M Department of Biomedical Engineering, Emmanouil Agrafiotis, Ph.D., plans to identify shared signaling pathways driving myofibroblast activation and cardiac fibrosis post-myocardial infarction using inducible cardiomyocyte apoptosis in human and mouse models, exploring heterocellular communication and fibrotic responses through genetic switches, marker analysis, and single-cell transcriptomics.  Agrafiotis received his Ph.D. in biomedical engineering from the Graz University of Technology, Austria.

In the Medical School’s Department of Human Genetics, Ritvija Agrawal, Ph.D., will investigate the unique mechanisms through which protamine proteins influence sperm chromatin structure and early embryonic development, thereby enhancing our understanding of the biological basis of various types of infertility and embryonic failure.  Agrawal received her Ph.D. in molecular, cellular and developmental biology from U-M.

In the Medical School’s Department of Molecular and Integrative Physiology, Prarthana Dalal, M.D., Ph.D., will explore how hypoxic stress alters endothelial cell metabolic crosstalk with cancer cells and immune cells in the tumor microenvironment. Dalal completed her M.D./Ph.D. training at Northwestern University, focusing on vascular biology, specifically leukocyte transendothelial migration. 

In the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts Department of Physics, Daniel Duffy, Ph.D., will research the mechanisms by which leaves develop their distinctive shapes during growth. Duffy received his Ph.D. in engineering from the University of Cambridge.

In the Medical School’s Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Jiawen Fu, Ph.D., will investigate how Toxoplasma gondii delivers its effector proteins to host cells and plans to identify novel parasite proteins that mediate effector protein trafficking.  Fu received her Ph.D. from the Harbin Veterinary Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences.

In the Medical School’s Department of Biological Chemistry, Duncan Kountz, Ph.D.,  works on metalloenzymes from anaerobic microbes that play key roles in the carbon cycle and climate.  Kountz received his Ph.D. in chemical biology from Harvard University.

In the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts Department of Psychology, Arpit Kumar Pradhan, Ph.D., is working to understand the neural mechanisms underlying sound salience processing during sleep using electrophysiological and optical recordings. Pradhan received his Ph.D. in systemic neuroscience from Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, Germany.

In the Medical School’s Department of Internal Medicine Division of Metabolism, Endocrinology and Diabetes, Frederike Sass, Ph.D., will extend her previous work in the field of metabolic diseases into the central nervous system (CNS) by researching the mechanisms by which NK2R signaling interacts with leptin action in the CNS. Sass received her Ph.D. in metabolic research from the University of Copenhagen, Denmark.

In the Life Sciences Institute, Christabel Tan, Ph.D., is working to track and reprogram the epigenomes of closely related neuronal lineages in the fly brain to reveal the detailed genetic and epigenetic mechanisms of neural diversification. Tan received her Ph.D. in cell biology at Duke University.

In the Medical School’s Department of Internal Medicine Division of Hospital Medicine, Hitarthi Vyas, Ph.D., is focusing on creating the most comprehensive functional map of the Low-Density Lipoprotein Receptor (LDLR) locus using high-throughput CRISPR screens. Additionally, she seeks to develop a synthetic enhancer to improve LDLR activity with the ultimate goal of advancing therapeutic options for treating atherogenic cardiovascular disorders.  Vyas received her Ph.D. from Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, where she investigated circadian-regulated microRNAs and their role in the onset and progression of atherosclerosis.

In the Medical School’s Department of Psychiatry, Hasini Weerathunge, Ph.D., is investigating the application of non-invasive neurostimulation techniques to improve the effectiveness of current behavioral approaches to stuttering treatment. Weerathunge received her Ph.D. in biomedical engineering from Boston University, where her work centered on utilizing auditory and somatosensory motor perturbations of voice and speech to develop neurocomputational models of speech motor control to better understand motor speech disorders. 

In a project that spans the Medical School’s Department of Microbiology and Immunology and the Life Sciences Institute, Christophe-Sebastien Arnold, Ph.D., will use metabolomics, high-content imaging and machine learning to understand parasite-host interactions under nutritional stress. Arnold received a Ph.D. in virology, immunology and microbiology from the Université Grenoble-Alpes, France, before coming to U-M. 

Working in the Medical School’s Department of Neurology, Merci Best, Ph.D., aims to uncover how specific genetic mutations can damage the architecture of the central nervous system and thus promote neurodegeneration. Best received a Ph.D. in pharmacology at the University of Virginia School of Medicine.

Maurinne Bonnet, Ph.D., completed her graduate studies in medicinal chemistry at the Institut de Chimie de Nice, France. Now, in the College of Pharmacy’s Department of Medicinal Chemistry, she plans to develop new approaches to RNA-targeted drug discovery. 

In the Life Sciences Institute, Brian Curtis, Ph.D., will apply protein engineering to overcome a bottleneck that hinders scientists’ ability to efficiently develop biologically important natural product analogues. Curtis comes to the LSI from Cornell University, where he received a Ph.D. in chemistry and chemical biology.  

Fabio Andrés Gómez-Cano, Ph.D., received a Ph.D. in biochemistry and molecular biology from Michigan State University. He joined the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts Department of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology, where he intends to unravel the intricate mechanisms through which living organisms respond to stress by studying the co-evolution of cis-regulatory regions and environmental stress. 

In the Medical School’s Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, John Han, Ph.D., will explore the role of lipid droplets and mitochondrial metabolism in lipoprotein particle formation and secretion in age-related macular degeneration. Han received his Ph.D. in cell biology and regenerative medicine from Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia. 

Working across the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts departments of Biophysics and Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, and the Medical School’s Department of Internal Medicine, Jacob Moran, Ph.D., will investigate how bacterial communities coordinate across different length and time scales to resist antibiotic treatments. Moran comes to U-M from Washington University in St. Louis, where he received a Ph.D. in physics. 

In the Medical School’s Department of Pathology, Siva Kumar Natarajan, Ph.D., will build on his graduate work by exploring how the crosstalk between tumor cells and immune cells contributes to aggressive forms of brain cancer. Natarajan received his Ph.D. in molecular and cellular pathology from U-M, where he identified metabolic vulnerabilities in pediatric brain cancers to develop new therapies.

Morgan Pimm, Ph.D., has joined the Medical School’s Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, where she will study how one class of cytoskeletal filaments, known as microtubules, are regulated to promote directed cell migration, which is essential for tissue formation, immune responses and wound healing. Pimm received a Ph.D. in biochemistry and molecular biology from the State University of New York Upstate Medical University. 

In the Life Sciences Institute, Jingcheng Wang, Ph.D., is characterizing protein receptors that facilitate the movement of specific proteins (cargos) along the secretory pathway to the surface or outside of the cells, with a particular interest in the mechanisms that enable receptors to recognize their corresponding cargos. Before coming to U-M, Wang completed his graduate studies at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. 

In the Medical School’s Department of Molecular and Integrative Physiology, Kristina Weaver, Ph.D., plans to establish new animal models to study how environmental changes, such as touch, can reprogram neural states in the brain and impact aging.  Weaver received her Ph.D. in molecular and integrative physiology from U-M.

In the Medical School’s Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Guolei Zhao, Ph.D., is investigating the mechanisms that drive skin colonization in Candida auris, which can cause life-threatening infections. Prior to joining U-M, Zhao received her Ph.D. in biological sciences from the State University of New York-Buffalo. 

In the Medical School’s Department of Molecular and Integrative Physiology, Dominik Awad, Ph.D., studies the role of microbiome-derived metabolites and their impact on the pancreatic tumor microenvironment. He received his MSc in Microbiology from the University of Graz, Austria, studying ribosome biogenesis in yeast. Prior to joining the University of Michigan for his postdoctoral studies, Awad earned a Ph.D. from the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, where his research focused on prostate cancer lipid metabolism.

In the Medical School’s Department of Internal Medicine, Ashley Calder, Ph.D., studies the signaling mechanisms driving biliary injury and repair. She received her undergraduate education at Utah Valley University, where she earned her B.S. in Biotechnology. Calder completed her graduate training in Biomedical Sciences at the University of Central Florida, where her research investigated the mechanisms of chemosensory signaling in the oral cavity.

From sugars and lipids to metals and gases, Jutta Diessl, Ph.D., studies cellular biology at the intersection of molecular biology and bioinorganic chemistry. During her graduate studies, Diessl investigated glucolipotoxicity in yeast (M.Sc., University of Graz, Austria) and dysregulated calcium and manganese homeostasis in yeast and flies (Ph.D., Stockholm University, Sweden). In the U-M Medical School’s Department of Biological Chemistry, Diessl now elucidates the crosstalk of hydrogen sulfide and copper metabolism and its impact on mitochondrial bioenergetics and metabolism in mammalian cell culture and mice. 

In the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts Department of Chemistry, Luis Ortiz-Rodríguez, Ph.D., is developing next-generation single-molecule microscopy methods for measuring subcellular interactions in living microbial cells. Ortiz-Rodríguez comes from Luquillo, Puerto Rico and graduated with his B.S. in biology from University of Puerto Rico-Humacao Campus. He earned a Ph.D. in physical chemistry at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, where he scrutinized the excited state dynamics and electronic relaxation pathways of thionated heavy-atom-free photosensitizers for photodynamic therapy applications.

In the Life Sciences Institute, Mónica Rivas Morales, Ph.D., focuses on the development and application of allosteric modulators of dynamic proteins in transcription. After earning her B.S. in Chemistry from the University of Central Florida, Rivas completed her graduate studies in Chemistry at the University of Texas at Dallas, developing methods for robust and rapid alkyl radical generation, and their application to 18F-incorporation for the synthesis of positron emission tomography agents. 

In the Medical School’s Department of Radiology, Jason Witek, Ph.D., is working on the design and development of novel opioid PET radioligands that are agonist/antagonist pairs.  After graduating with his B.S. in Chemistry from U-M, he earned a M.Sc. in Chemistry focusing on alkaloid natural product total synthesis at Penn State University. Witek continued his graduate studies at Yonsei University, earning a Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Sciences focusing on medicinal chemistry and organic synthesis of drug-like molecules.