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Current Clinical Scholars

Juan Angulo Lozano, MD

Juan Angulo-Lozano, MD

Mentor: Jeffrey V. Ravetch, MD, PhD
Lab: Leonard Wagner Laboratory of Molecular Genetics and Immunology
Email: jangulo@rockefeller.edu

Research Interest: Dr. Angulo-Lozano’s research interest is investigating the immunologic interactions and tumor microenvironment changes in prostate and bladder cancer and their response to different antibody-based therapies (ABT). His research project will focus on testing novel immunotherapies and combinations for the treatment of early-stage bladder cancers and how the Fc-domain of ABTs affects tumor immunity.

Bio: Dr. Angulo-Lozano received his MD from the Universidad Anahuac Norte in Mexico City.  He previously was a postdoctoral research associate in the Leonard Wagner Laboratory of Molecular Genetics and Immunology.

Tamar Berger

Tamar Berger, MD

Mentor: Agata Smogorzewska, MD, PhD
Lab: Laboratory of Genome Maintenance
Email: tberger@rockefeller.edu

Research Interest: Dr. Berger’s research interests are the epidemiology of hematological malignancies and biomarkers characterization for early cancer detection.

Current Research Project Title: Detection of Pre-Malignant Changes in Fanconi anemia Mucosa

Bio: Dr. Berger received her MD and MHA from the Ben Gurion University of the Negev in Be’er Sheva, Israel. Dr. Berger completed her internal medicine residency and Hematology fellowship at Rabin Medical Center in Israel. Dr. Berger served as a senior Hemato-oncologist at Rabin Medical Center, Davidoff Cancer Center, focusing on treating patients with plasma cell disorders.

 

Amichai Berkovitz

Amichai Berkovitz, MD

Mentor: Sanford Simon, PhD
Lab: Laboratory of Cellular Biophysics
Email: aberkovitz@rockefeller.edu

Research Interest: Dr. Berkovitz’s research interest is fibrolamellar carcinoma, a rare liver disease that affects children, adolescents, and young adults.

Current Research Project Title: Genome-Wide Association Studies in Fibrolamellar Carcinoma

Bio: Dr. Berkovitz received his MD from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Israel, where he also completed his family medicine residency. Dr. Berkovitz will focus on performing a genome-wide association study for fibrolamellar carcinoma, probing for germline genomic variance associated with disease progression, outcome, and response to therapeutics. He will also be mining patient clinical data and analyzing associations of demographic, clinical, and therapeutic variables with better survival.

Barbara Bosch

Barbara Bosch, MD, PhD

Mentors: Seth A. Darst, PhD and Elizabeth Campbell, PhD
Lab: Laboratory of Molecular Biophysics
Email: bbosch@rockefeller.edu

Research Interest: Dr. Bosch’s research interest is microbiology, particularly mycobacteria, focusing on microbial physiology and genetics. Her research project aims to visualize and understand the regulation of the transcriptional process using a combination of genetic, biochemical, and structural techniques.

Current Research Project Title: Assessing Novel Compounds against Mycobacterial Pathogens within Infected Human Cacrophages

Bio: Dr. Bosch received her MD from Katholieke Universiteit Leuven in Belgium and PhD from Rockefeller University. She completed the junior years of pediatric residency at the University Hospitals Louvain in Belgium.

 

Nicole Cruz

Nicole Cruz, MD

Mentor: Robert G. Roeder, PhD
Lab: Laboratory of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Email: ncruz01@rockefeller.edu

Research Interest: Dr. Cruz’s research focus is to elucidate the epigenetic basis of the oncogenic function of histone methyl transferase KMT2D in MLL-AF9 leukemia.

Current Research Project Title:  Understanding the Role PPAR-Gamma in the Biology of Acute Myeloid Leukemia

Bio: Dr. Cruz received her MD  from San Juan Bautista School of Medicine, Puerto Rico. She completed her Internal Medicine Residency and Hematology & Oncology Fellowship at New York Presbyterian Hospital-Weill Cornell Medicine.

 

Nicolas Gomez Banoy

Nicolas Gomez Banoy, MD

Mentor: Paul Cohen, MD, PhD
Lab: Laboratory of Molecular Metabolism
Email: rkimani@rockefeller.edu

Research Interest: Dr. Gomez Banoy’s research interest is focused on unraveling the mechanisms behind obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease. His current research project will focus on understanding the genetic and pharmacologic determinants of brown adipose tissue (BAT) in adult humans, with the ultimate goal  of harnessing thermogenic adipocytes to treat cardiometabolic diseases.

Current Research Project Title: Genetic Determinants of Brown Adipose Tissue Activity

Bio: Dr. Gomez Banoy received his MD from the Universidad Nacional de Colombia in Bogota, Colombia. He then did a postdoctoral fellowship with Dr James Lo at Weill Cornell Medicine studying pancreatic islet biology. Dr. Gomez Banoy completed his Internal Medicine residency at Weill Cornell Medicine/New York Presbyterian Hospital.   He is currently an Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism fellow at the joint Weill Cornell Medicine/Memorial Sloan Kettering program.

 

Xiaojing Huang

Xiaojing Huang, MD, PhD

Mentor: Paul Cohen, MD, PhD
Lab: Laboratory of Molecular Metabolism
Email: xhuang01@rockefeller.edu

Research Interest: Dr. Huang’s research interests are systems biology and the interaction between adipose tissue and cancer.

Current Research Project Title: Proteomic Signatures of Response to Immune Checkpoint Blockade in Metastatic Sarcoma

Bio: Dr. Huang received her MD and PhD from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. She completed an internal medicine internship at Barnes-Jewish Hospital and a radiation oncology residency at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.

 

Rachel Kimani

Rachel W. Kimani, DNP

Mentor: Erich D. Jarvis, PhD
Lab: Laboratory of Neurogenetics of Language
Email: rkimani@rockefeller.edu

Research Interest: Dr. Kimani’s research interest focuses on how mental and physical comorbidity influences people’s health trajectories, and the implications of the complex mix on healthcare.

Current Research ProjectTitle: Racism-based Stress Injury and Biomarkers of Stress: A Feasibility and Correlation study 

Bio: Dr. Kimani received her DNP from the State University of New York at Binghamton. Dr. Kimani will establish biological, psychological, and social factors that function as predictors, mediators, and correlates of race-based stress and trauma response and will explore possible interventions to decrease the associated negative symptoms.

 

Matthew Kudelka

Matthew Kudelka, MD, PhD

Mentor: Elaine Fuchs, PhD
Lab: Robin Chemers Neustein Laboratory of Mammalian Cell Biology and Development
Email: mkudelka@rockefeller.edu

Research Interest: Dr. Kudelka’s research interest is studying post-translational modifications in health and disease and developing novel cancer therapies..

Current Research Project Title: Anti-glycan Antibody Responses to Immunotherapy in Melanoma

Bio: Dr. Kudelka received his MD and PhD from the Emory University School of Medicine, and completed his internal medicine residency at New York Presbyterian-Weill Cornell. Dr. Kudelka is currently doing his Medical Oncology/Research Fellowship at Memorial Sloan Kettering.

 

 

Emre Mordeniz

Emre Mordeniz, MD

Mentors: Winrich Freiwald, PhD
Lab: Laboratory of Neural Systems
Email: emordeniz@rockefeller.edu

Research Interest: Dr. Mordeniz’s research interest is understanding the neural mechanisms of sensory-motor transformation, mirror-neuron systems, and high-level social information processing in primate and human brains.

Current Research Project Title: Embodied Facial Motion Recognition: The Connectome of pSTS

Bio: Dr. Mordeniz received his MD from the Istanbul University Istanbul Faculty of Medicine in Turkey. Dr. Mordeniz is focusing on the neurophysiology and connectome of the middle dorsal face area that is selective for naturalistic facial motion. Bringing together the electrophysiology data in non-human primates and fMRI data in human volunteers, he aims to shed light on the neuropathology of social perceptual deficits in autism and schizophrenia.

 

Ryan Notti

Ryan Q. Notti, MD, PhD

Mentors: Thomas Walz, PhD
Lab: Laboratory of Molecular Electron Microscopy
Email: rnotti@rockefeller.edu

Research Interest: Dr. Notti’s research interest is studying structural biochemical approaches to approach the fundamental question in oncology and design new therapeutics with a focus on the treatment of sarcomas.

Current Research Project Title: A Pilot Study of Molecular Dynamics Simulation for the Prediction of Rare T-Cell Receptor Variant Phenotypes

Bio: Dr. Notti received his MD from Weill Cornell Medical College and PhD from Rockefeller University. Dr. Notti completed his internal medicine residency at New York Presbyterian-Weill Cornell.

 

Amhai Rottenstreich

Amihai Rottenstreich, MD

Mentor: Barry S. Coller, MD
Lab: Allen and Frances Adler Laboratory of Blood and Vascular Biology
Email: arottenstr@rockefeller.edu

Research Interest: Dr. Rottenstreich’s research interest focuses on the issue of obstetric hematology.

Current Research Project Title:  Genetic, Laboratory, and Clinical Factors Associated with Low-Dose Aspirin Failure In the Prevention of Preeclampsia

Bio: Dr. Rottenstreich received his MD from the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology in Israel. Dr. Rottenstreich completed his residency in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Hadassah-Hebrew University Medical Center, Jerusalem, Israel

 

Dennis Schaefer-Babajew

Dennis Schaefer-Babajew, MD

Mentor: Michel Nussenzweig, MD, PhD
Lab: Laboratory of Molecular Immunology
Email: dschaefer@rockefeller.edu

Research Interest: Dr. Schaefer-Babajew’s research focuses on the question of how soluble antibodies can impact subsequent adaptive immune reactions, both clinically and in terms of fundamental immunobiology.

Current Research Project Title: An observational study on the longitudinal effects of passively infused monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) on subsequent adaptive immune responses to cognate antigen.

Bio: Dr. Schaefer-Babajew received his MD from the University of Heidelberg in Germany. As a Clinical Scholar, Dr. Schaefer-Babajew will study the effects of passively administered neutralizing SARS-CoV-2 antibodies on subsequent adaptive immune responses to SARS-CoV-2 vaccination in healthy adult volunteers. Using single-cell techniques and clonal analyses of the antigen-specific B and T cell compartment, he aims to elucidate how exogenously administered monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) can shape host adaptive immunity.

 

Leon Seifert

Leon L. Seifert, MD, PhD

Mentor: Charles Rice, PhD
Lab: Laboratory of Virology and Infectious Disease
Email: lseifert@rockefeller.edu

Research Interest: Dr. Seifert’s research interests are liver diseases and liver cirrhosis. He is particularly focused on the hepatitis b infection, a viral disease that affects ~250 million people worldwide.

Current Research Project Title: In vivo Hepatitis B virus launch from Patient-derived HBV DNA: A Novel Method to Study Patient-Specific Virus Diversity

Bio: Dr. Seifert received his MD from Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster in Germany. He completed the residency program in internal medicine and gastroenterology at University Hospital Münster.

 

Mai Takahashi

Mai Takahashi, MD, MPH

Mentor: Sohail Tavazoie, MD, PhD
Lab: Elizabeth and Vincent Meyer Laboratory of Systems Cancer Biology
Email: mtakahashi@rockefeller.edu

Research Interest: Dr. Takahashi’s Mai’s research interest is the molecular mechanisms of cancer metastasis and exploring potential key genes associated with disease progression.  Her research project will focus on the biological understanding of signaling pathways on pancreatic cancer and colon cancer metastasis and its therapeutic targeting

Bio: Dr. Takahashi’s received her MD from Chiba University, Faculty of Medicine, Chiba, Japan and MPH from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA. Dr. Takahashi completed general medicine residency at Saku Central Hospital, Nagano, Japan, and internal medicine residency at Ichan School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Beth Israel in New York.

 

Vinci Wang

Zijun Wang, MD, PhD

Mentor: Michel Nussenzweig, MD, PhD
Lab: Laboratory of Molecular Immunology
Email: zwang03@rockefeller.edu

Research Interest: Dr. Wang’s research interest is the evolution of antibody responses to virus infection and vaccination, which includes SARS-CoV-2, HIV-1, and HBV.

Current Research Project Title: Characterization of the HBV-Specific T-Cell responses in Chronic HBV infection

Bio: Dr. Wang received her MD and PhD from Xiangya School of Medicine, Central South University in China. She completed the dermatology residency program at Second Xiangya Hospital of Central South University.

 

Shin Rong Wu

Shin-Rong (Julia) Wu, MD, PhD

Mentor: Sidney Strickland, PhD
Lab: Patricia and John Rosenwald Laboratory of Neurobiology and Genetics
Email: swu01@rockefeller.edu

Research Interest: Dr. Wu’s research interest focuses on how the immune and blood clotting systems interact to maintain homeostasis in health and to affect organ damage in disease. Her research project seeks to understand how peripheral blood components, encompassing both cellular populations and plasma proteins, contribute to Alzheimer’s disease.

Current Research Project Title: Investigating the Impact of Inflammation on Amyloid Precursor Protein (APP) Expression in the Hematopoietic Compartment

Bio: Dr. Wu received her MD and PhD from the University of Michigan Medical School.  Dr. Wu completed her internal medicine residency at New York-Presbyterian, Weill Cornell Medical Center. She is currently doing her Hematology/Oncology Fellowship at New York-Presbyterian, Weill Cornell Medical Center.

 


Application

The application process for the Clinical Scholars Program is open. We are currently accepting applications for July 2025. The application deadline is December 6, 2024. For an online application, go to http://scholarapplication.rockefeller.edu.  For additional information contact Dr. Barry S. Coller at collerb@rockefeller.edu.


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