team

Ishmail Abdus-Saboor
Title: Associate Professor of Biological Sciences

B.S., North Carolina A&T State University
PhD., University of Pennsylvania

ia2458 [at] columbia.edu

Yasumi Nakayama
Title: HHMI Lab Manager II

B.S., Rutgers University

yn2502 [at] columbia.edu

Sasha Fulton
Title: HHMI Hannah Gray Fellow

PhD: Ian Maze Lab, Mount Sinai Medicine/HHMI
M.S., Hunter College
B.S., Columbia University

slf2127 [at] columbia.edu

Yuki Haba
Title: Leon Levy Scholar in Neuroscience

PhD: Lindy McBride Lab, Princeton University
M.S., Columbia University
B.S., Tokyo University

yh2778 [at] columbia.edu

Aleksander Kaplan
Title: Postdoctoral Fellow

PhD: Hagai Bergman Lab, Hebrew University
B.S., University of Maryland Baltimore County

ak5200 [at] columbia.edu

Briana Nixon
Title: HHMI-LSRF Fellow

PhD: Ming Li Lab, Weill Cornell Medicine
B.S., Wesleyan University

bn2369 [at] columbia.edu

Anastasia-Maria Zavitsanou
Title: Simons Junior Fellow

PhD: Sergei Koralov & Thales Papagiannakopoulos Labs, NYU
B.S., Imperial College London

az2764 [at] columbia.edu

Anna Zhukovskaya
Title: Postdoctoral Fellow

PhD: Ilana Witten Lab, Princeton/HHMI
B.S., University of Pennsylvania

az2171 [at] columbia.edu

William Foster
Title: Neurobiology and Behavior PhD student

B.S., Haverford College
wf2284 [at] columbia.edu

Preston Sheng
Title: Biological Sciences PhD student

B.S., Emory University
ss6573 [at] columbia.edu

Isabella Succi
Title: Biological Sciences PhD student

B.S., St. Joseph’s University
is2687 [at] columbia.edu

Wesley Yu-Young Tsai
Title: Biological Sciences PhD student

B.S., Johns Hopkins University
yt2882 [at] columbia.edu

Viviana Vinci
Title: Biological Sciences PhD student

B.S., Northeastern University
M.S., ETH Zurich

vv2373 [at] columbia.edu

Tate Yawitz
Title: Neurobiology and Behavior PhD student

B.S., University of Pittsburgh
M.S., LMU Munich

tay2104@cumc.columbia.edu

Carolina Abascal

B.S., Columbia University
cb3803 [at] columbia.edu

Simon Toney

B.S., Columbia University
sd3525 [at] columbia.edu

Vivian Babich

vb2593 [at] columbia.edu

Marcus Bui

mb5356 [at] columbia.edu

Ali Jomadi

ar4935 [at] columbia.edu

Jerry Lyu

jl6802 [at] columbia.edu

Mayssam Mohamed

mkm2251 [at] barnard.edu

postdocs

Andre Toussaint
Title: Adjunct Instructor

Abdus-Saboor lab postdoc, 2022 – 2024
Simons Junior Fellow; Burroughs Wellcome Fund PDEP Fellow

Heather Rossi
Title: Senior Research Investigator at UPenn

Abdus-Saboor lab postdoc, 2018 – 2021

PhD completions

Brittany Bistis
Title: Machine learning specialist, Startup

Abdus-Saboor lab grad student, 2022 – 2026

Justin Burdge
Title: Postdoctoral Fellow, Rutgers University

Abdus-Saboor lab grad student, 2020 – 2024
NIH NRSA Predoctoral Fellowship

Ryan Schwark
Title: Curation Scientist at Fulgent Genetics

Abdus-Saboor lab grad student, 2020 – 2024

Leah Elias
Title: JCC Fellow, Johns Hopkins University

Abdus-Saboor lab grad student, 2018 – 2022
NIH NRSA Predoctoral Fellowship

Melanie Schaffler
Title: Regulatory Affairs Associate, Teva Pharmaceuticals

Abdus-Saboor lab grad student, 2018 – 2022
NIH NRSA Predoctoral Fellowship

technicians

Alexis Knight
Title: Clinical research associate, Columbia University

Abdus-Saboor lab tech, 2023 – 2024

Victoria Saltz
Title: PhD student, Tosces lab at Columbia University

Abdus-Saboor lab tech, 2022 – 2023

Jared Boyce
Title: MD-PhD student, University of Wisconsin Madison

Abdus-Saboor lab tech, 2021 – 2022

Isabella Succi
Title: PhD student, Abdus-Saboor lab at Columbia University

Abdus-Saboor lab tech, 2020 – 2022

William Foster
Title: PhD student, Abdus-Saboor lab at Columbia University

Abdus-Saboor lab tech, 2018 – 2021

Jessica Jones
Next: HHMI Gilliam Fellow, UW
Now: Scientist at Genentech

Abdus-Saboor lab tech, 2018 – 2020

undergraduate students

Carolina Abascal
Title: Technician in Abdus-Saboor lab at Columbia University

Abdus-Saboor lab undergrad, 2025 – 2026

Ashar Khan
Title: Gap year for med school

Abdus-Saboor lab undergrad, 2023 – 2026

Emmanuel Okeke
Title: Gap year for dental school

Abdus-Saboor lab undergrad, 2025 – 2026

Berra Köse
Title: gap year

Abdus-Saboor lab undergrad, 2025 – 2026

Erin Yoo

Abdus-Saboor lab undergrad, 2025 – 2026

Simon Toney
Title: Technician in Abdus-Saboor lab at Columbia University

Abdus-Saboor lab undergrad, 2024 – 2025

Amanda Arnold
Title: Technician in Ruta lab at Rockefeller University

Abdus-Saboor lab undergrad, 2023 – 2025

Leah Yadessa
Title: R&D Rotational Associate at Pfizer

Abdus-Saboor lab undergrad, 2023 – 2025

Sofia Marin-Quiros
Title: Strategy Lead in Fintech, AI, and Banking at Taktile

Abdus-Saboor lab undergrad, 2023 – 2025

Simon Ogundare
Title: MD-PhD student, Columbia University

Abdus-Saboor lab undergrad, 2021 – 2024
Bridges and Sturtevant Prize

Olaedo Udensi
Title: Undergrad student, Barnard College

Abdus-Saboor lab undergrad, 2023 – 2024

Aishat Bakare
Title: graduated, last position unknown

Abdus-Saboor lab undergrad, 2023 – 2024

Sarah Sørensen Ogata
Title: graduated, TBD

Abdus-Saboor lab undergrad, 2022 – 2024

Abednego Delinois
Title: Technician in Allsop Lab at Yale University

Abdus-Saboor lab undergrad, 2022 – 2024

Sevilla Duran
Title: Master’s student, Stanford University

Abdus-Saboor lab undergrad, 2023 – 2024

Melody Gomez
Title: Tech, Columbia University

Abdus-Saboor lab undergrad, 2022 – 2024

Alexis Imani Marshall
Title: PhD student, University of Arizona

Abdus-Saboor lab undergrad, 2021 – 2023

Jonathan Ettricks Jr.
Title: CBO Analyst at Mount Sinai Medicine

Abdus-Saboor lab undergrad, 2022 – 2023

Phalaen Chang
Title: Post-bac, Memorial Sloan Kettering

Abdus-Saboor lab undergrad, 2021 – 2023

Wadzanayi Mayiseni
Title: Post-bac, Yale University

Abdus-Saboor lab undergrad, 2021 – 2023

Alexis Knight
Title: Tech, Columbia University

Abdus-Saboor lab undergrad, 2022 – 2023

Justin Arnold
Title: MD student, Northwestern University

Abdus-Saboor lab undergrad, 2019 – 2021

Lucie Pham
Title: MD student, Rutgers University

Abdus-Saboor lab undergrad, 2019 – 2021

Samuel Kaufmann
Title: Research Fellow, SilverLining

Abdus-Saboor lab undergrad, 2019 – 2020

Justin Burdge
Title: Co-Founder and CEO at Tactorum Inc.

Abdus-Saboor Lab PhD student, 2020-2024
Abdus-Saboor Lab undergrad, 2018 – 2019
Undergrad mentee of Ishmail in Luo lab, 2015 – 2018

summer interns

Sheldon Garrick II, Fordham University, HHMI SURP Intern (2025)
Lesley Iyamu, Columbia University; BUMP Intern (2025)
Tyla Mcaffitty, Howard University, EE Just Scholar (2024)
Jonathan Bryson-Harvey, Columbia University, SURF Intern (2024)
Joshua Samuels, St. Paul’s School (2024)
Meley Haile, Columbia University; SPURS Intern (2024)
Marianna Liistro, University of Edinburgh (2024)
Zennetta Hinojosa, UT San Antonio, Leadership Alliance Intern (2023)
Noah Loran, USC, Leadership Alliance Intern (2023)
Misha Nair, Harvard University; SPURS Intern (2023)
Francesca Whitecross, Middlebury College (2023)
Alexa Cuvilly, high school student; BRAINYAC Scholar (2023)
James Reed, high school student; BRAINYAC Scholar (2023)
Teresa Osorio, Rutgers Camden University MARC Scholar (2022)
Adetokunboh Osineye, Morehouse College; EE Just Scholar (2022)
Ralph Anderson Jr., Morehouse College; EE Just Scholar (2022)
Ziad Eltabakh, LaGuardia High School; BRAINYAC Scholar (2022)
Kayla Dennis, Penn Lens program high school student (2020)
Camille Harrison, North Carolina A&T State University; SUIP intern (2020)
Meghan Wachira, Rutgers Camden University. (2020)
Isabella Succi, St. Joseph’s University (2019)
Syphane Gibbs, North Carolina A&T U, SUIP intern (2019)
Racquel Amadi, Xavier University in Louisiana; DAPPG intern (2019)
Mariatu Fayia, Penn Lens program high school student (2019)