MARC Alumni - Where Are They Now?

Alex Plonski

Alex is a PhD student studying Chemistry at the University of California San Diego. 

Alex earned his Bachelor of Science Chemistry in 2022.

Alex worked in Dr. Scott Reed’s lab at the CU Department of Chemistry. Alex’s research specifically focused on modeling protein-drug interactions within the spleen to understand why unknown and unwanted side effects occur in specific populations. He is now working toward his Ph.D. in Chemistry and hopes to develop personal therapeutics to target individuals/specific populations. He is also specifically interested in reforming industrial research practices to be more inclusive and to better serve the community. 

Daniela Gonzalez-Rivera

Daniela is enrolled in the Preparation in Interdisciplinary Knowledge to Excel - Postbaccalaureate Research Education Program (PIKE-PREP) at the CU Anschutz medical campus. After completing the program, she plans to pursue a DPT/PhD in Rehabilitative Sciences.

Daniela earned her Bachelor of Liberal Arts and Science degree in Biology with a minor in Psychology at CU Denver in 2022. As a MARC scholar, Daniela worked with Dr. Eduardo Davila at the Anschutz Medical Campus in the Department of Medical Oncology. Her undergraduate research focused on immunotherapies for highly metastatic melanoma skin cancer. 

Nicholas Rotello Kuri

Nicholas is enrolled in a PhD program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). 

Nicholas earned his Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry in 2022. As an undergraduate, he worked Dr. Karin Payne at the Department of Orthopedics on the Anschutz Medical Campus. His research investigated potential approaches to prevent pediatric bony bar formation by testing novel strategies to regenerate growth plate cartilage. 

Scholars/Affiliates 2019-2021

Alyssa Salazar

Alyssa is a Biomedical Engineering PhD candidate at The Pennsylvania State University. Alyssa works in Dr. Justin Brown's Musculoskeletal Regenerative Engineering Lab.

Alyssa earned her Bachelor of Science in Bioengineering in 2021. 

Alyssa Salazar’s research mentor is Dr. Jeffrey Jacot, Associate Professor in the Department of Bioengineering and the CU School of Medicine on the Anschutz Medical Campus. Alyssa's research investigated the differences in cardiomyocyte shape, proliferation rate, and sarcomere organization of hypoplastic left heart syndrome patients, compared to healthy controls. Alyssa was awarded the Virginia T. Schuman Engineering Scholarship in 2019, the Bill and Jean Hemphill Library Scholarship for in 2019, the Engineering Dean’s Scholarship in 2019, and a travel scholarship to present her work at the 2019 SACNAS conference.

Cameron Cornn

Coming soon 

Cameron earned his Bachelor of Science in Biology in 2021. 

Cameron worked with Dr. Amanda Charlesworth studying gene expression in early development and how particular cellular pathways are used at the right time and place. Cameron was funded as a MARC Affiliate by the CU Denver Provost's Office. 

Hendrick Lopez-Beltran

Coming soon

Hendrick's research mentor was Dr. Erik Oleson, Associate Professor at the CU Department of Psychology. Hendrick's research focused on characterizing the effect of drugs of abuse on transient dopamine release within the nucleus accumbent shell as it relates to learning, motivation, and reward. He used fast scan cyclic voltammetry (FSCV), which allows for real time identification of chemical concentrations within a target area, as one method to conduct this research.

Katherine (Kate) Finch

Kate is purusing a PhD in Epidemiology at the University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill, Gillings School of Public Health.

Kate earned her Bachelor of Arts in Public Health in 2021.

Kate worked with Dr. Jimi Adams, Professor in the CU Denver Health and Behavioral Sciences Department. Kate worked with Dr. Adams’ ongoing IDEAS (Interdisciplinary Dynamics in Emerging Areas of Science) project, which involved mapping citation networks in the field of population health. Kate was awarded the Messamore Mental Health Endowed Scholarship from CU Denver’s Department of Health and Behavioral Sciences for her interest and promise in future population mental health research and earned Grand Prize for best poster at the 2019 Data to Policy Symposium.

 Mauricio Garcia 

Mauricio is pursuing a PhD in Neuroscience at Brown University

Mauricio earned is Bachelor of Arts in Psychology in 2021.

Mauricio worked under the mentorship of Dr. Carly J. Leonard at the CU Denver Department of Psychology. As an undergraduate research assistant in the Lab for Integrative Vision, Mr. Garcia investigated the relationship between saccadic eye movements and working memory.  Mr. Garcia was nominated to serve as an ambassador for the Student Advisory Council for the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and was also awarded membership to the National Honors & Leadership Society.

Oniza Chaman 

Coming soon

Oniza Chaman is a biology major working with Dr. Erik Oleson investigating the importance of dopamine signaling in avoidance behavior. Oniza is exploring future research opportunities once she graduates with the goal of pursuing an MD/PhD.

Aleezah Balolia

Aleezah is a PhD student at CU Anschutz. 

Aleezah earned her Bachelor of Science in Biology in 2020. She minored in Behavioral Cognitive Neuroscience.

As an undergraduate, Aleezah worked in Dr. Greenwood's Exercise Behavioral Neuroscience lab, with a focus on the neural circuitry of learning, specifically, the role of the striatum in fear extinction learning and memory. This research is implicated in the synthesis of novel therapeutic methods for PTSD. 

Lisette Martinez

Lisette earned her MS in Global Health and Populatino at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in 2022.

Most recently, she has worked on projects relating to sexual and reproductive health for populations in Monterrey, Mexico, and Lilongwe, Malawi.

Lisette earned her Bachelor of Science in Public Health in 2020.

While at the CU Denver, Lisette worked in Dr. Sara Yeatman’s lab focusing on reproductive health, fertility, and educational outcomes. 

Mathew Mitchell

Matthew is working toward his MD at Harvard Medical School.

Matthew worked in Dr. Christopher Phiel’s Lab where he studied molecular pathways regulating the pluripotency of embryonic stem cells. During his Summer Research Experience, he participated in The Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Exceptional Research Opportunities Program (HHMI EXROP) in Dr. Catherine Dulac’s lab at Harvard University. There, he studied genomic imprinting within the developing mouse cortex.

Nicolette Moya

Nicolette is a PhD Candidate at Northwestern University, and is studying Neuroscience.

Nicolette earned her Bachelor of Science with a double major in Psychology and Biology in 2019. 

Nicolette worked Dr. Ben Greenwood's Exercise Behavioral Neuroscience lab researching the underlying neurological mechanisms of how exercise can treat stress-related psychiatric disorders, such as PTSD. Over the Summer of 2018, she completed a Summer Research Experience internship at Columbia University in Nobel Laureate Eric Kandel’s laboratory. Under the supervision of Arun Asok, she researched learning and memory, specifically fear memory. Nicolette was funded as a MARC Affiliate by the CU Denver Provost's Office. 

Ryan Leman 

In the future, Ryan plans to obtain a Ph.D. in a program that utilizes biotechnology to study topics relating to human perception, sensation, and possibly cognition.                                     

Ryan earned his Bachelor of Science in Psychology in 2021. 

Ryan worked in Dr. Erik Oleson's lab researching drug addiction. Ryan was funded as a MARC Affiliate by the CU Denver Provost's Office. 

Tanja Kovacevic 

Tanja is currently a PhD student at the University of California Berkeley studying Planetary Science. 

Working in Burkhard Militzer's group,
she performs ab initio molecular dynamics to determine the thermodynamic properties of materials under extreme conditions to understand planetary interiors.
Tanja is also working on investigating dynamos within the gas giants in the solar system to improve structure models.

Tanja earned her Bachelor of Science in Chemistry in 2020. 

At CU Denver, she worked in Dr. Hai Lin’s Computational Chemistry Lab probing the dynamics of the villin headpiece subdomain HP-36. 

Baris Aydintug

Baris hopes to pursue a Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry and focus on how to apply the study to the treatment of autoimmune diseases after he graduates.

Baris is working towards a B.S. in Chemistry and a minor in Behavioral and Cognitive Neuroscience with a Medical Sociology Certification.

At CU Denver, Baris worked in Dr. Hai Lin's Computational Chemistry Lab where he researched proton transport in the cell membrane with computational methods. Baris was funded as a MARC Affiliate by the CU Denver Provost's Office. 

Brandan Rader

Coming soon

Brandan earned his Bachelor of Arts in Psychology.

Brandan is devout to holistic living. His raison d’etre is to help individuals achieve balance, confidence, love, and ultimately self-fulfillment through behavioral modification. Brandan was funded as a MARC Affiliate by the CU Denver Provost's Office. 

Christiana Meuret

Christiana is a PhD Student in Medicinal Chemistry at the University of Washington. 

Cristiana is earned her Bachelor of Science in Chemistry in 2019.

At CU Denver, Christiana conducted research on deuterated analogs of amino acids related to Alzheimer’s Disease. Over the Summer of 2018, Cristiana attended the University of Tennessee-Knoxville which hosted an NSF-funded REU (National Science Foundation-funded Research Experience for Undergraduates) program where she completed microchip fabrication through 3D printing software (autocad). These laboratories on microchips are designed to house CNS rodent tissue slices and Cristiana used them to studied laminar flow optimization.

Daniel Hernandez

Daniel plans to pursue a Ph.D. in Clinical Health Psychology.

Daniel earned his Bachelor of Science in Psychology in 2019.

Daniel worked in Dr. Amy Wachholtz's lab studying chronic pain. He hopes to develop alternative treatment plans that help people better manage treatment for chronic pain. Over the Summer of 2018, Daniel attended the Diversity Summer Internship Program at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. There, he worked with Dr. Sabriya Linton to investigate the current integration of HIV/AIDS treatment services in drug treatment programs in Baltimore, Maryland. He also investigated the influence that syringe services programs had on injection behaviors based on ZIP-code level proximity. 

Grant Warren

Grant plans to pursue an MD/PhD program. 

Grant earned his Bachelor of Science in Biology in 2017.

Grant's research focused on proteomics analysis and maintaining genome stability by silencing genes. He would love to combine his clinical practice with biomedical research on uncommon diseases. Grant was funded as a MARC Affiliate by the CU Denver Provost's Office. 

Jennifer (Jenn) Jaime

Jenn is a PhD student studying Neuroscience in the Moenter Lab at the University of Michigan. 

Jenn earned her Bachelor of Arts in Psychology with a Behavioral and Cognitive Neuroscience Minor in 2019. 

Jenn worked in Dr. Benjamin Greenwood's lab. Over the Summer, 2018, she participated in the Princeton Summer Internship Program where she worked at the Princeton Baby Lab, under the advising of Dr. Lauren Emberson. They used fNIRS, a non-invasion imagining technique to measure BOLD correlates in language acquisition, neural verbal prediction, and visual representations in infants. This research not only gives the team a better understanding of how infants perceive the work, but it also helps them to identify developmental milestones and possible

Jonté Roberts

Jonté is a PhD Student in Neuroscience at Wake Forest University.

Jonté earned her Bachelor of Science in Biology with a minor in Cognitive Behavioral Neuroscience in 2020. 

Jonté worked with Dr. Erik Olseon and her research involved combined neuropharmacology, chemogenetics, operant behavior, and behavioral economics to characterize the role of the ascending monoamine systems in the valuation of active avoidance versus reward Over the Summer, 2018, Jonté attended the University of Florida's Summer Neuroscience Internship Program (SNIP), where she studied how neuronal primary cilia loss on dopaminergic and GABAergic neurons affects behavioral responses to amphetamine.

Magdalena Carr 

Magdalena plans to pursue a Ph.D. in Chemistry.

Magdalena earned her Bachelor of Science in Organic Chemistry in 2019. 

At CU Denver, Magdanela was interested in biochemical application and toxicity research. Magdalena was funded as a MARC Affiliate by the CU Denver Provost's Office. 

Matias Saez

Matias earned his Master of Business Administration at the CU Denver Business School in 2019. 

Matias earned his Bachelor of Science in Psychology with a double minor in Leadership Studies and Business Fundamentals in 2018. 

Matias was interested in studyinghow different factors such as stress, relationships, exercise, and diet can impact worker productivity and satisfaction across different workplace settings and life in general. Matias was funded as a MARC Affiliate by the CU Denver Provost's Office. 

Chelsea Lopez

Chelsea earned her PhD in Ocean Sciences/ Biogeochemistry Emphasis at the University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science. 

She is currently a Senior Research Scientist at NASA. 

Chelsea earned her Bachelor of Science in Chemistry with a Biochemistry Emphasis.

At CU Denver, Chelsea worked toward the synthesis of novel compounds with biomedical applications, such as the treatment and prevention of corneal melting. Chelsea was funded as a MARC Affiliate by the CU Denver Provost's Office. 

Chelsey Brown

Coming soon

Coming soon

Christina Garza

Christina is a PhD student in the Scripps Graduate Program at the University of California San Diego. 

Christina earned her Bachelor of Science double majoring in Public Health and Chemistry in 2017. 

At CU Denver, Christina worked in Dr. Hai Lin's Computational Chemistry Research Group, where she studied studying proton transport through the EcCLC antiporter using computational methods. Christina was funded as a MARC Affiliate by the CU Denver Provost's Office. 

Helen Mamo

Helen is interested in understanding the underlying neurobiological causes of drug addiction. In the future, Helen plans to pursue a PhD in Neuroscience with an emphasis on drug addiction, and hopes to further our knowledge of the disease and develop more effective forms of treatment.

Helen earned her Bachelor of Science in Psychology in 2017. 

John Powers 

John plans to pursue a PhD in Social and Personality Psychology. 

John earned his Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and Sociology with a minor in Cognitive Behavioral Neuroscience. 

He is particularly interested in the role the social environment plays in determining our emotional reaction to challenges that individuals face thought their lives. He hopes that a better understanding of these processes will lead to interventions that will encourage healthier reactions to emotional trauma. John was funded as a MARC Affiliate by the CU Denver Provost's Office. 

Joseph Rosales 

Joseph is a JD Law Candidate at the University of Denver. 

Joseph earned a double major in Psychology and Sociology with a minor in Cognitive  Behavioral Neuroscience. He graduated Magna Cum Laude.

Joseph's research focused on in-group bias and social stress. 

Nihal Eltom

Nihal is a PhD Student at the University of California Irvine. 

Nihal earned her B.S. in Psychology and Biology with a minor in Chemistry in 2017.

Nihal's research focused on how lifestyle changes (exercise, diet, meditation) can contribute to the prevention or treatment of affect disorders. Nihal is also interested in studying at the genetic basis and biochemical components (e.g., neurotransmitter release) contributing to other mental disorders, like anorexia nervosa, bulimia, or binge eating disorder. 

Robert Jirsiraie

Robert is a PhD Student in the Psychology and Brain Sciences track. at the University of St. Louis. 

Robert's current research involves mapping developmental trajectories of psychopathology to better understand biomarkers and predict risk.

Robert earned his B.S. in Psychology with a double minor in Biology and Ethics.

Robert's research involved using neuroimaging methodologies to better understand mental disorders like schizophrenia, depression, PTSD, and Alzheimer’s Disease in hopes of finding potential treatment options. 

Jacqueline Gallegos

Coming soon

Jacqueline earned her Bachelor of Science in Psychology in 2016. 

At CU Denver, Jacqueline worked with Dr. Erik Oleson investigating comorbidity between schizophrenia and drug addiction in relation to dopamine levels. Her experiences also include participating at a summer research program at Princeton to further develop her research.

Kaylae Nakamura

Kaylae earned her Doctorate in Physical Therapy at CU Anschutz in 2019. She is currenly in clincal practice. 

Kaylae earned her Bachelor of Science in Biology in 2015. 

At CU Denver, Kaylaye she investigated the relationship between religiosity on the cardiovascular response to a stressor in Christian married couples in Dr. Kevin Masters’s lab. She also worked with Dr. Christopher Phiel investigating the biological mechanism by which the ketogenic diet reduces seizures in children with epilepsy. She furthered her research last summer at the University of Hawai’i. She then completed a post-baccalaureate program at the National Institutes of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Disorders campus in Phoenix to do research in diabetes and obesity.

Mariah Mendoza-Lehl

Mariah is currently a Research Coordinator at the University of Denver Butler Institute for Families. 

Mariah earned her Bachelor of Science in Psychology in 2016. 

At CU Denver, she Mariah worked with Dr. Elizabeth Allen investigating ways to promote healthy and happy marriages among military couples. In this lab, she is also investigating ways to help military couples find solutions to post-deployment issues such as ways to ease the reintegration process and promote healthy communication. She gained additional research experience at Denver University.