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    • Home
    • Our Lab
    • Lab Members
    • Research
    • STEM Learning Study
    • Publications
    • Expeditions
    • Science Diplomacy
    • Outreach
    • Contact
  • Home
  • Our Lab
  • Lab Members
  • Research
  • STEM Learning Study
  • Publications
  • Expeditions
  • Science Diplomacy
  • Outreach
  • Contact

Current Members

Mandë Holford, PhD, Principal Investigator

Mandë Holford is an Associate Professor in Chemistry at CUNY-Hunter College and Graduate Center, with scientific appointments at the American Museum of Natural History and Weill Cornell Medical College. Her appointments reflect her traditional training in synthetic peptide chemistry and her subsequent interest in evolution of venomous marine organisms and characterization of venom peptides. Dr. Holford’s research is at the forefront of Chemical and Biological Diversity – pioneering an evolutionarily integrated approach to the discovery of novel venom peptides for therapeutic development in pain and cancer. 

Bobby Habig, PhD, Research Associate

Bobby Habig is an Assistant Professor at Mercy College and a research collaborator at the

American Museum of Natural History and the Research Foundation of the City University of

New York (Hunter College). His integrative research program encompasses evolutionary

biology, urban ecology, biological anthropology, and science education. As a research associate at

Hunter College, Dr. Habig is collaborating with Mandë Holford on an Innovative Technology

Experiences for Students and Teachers (ITEST) grant from the National Science Foundation.


Giulia Fassio, PhD, Research Specialist

Giulia received a PhD in Environmental and Evolutionary Biology in 2017 from the University La Sapienza of Rome with a thesis on Antarctic mollusc larval ecology and genetic connectivity. She received a grant from her home country of Italy to visit the Holford laboratory for five months. During this period, she is learning to analyze NGS data using bioinformatic tools and she has joined the ongoing project on Terebridae diet identification and correlation with venom diversity.

Juliette Gorson, PhD, Research Specialist

Juliette received a BS from Colby College, majoring in Biology and Animal Ethics, and received her MS from Hofstra University, majoring in Biology. Juliette is currently a PhD student working on venom variation and population genetics of the neogastropod clade. To complete this work, she uses next generation sequencing and bio-informatics. She has also had the privilege of joining Dr. Holford in the field for two expeditions to Papua New Guinea in the hopes of increasing the pool of available Terebridae toxins. Additionally, she spent the summer in Paris working on Terebridae taxonomy and the classification of potentially new species. 

James Parziale, Graduate Student

James received a BS in Forensic Toxicology and Molecular Biology from John Jay College in 2015. He continued his study to receive an MS in Pharmacology from Weill Cornell in 2018. He took a gap year to teach as an adjunct at his Alma Mater prior to entering the CUNY Biochemistry Ph.D. Program in Fall 2020. James joined the lab in late 2021 and is working to 1) develop venom gland organoid models for Conoidea and 2) to perform a morphometric analysis of terebrid snail shell spirals.

Franny Geller, Graduate Student

Franny Geller is a PhD candidate in evolutionary biology and animal behavior at the CUNY Graduate Center, as well as a professional ensemble singer, who has discovered the perfect marriage of her interests in the biology of bird song. While plugging away at her dissertation on avian cultural evolution, Franny is also working with Drs. Habig and Holford as a research assistant on their ITEST grant.


Favour Achimba, Graduate Student

Favour received a BS in Chemistry/Biochemistry from Rivers State University in 2016. She worked for a year at the Center for Infectious Diseases Lagos in 2017 on medical research data collection, medical record storage, and outreaches. During and after her undergraduate study, she was a high school math and chemistry tutor, preparing high school students and undergraduates for national exams. Her undergraduate research focused on measuring changes in biochemical parameters of albino rats to determine the effect of corticosteroids on their vital organs. She went on to work as a business analyst at a financial institution using data to solve business problems and managing projects that eliminate waste and redundancy in the organization. Favour joined the Holford Lab in Summer 2021 and is interested in studying how venom can advance cancer treatment. As a rotation student, Favour will be working with the bioinformatics team.

Praveena Naidu, Rotating Graduate Student

Praveena is a PhD student in Molecular Cellular and Developmental Biology Program. She received a BSc in Biomedical Science from Imperial College London in 2019 with a specialisation in infection and immunity. She then graduated with an MPhil from the University of Cambridge in 2020 studying placental macrophages across species. She spent the last year working in an RNA therapeutics lab at the Institute of Molecular and Cellular Biology at A*Star in Singapore, cloning plasmid constructs to validate splice-shifting oligonucleotide therapies. 

Jessy Ramirez, Masters Student

Jessy received a BS in Biology from St. Thomas Aquinas College in 2015. He entered the Bioinformatics Master Degree Program at New York University in Spring 2020, and joined the Holford Lab in Summer 2021. After graduation, he hopes to pursue his career in Bioinformatics via a PhD degree.

Intesar Janjua, Masters Student

Intesar received his BA in Biochemistry from NYU in 2018. He entered Hunter College's Biochemistry MA program in the Spring of 2021 and joined the Holford Lab in the Summer of 2021. After graduating, he hopes to pursue study in MD and/or PhD programs.

Syeda Jannath, Undergraduate Student and Lab Manager

Syeda is an undergraduate junior majoring in Biochemistry and Special Honors Major at Hunter College. She joined the Holford Lab in Summer 2021 as a McNulty Scholar. After graduating, Syeda hopes to pursue an MD or MD/PhD degree.

Mariam Gelashvili, Undergraduate Student

Mariam is an undergraduate junior majoring in Bioinformatics and minoring in Mathematics at the Macaulay Honors College at Hunter College. She joined the Holford Lab in Summer 2021. After graduation, Mariam hopes to pursue a career in medicine via an MD or MD/PhD.

Nusrat Khan, Undergraduate Student

Nusrat is an undergraduate junior majoring in Biology and BA/MA in Psychology at City College of New York. She joined the Holford Lab in Summer 2021. After graduating, she hopes to pursue an MD-PhD degree and aims to do further research on psychoneuroimmunology related to glioblastoma.

Former Members

Post-Doctoral Fellows

Prachi Anand, PhD (Analytical Research Scientist, Genesis Biotechnology Group)

Graduate Students

Abba Leffler, PhD (Senior Scientist, Private Firm)

Elizabeth Mary Wright, PhD (Lecturer, Princeton University)

Giulia Fassio, PhD (Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Sapienza Università di Roma)

Aida Verdes, PhD (Assistant Professor, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid)

Juliette Gorson, PhD (Special Assistant Professor of Biology, Hofstra University)

Patrick Kelly, PhD (Teaching Fellow, Fullstack Academy)

Tanya Napolitano, PhD (Application Scientist, Phenomenex)

Masters Students

Danny Simpson, MS (Bioinformatics Specialist, New York Genome Center)

Raj Musunuri, MS (Bioinformatics Specialist, New York Genome Center)

Emily Lin, MS (PhD Candidate, CUNY Graduate Center)

R. S. Ramakrishnan, MS (Bioinformatics Specialist, Mount Sinai)

Jessica Schulman, MS (Computational Biologist, Mount Sinai Department of Neuroscience)

Maxwell McDermott (EMT) 

Undergraduate Students

Henry Yelkin (Financial Representative, MassMutual Metro New York)

Marouf Hossain (Medical School, SUNY Downstate)

Manjeet Kaur (Masters Program, CUNY Graduate Center)

Peter Filipenko (Bioinformatics Consultant)

Girish Ramrattan (Bioinformatics Facility Manager, Weill Cornell Medicine)

Michelle Yun (Masters Program, Boston University)

Magid Mohamed (MD/PhD Program, UT South Western)

John Moon (Medical School, University of Chicago)

Michael Lyudmer (Medical School)

Nicolette Somogyi (Masters Program, NYU)

Corina Grijuc (Medical School)

Carolina Santamaria (Graduate School, University of Massachusetts Amherst)

Emily Lau (Graduate School, UC Santa Barbara)

Justin Ho (Graduate School, Cornell University)

Jessica Kuppan (Graduate School, Washington University in St. Louis)

Jennifer Ferd (Graduate School, University of Pennsylvania)

Safiyah Samad (Medical School, Albert Einstein College of Medicine)

Eleonora Achrak (Medical School, Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine)

Sharmin Sultana (Research Technician, Albert Einstein College of Medicine )

William Deng (Staff scientist, biotech)

Summer Program Students

Ikenna Onyekwere (Medical School, Weill Cornell Medicine)

Mackenzie Mitchell (Masters Program, Wesleyan University)

Laboratory Managers

Saama Salim (Nursing School)

Kelly Huang (Nursing School)

Justin Ho (Graduate School, Cornell University)
Natasha Pandey (...)

Sharmin Sultana (Research Technician, Albert Einstein College of Medicine)