Previous Lab Members: Postdocs, staff, rotation students, and undergraduate students
Giovanni Pagano, Research assistant
Yujia tian
My name is Yujia. I came from Beijing. Now I am reading in junior year at Rutgers. My major is Cell Biology and Neuroscience, with a minor in statistics. I am interested in finding out how our brain works and why dysfunction in synaptic transmission leads to mental disorders. In the future, I would like to become a biomedical researcher to combine neuroscience and informatics.
Mitali ShrofF
My name is Mitali. I am an undergraduate in the School of Arts and Science Honors Program at Rutgers University, class of 2024 majoring in Cell Biology and Neuroscience. Outside of school, my interests include volunteering as an EMT, dancing, and being a member of the Rutgers University Student Assembly.
Alaya Gutha
Hi! I’m Alaya Gutha, an undergraduate student at Rutgers University majoring in Cell Biology and Neuroscience with a minor in Education As a Social Science. In the Pang Lab, I am working to learn more about nerve regeneration. Outside of school, I enjoy reading, rock climbing, and keeping my beloved houseplants alive.
Yulia Hapiak
I received my Bachelor’s degree in Cell Biology & Neuroscience and Psychology from Rutgers University in May 2019 and joined the Pang Lab in October 2019. My passion for research began during my undergraduate studies where I pursued neuroscience research at the W.M Keck Center for Collaborative Neuroscience. I look forward to contributing to the scientific community at Rutgers as a graduate student in the Master of Biomedical Sciences program in Fall 2020.
kenneth paradiso, phd
Assistant Professor
Sarah Sajid
I am currently a sophomore studying Cell Biology and Neuroscience at Rutgers University. I am an emergency department medical scribe at Jersey Shore Medical Center as well as an EMT and I ride for my home town, Morganville First Aid and rescue Squad. Aside from academics, my interests include figure skating, music, and I am happy to contribute to the Pang Laboratory!
Ishnoor Singh
Ishnoor graduated with a MS in Biomedical Sciences at the RBHS. He majored in Neurosciences in his undergraduate from India, and his research interest is neurobiology.
Matthew Scarnati, PhD
Rutgers University, NIH NIAAA T32 training fellowship
I received my BS in Molecular Biology and Biochemistry from Stockton College and later pursued my PhD in Neuroscience at Rutgers University. The primary objective of my work in the Pang lab is to employ induced neuronal cell (iN) technology to generate human neurons carrying allelic variants in the MOR to probe the interaction between alcohol and opioid signaling. Elucidation of how this gene variant affects alcohol sensitivity in a human neuronal context will provide novel mechanistic information about the involvement of opioid signaling in AUDs.
Aleena Andrews
I got my Bachelor of Science in Chemistry at The College of New Jersey, where I did research in computational biochemistry. I got my Master of Science in Biochemistry from the University of Maryland while I conducted research in bioanalytical chemistry.
Matteo Bernabucci, PhD
Matteo joined the lab after previous experiences in Canada and US. He has a solid background in slice electrophysiology, combined with a unique experience in the Patch-seq technique, learned in Andreas Tolias’ lab. Before that, Matteo has spent several years studying mouse models of pain and anxiety disorders in the laboratories of Min Zhuo (University of Toronto) and Yu Shin Kim (UTMB, Galveston). He holds a master degree in Biology (Biotechnology) and a PhD in Psychobiology and Psychopharmacology (La Sapienza University in Rome). In Pang’s lab, Matteo will focus his research focusing on some physiological aspects of glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) on the paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus (PVN) and nucleus tractus solitarius (NTS). His home city is Rome, Italy.
Sarah D. Espineli, Rutgers University (Douglas College)
Jay Phansalkar, Rutgers University (Honors College)
Jay Phansalkar is an undergraduate in the Honors College at Rutgers University, class of 2021. He is studying Cell Biology and Neuroscience, as well as Computer Science. Outside of school he is a volunteer EMT, a trumpet player, and a big New York Giants fan. He has been with the lab since June 2018.
Ajay Reddy, MD
Clinical Fellow, Rutgers University-RWJ Medical School
Dina Popova, PhD
University of Helsinki
Marisa Joel, Rutgers University
Nidhi Desai, Rutgers University (Honors College)
Qili Yu, PhD, Rutgers University
Baiijuan Xia, MD, Visiting Research Scholar
Current Position: Associate Professor, Guizhou Medical University
Jingjing Liu, PhD, City University of New York (CUNY), Postdoctoral Fellow (2014-2019)
Current Position: Research Associate, NYU
Ji Liu, PhD
American Heart Association Postdoctoral Fellow, Academic Medical Center (AMC), University of Amsterdam (2013), Rutgers University (2014-2019)
Current Position: Principal Investigator, University of Science and Technology of China
Apoorva Halikere, BA, Graduate Student, PhD Program in Neuroscience, IGERT Fellow, NIH NIAAA F31 NRSA Predoctoral Fellow, Rutgers University( 2014-2018)
Current Position: Associate Medical Director, HealthLogiX
Nicola Francis, PhD, Visiting Researcher (2016-2018), Rutgers University
Current Position: Research Associate, Rutgers University
Karen Hussein, MD, Neonatologist Fellow (2016-2018), Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School
Current Position: Neonatologist, Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital
Zihui Xu, MS, Research Assistant (2016-2018), Carnegie Mellon University
Current Position: Research assistant, Sen Yet-Sen University, China
Joseph Fantuzzo, Visiting Student (2015-2019), Rutgers University
Current Position: Merck
Isadora Zhang, Undergraduate Student, University of Wisconsin
Heather McGowan, PhD Student 2017, Medical Student at RWJMS
Michel Mikhail, Undergraduate Student, Rutgers University
Trevor Alston, Undergraduate Student, Rutgers University
Jennifer Ling, Undergraduate Student, Rutgers University
Haihua Zheng, RTS IV, Lab Manager, Child Health Institute of NJ
Andres Villegas, Undergraduate Student, Rutgers University
Lidia DeFilippis, PhD, Visiting Scholarly Researcher, University of Milan in Milano, Italy
Abdulraouf Abdulraouf, Internship Student, Rutgers University
Julia Xia, Undergraduate Student in Cell Biology and Neuroscience, Aresty Fellow at Rutgers
Nicola Mlynaryk, Undergraduate Student, Rutgers University, Graduate student, UCSD
Jeffrey D. Zahn, PhD, Visiting Associate Professor, Rutgers Biomedical Engineering, Sabbatical ended in Fall of 2015.
Aula Hamod, Graduate Student, Master Program in Physiology, Rutgers University. Returned home to Iraq in 2015.
Xuefeng Wang, Research Assistant, 2014
Sammy Othman, Aresty Fellow, Undergraduate Student, 2014, Rutgers University
Aziz Karakhanyan, 2014, Harvard Medical School, Neuroscience PhD Program
Yuefei Huang, Postdoc, 2013
Benjamin (Ben) Ethan Mansky, SURP fellow, Undergraduate Student, 2013, Middlebury University. Graduate student at UCSF
Guohui Li, Arizona State University, Graduate Student Neuroscience, PhD Program, 2013
Jessica Lukacs, Undergraduate Student, Rutgers University, University of Virginia Medical School, MD/MB Program, 2013
Pang Lab 