Cohort 1: 2019-present

Jennifer Hinton

Horn Lake, Mississippi

Jennifer Hinton is a rising senior in the field of biomedical engineering at Mississippi State University. For the past three summers, she has researched under the guidance of Dr. Dwight Bergles. This past summer she focused on reviewing the role of purinergic receptors in the developing inner ear and analyzed its genetic expression from public single-cell RNA sequencing data.

Quote: “The past three summers with this program have been a blessing. Not only has this experience increased my knowledge and drive to pursue a career in auditory research, it has also given me invaluable connections with my mentors and lab members, and endless inspiration from other interns. The Johns Hopkins Neuroscience Scholars program has given me a support system and shown my worth as a hard of hearing student, and I am truly grateful for the friendships I have formed here.”

Princess Naomi Newton

Laurel, Maryland

Princess Newton is a rising junior at Johns Hopkins University studying systems neuroscience and psychology. She has been involved in research guided by Divya Rao in Dr. Jung Soo Suk’s lab in the Center for Nanomedicine (at the Wilmer Eye Institute). Her summer’s research examined the potential for increasing the cerebral expression and circulation of exendin-4, a developing Alzheimer’s dementia treatment, through the use of penetrative DNA nanoparticles.

Ryleigh Board

Campbellsville, Kentucky

My name is Ryleigh Board, I am a rising senior at Campbellsville University studying exercise science. I am a third year scholar for the JHNSP and this summer I had the opportunity to work at the University of Kentucky in Dr. Bush’s lab. We studied hearing healthcare disparity between delivery and access. I spent a lot of time participating in a readability study, COVID supplement study, and a systematic review.

Sarah Noble

Buffalo, New York

Sarah Noble is a junior at Macalester College, majoring in Biology and Spanish. In past years, she worked in the Fuchs Lab and her primary mentors were Dr. Paul A. Fuchs and Dr. Hakim Hiel. In 2019 she helped with a project titled “Neuronal Expression of HA-tagged Nicotinic Acetylcholine Receptor 𝛼9 in Mice”. In 2020, she has been exploring the published literature regarding inner ear gene therapy.

She currently works with Dr. Nicholas Reed in the Department of Epidemiology at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. This summer, she has been reviewing literature about the experience of deaf/hard of hearing patients in healthcare, specifically examining their interactions with physicians.

Cohort 2: 2020 – present

Alexandra Wong

Alexandria, Virginia

Career Goal: I hope to shatter disability inequities through both a STEM lens and a public policy lens as a physician-scientist and disability advocate.

Quote: “You can’t wait until life isn’t hard anymore before you decide to be happy.” (Jane Marczweski aka Nightbirde)

Ayotimofe Idowu

Owings Mills, MD

Ayotimofe Idowu is a sophomore biology major at Howard University and a cohort 3 member in the Karsh Stem Scholars Program. She is an aspiring physician-scientist who is greatly interested in studying diseases as well as finding pharmaceutical methods to cure them. She is currently an undergraduate researcher at the Dawson Lab in the Institute of Cell Engineering. This past summer, her research has focused more on cell death pathways and the interactions of Parkin Interacting Substrate (PARIS) in relations to Parkinson’s Disease.

Jacqueline Villalobos

Antioch, California

Jacqueline Villalobos is a first-generation college student at the University of California Davis. She will be majoring in Neurobiology, Physiology and Behavior as a rising junior. This summer she got the opportunity to work with Dr. Diasynou Fioravante at the Center for Neuroscience in Davis. Her work included animal behavior experiments and exploring how mutations cause neurodevelopmental disorders such as Autism.

Marcus Milani

Gainesville, FL

University of Florida

Cynthia Moss

Marcus Milani is a senior at the University of Florida where he studies Molecular Cell Biology. This is his second summer performing research in Dr. Moss’ Batlab studying the intersections of memory, perception and social behavior using the echolocating bat as a model.

Maria Rivera-Santana

Mayagüez, Puerto Rico

Maria is a Biology major at the University of Puerto Rico-Mayagüez Campus. This summer she conducted research in the Neuroengineering and Biomedical Instrumentation Lab. Work under Dr. Nitish Thakor’s mentorship consisted on studying the effects of asphyxial cardiac arrest on cerebrovascular autoregulation in a rat model. Maria aspires to continue conducting research in the Neurosciences field, which she plans to combine with a career in medicine as a future physician-scientist.

Mary Caroline Yuk

Crystal Lake, IL

Caroline Yuk is a senior at the University of Alabama, where she is pursuing an interdisciplinary degree in Neuroscience. She is currently in the Agrawal Lab under the direction of Dr. Yuri Agrawal and Dominic Padova, and her project this past summer focused on the neuroanatomical links between age-related vestibular impairment and spatial cognition.

Cohort 3: 2021-present

Benjamin Luo

Lake Worth, Florida

Benjamin Luo is a junior at Pomona College where he studies computer science and neuroscience. Benjamin is a first year Johns Hopkins Neuroscience Scholar, currently researching in the MIM/Rananather Lab, under direction of Dr. Kwame Kutten and Dr. Tilak Rananather. His research this summer involves reconstruction of the feline auditory cortex based on deaf cat histology.

Brandon Villanueva Sanchez

Omaha, Nebraska

Hi my name is Brandon Villanueva Sanchez and I am a rising sophomore at the University of Nebraska at Omaha double majoring in Biology and Neuroscience. This is my first year in the program as I am a part of Cohort 3. My research consisted of reading articles relating to opioid use and the neural circuitry involved while also studying the effects of social isolation, during critical development stages, and the effect it has on drug abuse in the latter stages of life.

Darius Carr

Columbia, Maryland

Darius Carr is a first year Neurophyte studying gangliosides and surface glycan binding. He is originally from Columbia Maryland, and is attending Temple University as a freshman this fall.

Rose Broderick

Pennsylvania

My name is Rose Broderick and I am a rising sophomore at Lafayette College, where I study neuroscience. I am a first-year scholar in the JHNS program. I work in Dr. Marco Grados’ lab, where I am studying associations between certain inflammatory conditions and psychiatric disorders.

Quote: “She overcame everything that was meant to destroy her.” – Sylvester McNutt III (“She’s That Ready”)

Shahin Ahmadi

Iran

Shahin is a sophomore international student at Davidson College studying computer science and neuroscience. He currently works in the Wu Lab as a cohort 3 member under the supervision of graduate student Elijah Blank. His research during the summer focused on understanding the structure and function of WAKE protein in various model organisms.

Valeria Leal

Texas

My name is Valeria Leal and I’m a rising sophomore at Johns Hopkins University studying Neuroscience. This is my first year as a JHNSP scholar and it’s been a wonderful experience! Throughout the summer, I got to work in Dr. Cherie Marvel’s lab studying Brain Function and Cognition in relation to Lyme Disease. I was able to shadow post-grad researchers while they completed tasks that target neurocognitive functions on patients that had been diagnosed with Lyme. I’m truly grateful with the program, Dr. Amanda Brown, Heather Thomas, Dr. Cherie Marvel and the post-grad researchers that made this experience possible.

Past JHNSP Scholars (Postgraduates and Peer Mentors)

Berenice Almaguer (Cohort 2, 2019)

Fallbrook, California

Berenice Almaguer is a junior at California State University San Marcos where she studies biology with a concentration in molecular and cellular biology. She currently researches in the Lloyd Lab under the guidance of graduate student Kirstin Maulding. Her research this past summer focused examining and understanding the relationship between Wnt signaling and neurodegeneration in C9orf72 ALS.

Elias Wojahn (Cohort 1, 2019-2020)

Eau Claire, WI

Elias Wojahn is a senior student studying biochemistry at the University of Minnesota. He is involved with research in the Cullen Lab at Johns Hopkins University. This past summer his work involved developing a standard methodology for recording and measuring circling behavior in mice.

Grant Smith (Cohort 2, 2019)

Dayton, OH

Grant Smith is a sophomore at Baldwin Wallace University where he studies neuroscience and biology. He currently works under the direction of Dr. Glenn Treisman. His research this past summer focused on functional neurological illness, and how to provide a platform for a better understanding of the disease.

Malika Shah (Cohort 2, 2019)

Ellicott City, MD

Malika Shah is a sophomore at University of Maryland, College Park, where she studies biology. She currently researches the application of machine learning algorithms to biomedical challenges with the guidance of Dr. Jeremias Sulam. Her research this past summer focused on using machine learning to track neurons in microscopic images of the mouse brain in three dimensions.

Montrell Vass – Peer Mentor (Cohort 1, 2019-2020)

John Krakauer and Adrian Haith

Executive dysfunction in Parkinson’s disease

pastBachelor of Science (BS), Stevenson University

Olivia Morrissey (Cohort 1, 2019-2020)

Bedford, Massachusetts

Fordham University

Phillip Wong (2020); Vikram Chib (2019)

Oludamisola (Dami) Adeshina – Peer Mentor (Cohort 1, 2019-2020)

Carl Stafstrom and Lirong Shao

Effect of 2-Deoxyglucose and Fructose-1,6-Bisphosphate on Pilocarpine; Induced Status Epilepticus: Metabolites that Control Neonatal Seizures

Bachelor of Science (BS), Virginia Polytech Institute and State University

Sarinah Wahl (Cohort 1, 2019-2021)

Bethesda, MD

Sarinah Wahl is a junior at the University of Maryland, College Park where she majors in Physiology and Neurobiology as a premed student along with minoring in Astronomy. This is her second summer working with Dr. Kwame Kutten and Dr. Tilak Ratnanather. She is continually working on how to track the Meyer’s Loop, one of the white matter fibers of Optic Radiation, via Dynamic Programming Tractography to explore more about the structure of it.

Treasure Nwokeleme (Cohort 1, 2019-2020)

Baltimore, Maryland

Treasure is a rising senior at Cornell University studying Biological Sciences with a concentration in Neurobiology & Behavior. She conducts research in the Goldberg Lab, studying motor learning systems. On campus, she is involved with the Pre-Medical Minority Mentorship program. In her free time, she enjoys listening to podcasts, writing, reading and hanging out with friends! Treasure is passionate about creating a strong presence of minority students in the field of medicine.