Year in Program: 2022

Aayush Gandhi is a rising sophomore at The College of New Jersey’s 7-Year BSMD program in conjunction with the New Jersey School of Medicine. He works in an otolaryngology lab, trying to analyze various different brain regions related to vestibular function. In his spare time, he loves to read and produce poetry and other styles of literary works. ​

As for my favorite quote:​

“Visibility which makes us most vulnerable is that which also is the source of our greatest strength.” – Audre Lorde

Years in Program: 2020 – 2022

Ayotimofe Idowu graduated with a Biology degree from Howard University. She worked as a member of the Dawson and Mao Lab at Johns Hopkins University where she studies the role of circulatory factors in Parkinson’s disease. She is an aspiring physician-scientist with interests in carrying out novel studies that would contribute to the vast treasure trove of information in the current scientific database.

My favorite quote:

“If you can’t fly then run, if you can’t run then walk, if you can’t walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward.”

– Martin Luther King Jr.

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. 

Hometown: Eau Claire, WI
Years in Program: 2019-2021

I graduated from the University of Minnesota with a degree in Biochemistry in 2021. As part of the initial cohort of students, I spent three years with the Johns Hopkins Neuroscience Scholars Program. I started off researching vestibular dysfunction in the Cullen Lab at Johns Hopkins University and after graduation I researched drug-induced deafness in the Steyger Lab at Creighton University. The mentorship I received and the opportunity to interact with peers who shared not only my interests but also my background was amazing and my skills as a scientist and scholar grew immensely. I’m pleased to share that this fall I will be starting medical school at the Medical College of Wisconsin, class of 2026.

Jennifer Hinton graduated in 2021 with a degree in biomedical engineering from 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.”

Current Position: Researcher at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital

Years in Program: 2020 – 2022

Hometown: Gainesville, FL.

I graduated from the University of Florida. I now work at the Someya Lab and study cochlea aging and gender differences in hearing.

My favorite quote is by Alice Walker:
“The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any.”

Hometown: Mayagüez, Puerto Rico

Years in Program: 2020 – 2021

Maria graduated from the University of Puerto Rico-Mayagüez Campus. During her time in the JHNSP program, she conducted research in the Neuroengineering and Biomedical Instrumentation Lab. Work under Dr. Nitish Thakor’s mentorship consisted of 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.

Hometown: Crystal Lake, IL

Years in program: 2020-2021

Caroline Yuk graduated from the University of Alabama, with a degree in Neuroscience. She worked in the Agrawal Lab under the direction of Dr. Yuri Agrawal and Dominic Padova, and her project focused on the neuroanatomical links between age-related vestibular impairment and spatial cognition.

Years in Program: 2019-2020

Hometown: Bedford, Massachusetts

Bachelor’s Degree: Fordham University

JHU Mentors: Phillip Wong (2020); Vikram Chib (2019)

Current position: Medical Student, Loyola Stritch School of Medicine in Chicago

Years in Program: 2019-2020, 2022

JHU Mentors: Carl Stafstrom and Lirong Shao

Title of project: 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

Current Position: EMT/Firefighter

Years in Program: 2019-2020

Hometown: Laurel, Maryland

Princess Newton graduated from Johns Hopkins University with a degree in 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.

Years in Program: 2019-2021
Hometown: Campbellsville, Kentucky

My name is Ryleigh Board, I graduated from Campbellsville University with a degree in 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.

Years in Program: 2019-2022

Hometown: Buffalo, New York

Sarah Noble graduated from Macalester College in May 2022 where she majored in Biology and Spanish. This past summer, she worked with Dr. Courtney Hill, a pediatric ENT, who founded Glimpse Diagnostics to improve at-home pediatric ear care. 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 the Fuchs Lab with a project titled “Neuronal Expression of HA-tagged Nicotinic Acetylcholine Receptor 𝛼9 in Mice”. In 2020, she explored the published literature regarding inner ear gene therapy.

Years in Program: 2019 – 2020

Hometown: Bethesda, MD

Sarinah Wahl graduated from the University of Maryland, College Park with a degree in Physiology and Astronomy She spent two summers working with Dr. Kwame Kutten and Dr. Tilak Ratnanather. She worked 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.

Years in Program: 2019-2020

Hometown: Baltimore, Maryland

Treasure graduated from Cornell University with a degree in Biological Sciences with a concentration in Neurobiology & Behavior. She conducted research in the Goldberg Lab, studying motor learning systems. On campus, she was 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.