Fifth Cohort 2012 - 2014
Alana Sampson
Hometown: Virginia Beach, VA
Undergrad & Major: Chemical Engineering at Virginia Tech, Biomedical Engineering
Lab Name & Department: Tissue engineering, Nanotechnology and Cancer Research (TENCR) Lab, School of Biomedical Engineering and Sciences (SBES)
IMSD Mentor: Dr. Nichole Rylander
Current Status: Research Associate II at ReAlta Life Sciences, Inc.
Sarah Hargis
Hometown: St. Charles, MO
Undergrad & Major: Murray State University (applied mathematics in biology, chemistry), Genetics, Bioinformatics, and Computational Biology
Lab Name & Department: Dr. David Mittelman at the Virginia Bioinformatics Institute (first rotation)
IMSD Advisor: Dr. Liwu Li
Current Research: The project I am currently working on involves tandem repeats in DNA, which present problems in replication and are often loci for neurological diseases. Eventually, I want to work with cancer-related genomics.
Roberto Padilla
Hometown: Manzanola, Co
Undergrad & Major: University of Colorado at Colorado Springs, BS in Chemistry and BA in Mathematics
Lab Name & Department: Brewer Group at the Department of Chemistry
IMSD Advisor: Dr. Karen J. Brewer
Current Status: Senior Scientist at AbbVie
Nina Lauharatanahirun
Hometown: Woodland Hills, Ca
Undergrad & Major: California State University, Northridge, Developmental and Biological Psychology
Lab Name & Department: Interpersonal Decision Neuroscience Laboratory (King-Casas Lab), Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute/Psychology
IMSD Advisor: Dr. Brooks King-Casas
Current Status: Graduate student in the Department of Psychology in Virginia Tech's College of Science