people

Ishmail attended an HBCU for college, North Carolina A&T University. Following a bachelor’s degree in animal science, Ishmail received a doctorate in cell and molecular biology from the University of Pennsylvania. He performed postdoctoral research at Weill Cornell Medicine and University of Pennsylvania, and in 2018 he joined the faculty at the University of Pennsylvania. In 2021, he was recruited to Columbia University, where he is currently an assistant professor of biological sciences in the Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute.

Select Honors and Awards  |  curriculum vitae

• NIH DP2 New Innovator Award (2022)
• Chan Zuckerberg Science Diversity Leadership Award (2022)
• Pew Scholar in the Biomedical Sciences  (2022)
• Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Research Fellow (2021)
• Kavli Fellow, National Academy of Sciences (2021)
• Rita Allen Foundation Scholar (2020)
• NIH K99/R00 Pathway to Independence Award (2017)
• Burroughs Wellcome Fund PDEP Fellow (2015)

Features/Interviews

In the lab with Ishmail Abdus-Saboor (YouTube) (2022)
“Behind the CV Interview” with Penn’s MindCore (YouTube) (2021)
Q and A Feature Interview for Neuron (2021)

Andrea Subotic

Administrative Lab Manager

B.S., UC Berkeley
M.A., Cal State University
as5515 [at] columbia.edu

Victoria Saltz

Technician

B.A., Williams College
vps2116 [at] columbia.edu

Sasha Fulton

NIH F99/K00 DSPAN
EE Just Postdoc Fellow, UNCF
Ph.D., Mount Sinai Medicine
slf2127 [at] columbia.edu

Anissa Jhumka

Ph.D., Aix-Marseille University
aj3020 [at] columbia.edu

Briana Nixon

Ph.D., Weill Cornell Medicine
bn2369 [at] columbia.edu

Andre Toussaint

Simons Junior Fellow
PDEP Fellow, BWF
Ph.D., Temple University
at3658 [at] columbia.edu

Anastasia Zavitsanou

Ph.D., New York University (NYU)
az2764 [at] columbia.edu

Brittany Bistis

Biological Sciences PhD student
B.A., Yale University
bb2977 [at] columbia.edu

Justin Burdge

Biological Sciences PhD student
B.S., University of Pennsylvania
jb4582 [at] columbia.edu

Rachel Frazer

Neuro & Behavior PhD student
NSF Graduate Research Fellow
B.A., Wellesley College
ref2154 [at] columbia.edu

Ryan Schwark

Biological Sciences PhD student
B.S., Elizabethtown College
rs4192 [at] columbia.edu

Phalaen Chang

pc2908 [at] columbia.edu

Abednego Delinois

jad2321 [at] columbia.edu

Jonathan Ettricks Jr.

jce2132 [at] columbia.edu

Melody Gomez

mg3764 [at] columbia.edu

Alexis Knight

aak2220 [at] columbia.edu

Jake Kothandaraman

kothaj02 [at] nyu.edu

Alexis Imani Marshall

aim2141 [at] columbia.edu

Wadzanayi Mayiseni

wmm2129 [at] columbia.edu

Sarah Sørensen Ogata

sas2451 [at] columbia.edu

Simon Ogundare

soo211 [at] columbia.edu

Heather Rossi

Postdoc

2018 – 2021
Now: Research Associate  at UPenn

Leah Elias

Graduate Student

NIH NRSA F31 Fellow
2018 – 2022
Now: Postdoc at Johns Hopkins

Melanie Schaffler

Graduate Student

NIH NRSA F31 Fellow
2018 – 2022
Now: Teva Pharmaceuticals

Jared Boyce

Technician

2021 – 2022
Now: MD-PhD student at UWisconsin-Madison

William Foster

Technician

2018 – 2021
Now: PhD student at Columbia

Jessica Jones

Technician

2018 – 2020
Now: HHMI Gilliam Fellow & PhD student at UW

Isabella Succi

Technician

2020 – 2022
Now: PhD student at Columbia

Justin Arnold

Undergraduate

2019 – 2021
Next: MD student at Northwestern U.

Justin Burdge

Undergraduate

2018 – 2019
Next:  PhD student in the lab

Lucie Pham

Undergraduate

2019 – 2021
Next: MD student at Rutgers U.

Samuel Kaufmann

Undergraduate

2019 – 2020
Next: Research Assistant at UPenn