people

Ishmail is the third generation in his family to graduate from an HBCU, attending North Carolina A&T University for undergraduate. After college, Ishmail received a doctorate in cell and molecular biology from the University of Pennsylvania in 2012. After two years as a postdoctoral fellow at Weill Cornell , he returned to the University of Pennsylvania, where he continued postdoctoral training and in 2018 he joined the faculty as an assistant professor of biology. 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 Initiative Science Diversity Leadership Award (2022)
Vanderbilt Basic Sciences Juneteeth Award for Mentor of the Year (2022)
Pew Scholar in the Biomedical Sciences (2022)
Brain Research Foundation Seed Grant (2022)
Columbia University Provost Grant for Junior Faculty (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)

abdus-saboor lab members

Andrea Subotic

Admin Lab Manager
(2021 – present )
B.S., UC Berkeley
M.A., Cal State University
as5515 [at] columbia.edu

Anissa Jhumka, Ph.D.

Postdoctoral Fellow
(2021 – present )
B.S., Ph.D., Aix-Marseille University, France
aj3020 [at] columbia.edu

Andre Toussaint, Ph.D.

Simons Junior Fellow
Burroughs Wellcome Fund PDEP Postdoctoral Fellow
(2022 – present)
Ph.D., Temple University
at3658 [at] columbia.edu

Anastasia Zavitsanou, Ph.D.

Postdoctoral Fellow
(2022 – present )
Ph.D., New York University (NYU)
az2764 [at] columbia.edu

Brittany Bistis

Biological Sciences PhD student
(2022 – present)
B.A., Yale University
bb2977 [at] columbia.edu

Justin Burdge

Biological Sciences PhD student
(2020 – present)
B.S., University of Pennsylvania
jb4582 [at] columbia.edu

Rachel Frazer

NSF Graduate Research Fellow
SFN Neuroscience Scholar
Neuro & Behavior PhD student
(2021 – present)
B.A., Wellesley College
ref2154 [at] columbia.edu