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)
Staff

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
Postdocs

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
Graduate students

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
Undergraduate students

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
Alumni

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