people

Ishmail Abdus-Saboor is an associate professor of biological sciences at Columbia University’s Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute. Ishmail attended an HBCU for college, North Carolina A&T University, followed by a Ph.D. in Cell and Molecular Biology at the University of Pennsylvania. Following training in developmental genetics, he moved into sensory neuroscience as a postdoc at Cornell and the University of Pennsylvania. He has received many honors and awards including an NIH K99/R00 Pathway to Independence Award and Burroughs Wellcome Fund PDEP Fellowship as a postdoc. Since opening his lab in 2018, he has been named a Rita Allen Foundation Scholar, Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellow, Pew Biomedical Scholar, Kavli Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences, HHMI Freeman Hrabowski Scholar, McKnight Scholar, and a recipient of the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative Science Diversity Leadership Award and NIH DP2 New Innovator Award. In addition to research, each fall semester, Ishmail teaches an undergraduate course on cell and molecular neurobiology.
Staff

Aleyna Silcott
Administrative Lab Manager
B.S., Ankara University, Turkey
aab2259 [at] columbia.edu

Alexis Knight
Technician
B.S., Columbia University
aak2220 [at] columbia.edu
Postdocs

Sasha Fulton
NIH F99/K00 DSPAN
EE Just Postdoc Fellow, UNCF
Ph.D., Mount Sinai Medicine
B.S., Columbia University
slf2127 [at] columbia.edu

Anissa Jhumka
B.S., Ph.D., Aix-Marseille University (France)
aj3020 [at] columbia.edu

Briana Nixon
Ph.D., Cornell University (WCGS)
B.S., Wesleyan University
bn2369 [at] columbia.edu

Andre Toussaint
Simons Junior Fellow
PDEP Fellow, BWF
Ph.D., Temple University
B.S., Hunter College
at3658 [at] columbia.edu

Anastasia Zavitsanou
Ph.D., New York University (NYU)
B.S., Imperial College London
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

William Foster
Neuro & Behavior PhD student
B.S., Haverford College
wf2284 [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

Preston Sheng
Biological Sciences PhD student
B.S., Emory University
ss6573 [at] columbia.edu

Isabella Succi
Biological Sciences PhD student
*Joint with Itamar Kahn
B.S., St. Joseph’s University
is2687 [at] columbia.edu
Undergraduate students

Amanda Arnold
ala2214 [at] barnard.edu

Aishat Bakare
aishat.b [at] columbia.edu

Abednego Delinois
jad2321 [at] columbia.edu

Melody Gomez
mg3764 [at] columbia.edu

Ashar Khan
adk2176 [at] columbia.edu

Jake Kothandaraman
kothaj02 [at] nyu.edu

Sofia Marin-Quiros
sam2451 [at] columbia.edu

Sarah Sørensen Ogata
sas2451 [at] columbia.edu

Simon Ogundare
soo211 [at] columbia.edu

Olaedo Udensi
ocu2101 [at] barnard.edu

Leah Yadessa
lay2110 [at] columbia.edu