Students

Recruitment of Students

O’Brien Center calls for students at an annual seminar and for external applications from:

High schools where the PI’s have ties (Brearly, Dalton, Fieldston, Horace Mann, Bronx Science, Stuyvesant).
Minds Matter network, an NYC organization that works with underfunded high schools and underrepresented students.
Columbia University Science Matters Research Internship (SMRI), co-founded by the O’Brien Center’s own Katherine Xu, PhD.
New York City Life-Sci Program, a $500 million investment by NYC, sponsoring students in our lab this summer.

Students Enroll in Appropriate Training

TC0550 Rodent Barrier; TC1200 Mouse Wet Lab; TC0094 Responsible Conduct of Research; TC0025 Bloodborne Pathogens/Infection Control Training for Human Research; TC2650 Best Practices in Data Management;TC0508 Recombinant DNA and NIH Guidelines; TC0019 HIPAA; TC0087 Human Protection Training

O’Brien Center and University Wide Presentations

Mid-Summer and Final Presentation: Each O’Brien student presents for fifteen minutes at our O’Brien meeting; subsequently, all Columbia summer students, across the University, meet for full-day presentations with his or her mentors and lead a question and answer session. Two students attend urology meetings each year, either SBUR or CAIRIBU.

Contact

Jonathan Barasch, MD PhD

Outcomes Exemplary Successes

Tejashree Gopal began summer research as a high school student and went on to receive a Fulbright-Nehru Scholarship at Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education. She is submitting a manuscript.
Jonathan (JJ) Diah is now a Urologic Resident after she trained in the O’Brien.
Alejandra Perez entered the O’Brien Summer Student Program as a medical student and has been awarded a T32 grant and Residency in Medicine/Hematology.
Denise Obaji entered the O’Brien program via the Life Sci NYC Internship for High School Students; she was acknowledged by NYC for her work “Recognizing actionable genetic mutations.”
Katherine Xu who developed data concerning heme transport is now training in genetics.
Jose Munoz wrote a chapter for Annual Review of Physiology—”Epithelial defense of the Urinary System.”

Aggregated Outcomes of the Summer Program

73 students (2015-2019) in human and mouse genetics, cell biology and biochemistry
High School (13), College (25), Medical (27), Graduate (3) Residents in Urology (5)
26% self-identified underrepresented minorities and 52% female
30% of our students are authors on a peer-reviewed manuscripts, constituting 49 examples of authorship
Older graduates are now residents in Medicine or Urology

Partial listing of students who have worked in our laboratories on projects relevant to the O’Brien Centers in Benign Urology

Student Summer 2020 (Remote due to COVID)

Ashley Lopez (Columbia P&S): The genetics of ion channel defects
Jenelle Cocorpus (Stony Brook College): Phenotypes resulting from gene knockouts
Eleonora Achrak (Hunter College): Genes regulating kidney hypoplasia
Shiraz Bheda (Stevens Institute of Technology, Masters Degree): Novel gene associated with renal hypodysplasia
Yanglu (Lulu) Chen (Columbia P&S): Return of genetic information
Yasmin Behbehani (University of Maryland): Bladder Macrophages
Miles J. Bomback (North Western University): Genetic Proteinuria
Uddhav Neupane (New York Institute Technology): Heme pathway in Urinary Tract Infections
Zainab Aziz (Columbia P&S): Human Lrp2 mutations and Proteinuria

Student Summer 2019

Jonathan H. Diah (Columbia P&S): Genetic susceptibility factors for Posterior Urethral Valves (PUV)
Robyn Weiss (Touro College): The Effect of the Return of Positive Results on Family Communication
Jenelle Cocorpus (Stony Brook College): Diagnostic Variants of Renal Hypodysplasia (RHD) and Renal Agenesis
Magdalena Ploszaj (New York City College of Technology): Review of research participants clinical information to update the research clinical database
Amanda Katiraei: Analysis of immunoglobulins in the mucosal tissues of Galnt14 knockout
Yu Wang (Columbia P&S): Autoantibodies complement
Thomas Field (High School): Endocytosis in the urogenital system
Arienne Ouedraogo (SUNY Staten Island): Deletion of Crkl splice variants leads to obstructive uropathy in mice
Christopher Southard (Columbia P&S): Electronic phenotyping for genetic studies of common infections, including UTIs
Katherine Xu (Columbia University Post-doc): Bioinformatic analysis of GWAS and single cell RNA-seq in UTI

Student Summer 2018

Alexa Corker (Clemson University): Localization of bacteria in the kidney when there is a UTI
Shelief Robbins-Juarez (Columbia P&S): Novel mechanisms of proteinuria and ferriuria
Vineeth Gangaram (Columbia P&S): Iron supplementation and UTI
Miriam Callahan (Columbia P&S): Immune functions of the alpha intercalated cell
Taylor Jacob O’Grady (Columbia P&S): Radiographic Approaches to Pelvic Pain Fibroids, UTI
Estefania Chavez (Columbia P&S): Characterizing the role of novel iron transporters spns1
Rebecca Breheney (Columbia P&S): Quantitative measure NGAL in the urine
Saul Lincoln (Columbia P&S): Biomarker for UTI
John Burton (Columbia P&S): Biomarker for UTI
Anne Guo (Tenafly High School): PCR Analysis of Urinary Bacteria
Daniel Rebibo (UCSD College): Analysis on large genomic data
Angela Luo (Columbia College): GREB1L as a new CAKUT gene
Anthony Chen (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute): Genetics and Immunology of HIV
Andrew Redenti (Columbia P&S): HIV affects immune cell populations within the kidney, bladder, and ureter
Greg Whittemore (Columbia P&S): Identifying and characterizing genetic defects involved in congenital abnormalities of the kidney and urinary tract
Isabel St. Clair (Columbia P&S): Analysis of urogenital development in humans through urothelial development in mouse models
Jake Caswell (Columbia College): Gaining insight into the career path in Urology
Jonathan (JJ) Diah (Columbia P&S): Studies of Urogenital Development

Student Summer 2017

Tejashree Gopal (Barnard College): Biomarker for UTI
Edwin Matthieu (Columbia P&S): Genetic susceptibility to tissue injury
Alexa Corker (Clemson University): Localization of bacteria in the kidney when there is a UTI
Madeline Grau (Barnard): UTI damage markers
Johnanna Ben-Ami (Vanderbilt College; Commonwealth Medical College): Genetics of kidney and urinary tract defects
Swetha Kodali (Columbia College): Genetics of kidney and urinary tract defects
Kevin Mangan (High School): Analysis of exome project
Jamir Thompson (Columbia P&S): Mutations with high probability of generating CAKUT lesions
Denise Obaji (Townsend High School): Recognizing actionable genetic mutations
Grace Desanctis (Notre Dame College): Validation of WES by Sanger Sequencing in CAKUT
Madeline D’Agostino (Columbia College): Recruitment of patients with CAKUT
Julian Gallegos (Columbia College): Resident Immune Cells in bladder and kidney
Penny Spiliotopoulos-Kousteni (High School): Recruitment of patients with CAKUT
Tatiana Sanchez (Bronx Science High School): Bladder Cakut
Hope White (Columbia Graduate School): Identify carriers of 16p11.2 microdeletion syndromes

Student Summer 2016

Alejendra Perez (Columbia P&S): Genetics of PUV
Alex Small (Urology Columbia P&S): Mouse models of VUR and UTI
Alessia Casale (Columbia Undergraduate): Analysis of LUT development in humans
Reuben Heyman-Kantor (Columbia P&S): Defining pathogenic variants for of kidney and urinary tract defects
Stanley Desire (Columbia P&S): Top genome-wide signals in the VUR GWAS
Swetha Kodali (Columbia College): Genetics of kidney and urinary tract defects
Nicole Cueno (University Michigan): Neurocognitive defects in children with urinary tract defects
Brian Reuland (Columbia P&S): Iron traffic in epithelia
Edwin Matthieu (Columbia P&S): Genetic susceptibility to tissue injury
Adam Schweber (Columbia P&S): Risk factors for UTI
Alexandra Tornato (Manhattan College): Biomarkers for UTI
Nathaniel Askenase (Hunter High School): Iron binding proteins in urine from patients with UTI
Nikhil Saggi (Syosset High School): Biomarkers of tissue damage
Johnanna Ben-Ami (Vanderbilt College; Commonwealth Medical College): Genetics of kidney and urinary tract defects
Kyle Zuniga (Columbia P&S): GWAS targeting Kidney Size
Emily Groopman (Columbia P&S): Clinical annotation of genomes
Luka Sikharulidze (High School): Analysis of Human sequence data
Mark Dunlop (NY Medical College): Genetic Analysis of Sall1 mutants
Manuel Alejandro Tamargo (Columbia College): Analysis of the distribution of Sall1-target genes
Julia Finkelstein (Boston’s Children Urology): Human LUT Development
Maia Reiley (Columbia Graduate School): PPARg knockout
Tatiana Sanchez (Bronx Science High School): Bladder Cakut
Olivia Balderes (Barnard): Patient Recruitment for Genetic Studies
Sanya Goswami (CUNY, College): Large-scale validations of candidate exome sequencing
Jackie Wold (University of Michigan College): Immune Genetics
Helena Woroniecka (Great Neck High School): Organizing CAKUT cohort
Gabriel Makar (Cooper Medical School): Genetics of human nephrotic syndrome and congenital anomalies of the kidney and urinary tract
Sophia Lam (Rosalind Franklin Medical School): Genetic dissection of the chromosome 22q11.2 microdeletion syndrome

Student Summer 2015

Manuel Tamargo (Columbia College): Analysis of urinary tract defects in Pparg mutants
Mark Dunlop (NY Medical College): Analysis of ureter maturation during human embryonic development
Alessia Casale (Columbia College): Analysis of ureter maturation during human development
Tejashree Gopal (Barnard): Biomarker for UTI
Maddy Rush Jones (Columbia College): Biomarker for UTI
Roger Boles (UCLA College): Iron flux in Collecting Ducts
Alexandra Tornato (Manhattan College): Biomarkers for UTI
Swetha Kodali (Columbia College): Genetics of kidney and urinary tract defects
Johanna Ben Ami (Vanderbilt College; Commonwealth Medical College): Genetics of kidney and urinary tract defects
Eduardo Van Sant (Columbia P&S): Genetics of kidney and urinary tract defects
Alex Small (Urology Columbia P&S): Mouse models of VUR and UTI