Arjun is a Chapel Hill native who graduated from East Chapel Hill High before starting his undergraduate degree at UNC in 2023. He is a biology minor with a minor in neuroscience. Arjun’s project in the Cohen lab aims to understand the impact of HDAC6 activation on the aggregation of tau. Outside of the lab, Arjun enjoys going to concerts, playing ultimate frisbee, camping, and trying new foods.
Audra completed her undergraduate degree at Washington University in St. Louis where she also worked as a research assistant. She earned her PhD from Vanderbilt University where she studied the role of transcription factors in gene regulation in normal cells and cancer cells. Audra did a post-doc at UNC-CH before moving to the Cohen lab as the Lab Manager and Research Scientist. Audra collaborates with all lab members to better understand the mechanisms driving Alzheimer’s and ALS – with the hope of one day providing better treatments. Outside the lab, Audra enjoys playing with her daughter, cuddling her cats, discussing science with her labmate/husband (Miles), working out, and sleeping.
Ryan graduated from North Carolina State University with a B.S. in animal science and returned to southeastern NC to become part owner/operator of a large family farm. After thirty years, he returned to NCSU to earn a PhD in molecular toxicology where he studied the role of a neurotoxin associated with ALS, along with learning to use CRISPR-Cas9 genomic editing in zebrafish to work towards developing models of neurodegeneration. In the Cohen lab, Ryan investigates the role of environmental insults in relation to pathological TDP-43, along with downstream targets and other associated proteins. Outside of lab, Ryan enjoys spending time with his wife, visiting their children, running, lifting, reading, and playing the piano.
Reshma earned her Bachelor’s degree in Biochemistry from the University of Delhi, followed by a Master’s and PhD in Neuroscience from the National Brain Research Centre, India. Her doctoral work focused on delineating the mechanisms of Zika virus-induced microcephaly. Specifically, she explored how the Zika Virus Envelope (E) protein induces quiescence in human neural stem cells and disrupts the microRNA regulatory networks, leading to reduced neural cell populations. At Washington University in Dr. Celeste Karch’s Lab, Reshma investigated the mechanisms of Tauopathies by employing patient iPSC-derived brain cells. She studied regulatory functions of long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) in tau aggregation and disease progression. In the Cohen Lab, Reshma is using human iPSC-derived cell models to study the cellular and molecular pathways involved in tau pathology. Her work continues to focus on the role of non-coding RNAs in neurodegeneration, aiming to uncover new therapeutic targets for tauopathies. In her free time, she loves to play Ping-Pong, Tennis, and badminton and can be seen enjoying the company of her cat, Simba.
Julia is a PhD student in the Neuroscience Curriculum who joined the Cohen lab in 2024. Julia graduated from Saint Louis University with a B.S. in Neuroscience in Fall 2022. There she worked in Dr. Fenglian Xu’s lab where she studied the neurotoxic effects of GPR183 activation in cortical neuronal cell culture. In addition, she worked with Dr. Jill Waring’s Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience of Aging lab where she collected EEG data from human participants to determine the interaction between aging and emotional processing. In the Cohen lab, Julia is studying how tau knockdown is neuroprotective and how we can leverage this for Alzheimer’s disease therapies. Outside of the lab, Julia enjoys exploring the outdoors, playing pickleball with friends, and trying new foods.