Julie is an MD/PhD student who completed the first two years of the UNC School of Medicine curriculum and then joined the Cohen Lab and the Cell Biology and Physiology Department in 2019. She defended in 2023. Julie graduated from Pomona College in 2015, where she studied neuroelectrophysiology and the molecular mechanisms of memory impairment in Alzheimer’s Disease. After graduating and before moving to North Carolina, Julie spent two years in Baltimore’s Biomedical Research Center working as an IRTA Fellow at the NIH’s National Institute on Drug Abuse. While there, she worked to develop and characterize novel genome engineering tools, such as CRISPR/Cas9 and AAV vector technology, to manipulate the rodent central nervous system with regional and cell-type specificity. She also worked on developing models of Parkinson’s Disease and HIV-associated Neurocognitive disorders. In the Cohen lab, Julie researched the role of aberrant TDP-43 species in proteostasis impairment in ALS, FTLD, and other age-related TDP-43 proteinopathies using in vivo and in vitro approaches based on a novel mouse model of disease. She investigated the interactions of ALS/FTLD-associated mutations in non-TDP-43 genes on TDP-43 aggregation. When not in the lab or clinic, Julie likes to spend her time outside walking, running, hiking, and biking. She is also a big fan of wine and cheese boards, and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

Nicholas Zullo (he/him/his) is a graduate of UNC-Chapel Hill and worked as a Laboratory Technician in the Cohen Lab while pursuing his master’s at Duke University. He is very interested in neurodegenerative research, particularly ALS, and plans to either pursue research or attend medical school in the future. In his free time, he enjoys basketball, gaming, and working on cars.

Darien is a graduate student at NC State University, planning to graduate with her Master’s of Physiology in December 2022. She graduated from UNC Chapel Hill with a B.S. in Biology in May 2021 and has been in the lab since August 2021 as a research technician. In college, Darien gained clinical research experience at Johns Hopkins University, where she studied the genetic and environmental factors that influence appetite, and at UNC, studying the relationship between stress, inflammation, and physical activity. She also completed the Nathan Schnaper Intern Program in translational cancer research at the University of Maryland, Baltimore in 2019, where she worked to optimize the preparation of PEI-PEMA nanoparticles for gene therapy. In our lab, she uses in vitro models to study ALS pathology associated with defective cytoskeletal proteins. In the future, Darien hopes to become a physician and continue working in translational research.

I received my PhD in Chemistry and Biochemistry from University of Missouri- St Louis, where I worked in the laboratory of Dr. Michael. R. Nichols. My broad research interests involve exploring the mechanism of neurological disorders and studies leading to a treatment.  My initial postdoctoral research in Dr. Gary A. Weisman laboratory at University of Missouri-Columbia focused on investigating the role of P2Y₂ purinergic receptor signaling pathways and mechanisms in AD pathogenesis. I joined Dr. Cohen’s research group at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill in 2016. Currently in the Cohen lab, I am working on the post-translational modification of tau protein and elucidating its role in pathogenic mechanisms of neurodegenerative diseases. Outside of lab, I like gardening,hiking and badminton.

I received my PhD degree in Genetics from North Carolina State University in 2009 under the direction of Dr. Robert Anholt. My PhD thesis project was focused on the identification of genetic variation in odorant binding protein genes that affect variation in olfactory behavior in response to different odorants in a large natural Drosophila population. After completion of my PhD degree, I worked as a postdoc at NCI and Duke to study the mechanisms of human diseases. In 2014, I joined Dr. Cohen’s lab at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Currently, my research focuses on TDP-43 acetylation in neurodegenerative diseases and related TDP-43 proteinopathies, in particular, (1) dissecting the pathological mechanism of TDP-43 acetylation in sporadic inclusion body myositis (sIBM) using cell culture and in vivo skeletal muscle systems (see publication for this work: Wang et al. Nature Communications 2017); (2) determining how and to what extent TDP-43 acetylation alters the muscle transcriptome using RNA-seq approach. (3) developing FTLD/ALS mouse model.  During my spare time, I like Tabata workout, reading and cooking.

Bhavi graduated with a B.A. in Molecular and Cell Biology (minor in Global Poverty and Practice) from UC Berkeley in 2013. She was involved with genetics and neural development research in undergrad and went on to work in industry on genome sequencing at Illumina then with biosimilars at Celltheon in California. Bhavi recently received a Masters in Medical Science at Eastern Virginia Medical School in 2016 and is currently a second year medical student there. Bhavi is participating in UNC’s MSTAR program (Summer 2017) to pursue her interest in geriatrics, aging, and neurology. She is working with Henry Tseng on the post-translational modification of tau protein and its role in the pathogenic mechanisms of neurodegenerative diseases.

Youjun received her Ph.D. degree in Cellular and Molecular Physiology from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2010 under the mentorship of Dr. William Snider. She stayed in Dr. Snider’s lab for one additional year as a post-doctoral research fellow. Her research focus in the Snider lab was studying the roles of Adenomatous Polyposis Coli (APC) in neuronal morphogenesis. Youjun worked at The Scripps Research Institute as a postdoctoral research associate studying autism and brain development. She returned to UNC-Chapel Hill and joined the Cohen lab in 2016.

Connor graduated from Virginia Tech with a B.S. in Biology and Biochemistry in 2014, and joined the lab as a technician for two years. He then joined the Cohen and Song Labs as a graduate student where he studied astrocytes and inhibitory networks in Alzheimer’s Disease. Connor runs a science communication podcast and website,  Straight from a Scientist (SFS).  Currently, Connor studies model systems for cerebrovascular disease in the context of plasma biology at Alkahest, Inc in San Carlos, CA. Outside of the lab, he enjoys hiking, swimming, graphic design, gaming, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, paintball and caring for his bearded dragons.

In 2007, I graduated with a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from National Tsing Hua University in Taiwan. After a year of military service and another year as a research assistant at Academia Sinica, I did my PhD work at the University of South Carolina, under the mentorship of Dr. Melissa Moss. There I studied amyloid-beta protein misfolding and aggregation involved in Alzheimer’s disease. After I received PhD in Biomedical Engineering in 2014, later the same year I joined Dr. Cohen’s research group at UNC. Currently, in the Cohen lab, I am working on the post-translational modification of tau protein and its role in different stages of neurodegenerative diseases and lifespan. In addition, I have collaborative research projects with Dr. Rick Meeker, and Dr. Graham Diering at UNC, Dr. Jerry Wang, and Dr. Laurie Sanders at Duke, Dr. John Hong at NIEHS as well as Dr. Anne Taylor at Xona Microfluidics. In my free time, I enjoy my time with my son Daniel and driving my car around.

Here is my CV

Hanna obtained her PhD from the Cohen lab as an NSF-GRFP fellow. She received a B.S. in Biochemistry (and minor in Spanish Language) from Oakland University in Michigan, where she was an undergraduate research assistant in Dr. Sanela Martic’s biochemistry laboratory investigating the misfolding and aggregation of the tau protein. After, she joined the Biological and Biomedical Sciences Program, the department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, and the Cohen lab at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She has been investigating many facets of tau protein biochemistry.