Lab Members
The Cohen Lab Members
Principal Investigator
Todd Cohen
Since 2014, I’ve been privileged to be an Assistant Professor in the Department of Neurology at UNC-Chapel Hill. Prior to that, I attended Duke University as a graduate student and became enamored with North Carolina. Now, we seek to fully … Read more
Lab Manager
Graduate Students
Julia Lanfersieck
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 … Read more
Kyle Pellegrino
Kyle is an MD/PhD student who completed the first two years of medical school at UNC and joined the Cohen Lab through the Department of Pharmacology in 2022. He attended Cornell University where he earned a Neurobiology and Behavior degree … Read more
Shannon Rhoads
Shannon is a graduate student in the Neuroscience Curriculum. She graduated from the University of Maryland in 2016 with a degree in Microbiology. She worked as a Lab Manager in Dr. Frank Shewmaker’s Lab at Uniformed Services University where she … Read more
Postdoctoral Fellows
Carli Opland
Carli received her Ph.D. in Neuroscience in 2024 and is continuing as a postdoc in the lab. Before coming to UNC for graduate studies, Carli received a B.S. in Cellular and Molecular Biology at California State University, Northridge. She worked … Read more
Miles Bryan
Miles graduated from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington with a B.S. in Marine Biology. Soon after, he worked as a research technician in the lab of Dr. Nancy Andrews at Duke University where he focused on characterizing in … Read more
Baggio Evangelista
Baggio studied in the Cohen Lab and received his Ph.D. from the Department of Cell Biology and Physiology in 2023. Before coming to UNC for graduate studies, Baggio received a B.S. in Molecular and Microbiology at the University of Central … Read more
Research Associates
Giulia Fragola
After graduating with a M.S. in Molecular Biology from Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca in Milan I joined the European School of Molecular Medicine where I obtained my Ph.D degree. For my graduate work, I studied the role of Polycomb … Read more
Giulia Fragola
After graduating with a M.S. in Molecular Biology from Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca in Milan I joined the European School of Molecular Medicine where I obtained my Ph.D degree. For my graduate work, I studied the role of Polycomb … Read more
Research Assistants
Omeed Arooji
Omeed is a recent graduate fro UNC Chapel Hill. He is double majored in Neuroscience and Quantitative Biology and is applying to medical school to become a neurosurgeon. Throughout his time at the Cohen Lab, he has examined the role … Read more
Omeed Arooji
Omeed is a recent graduate fro UNC Chapel Hill. He is double majored in Neuroscience and Quantitative Biology and is applying to medical school to become a neurosurgeon. Throughout his time at the Cohen Lab, he has examined the role … Read more
Undergraduate Students
Lab Alumni
Julie Necarsulmer
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 … Read more
Nicholas Zullo
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 … Read more
Darien Campisi
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 … Read more
Deepa Viswanathan Ajit
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 … Read more
Bhavi Vohra
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 … Read more
Youjun Chen
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 … Read more
Connor Wander – Pharmacology
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 … Read more
Jui-Heng “Henry” Tseng
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 … Read more
Hanna Trzeciakiewicz – Biochemistry and Biophysics
Hanna is a fifth year PhD candidate and 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 … Read more
Vanya Bhat
Vanya is an undergraduate student at UNC Chapel Hill majoring in Neuroscience and minoring in Medical Anthropology. She hopes to practice medicine and continue studying neurodegenerative disease in the future. Throughout her time in the Cohen lab, she has examined … Read more
Spencer Maranto
Spencer is a fourth year undergraduate student at UNC Chapel Hill. He is double majoring in Biology and Neuroscience with a minor in Chemistry in the hopes of studying neurodegenerative disease in the future. Outside of the lab, Spencer enjoys playing guitar, … Read more
Diamond King
Niyati Patel