Lab Members

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 … Read more

Audra Bryan

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 … Read more

Sophie Kiehl

Ethan Paulakonis

Micaela Murcar

Micaela is a PhD student in the Neuroscience Curriculum who joined the Cohen lab in 2025. Micaela graduated from the University of Pittsburgh in Fall 2019 with a B.S. in Neuroscience and minors in Chemistry and Physics. She wrote her … Read more

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

Ryan Weeks

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 … Read more

Reshma Bhagat

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, … Read more

Carli Opland

Carli received her Ph.D. in Neuroscience in 2024 and is continued as a postdoc in the lab through 2025. Before coming to UNC for graduate studies, Carli received a B.S. in Cellular and Molecular Biology at California State University, Northridge. … Read more

Shannon Rhoads

Shannon received her PhD from the Neuroscience Curriculum in 2025. 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 … Read more

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

Arjun Deshmukh

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 … 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

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

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

Ping Wang

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 … 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

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 … 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

Tejaz Ajit

Tejaz Ajit graduated from UNC Chapel Hill in Spring 2022 with a B.S. in Biology, B.A in Political Science, and a minor in chemistry. During his time in the Cohen lab, he studied TDP-43 proteinopathy in sALS under the mentorship … Read more

Suvleen Singh

Suvleen is a fourth year undergraduate student at UNC Chapel Hill. She is majoring in biology and minoring in neuroscience and chemistry with the intent to attend medical school. Under the guidance of her mentor Carli, she has been studying … Read more

Sara Nafees

Sara Nafees (she/her) recently graduated from UNC Chapel Hill with a B.S. in Neuroscience and Religious Studies and a minor in chemistry. She has always been interested in neurodegenerative diseases and has been working in the lab particularly with ALS. … Read more

Zarin Tabassum

Zarin is currently a Ph.D. candidate in the Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics (BMB) group at UPenn and is a member of Dr. Jim Shorter’s Lab. She graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2020 with a … Read more

Jasmeet Singh

    Jasmeet is a third-year undergraduate student at UNC Chapel Hill. She is majoring in Biology with minors in Chemistry and Creative Writing and has been with the Cohen lab since Summer 2021. With the help of her mentor … Read more

Camryn Isemann

Camryn is a fourth-year undergraduate at UNC double-majoring in Neuroscience and Exercise and Sports Science and minoring in Spanish for the Medical Professions. Before attending UNC, she was a Robert H. Kirsten student intern at the National Cancer Institute in … Read more

Robby Perna

  Robby graduated from UNC Chapel Hill in Fall 2021 with a B.S. in Neuroscience and a B.A. Religious Studies. After working briefly as a middle school science teacher, Robby joined the Cohen Lab as a lab technician/manager in 2022. … Read more

Omeed Arooji

Omeed is graduated from UNC Chapel Hill. He is double majored in Neuroscience and Quantitative Biology and is attending UNC medical school to become a neurosurgeon. Throughout his time at the Cohen Lab, he has examined the role of environmental … Read more