Angela Yu
Undergraduate student at GWU, class of 2020
Major: Biological sciences
Angela is an undergraduate junior at the George Washington University majoring in biological sciences and following a pre-med track. She hopes to become a pediatrician and further specialize in neonatology. She is very passionate about epigenetics and its medical applications, child development and health disparities. In her spare time, she volunteers at the George Washington University hospital and loves to hike, to dance, to listen to classical music, and to watch football.
Julie Kobyra
Undergraduate student at GWU, class of 2020
Major: Biomedical engineering
Julie is an undergraduate junior in the School of Engineering and Applied Science at the George Washington University. She is majoring in biomedical engineering while following the premed track. She hopes to become a doctor and work for a nonprofit organization. In her free time, she volunteers at the Children’s Hospital and loves to enjoy the outdoors, to read memoirs, and to travel.
Current Position: Student in the Bioengineering PhD Program at the University of Pittsburgh.
Aneil Srivastava
Research Assistant
Aneil graduated from GW in 2018 with a bachelor's in Public Health and Biology and a minor in Exercise Science, and he wants to pursue a career in medicine. Aneil joined the Chiappinelli Lab in June of 2017. He was involved with many student organizations on campus and was a member of the George Washington University Men's Swimming and Diving team. Aneil has a strong background in lab research and is currently working on multiple research projects including the effects of epigenetic regulators on inducing an immune response in Ovarian Cancer.
Current Poistion: Works in the Virtual Reality Program at Surgical Theater at George Washington Hospital.
Alejandro Velasquez
Research Assistant
Major: Cellular and Molecular Biology
Minor: Chemistry
Alejandro is an undergraduate junior at The George Washington University, majoring in Cellular and Molecular Biology with a minor in Chemistry. He has a great passion for medicine and from a precision and evidence-based standpoint, he believes that the work being done in Chiappinelli’s lab is the future of medicine. In the past, he has collaborated in research involving cardiometabolic pathology and as well as the evolution of cardiovascular risk from children to adults. Alejandro dreams of becoming a surgical physician and conducting his own research. On his spare time enjoys cooking, watching old war documentaries, and going to museums.
Elisa Arthofer, PhD
Post-Doctoral Research Fellow, 2017-2019
Elisa Arthofer was born and raised in Austria, where she started her professional training at the IMC University of Applied Sciences Krems and graduated with a BSc and MSc in Medical and Pharmaceutical Biotechnology in 2010 and 2012, respectively. She earned her PhD in early 2017 in Pharmacology from the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, under the mentorship of Drs Gunnar Schulte and Silvio Gutkind. As part of her joint PhD Program between the Karolinska and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Maryland, USA, Elisa worked at the NIH for 3 years and got to train with Drs Silvio Gutkind and Tamas Balla, experts in the areas of cancer biology and genetics, cell and molecular signaling, and lipid biology. Elisa has a longstanding interest in how cells communicate with each other and how cancer arises once this communication is disturbed or abrogated. During her PhD she identified a novel signaling pathway of Frizzled receptors through a specific class of G-proteins and its potential relevance in angiogenesis, hereditary diseases, and cancer.
Elisa joined the Chiappinelli lab in mid 2017 to investigate the role of the tumor suppressor TP53 in cancer epigenetics and its potential impact for immunotherapies. She hopes to discover more details about TP53, the most commonly mutated gene in cancer, in order to aid development of therapies, especially for ovarian cancer. Away from the bench Elisa is passionate about international communities and bringing people together. She has been heading the DC Chapter of the Austrian Scientists and Scholars in North America Club (ASciNA) since 2015 and joined the George Washington Postdoc Association (GWPA) as Treasurer in 2018.
Current Position: Working in industry.
Paul Austin
Former Lab Manager/Research Assistant, 2018-2019
Elisa Arthofer was born and raised in Austria, where she started her professional training at the IMC University of Applied Sciences Krems and graduated with a BSc and MSc in Medical and Pharmaceutical Biotechnology in 2010 and 2012, respectively. She earned her PhD in early 2017 in Pharmacology from the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, under the mentorship of Drs Gunnar Schulte and Silvio Gutkind. As part of her joint PhD Program between the Karolinska and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Maryland, USA, Elisa worked at the NIH for 3 years and got to train with Drs Silvio Gutkind and Tamas Balla, experts in the areas of cancer biology and genetics, cell and molecular signaling, and lipid biology. Elisa has a longstanding interest in how cells communicate with each other and how cancer arises once this communication is disturbed or abrogated. During her PhD she identified a novel signaling pathway of Frizzled receptors through a specific class of G-proteins and its potential relevance in angiogenesis, hereditary diseases, and cancer.
Elisa joined the Chiappinelli lab in mid 2017 to investigate the role of the tumor suppressor TP53 in cancer epigenetics and its potential impact for immunotherapies. She hopes to discover more details about TP53, the most commonly mutated gene in cancer, in order to aid development of therapies, especially for ovarian cancer. Away from the bench Elisa is passionate about international communities and bringing people together. She has been heading the DC Chapter of the Austrian Scientists and Scholars in North America Club (ASciNA) since 2015 and joined the George Washington Postdoc Association (GWPA) as Treasurer in 2018.
Current Position: Working in industry.
Sara Moufarrij, MD
MD Research Fellow, 2017 - 2018
Sara is an MD Research Fellow in the Chiappinelli Lab. She was born in Maryland, USA and was raised in Dubai, Switzerland, Turkey, South Korea, and Miami. She graduated from Georgetown University with a B.S. in International Politics with a concentration in International Law and a Pre-Medical certificate. She went on to pursue research in regenerative cellular therapy at the Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois in Lausanne, Switzerland focusing on the use of chondrocytes as a potential therapy for osteoarthritis, as well as the use of fetal progenitor cells for burns. She graduated from the American University of Beirut Medical School in 2017. During her time there, she built an interest in obstetrics and gynecology, and underwent clinical internships at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston and at The George Washington University. She began working in the Chiappinelli Lab in July, 2017, focusing on the use of histone deacetylase inhibitors and DNA methyltransferase inhibitors in treating ovarian cancer.
She will be pursuing a residency in Obstetrics and Gynecology at Baylor College of Medicine in June 2018, with the hopes of becoming a gynecology oncologist and continuing the important collaboration between basic science and clinical research.
Sara loves to learn new languages, travel, watch and play tennis as well as sing to Beyonce.
Current Position: Resident in Obstetrics and Gynecology at Baylor College of Medicine.
Sarah Elizabeth Chisholm, MS
Former Lab Manager/Research Associate, 2017 - 2018
Sarah earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in Neuroscience from Boston University in 2013 and her Master of Science degree in Physiology and Biophysics from Georgetown University in 2016.
Sarah is passionate about cancer research, and has previously worked to isolate and identify small populations of tumor-initiating cells in ovarian cancer with the Rueda group at Massachusetts General Hospital. She hopes to continue her work in cancer research and contribute to the oncology field as a physician scientist. In her spare time, she loves being with her family and friends, playing golf and hiking new trails.
Current Position: Finishing medical school in UQ-Ochsner at New Orleans. She plans on applying to OBGYN residencies soon.