Eye Lab - People

After graduating with honors from Brigham Young University in Utah, Kurt began his medical degree at Midwestern University. Upon starting medical school, Kurt became involved in a lab with Dr. Suraj Upadhyaya Ph.D., FAOO, where he investigated the modulatory effects of cerebellar transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) oculomotor behavior. He has since presented at the annual conference held by the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO). He currently manages the lab for Dr. Upadhyaya. In his abundant free time, Kurt can be found running around town, trying new restaurants, or with his wife at Chicago's Shedd aquarium.

Shivani is an upcoming 3rd year medical student with aspirations to pursue Neurosurgery and work on therapeutics for Glioblastoma Multiforme in her future. She has previous research experience at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She worked with the Chief of Pediatric Cardiology (Dr. John Carter Ralphe) on HCM mutations. She was also a lead student mentor at Dr. Azam S. Ahmed’s Neurosurgery lab that focused on ischemic strokes.

Lauren Arcinas is a rising second-year medical student at Chicago College of Osteopathic Medicine. She completed her Bachelor of Science in Neuroscience at Washington and Lee University and her Master in Public Health at the George Washington University. Prior to starting medical school, she worked as an eye procurement specialist and donor coordinator for Lions Medical Eye Bank of Eastern Virginia. Her previous research topics include degenerative disc disease at University of California, Irvine, mechanisms of obesity as a Howard Hughes Medical Institute scholar, nanostructural diversity of synapses at University of St Andrews, ulcerative colitis at Brigham and Women's Hospital, and fatal opioid overdoses at the Rhode Island Department of Health.

Hi! My name is Matthew Wang and I’m currently a student at the Chicago College of Osteopathic Medicine. During my undergraduate degree, I had the pleasure to join a biotech company called Century Therapeutics for a 16-month internship as part of their CNTY-103 pipeline project - developing an industry-leading allogenic iPSC-derived CAR iNK cell therapy for glioblastoma. In vitro, I genetically engineered a CAR library using molecular biology and screened their expression downstream in different effector cells for appropriate signaling response pathways and efficacy in killing against various target gliomas. In vivo, I led complex longitudinal studies to determine an efficacious dosage schedule of various CAR iNK candidates against diverse NSG mouse brain tumor models to further characterize our clinical candidates.

Arjun Sharma is a rising second year student at the Chicago College of Osteopathic Medicine. He is originally from Rockland County, NY, and obtained his Bachelor of Science degree in Biochemistry from Northeastern University. Before matriculating into medical school, he spent time volunteering through WWOOF and AmeriCorps, and spent one year working as a technician at an ophthalmology clinic. Outside of school, Arjun enjoys running, cooking, playing chess, and spending time outdoors.

Ben earned his bachelor’s degree in Biochemistry in 2022 from Miami University, where he also minored in Spanish. In the year that followed before starting his medical education at Midwestern, Ben worked as a Research Specialist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in their Department of Surgery – Division of Otolaryngology. The project he was working on used a translational mouse model to study tongue maturation and the impact it has on feeding ability throughout development in Down syndrome.

Connor Mullowney is a second-year student at the Chicago College of Optometry. Originally being from North Dakota, he graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology from University of North Dakota. Before continuing onto graduate school, Connor spent time assisting in patient care as a phlebotomist at a local hospital as well as an opotometric technician for a private optometry practice. Previous projects included ATAC-Seq gene sequencing and modification with “knockout mice” at UND. In his free time, he enjoys golfing, spending time outdoors, and watching movies.

Emaad is a second year Osteopathic Medical Student. He graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign with a Bachelor's Degree in Molecular and Cellular Biology. His former research at the University Of Illinois includes work with overweight individuals and the correlation between sedentary behavior and overall cognition for which he is published. He was passionate about this lab because of its similarities to his previous work and because of the opportunity to interact with human participants. His hobbies include going to the gym, spending time outdoors, and listening to music.

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