Kevin Hughley II
The Role of SLC7A11 in Regulating Breast Cancer Brain Metastasis

Major: Cancer Biology
Chair:
Committee Members:
Date and Time: June 26, 2026 11:00 AM
Location: New College Building, Room 11101

Anagha Shringarpure
Discovery of non-canonical GNAS signaling in the growth of human pancreatic ductal organoids

Major: Molecular and Cell Biology and Genetics
Chair:
Committee Members:
Date and Time: June 25, 2026 11:00 AM
Location: New College Building, Room 11101

Yetunde Oyende
Mechanistic Insights into the Regulation of Pro-metastatic IL-1β Expression by Androgen Receptor in Prostate Cancer Cells

Major: Pharmacology and Physiology
Chair:
Committee Members:
Date and Time: June 10, 2026 12:00 PM
Location: New College Building, Room 8312

Zoe Coutu
Investigating the mechanism of lncRNA SChLAP1 in prostate cancer

Major: Molecular and Cell Biology and Genetics
Chair:
Committee Members:
Date and Time: June 09, 2026 1:00 PM
Location: New College Building, Room 11101

Pooja Doshi
Gender-Responsive Monitoring and Evaluation in School-Based Vision Screenings: Advancing Eye Health and Equity Outcomes in Philadelphia

Major: Health Management and Policy
Chair: Randall Sell
Committee Members: Elizabeth Valdez, Jennifer Kolker, Kammi Gunton, Joseph Amon, Ed Gracely
Date and Time: June 05, 2026 2:00 PM
Location: Nesbit Hall, Room TBD

Courtney Wallace
Exploring Mechanisms of HIV Control and RUNX Directed Modulation of Viral Activity in Macrophage Models

Major: Molecular and Cell Biology and Genetics
Chair:
Committee Members:
Date and Time: May 27, 2026 10:30 AM
Location: New College Building, Room 8312

Sabina Knox
Developing a distinct profile of senescent astrocytes

Major: Molecular and Cell Biology and Genetics
Chair:
Committee Members:
Date and Time: May 13, 2026 11:30 AM
Location: New College Building, Room 11101

Rachel Berman
Defining novel Cas:gRNA pairings most effective at targeting the integrated HIV-1 genome

Major: Molecular and Cell Biology and Genetics
Chair:
Committee Members:
Date and Time: May 07, 2026 11:00 AM
Location: New College Building, Geary A

Chantal Kontor
Substrate Specificity and Diversity of the Multifunctional Nuclease AP-Endonuclease 1

Major: Cancer Biology
Chair:
Committee Members:
Date and Time: April 28, 2026 2:20 PM
Location: Fox Chase Cancer Center, Room P3075

Simran Gill
Ischemia-Induced Ubiquitination of GLT-1 Mediates Aberrant Trafficking and Impaired Glutamate Uptake

Major: Pharmacology and Physiology
Chair:
Committee Members:
Date and Time: April 23, 2026 1:00 PM
Location: New College Building, Room 8312

Gihan Mohamed
Profiling DNA Damage Response in Lymphocytes from BRCA2 Heterozygote Carriers: Implications for Cancer Risk Assessment

Major: Biochemistry of Health and Disease
Chair:
Committee Members:
Date and Time: April 17, 2026 11:00 AM
Location: Zoom - Contact gm843@drexel.edu for link.

Temidayo Abosede Adegbenro
Optimization of Electroporation Procedure for OG1RF Enterococcus faecalis to study VanRSB activation using VanRSB-GFP reporter construct

Major: Molecular and Cell Biology and Genetics
Chair:
Committee Members:
Date and Time: April 10, 2026 11:30 AM
Location: New College Building, Room 11101

Deepa Reddy
Postoperative Pain Attenuation by Macrophage-Derived Small Extracellular Vesicles Requires Monocyte-Dependent Immunomodulation

Major: Pharmacology and Physiology
Chair:
Committee Members:
Date and Time: April 09, 2026 2:00 PM
Location: New College Building, Room 8219

River Rell
Dual Function of Mitochondrial Complex III in Plasmodium falciparum

Major: Molecular and Cell Biology and Genetics
Chair:
Committee Members:
Date and Time: April 07, 2026 3:00 PM
Location: Queen Lane, SAC B

Emily Konopka
Improving Vaccine Efficacy in Aging: Adenosine Deaminase Reverses Age-Related Immune Dysfunction in a Clostridioides difficile Vaccination and Challenge Model

Major: Microbiology and Immunology
Chair:
Committee Members:
Date and Time: April 07, 2026 1:00 PM
Location: New College Building, Geary A

Olivia Williams
CAF-Neural Signaling Axes: Predicating Neural Mimicry in CAFs

Major: Cancer Biology
Chair:
Committee Members:
Date and Time: April 07, 2026 12:00 PM
Location: Zoom

Mahary Lalarizo Rakoto
PSGL-1 signaling in CD8+ T cells is a key driver of impaired anti-tumor immunity in cutaneous melanoma

Major: Cancer Biology
Chair:
Committee Members:
Date and Time: April 03, 2026 1:00 PM
Location: New College Building, Room 18101

Evangeline Williams
Gene Expression Networks and Molecular Pathways Underlying Biofilm Formation in Haemophilus influenzae

Major: Microbiology and Immunology
Chair:
Committee Members:
Date and Time: April 02, 2026 2:00 PM
Location: New College Building, Geary A

Abigail Onufer
The Differential Roles of Type I and Type III Interferon Signaling in the Neonatal Response to Influenza Virus Infection

Major: Microbiology and Immunology
Chair:
Committee Members:
Date and Time: March 30, 2026 11:00 AM
Location: New College Building, Geary A

Oluwatofunmi Oteju
Defining Cellular and Molecular Mechanisms Driving Cocaine-Mediated Modulation of HIV Replication in Human iPSC-Derived CNS Macrophage Models

Major: Pharmacology and Physiology
Chair:
Committee Members:
Date and Time: March 25, 2026 1:00 PM
Location: New College Building, Room 8219

Abigail Tetteh
Fused Filament Fabrication of PEKK & PEEK Lumbar Interbody Fusion Devices: Investigation into the Process Parameters That Enhance Static Strength

Major: Biomedical Engineering
Chair: Kenneth Barbee, Steven Kurtz
Committee Members: Daniel Porter, Sorin Siegler, Matthew Di Prima, Paul Brandt-Rauf
Date and Time: December 25, 2025 8:00 AM
Location: Pearlstein Business Center, Room 307

Vida Anosike
Exploring Perceptions of Female Physicians of Anambra State (SE Nigeria), who Have Experienced IPV, and the Ability to Provide Whole Person Care to their Patients

Major: Health Sciences
Chair: Linda Wilson
Committee Members: Marcia Gamaly, Patrick Auth
Date and Time: December 17, 2025 2:00 PM
Location: Zoom - Contact ena23@drexel.edu for link.

Doreen Nation
The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Sleep Quality and Mental Health of Nurse Informaticians

Major: Health Sciences
Chair: Linda Wilson
Committee Members: Mary Gallagher Gordon, Anna Schoenbaum
Date and Time: December 12, 2025 9:00 AM
Location: Zoom - Contact dn378@drexel.edu for link.

Pedram Bazrafshan
As-damaged Numerical Modeling of Reinforced Concrete Shear Walls using Graph Theory and Generative Artificial Intelligence

Major: Civil Engineering
Chair: Arvin Ebrahimkhanlou, Ivan Bartoli
Committee Members: Abieyuwa Aghayere, Aspasia Zerva, David Han
Date and Time: December 09, 2025 8:30 AM
Location: Zoom - Contact pb669@drexel.edu for link.

Brady Eckert
SiPM Characterization and Readout for nEXO & Studying Bremsstrahlung Emission in EXO-200

Major: Physics
Chair: Michelle Dolinski
Committee Members: Eric Brewe, Russell Neilson, Caio Licciardi, Nichoas DiNardo
Date and Time: December 05, 2025 10:00 AM
Location: Stratton Hall, Room 101

Brian Walters
Exploring Faculty-Led Short-Term Study Abroad Programs to Understand the Alignment Between Faculty and Institutional Goals for Internationalization at a Higher Education Institution: A Qualitative Case Study

Major: Educational Leadership and Management
Chair: Kristine Grant
Committee Members: Aroutis Foster, Mary Schlarb
Date and Time: December 03, 2025 2:00 PM
Location: Zoom - Contact bw575@drexel.edu for link.

Riya Shah
Combining IceCube's Tracks and Cascades to Improve Neutrino Source Searches

Major: Physics
Chair: Naoko Kurahashi Neilson
Committee Members: Jorn Venderbos, Eric Brewe, Christina Love, Gregory Sullivan
Date and Time: December 02, 2025 1:00 PM
Location: Disque Hall, Room 109

Yiwen Shi
Towards Efficient Biomedical Natural Language Processing with Large Language Models

Major: Information Science
Chair: Xiaohua Hu, Hualou Liang
Committee Members: Kaidi Xu, Li Sheng, Bo Song
Date and Time: November 20, 2025 9:30 AM
Location: Zoom - Contact ys666@drexel.edu for link.

Erick Galinkin
Strategic Reinforcement Learning Agents for Autonomous Cyber Defense

Major: Computer Science
Chair: Spiros Mancoridis, Manolis Pountourakis
Committee Members: Vasilis Gkatzelis, Shahin Jabbari, Edward Raff
Date and Time: November 17, 2025 12:00 PM
Location: Zoom - Contact eg657@drexel.edu for link.

Teddy Nguyen
Improving the use of AURKA and WEE1 inhibitors in Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma

Major: Molecular and Cell Biology and Genetics
Chair:
Committee Members:
Date and Time: November 17, 2025 10:00 AM
Location: New College Building, Gear A

David Sirken
Medical Education and Healthcare during the Pandemic Disruption: A Hermeneutic, Phenomenological Research Study

Major: Educational Leadership and Management
Chair: Valerie Klein
Committee Members: Dominic Gullo, Atom Sarkar
Date and Time: November 11, 2025 10:00 AM
Location: Zoom - Contact dhs58@drexel.edu for link.

Tim Averianov
Understanding the Role of MXenes as Synthetic Precursors for Advanced Energy Storage Materials

Major: Materials Science and Engineering
Chair: Yury Gogotsi
Committee Members: Ekaterina Pomerantseva, Nicolas Alvarez, Michel Barsoum, Steven May
Date and Time: November 07, 2025 1:30 PM
Location: Bossone Reserarch Enterprise Center, Room 302

Teng Zhang
MXene X-Sublattice, Surface Chemistry, and Morphology Engineering

Major: Materials Science and Engineering
Chair: Steven May
Committee Members: Yong-Jie Hu, Eric Stach, Yury Gogotsi, Jill Wenderott
Date and Time: October 24, 2025 2:00 PM
Location: Bossone Research Enterprise Center, Room 302