Holly Colognato, Ph.D.
Principle Investigator
Professor, Department of Pharmacological Sciences
Director, Molecular and Cellular Pharmacology Ph.D. Graduate Program
Ph.D., Rutgers University, 1994-1999
Post-doctoral work, University of Cambridge, 2000-2004
Andrea Arreguin
M.D./Ph.D. Student, Program in Neuroscience
Zijian Shao
Ph.D. Student, Cellular and Molecular Pharmacology Graduate Program
Maryam Azmi
Ph.D. Student, Genetics Graduate Program
Joe Bisulca
Undergraduate Student
Joe is a senior at Stony Brook University studying biology with a specialization in neuroscience. In high school, Joe began research in the Duong Lab at Stony Brook Radiology investigating MRI features of multiple sclerosis along with writing literature reviews. Joe first joined the Colognato lab in the spring 2021 semester and was a recipient of the Chhabra-URECA Fellowship grant in the summer of 2022. He has been training under Mo on his investigation of the effect of metformin on multiple sclerosis. Joe is also performing a retrospective chart review in collaboration with MSBase on the clinical outcomes of multiple sclerosis patients taking metformin. Joe hopes to attend medical school in the future. He is the Vice President of the Pre-Med Society and is currently a patient experience intern in Stony Brook’s Emergency Department. Outside of the lab, Joe enjoys playing basketball and watching movies.
Recent Lab Alumni:
Mohan Narine
Ph.D. Student, Program in Neuroscience
Erika Deppenschmidt
Ph.D. Student, Cellular and Molecular Pharmacology Graduate Program
Lindsay Blank
M.S. Student, Cellular and Molecular Pharmacology Graduate Program
Lindsay graduated from Stony Brook University with a Masters in Biomedical Sciences with a concentration in Molecular and Cellular Pharmacology in May of 2022. In our lab she investigated the effects of dystrophin isoforms, found in Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, on the ependymal cells of the neural stem cell niche. After graduation she moved to Brooklyn to pursue an M.D. degree at Downstate College of Medicine. Outside of academic life Lindsay loves to workout, do yoga, and listen to music!
Irena Pigulevskiy
Irena graduated from the Stony Brook University Undergraduate Pharmacology program in May 2019. Irena first joined the lab in the fall of 2017 and was a recipient of a URECA research fellowship grant in the summer of 2018. She investigated how exosomes extracted from exercising mice could influence myelin repair. Outside of the lab, Irena enjoys dancing, listening to music, and browsing Reddit.
Irena is currently in a PhD program at Columbia University.
Fabricio Nolasco Ramirez
Fabricio Nolasco Ramirez graduated from Union Square Academy for Health Sciences in 2016 with an Advanced Regents Diploma. Fabricio is a junior with interest in studying stem cells. He first joined the Colognato Lab in spring of 2018 through the INSPIRE fellowship. Workly jointly with his graduate student mentor Andrea Arreguin, he will be studying the neural stem cell niche in the subventricular zone of dystroglycan knock-out mice. Fabricio enjoys eating, movies of all genres, and hanging out with his friends. He will graduate with a B.S in Health Sciences in Spring of 2020 and aspires to enroll in a physician assistant program to become a PA-C.
Ashwin Upadhye
Ashwin is a junior at Stony Brook University currently studying Biology with a concentration in quantitative biology and bioinformatics. He hopes to attend medical school in the future. He first started doing research in his spring semester of Sophomore year (2018) and is working/training under Erika on her investigation into a potential dystroglycan-notch axis in relation to stem cell maintenance. Outside of the lab, Ashwin enjoys watching the New York Giants during football season, playing video games, and kickboxing. He is an executive board member of the American Red Cross Club on campus and is a teaching assistant for BIO 204, an introductory biology lab class.
A special thank you to our photographer, Ki Oh who is a Ph.D. student in the Stony Brook Department of Biomedical Informatics. For more of his photography please visit his instagram account @keypointphotography.