Casey Bartow-McKenney
Mentor: Elizabeth Grice, PhD

Thesis Title: Further Defining Epidermal Function through Deciphering Host-Microbe Interactions in the Skin
Mentor Comment: Casey’s enthusiasm, dedication, and creativity have had a lasting impact on the laboratory, the Department of Dermatology, and the overall skin microbiome field. His studies have identified a novel function and mechanism of the skin microbiome. While sorely missed in the lab, I am so proud of Casey and all he has accomplished through his GCB PhD work.

Scott Norton
Mentor: Joseph Barash, PhD

Thesis Title: Methods for Robust Quantification of RNA Alternative Splicing in Heterogeneous RNA-SEQ Datasets
Post PhD Plans: Bioinformatician, Yale University

Emily Shields
Mentor: Roberto Bonasio, PhD

Thesis Title: Caste-Specific Expression of Coding and Noncoding Genes in Ant Brains
Post PhD Plans: Postdoctoral researcher, University of Pennsylvania
Mentor Comment: It has been the greatest pleasure to work with Emily for four years. Emily has been a powerful positive force in the lab, professionally and personally. In addition to her extensive dissertation work, she assisted virtually every lab member with their computational needs. She is a real team player and among the most collegial and friendly colleagues I have ever had. Most importantly, she is intelligent, curious, driven, and fearless. Emily does not choose projects because they are easy, she chooses them because they are hard—and her dissertation shows it.

Zilu Zhou
Mentor: Nancy Zhang, PhD
Saul Winegrad Dissertation Award Recipient

Thesis Title: Statistical Methods for Multi-Omics Inference from Single Cell Transcriptome
Research and Lab Description: Developed computational and statistical methods for multi-omics inference from single cell transcriptome. Dr. Nancy Zhang offered a friendly and exciting environment for statistical genomics research focusing on methodology development in single cell.
Post PhD Plans: Work for Google as a Data Scientist.
Mentor Comment: Zilu is an absolute joy to mentor and work with.  In the road ahead, I hope that his interdisciplinary talents, curiosity, energy and optimism will continue to take him to wonderful places. I will really miss him!

Divyansh Agarwal
Mentor: Nancy Zhang, PhD
Blavatnik Fellowship Recipient

Thesis Title: Multivariate Statistical Analysis in Single Cell Transcriptomics
Post PhD Plans: Finishing med school requirements.

Ian Mellis
Mentor: Arjun Raj, PhD
National Research Service Award (NRSA)

Thesis Title: Systems Biology of Gene Regulation Across Scales: From Single Molecules to Cellular Identities
Research and Lab Description: I worked on different projects in systems biology of gene regulation, first imaging RNA editing on the single-cell level and then developing a new framework for identifying genes that maintain cell identity. Arjun Raj's lab is a great place to train in quantitative cellular biology, particularly using microscopy and a variety of gene expression analyses, with colleagues who are biologists, chemists, engineers, clinicians, physicists, computer scientists, and mathematicians.
Post PhD Plans: I am currently finishing the MD portion of the MD-PhD program, and will begin applying for research-focused Pathology residency positions soon.