Alumni

Didi Zha, PhD
Didi defended her PhD in 2025 on extracellular vesicles in the fallopian tube. She is a postdoc at Northwestern.

Jaqueline Bazioli
Jaqueline Bazioli was a sandwich PhD student and postdoc fellow in the lab working on botanical progestins.

Kathy De La Torre
Kathy was a PREP scholar and is now an MSTP at UIC. She is back doing her PhD in the Burdette lab.

Julia Austin, PhD
Julia got her B.S. at Arkansas and worked on phytoprogestins. She is now a Scientific Specialist at Bio-Techne.

Alex Yang, PhD
Alex got his PhD from Zhejiang University and a postdoc at U. Chicago before joining us. He worked on ovarian secreted factors that drive  migration.

Georgette Heyrman, PhD
Georgette is an Associate Professor at  U. of Wisconsin Green Bay in the Human Biology Program.

Shelby King, PhD
Shelby is  Director of Medical Communications and Publications at Halozyme.

Suzanne Quartuccio Gantar, PhD
Suzanne is an Assistant Professor at George Mason University.

Wei-Lun Chen, PhD
Wei-Lun worked on natural products with anti-cancer activity. He now works at Eli Lilly.

Alexandria Young, MD/PhD
Ally worked on  anti-cancer natural products as part of her F30. She is an OB/GYN fellow at U. Penn.

Steven Kurina
Steve came from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He got his MD at the UIC College of Medicine.

Roshan Ahmed
Roshan graduated from U. Chicago in 2008.  She completed the PhD program at Columbia.  She is an associate editor at Genome Medicine.

Manead Khin, PhD
Manead Khin defended her PhD in 2024 on natural products. She currently works at ZS consulting.

Tim Dorsey
Tim was a PREP scholar in the Burdette lab and is now a PharmD at UIC.

Tova Bergsten, MD/PhD
Tova defended graduated with her MD/PhD in 2025 and is doing her residency in pediatrics at Northwestern.

Matt Dean, PhD
Matt investigated the ovary’s influence on FTE. He is an Assistant Professor at  UIUC.

Sharon Eddie, PhD
Sharon was a postdoc fellow. She is currently a faculty at Queen’s University in Belfast. Her work defined genetic alterations in tubal cell carcinogenesis.

Kevin Jackson, PhD
Kevin was the first postdoc of the Burdette lab. He is now Hematology Manager at Cannon in Nashville.

Esther Calderon-Gierszal, PhD
Esther is an Assistant Professor at Rosalind Franklin in Physiology and Biophysics.

Eoghainin O’hAinmhire, PhD
Eoghainin is a Senior Scientist – Cell and Molecular Biology at AbbVie.​

Subbulakshmi Karthikeyan, PhD 
Subbu is a research associate in the Duke-NUS lab funded by the Khoo fellowship.

Laura Rodgers, MD/PhD
Laura worked on PAX8 as part of her F30. She is pediatrician at Cincinnati Children’s.

Austin Czarnecki
Austin came from the University of Wisconsin at Madison.  He got his doctorate in dentistry at Marquette.

Kari Inoue, MD
Kari completed her M.D. at Tulane and she is a practicing MD/DO in New Orleans.

Alfredo Lopez
Alfredo was a L@sGanas and SURF scholar at UIC. He worked with Dr. Russo as part of the PREP program.

TIA JACKSON-BEY, MD
Tia did her fellowship in REI at UIC. She worked on PCOS and fallopian tube biology.

Jose Colina, PhD
Jose  worked on PAX2 and androgens in fallopian tube biology. He is now a postdoc at George Washington.

Adam Li, PhD
Adam investigated phytoprogesterone compounds, such as baicalein. He received both his PhD and MS from Urbana. He now works at Genscript.

Emanuele Canestrari, PhD
Emanuele was a postdoc and is currently Senior Clinical Research Scientist at Cook MyoSite.

Michael Endsley, PhD
Mike was a postdoc fellow in the lab and he is currently working with Dr. Wang at Medical College of Wisconsin.

Tyvette Hilliard, PhD
Tyvette  is an assistant professsor at the U. of Tuskegee in Alabama.

May Fern Toh, PhD
Fern is a senior scientist at Cerevel Therapeutics. She got her PhD in the lab working on phytoprogestins.

Dimple Modi, PhD
Dimple graduated with her PhD and  is currently Senior Director, Oncology Precision Medicine at Regeneron

Amanda Maldonado, PhD
Amanda was a T32 fellow and Yale Ciencia Academy member. She is a Portfolio Manager for Innovate2Impact.

KiAundra Kilpatrick
KiAundra came from Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University with her B.S. to join the UIC Prep program. She obtained her MD at Loyola.

David A. Davis
David was one of the first members from 2007-09 and then he joined us again for two years. He is now a histopathologist at Johns Hopkins.

Jannah Maguire 2025
CHESS High School Scholar
Jannah was mentored by Elizabeth and studied natural products from fungi as cytotoxic compounds.

Kaitlyn Fox 2025
Summer Undergraduate Research Fellow ASPET
Kaitlyn is an undergrad at UNCG and was mentored by Rasha. She studied anti-progestins from Chinese botanicals.

Selma Yousif 2025
Undergraduate Honors College
Selma was mentored by Rasha and studied progestins and glucocorticoids from botanicals.

Vita Wu 2025
BSPS undergraduate student
Vita was mentored by Monica and studied branch chain amino acids in metastasis. She is finishing her degree at UIC.

Sophia Nungaray 2024
Bridge to the Bachelor’s T34 Scholar
Sophia was mentored by Diandra on the progesterone project and presented her research at ABRCMS. She is finishing her degree at UIC.

Nichole Botello 2024
BSPS undergraduate student
Nichole finished her BS in pharmaceutical sciences and will ultimately obtain her bachelor’s once she enters pharmacy school as part of our new BS/PS degree.

Nancy Limon 2024
Undergraduate Student
Nancy was a L@S Ganas student and Chicago CHEC scholar. She graduated with highest honors in biological sciences. She plans to pursue her degree as a PA.

Yaboh Koumassou 2023
Undergraduate Cancer Center Summer Fellow
Yaboh attends Harold Washington College and worked with Monica and Diandra on the role of progesterone in fallopian tube cells.

Djeneba Diakite 2022
Undergraduate student/LEAP Scholar
Djeneba was a UIC Honors College undergraduate working with Adam and Elizabeth. She graduated with distinction from UIC and was a part of the Chicago CHEC LEAP program. She is applying to med schools and working at Exact Science in Madison.

Aliya Mirza 2021
Undergraduate student
Aliya was a GPPA student and Honors College student working on her capstone with Amanda Maldonado and natural products.

Junlone Moy 2020
Undergraduate student
Jun was a UIC Honors College undergraduate student working under the direction of Angela Russo.

Kanella Eliadis 2020
Undergraduate student
Kanella was a UIC Honors College undergraduate student who also received her PharmD at UIC. She was mentored by Jose.

Kimberly Heath-Borrero 2020
Undergraduate student
Kim was UIC Honors College undergraduate student at UIC that came from the University of Puerto Rico and was part of the L@s GANAS program. She was a PREP scholar at Jackson Labs and was accepted into the MD/PHD program in Puerto Rico.

Rocio Rivera 2019
Undergraduate student
Rocio was an ASPET SURF student from the University of Puerto Rico Rio Piedras Camps. She was a MARC fellow and ABRCMS poster winner from her SURF work in our lab. She is doing her PhD with Jeremy Johnson at UIC.

Samantha Watry 2019
PharmD Student
Samantha was a UIC PharmD student who worked on a Riback fellowship with Dr. Salvi.

Denisse Herrera 2017-2019
Undergraduate student
Denisse was a UIC Honors College student who graduated in 2018.

Peter Varughese 2017-2019
Undergraduate student
Peter was a UIC Honors College undergraduate mentored by Jose.

Vivian Jin 2018
Undergraduate student
Vivian was a UIC GPPA Medicine Student who graduated as the Louis Pasteur winner for Biology in 2018. She attended Oxford for her MS before coming back to UIC to obtain her MD degree.

Nidhi Suthar 2017
Undergraduate student
Nidhi was a UIC GPPA Medicine student in 2017 and is currently working towards her MD at UIC. She was mentored by Laura and Angela.

Alvina Shaikh 2017
Undergraduate student
Alvina was a UIC Honor’s College student who is now attending medical school. She worked with Matt on the Evil Ovary.

Demi Chae 2016
Undergraduate student
Demi graduated with honors in 2016 and went to UIC Pharmacy school. She was mentored by Subbu.

Seth Baligod 2015
Undergraduate student
Seth was a UIC Honors College student who worked with Dr. Russo.

Whay Cheng 2012-2013
Undergraduate student
Whay was a Biochemistry major in the UIC Honors College.

Estella Huang 2013
Undergraduate student
Estella was in the UIC Honors College and worked under the guidance of Georgette. She then went on to earn her MD at UIC.

Patricia Corona 2012-2013
Undergraduate student
Patricia was in the UIC Honors College. She finished her capstone and left for medical school.

Amanda Czekaj 2011-2012
Undergraduate student
Amanda completed her Capstone project in the lab. She graduated with her PharmD from UIC.

Roshni Patel undergraduate 2011-2012
Undergraduate student
Roshni was a UIC Honors College student. She received her PharmD at UIC Pharmacy.

Brandon Chiu 2010-2011
Undergraduate student
Brandon was a UIC undergraduate who worked with Suzanne.

Keerthi Raju 2011-2012
Undergraduate student
Keerthi was a UIC Honors College student. She graduated as valedictorian of her PharmD class at UIC.

Selwyn Erapuram 2011
Undergraduate student
Selwyn completed his bachelor’s degree and worked with Tyvette Hilliard.

Rosemarie Tagare 2011
Undergraduate student
Rosemarie was a UIC Honor’s College student who then got her PharmD at UIC. She worked with Dimple on getting her Pax Straight.

Amanda Muehlbauer 2008-2010
Undergraduate student
Mandy finished her MD at Rosalind Franklin and is an ER doctor. She worked on GSK3-beta inhibitors as drugs against ovarian cancers.

Fitsum Tesfamicael 2011
Undergraduate student
Fits was a UIC undergraduate who worked under the guidance of Suzanne.

Lucia Wu 2008-2010
Undergraduate student
Lucy got her PharmD from UIC. She worked on the role of the fallopian tube in ovarian cancer as a capstone with Shelby.

Angel Hernandez 2017
High school student
Angel was a high school student from UIC PREP who worked for the summer with Laura on PAX8.

Sylvia Swiercz 2013
ACS Summer Intern
Sylvia graduated high school and went to U. of Pennsylvania. She was selected into the ACS program and worked under the guidance of Dimple.

Asma Patel 2012
ACS Summer Intern
Asma was a student at von Struben Metro Science Center. She was selected into the American Cancer Society Summer Research Program.