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PhD Student Spotlight

Meet our PhD Spotlight Students and find out what innovative discoveries and new knowledge they are generating in our state-of-the-art labs.
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    Emily Hansen

    PhD student

    Emily is a current PhD student in Dr. James Holaska’s lab at the Cooper Medical School of Rowan University (CMSRU) campus. She graduated from Radford University in Spring of 2020 with a BS in Biology, where she ran the Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu club and did undergraduate research in Dr. Bob Sheehy’s lab studying the influence of landscape and environmental features on the genetic structure of local Appalachian salamander populations. Her current work focuses on nuclear envelope protein emerin and how its dysregulation contributes to nuclear integrity during metastatic transformation in breast cancer. Outside of the lab, she likes to go out to eat, bake, grow various plants, and watch UFC events.

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    James Kennedy

    PhD student

    James graduated from Rowan University in December 2018 with a bachelor's degree in Biological Sciences. He joined TBES in Fall 2019 in the MS program for Cell and Molecular Biology and later transferred to the Ph.D. program in Molecular Cell Biology and Neuroscience in Fall 2021. James selected the research lab of Dr. Ronald Ellis. His thesis project involves defining the sex determination pathway in hermaphrodite Caenorhabditis species with focus on the FEM protein ubiquitination complex which is conserved in humans. Some of his favorite activities outside the lab include reading and crabbing.

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    Nicole Hinds

    PhD student

    Nicole is currently a PhD student at TBES in Dr. Daniel Manvich's lab. She graduated from Rowan University in 2015, where she studied Biochemistry and worked under the mentorship of Dr. Gregory Caputo. While an undergraduate, she assisted in research aimed at characterizing the self-assembly of conductive peptide-porphyrin aggregates. In the years to follow, Nicole taught Chemistry for Atlantic Cape Community College and ran an Emergency Services Organization in her home town of Buena Vista Township, NJ. Nicole is broadly interested in neuropharmacology and is currently working to assess the neural circuitry underlying drug-seeking behavior and various coping strategies in response to psychosocial stress. While not in the lab or studying, Nicole enjoys spending time with her husband, and hiking with her sister.