People

Dr. Naghmana Ashraf received her bachelor’s degree in Biochemistry and master’s in Molecular Biology from Pakistan. She is extremely passionate about science and wants to study the biological processes to tackle specific problems in human health and disease, including the development of new therapeutic agents. She came to US to pursue higher education and joined the laboratory of Dr. Charles Brad Shuster at New Mexico State University as a PhD candidate. During her time in Shuster lab, she tried to understand the underlying mechanism of cell death in mitotically arrested cancer cells in an effort to develop a novel therapeutic strategy for cancer using different biochemical tools in combinations. After earning her PhD, she joined Dr. Jeanine Van Nostrand’s lab as a postdoc fellow where she wants to grow as an independent thinker, advance scientific knowledge through research, and share that knowledge with others through outreach. 

Originally from India, Monali completed her Master’s degree at the National Institute of Science Education and Research before pursuing her doctoral studies at the University of Houston, in cell and molecular biology. During her time at the University of Houston, Monali worked under the guidance of Dr. Seema Khurana, focusing on elucidating the mechanisms underlying colorectal cancer progression, particularly through mechanotransduction modification and subsequent Wnt signaling. After obtaining her PhD, Monali joined Dr. Jeanine Van Nostrand’s lab, where she is exploring the role of AMPK in hepatocellular carcinoma progression.

Nicholas received his master’s degree in molecular biology from the University of Delaware, under the mentorship of Dr. Mark Parcells, where his research consisted of characterizing the viral/host interactions of Marek’s Disease Virus (MDV), an avian alpha herpesvirus that causes lymphomagenesis in chickens. Specifically, his thesis focused on the protein/protein interactions of MDV protein, Meq, and the host polycomb repressive complex. Nicholas continued his research career by pursuing a doctoral degree at the University of Houston, joining the laboratory of Dr. Weiyi Peng. His dissertation work explored new therapeutic targets to improve immunotherapy efficacy in ovarian cancer patients. This was done by conducting an unbiased, genome-wide CRISPR/Cas9 genetic screen to discover novel targetable tumor-intrinsic factors in ovarian cancer that contribute to immune resistance. After earning his PhD, Dr. Egan joined Dr. Jeanine Van Nostrand’s lab as a postdoctoral fellow, where he is currently investigating the role of AMPK on the liver immune microenvironment and how this relationship intersects with liver disease progression and liver cancer carcinogenesis.

Zhen received her M.D. in 2001, from Zhenjiang Medical College, Jiangsu, China. The focus of her clinical training is Laboratory Medicine. Zhen also obtained her Master’s Degree June 2011 from The Second Military Medical University.

Dr. Sun worked at the Department of Laboratory Diagnostics, Changzheng Hospital for more than ten years. From April 28th, 2015 to December 14th, 2016, she was a Visiting Scientist at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth) Medical School, Department of Internal Medicine, and Cardiovascular Medicine. From 2016 to 2018, Zhen was a Visiting Scholar in the laboratory of Dr. Sylvester at Stanford University. In 2018, Zhen joined Baylor College of Medicine in the laboratory of Dr. David Moore. She has been a member of the Van Nostrand lab since 2020 and is interested in studying the role of AMPK in HCC.

Bernard attended the University of St. Thomas where he obtained his bachelor’s in biology (with a philosophy focus) and then proceeded to pursue a secondary degree in Molecular Genetics Technology from The University of Texas MD Anderson. Before his current role in Dr. Van Nostrand’s lab, he was a research assistant in a neurosurgery lab (Dr. Zhen Xu) at McGovern Medical School where his lab focused on studying the molecular pathway of intracranial aneurysms. Bernard inspires to seek medical school, and is particularly interested in neurosurgery and psychiatry, after Baylor.

Cassidy received her B.S. in Animal Sciences from Texas State University. Prior to joining the Van Nostrand lab, Cassidy worked as an animal care technician at Baylor College of Medicine.

Truong is originally from Vietnam and has worked in Dr. David Rowley’s lab for many years. Truong joined the Van Nostrand lab part-time in collaboration with the Rowley lab.

Fiyad received her degree in biology from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 2024. She joined the SMART Summer Research Program at Baylor College of Medicine in 2022 and worked in the lab studying the role of AMPK in HCC.

Vy received her B.S. in Biology with a minor in Chemistry in 2019 from St. Mary’s University.

Vy has been working at Baylor College of Medicine since 2019. She had participated in research projects to improve CAR-T cell therapy (The Mamonkin Lab) and characterizing Retinitis Pigmentosa Mouse Model (The Wensel Lab) before joining the Jeanine Van Nostrand Lab in November, 2021 to fulfill her passion for metabolism research. Vy’s attraction to metabolism arises from her interest in understanding hibernation mechanism in Cold-Adapted Animals and her previous summer research experience in studying the interaction of BRCA1 and NRF2 in 2017 at the University of Texas at Health Science Center at San Antonio (The Bishop Lab). Outside of the lab, Vy loves to travel, jog, bike, cook, explore new restaurants in Houston, and spend time with her pet hamster (Whiskey).

Vy left the lab in 2022 to start her PhD at the University of Alaska in Fairbanks.