Current Students
HUNTER EBY (MD-PhD)
Thesis adviser: Rammohan Shukla/Robert Smith
Education: BS in Biology with a minor in Chemistry from the University of Toledo, MSBS in Bioinformatics
from the University of Toledo.
Research Interests: My main focus has been looking at the transcriptional profile of patients with schizophrenia
and performing large scale data analysis. I am also developing software in which I
hope to help researchers find new and unique gene sets with the help of Gene Set Enrichment
analysis and Text mining for hypothesis driving experimentation.
Contact: hunter.eby@rockets.utoledo.edu
Kathryn Helminiak (BS - MSBS Pipeline)
Thesis adviser: David Kennedy
Education: B.S. in Biology and a minor in chemistry, University of Toledo
Research Interests: Current research focusing on plant science, studying volatile organic compounds released
by Arabidopsis after wounding.
Contact: kathryn.helminiak@rockets.utoledo.edu
Ali Imami (phd)
Thesis adviser: Rammohan Shukla/Robert Smith
Education: MB BS, Nishtar Medical College, University of Health Sciences (Lahore), MSBS in Bioinformatics
University of Toledo.
Research Interests: Machine learning to develop targeted tools for early diagnosis of psychiatric disorders,
particularly schizophrenia and mania.
Contact: ali.imami@rockets.utoledo.edu
ALEXANDRA KRUZEL (BS-MSBS PIPELINE)
Thesis adviser: TBD
Education: Currently an undergraduate University of Toledo
Research Interests: Forensics using bioinformatics.
Contact: alexandra.kruzel@rockets.utoledo.edu
Elizabeth Shedroff (MS - MSBS Pipeline)
Thesis adviser: Dr. Robert Smith
Education: BS/ in Biology from the University of Toledo
Research Interests: I am studying in the CDRL, and I'm interested in the kinomic analysis of PBMCs to
predict patient response to immunotherapeutic drugs and predict renal transplant outcomes.
Contact: elizabeth.shedroff@rockets.utoledo.edu
Leah Stevenson (MS - MSBS Pipeline)
| Thesis adviser: Bina Joe/Xi Cheng Education: Currently an undergraduate at the University of Toledo Research Interests: Genetics Contact: leah.stevenson@rockets.utoledo.edu |
Jessica Tschantz (MS - MSBS Pipeline)
Thesis adviser: TBD
Education: Currently a third year student in the BS Biology-MS Bioinformatics pipeline program with a minor in Chemistry at the University
of Toledo
Research Interests: Applied research of bioinformatics/genomics in pharmacology
Contact: jessica.tschantz@rockets.utoledo.edu
Alex Joyce (MSBS)
Thesis adviser: Dr. Robert Smith
Education: Bachelors in Biochemistry from the University of Toledo
Research Interests: My current research interest is understanding the underlying mechanisms behind mental
disorders, specifically Alzheimer's, using proteomic, genomic, and bioinformatic methods.
Contact: alex.joyce2@rockets.utoledo.edu
vineet reddy (MSBS)
Thesis adviser: Dr. Robert Smith/Rammohan Shukla
Education: BS in Biology with a minor in Chemistry from John Carroll University
Research Interests: 
After graduation, I joined the Master's in Bioinformatics program at The University
of Toledo. After my first semester in the program, I joined the Cognitive Disorders
Research Laboratory. Currently, in the CDRL, I am working on projects that use single
cell RNA sequencing to better understand epilepsy. Additionally, we plan to use this
scRNA sequencing data to computationally model epilepsy and observe differences in
neuronal activity.
Contact: Vineet.Reddy@rockets.utoledo.edu
william george ryan (msbs)
Thesis Advisor: Dr. Robert Smith
Education:
AA Lakeland Community College, BS in Biomedical Science with a minor in Chemistry
form the University of Akron
Research Interests: Currently, I'm a member of the Cognitive Disorders Research Laboratory studying "dark"
kinases and the importance of kinase networks.
Contact: William.Ryan2@rockets.utoledo.edu
Taylen oasis arvay (ms-msbs pipeline)
Thesis Advisor: TBD
Education: 
Currently an Undergraduate at the University of Toledo
Research Interests: I research in the Crawley Cell Biology Lab here at UT
Contact: Taylen.Arvay@rockets.utoledo.edu
Evelyn Bates (MSBs)
Thesis Advisor: Dr. Robert Smith/Sinead O'Donavan
Education: Bachelors in Applied Health Science from Bowling Green State University Firelands
Campus
Research Interests: For my potential thesis project, I am conducting an analysis on gene transcriptomic
signatures of patients who committed suicide over a wide variety of psychiatric disorders.
This will include disorders like schizophrenia, major depressive disorder, bipolar
disorder, substance abuse, and PTSD. Using existing RNAseq data and pipelines produced
by my colleagues, I will hopefully be able to identify a "signature" of suicide that
could provide insight on how to better prevent it.
Contact: Evelyn.Bates@rockets.utoledo.edu
Gabby vento (PhD)
Thesis Advisor: TBD
Education: 
Research Interests: Biomarkers, Data Science, Epidemiology, and Neuroscience.
Jennifer Nguyen (phd)
Thesis Advisor: TBD
Education:
Research Interests: