Our Team Members
Chiara Giannarelli, MD, PhD
Principal Investigator
Dr. Chiara Giannarelli received her MD the University of Pisa, Italy. She completed her training in Internal Medicine and received her PhD in pharmacological sciences and pathophysiological mechanisms of cardiovascular disease at the University of Pisa, Italy. After completing her research fellowship at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai she was recruited as Instructor in 2012 and then promoted to Assistant Professor in 2013. Her current research focuses into the identification of new molecular targets responsible for phenotypic switch of atherosclerotic plaques towards and advanced phenotype. She is now conducting translational and patient-oriented research using a Systems Biology approach to define new mechanisms and molecular targets for plaque instability in human samples from patients with clinically stable and unstable carotid and coronary disease.
Dawn M. Fernandez, PhD
Post-Doctoral Fellow
Dawn earned her B.A from SUNY College at Buffalo where she majored in Biology and minored in Chemistry. She received her PhD at Albert Einstein College of Medicine under Anne Muesch Laboratory in Epithelial cell biology. In the Giannarelli Lab she is the current post-doc involved in the human studies. Dawn is also a retired Dance Dance Revolution Champion and has an incredibly talent for getting songs stuck in your head.
Letizia Amadori, PhD
Senior Scientist at the Johan Bjorkegren Laboratory, Dep. of Genetics and Genomics
Letizia earned her B.S. in Biology and her M.S. in Molecular Biology from the University of Milan, Italy. She received her PhD in Molecular Oncology and Human Genetics from the European School of Molecular Medicine (SEMM). She then pursued cancer genetics at Columbia University in New York City, before joining Dr. Björkegren’s Cardiovascular Laboratory at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. In collaboration with Dr. Chiara Giannarelli’s lab, she is involved in two drug re-positioning projects for the treatment of atherosclerosis. Letizia was also the chair of the Postdoctoral Executive Committee at Mount Sinai. On her free time, she loves music, art, photography and she likes challenging herself in learning new languages (she stopped at 5 for now ;-D)!
Roza Shamailova, BA
Research Associate
Roza received her Bachelor’s in Jewish Studies and Chemistry from Hunter College in 2017. She plans to further her medical education. Roza is a Research Associate in Chiara’s Lab, where she works on the mice, rabbit and human studies. Roza loves history and art, and in her free time likes to visit museums. In the lab she is known as the “pianist of mice aorta isolations.”
Christopher Hill, BA
Research Associate
Chris is a Research Associate who also works with the Familia Project in Harlem. He received his BA in Public Policy from Duke University in 2018. Chris intends to study medicine and aspires toward a future career as a physician-scientist. In his free time, Chris is a guitar player and skier. Thanks to the Giannarelli lab, Chris recently discovered his color-blindness while making figures.
O'Jay Stewart
MD-PhD Student
O’Jay is a MD-PhD student rotating in the Giannarelli Lab. He studied Cellular and Molecular Biology at CUNY – John Jay College and then went on to 2 years of research in the NIH PREP program at Mount Sinai, working in the lab of Brian Brown. In his free time O’Jay enjoys spending time with family, particularly his son. He also enjoys travelling, playing sports and trying new restaurants.
Former Team Members
Christine Wong, PhD
Post-Doctoral Fellow
Christine studies the role of NK cells during atherosclerosis in the Giannarelli Lab. Before joining Chiara’s lab, her research was focused on the role of tissue resident macrophages during respiratory viral infection. She is originally from Hong Kong and grew up in London, UK. Christine is a converted cat person and enjoys knitting, baking and practicing aerial yoga.
Nayaab Khan, PhD
Post-Doctoral Fellow
Nayaab Khan pursued her PhD at The University of Tennessee Health Science Center and investigated the role of cytosolic phospholipase A2α in hypertension and associated cardiovascular and renal damage. She did a brief postdoctoral fellowship at The Feinstein institute for Medical Research, where she studied the protective role of the cholinergic system in Ischemia-Reperfusion injury during an MI. At the Giannarelli Lab she was interested in deciphering the complex cellular and molecular phenotype of human atherosclerosis using CyTOF, shot gun proteomics and RNA-seq.
Richard White, MS
Associate Researcher
Richard pursued his Bachelor in Biochemistry followed by a Master in Biochemistry at the City College of New York. During this time he studied the effect of curcumin in tumor associated microglia polarization and stem cells in glioblastoma. While at the Giannarelli Lab he was responsible for the animals used to test the anti-atherosclerotic and anti-inflammatory efficacy of new candidate compounds, identified using drug re-purposing computational approaches, using large animal models of atherosclerosis and PET-MR imaging.
Peik Sean Chong (Noelle), MS
Associate Researcher at the Johan Bjorkegren Laboratory, Dep. of Genetics and Genomics
Noelle completed her undergraduate studies in Nutrition Science at Purdue University in 2015. In 2016, she received her Masters’ degree in Human Nutrition from Columbia University. She joined the department Of Genetics and Genomic Sciences as an associate researcher in the same summer. She is currently the laboratory manager for the Bjorkegren research team. Outside work, she is an avid amateur baker.
Swathy Sajja, MS
Clinical Researcher at the Johan Bjorkegren Laboratory, Dep. of Genetics and Genomics
Swathy Sajja received her Bachelor’s degree in Biotechnology from University of Hyderabad and Master’s in Molecular Sciences from Louisiana Tech University. Her prior experience at PAREXEL International is focused on the different phase of clinical trials, Image Processing and Clinical Data Analysis. Currently she is working as Clinical Researcher for Genetics and Genomics Department in Bjorkegren Lab from 2016.
Christian Pina, MD, MS
Medical Student
Christian Pina is a Columbia University graduate, where he earned his Bachelor’s Degree in Biology and Hispanic Studies. He received his medical degree from Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in 2018, where he is currently completing his residency.
Jennifer Li, MD
Medical Student
Jennifer Li is a magna cum laude graduate of University of Pennsylvania and received her medical degree from Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. She is currently completing her residency training in Vascular Surgery at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston.
Nina Bhatia
Student Volunteer
Nina is currently a junior student at Washington University in St. Louis studying Applied Math and Biology. Combining what she has learned in both majors, she works in the lab to analyze gene expression data, find gene networks, and understand the key drivers of those networks. In her free time she is a Founding Diversity &Inclusion chair for her sorority and she writes for Simple Syrup, a food and culture magazine on her campus.
Samantha Schade
Student Volunteer
Samantha will be entering into her senior year of high school this fall. Two summers ago, she worked on a project to determine the anti-atherosclerotic effect of several drugs using PET/MRI imaging. This past summer, she helped analyze Flow Cytometry data to identify cell populations within both diseased and healthy mice at different stages of atherosclerotic development. Outside of research, Samantha loves playing soccer and basketball for her school’s teams.