Sheqouia Nauta, MD, Postdoctoral fellow
Hello! My name is Sheqouia. I was born and raised in the Netherlands and obtained my medical degree at the University of Amsterdam in 2022. During my study, I did a research internship in the lab when it was led by dr. Willem Mulder and I’ve gained a great interest in biomedical research ever since. After receiving my degree I returned to Mount Sinai and joined the van Leent lab as a postdoctoral fellow. My current research focuses on examining inflammatory cardiovascular diseases through molecular imaging.
Anna Ranzenigo, PhD, Postdoctoral fellow
Hello hello! I’m Anna, I’m an organic and radiochemist. I obtained my PhD in organic chemistry in 2022 from the University of Florence, Italy. During my PhD, my research focused on studying tartaric acid enantiomers as starting materials for synthesizing biologically active natural products and analogs, such as iminosugars and bis-a-amino acids. During my period abroad in Denmark at the University of Copenhagen with Professor Dr Brønsted Nielsen, I was working on the synthesis, characterization and kinetic studies of photochromic molecules. I started working in the radiochemistry field when I joined Mandy van Leent’s lab at Mount Sinai. My research as a postdoc is mostly focused on performing radiosynthesis and radiolabeling for PET imaging.
Martin Umali, Lab manager
Hi! My name is Martin and I am the lab manager for the van Leent lab. I graduated with a Bachelors in Biochemistry at Stony Brook University, where my previous lab studied potential therapies for multiple sclerosis. Apart from managing the lab, I am also involved with in vivo research where I make use of various multimodal imaging platforms such as the PET/CT and MR. Being a part of this lab has made me more appreciative of the world of imaging, and I look forward to learning more!
Trea St.Hillaire, Pre-med student
Hi! My name is Trea St. Hillaire, and I was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. I obtained my Bachelor’s degree in Biology with a minor in Classics at Haverford College, where I was a part of the Microbial Ecology and Evolution Laboratory, investigating how interactions between bacteria affect their genomic evolution. Currently the project I am working on involves evaluating radiolabeled beta cell PET imaging agents in mice.
Camila Modráková, undergraduate student
Hello! My name is Camila. I was born in Colombia but raised in Switzerland. Currently, I am pursuing my bachelor’s degree in Molecular Life Science at Radboud University in Nijmegen, Netherlands. My previous internship at the University of Zurich, exploring interactions between the central nervous and immune systems in Alzheimer’s disease, sparked my passion for immunology, leading me to seek further opportunities resulting in my placement in Mandy’s lab. I am thrilled to be interning at Mandy’s lab, where I will be undertaking my bachelor thesis focusing on visualising CD8 + T cells dynamics through molecular imaging. I am eager to contribute to this research and delve deeper into the fascinating realm of immunology, imaging and cardiovascular disease.
Mila Llorca Luth, Summer student
Mandy van Leent, MD PhD, Principal Investigator
Dr. Van Leent is an Assistant Professor at the BioMedical Engineering and Imaging Institute (BMEII) and the Cardiovascular Research Institute (CVRI) at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Dr. Van Leent obtained her MD and PhD degrees from the University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands and performed a postdoctoral fellowship at Mount Sinai. Her research focusses on the design, application and validation of imaging methods to better understand, diagnose and treat cardiovascular and metabolic disease.