Post-Doctoral Fellows

Januka Budhathoki-Uprety

Januka Budhathoki-Uprety received her PhD degree in chemistry from North Carolina State University in 2012. Her doctoral research work focused on the synthesis of helical polymers. Upon completion of her PhD, she joined the laboratory of Daniel Heller at Memorial Sloan Kettering as a research fellow. In her current role, she is developing new molecular probes using polymers and polymeric nanoparticles for imaging, diagnostic, and therapeutic applications.

Guillaume Dewaele Le Roi

Guillame Dewale Le Roi received his M.Sc. from Sorbonne University in Paris and moved to the United States to pursue his PhD within the Chemistry Graduate Program of the City University of New York (CUNY). He joined the laboratories of Brian Zeglis at Hunter College of CUNY and Jason Lewis at Memorial Sloan Kettering to pursue his passion for radiochemistry, molecular imaging, and translational science. His research focuses on the creation of novel strategies for the site-specific modification of proteins and peptides with radionuclides.

Tyler El Rayes

Tyler El Rayes received his PhD from Weill Cornell Graduate School of Medical Sciences in 2015. His doctoral research in the lab of Vivek Mittal focused on characterizing the pre-metastatic microenvironment in lungs, and delineating a pathway linking lung inflammation to metastasis enhancement. He joined the lab of Morgan Huse at Memorial Sloan Kettering in 2016, where he is currently using intravital imaging, flow cytometry, and scRNA-seq to track early-stage melanoma clonal evolution and interactions with the immune system.

Kelly Henry

Dr. Kelly Henry obtained her PhD in chemistry at Syracuse University in 2015. Her doctoral work focused on the structure-activity relationships and appetite-regulating effects of neuropeptides, using vitamin B12 as a drug delivery vehicle. In July 2015, she joined the lab of Jason Lewis at Memorial Sloan Kettering. She worked on interrogating oncogenic pathways and assessing target engagement using protein-based radiotracers via molecular imaging in cancer. She started a new position as a Study Director at InviCRO in 2020. The position entails sponsor-facing interaction where she will be ensuring all of the stakeholders, bench scientists, and image analysis teams work synergistically to execute successful preclinical imaging studies.

Sai Kiran Sharma

Sai Kiran Sharma obtained his PhD in pharmaceutical sciences from the University of Alberta, Canada, in 2014. His doctoral thesis work focused on the development and testing of immunoPET probes for the molecular imaging of epithelial ovarian cancer. In September 2014, he joined the laboratories of Jason Lewis at Memorial Sloan Kettering and Brian Zeglis at Hunter College of the City University of New York. In working between the two labs, he aims to develop antibody-based theranostic agents for the molecular imaging and therapy of ovarian cancer. Sai now serves as a Lead in Vivo Imaging Scientist at Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

Susanne Kossatz

Susanne Kossatz obtained her PhD degree in 2013 from Jena University Hospital in Germany. During her thesis, she worked on optical imaging of colorectal cancer using small-molecule fluorescence probes. During her first postdoctoral position, also at Jena University Hospital, her research focused on magnetic nanoparticles for hyperthermia treatment and imaging of pancreatic and breast cancer in a European Union research project. In 2014, she started working at Memorial Sloan Kettering as a postdoctoral research fellow in the laboratories of Thomas Reiner and Wolfgang Weber, focusing on the exploration of new applications for novel molecular imaging probes.

King Lam Hui

King Lam Hui received his PhD degree in physics from the University of Maryland, College Park, in 2015. His doctoral research work focused on the mechanobiology of T cell activation. Upon completion of his PhD, he joined the laboratory of Philipp Niethammer at Memorial Sloan Kettering as a research scholar. He is currently investigating the connection between inflammation and oxidative stress, using zebrafish as a model system and novel genetically-encoded redox / GPCR sensors to visualize signaling events in vivo.

Brian Madajewski

Brian Madajewski received his PhD in cancer cell biology from West Virginia University in 2016. His doctoral research work focused on the role of oxidative stress regulators in the promotion of non-small cell lung cancer and the maintenance of cancer stem cells. Following completion of his doctoral work, he joined the lab of Michelle Bradbury at Memorial Sloan Kettering as a postdoctoral research fellow. His current work focuses on the translational research of FDA-approved C dots in cancer theranostics.

Patricia Manuela Ribeiro Pereira

Patricia Pereira obtained her PhD in medicinal chemistry from the University of Aveiro, Portugal, in October 2016. During her doctoral thesis she developed new photosensitizers by conjugating them with specific galactose motifs and validated them in the treatment of bladder cancer by photodynamic therapy. In November 2016, she joined the laboratory of Jason Lewis at Memorial Sloan Kettering. In her current role, she aims to modulate endocytic trafficking systems for improved immunoPET and radioimmunotherapy of bladder and gastric tumors. In addition to Dr. Lewis, Jeremy Durack and Yelena Janjigian have been kind to serve as a co-mentors in her research project and will be instrumental to the potential translation of the project in a clinical setting. Patricia serves as an Associate Professor, Radiology in the Division of Biology & Biomedical Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis.

Michael Phipps

Michael Phipps graduated summa cum laude in 2017 from the University of Missouri in Columbia, Missouri, with a bachelor’s degree in chemistry. While at the University of Missouri, he fostered his interest in radiochemistry under Silvia Jurisson, researching radionuclide separations and chelator chemistry at the University of Missouri Research Reactor (MURR) and Harry S. Truman Memorial Veterans’ Hospital. In 2017, he accepted a graduate student position at Hunter College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. He now works in the labs of Lynn Francesconi at Hunter College and Jason Lewis at Memorial Sloan Kettering, pursuing a PhD in inorganic chemistry, researching novel PET imaging agents and therapeutic agents for the molecular imaging and therapy of cancers.

Clayton Schwarz

Clayton Schwarz received his PhD from Stanford University in 2017. His doctoral work in the lab of Jan Skotheim focused on characterizing the feedback loop of Cdk2-cyclin E activity, Rb phosphorylation, and E2F-dependent transcription that regulates the mammalian G1/S transition. In 2019 he joined the laboratories of Anna-Katerina Hadjantonakis of Memorial Sloan Kettering and Eric Siggia of Rockefeller University. He is using a comparative imaging-based approach to investigate cell fate acquisition and tissue architecture in micropatterned gastruloids and mouse embryos.

Sui-Seng Tee

Sui-Seng Tee received his bachelor’s degree and PhD degree from the University of Cambridge in England, where he worked on imaging reporter genes. He then moved to Stanford University for his postdoctoral training, developing self-assembling probes for measuring apoptosis as well as metabolic imaging. He moved to Kayvan Keshari’s laboratory at Memorial Sloan Kettering in 2014 and is currently investigating the interplay between signaling pathways and imaging cancer metabolism using hyperpolarized MRI.

Pre-Doctoral Fellows

Brandon Carney

Brandon Carney obtained his bachelor’s degree in 2012 from St. John’s College in Annapolis, Maryland. He then accepted a position as a postbaccalaureate research assistant at Los Alamos National Laboratory, where he worked on lanthanide and actinide chemistry in the laboratories of George Goff and Wolfgang Runde. In 2013, he accepted a graduate student position at the City University of New York and joined Hunter College as part of its Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship radiochemistry program. He now works in the laboratory of Thomas Reiner, where he develops novel PET and multimodal imaging probes.

Brendon Cook

Brendon Cook graduated magna cum laude in 2014 from Alfred University in Alfred, New York, with bachelor’s degrees in both biology and chemistry. While at Alfred, he developed an interest in nuclear medicine at the American Chemical Society’s National Nuclear Chemistry Summer School at Brookhaven National Laboratory. He later joined the Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship radiochemistry program at Hunter College and the Graduate Center at the City University of New York. Brendon now works in the labs of Brian Zeglis at Hunter College and Jason Lewis at Memorial Sloan Kettering and is pursuing a PhD degree in chemistry, investigating novel methods of integrating nanomedicine with molecular imaging for cancer imaging and therapy.

Stephen Jannetti

Stephen Jannetti earned his bachelor of science in biochemistry with a minor in computational sciences from Siena College in New York State in 2013. That same year he was accepted into the PhD in biochemistry program at the City University of New York Graduate Center. During his first year of the program he joined the Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship radiochemistry program at Hunter College. The focus of his work is developing clinically relevant radiotherapies for glioblastoma. He conducts his research under Brian Zeglis at Hunter College and Thomas Reiner at Memorial Sloan Kettering. Stephen is now a Postdoctoral Researcher at Duke University.

Jiye Son

Jiye is a PhD student at Brooklyn College working in the lab of Daniel Heller at Memorial Sloan Kettering. Her research focuses on the synthesis of medicinal organometallic compounds and the delivery of those drugs using enzyme-responsive short peptides for anticancer therapeutics. Prior to starting graduate school, she received her bachelor’s degree in chemistry from SUNY Stony Brook University and was an employee of the Product Safety and Toxicology Department of the Estee Lauder Companies. Jiye currently serves as the Associate Director for Nanscience Initiative and ASRC Sensor CAT. She oversees the daily operation of the Initiative and provides support for faculty, staff, postdocs, and students. As one of the first Ph.D. candidates to complete her dissertation at the ASRC, she continues to actively engage with scientists at ASRC and innovative start-ups in NYC to foster multi-disciplinary research.