Van Andel Institute Graduate School 2023 Convocation & Commencement Program

New Graduate Student Bios
Megan Marie Biesinger received her M.S. in Biomedical Sciences
from Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and her B.S. in
Genetics, Genomics, and Biotechnology with a minor in Chemistry
from Brigham Young University. In addition to schooling, Megan
worked at Nelson Laboratories and the University of Kentucky
and researched at the University of Canberra in Australia. Megan
loves cell culture, spatial transcriptomics, and making genetic
connections. She wants to one day direct her own lab researching
epigenetics related to autoimmune diseases and travel the world
teaching children science.
Qualia (Lia) Hooker is from New York. She received her B.S.
in Psychology with a concentration in Neuroscience from
Pennsylvania State University and an M.S. in Integrative Biology
with a concentration in Cancer Biology from Hofstra University. For
her master’s thesis, she profiled the transcriptomic changes that
occurred with silencing lncRNA H19 in glioblastoma multiforme.
Since 2019, she has worked as a research technician in a cancer
dormancy lab at Albert Einstein College of Medicine. The focus
of her work has been developing models of therapy induced
senescence, assessing genetic alterations in cells that escaped
senescence, and identifying molecules with senolytic potential.
Yakum Benard Mingo is from Bamenda, Cameroon. He holds a
B.S. in Microbiology from the Catholic University of Cameroon and
an M.S. in Biomedical Sciences from Hasselt University, Belgium.
Yakum worked at Biomedical Research Institute (BIOMED), Belgium,
to unravel the potential role that B cells play in spinal cord injury.
Recently, he completed his master’s thesis on an Erasmus+ grant
at the Technical University of Braunschweig, Germany, where he
investigated the therapeutic potential of a gut metabolite called
urolithin A following viral infections of the brain. In the future,
Yakum hopes to understand how neurodegenerative diseases
such as Parkinson’s disease develop and to find disease-modifying
mechanisms that can be exploited for therapeutic purposes.
Megan Murto was born and raised in Dallas, Texas. She received
a B.S. in Biomedical Laboratory Science concentrating in Medical
Microbiology at Michigan State University. Here she studied
Mycobacterium tuberculosis metabolic pathways to determine targets
for future antibiotics. After graduation, Megan did a post-bac at
the University of Pittsburgh researching protein degradation and
structural biology. She hopes to continue the study of different
metabolic pathways and to continue expanding upon her
knowledge of structural biology.
Paul Kim earned his B.S. in Civil Engineering from Kyungpook
National University in South Korea, followed by a research scientist
position in 2018 in the Department of Pharmacology at the
University of Minnesota. He studied the regulation of persistent
breast cancer cells under endocrine therapy and devised strategies
for preventing cancer recurrence. He is interested in epigenetic
control in fundamental cellular processes and their dysregulation in
cancer and other diseases.
Justin Kulchycki received both his B.S. and M.S. in Biology from
Oakland University. He studied mammalian cardiovascular genetics
and his master’s thesis research involved locating a non-coding
genetic region responsible for cell-type-specific expression of the
B4galnt2 gene in mice. While completing his thesis, Justin also
worked as a research intern at Beaumont Hospital, where he aided
in developing methods for reducing amyloid and tau build-up in
a murine model of Alzheimer’s disease. Following his master’s
thesis research, Justin accepted a research assistant position at
Henry Ford Hospital, where he studied renal physiology. In January
2021, Justin joined VAI as a technician working on mechanisms of
epigenetic therapies in cancer.
Mary Olesnavich grew up in Bloomfield, Michigan, and graduated
from Swarthmore College with a B.A. in Biology in 2018. After
graduation she worked as a laboratory technician in a translational
cancer research lab at the University of Michigan, where she used
bench skills and bioinformatics on a project investigating CAR-T cell
related toxicities. For graduate school, she is interested in utilizing
interdisciplinary approaches to integrate quantitative analysis
with traditional molecular biology methods in the study of cancer
immunology or neurodegenerative disorders.
Olivia Ols is from Ohio. She is a Hillsdale College graduate with
a B.S. who majored in Biology and minored in Chemistry. Olivia
has partnered with Case Western Reserve University, Kent State
University, and Hillsdale College to complete multiple environmental
and molecular research projects. At Hillsdale College, she
developed methods for CRISPR/Cas9 using the fruit fly Drosophila
melanogaster. Her summers have been spent working with the
Leonard Gelfand STEM Center and Case Western Reserve University
to provide STEAM experiences and education for K–12 students in
the Greater Cleveland area. Last summer, she was an RA/TA for the
Hillsdale summer science camp. Olivia hopes to pursue research
in regenerative medicine with a focus on directing and maintaining
stem cells to encourage tissue growth.