Team
Principal Investigator
Alison I Bernstein
I joined the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology at the Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy of Rutgers University in 2022. Prior to this, I was at Michigan State University’s College of Human Medicine in the Department of Translational Neuroscience for 6 years. I earned a BA in Biological Basis of Behavior and the History and Sociology of Science at the University of Pennsylvania and my PhD in Biological and Biomedical Sciences (Molecular Genetics and Genomics) at Washington University in St. Louis. I did my postdoctoral training at Emory University in the Rollins School of Public Health and the School of Medicine. I have been interested in how genes and environment impact the brain since taking a psychology elective in high school. The current focus of my research lies at the intersection of toxicology, neuroscience, and genetics and is the perfect extension of this long-term interest. I am also the co-founder of a science communication non-profit called SciMoms and our work during the COVID pandemic was featured in Time magazine. Outside of lab, I enjoy cooking and baking (usually challah), doing craft projects with my kids, playing board games, reading sci-fi and fantasy novels, and playing tennis.
LinkedIn ORCID
Staff
Tasha Hester
Lab Manager/Technician
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Tasha Hester obtained her B.S in Biology from Bennett College in Greensboro, NC and her Masters in Science Teaching from Rutgers University, through the Woodrow Wilson Fellowship Foundation. She had the pleasure of working at Mississippi Valley University, where she worked to develop a program to predict cancer survival rates in lymph node negative breast cancer patients. She also spent time in a NIDA funded lab at the University of North Carolina Wilmington where she developed a scoring protocol to quantitatively record rat behavior under the influence of Ketamine. Tasha completed a Post Baccalaureate at Wright State University where she studied spermatogenesis in planarians. This resulted in a publication in the journal of Molecular Reproduction and Development titled “Genetic Expansion of Chaperonin‐containing TCP‐1 (CCT/TRiC) Complex Subunits Yields testis‐specific isoforms Required for Spermatogenesis in Planarian Flatworms.” She has been teaching Highschool Biology for the past 6 years and is excited to continue her journey in the sciences.
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Mahek Virani
Data Analyst
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Mahek holds a BA in Genetics from Rutgers University where she completed the computational genetics certification which inspired her to pursue a career in bioinformatics. Her research in the Bernstein lab focuses on the effects of developmental pesticide exposure on epigenetic aging in the mouse midbrain and involves the use of the statistical software R. Her undergraduate research in the Ellison computational genetics lab at Rutgers focused on the role of transposable elements in speciation. Along with a passion for academic research, Mahek also aspires to be involved in the bioinformatics industry.
Trainees
Juliana Choza
PhD Student
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Juliana Choza is currently a PhD student at Rutgers in the Joint Graduate Program of Toxicology. After graduating from Lewis and Clark College in Portland, Oregon in 2020 with a BA in Biochemistry/Cellular and Molecular Biology, she worked as a technician for two years in the area of viral pharmacology during the the Covid-19 pandemic. With a lifelong interest in the long-term effects of pesticide exposure and a background in the genetics of developmental neurotoxicity, joining the Bernstein lab was a good fit and she looks forward to doing her dissertation work there.
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Lily Ramos
PharmD Student
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Lily Ramos is a third year Pharmacy student in the Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy. She is currently in the Bernstein lab as an Honors Research student and SURF fellow. In her free time, she enjoys hiking and running.