Student Advisory Board (SAB)

The Student Advisory Board (SAB) serves as an intermediary between students of biology at the University of Pennsylvania and the Department of Biology. The SAB advocates for undergraduates by bringing their collective concerns before the department.

SAB members attempt to provide a source of information and advice about the Biology Department to prospective majors and minors by putting students into contact with current majors.

The following is the current listing for the Biology Student Advisory Board. You may contact members with questions.

name	class	research/area interests
Nick Cordella	08	General Biology major
		Considering both graduate and medical school. Interested in neuroscience. Nick spent Spring 07 abroad at the University of Edinburgh.
Ellen Fraint	08	General Biology major
		Considering both graduate and medical school. Interested in development and genetics. Group discussion leader for BIOL 101 and 102. Studied at James Cook University in the Spring 2007 semester.
Vanessa George	08	Molecular Biology Concentration
		Worked in a lab in the medical school investigating the activity of proteins involved in lysosome-related organelles.
Jennifer Guttman	09	General Biology major with Jewish Studies minor
		Planning to attend medical school. Currently working on an independent study in a lab in the medical school examining the role of several proteins in cytokinesis and cell polarity.
Alisse Hauspurg	08	General Biology major
		Planning to attend medical school. Currently working on an independent study in the Neurosurgery department of the School of Medicine. Interested in cell biology.
Anna Kersh	09	General Biology major
		Considering both graduate and medical school.
Zuolu Liu	10	Molecular Biology Concentration and Economics
		Planning to attend medical school. Currently working in Dr. Xiaolu Yang's lab in the School of Medicine on p53 and cancer. Participated in NIH Undergraduate Scholars Program at SOM and works as a medical interpreter through Penn Language Link.
Mahesh Madhavan	08	General Biology major and South Asian Studies minor
		Considering both graduate and medical school. Currently working on an independent research project in the medical school. Participated in an internship program in Pittsburgh during summer 06 and is involved in volunteer work at HUP.
Lauren Malaspina	08	Molecular Biology Concentration
		Considering both graduate and medical school. Working on an independent study project with Dr. Doris Wagner on the meristem identity genes regulating developmental changes in Arabidopsis. Previously, the group discussion leader for BIOL 122.
Bobak Parang	09	General Biology major
		Considering both graduate and medical school. Interested in evolutionary biology.
Paul Scherer	08	Neuroscience Concentration
		Considering both graduate and medical school. Currently involved with research in the Medical School on the development of neuromuscular synapses in zebra fish.
Megan Shetty	09	General Biology major and French minor
		Planning to attend medical school. Interested in evolution and behavioral studies. Currently involved with diabetes research.
Caiti Smukowski	09	General Biology major
		Considering both graduate and medical school. Interested in ecology and evolutionary biology.
Nattha Wannissorn	08	Molecular Biology and Computational Biology Concentrations
		Planning to attend graduate school. Currently working in budding yeast RAM (Regulation of Ace2-dependent transcription and Morphogenesis) network in Dr. Frank Luca's lab in the Veterinary school, and on a bioinformatics database for Dr. Sara Cherry in the Genomics Institute. Was a Penn Genomics Institute intern in the summer of 2007.
Rae Eden Yumal	08	Neuroscience Concentration
		Planning to attend graduate school.
David Zhuo	09	Molecular Biology Concentration and French minor
		Planning to attend medical school.
Felina Zolotarev	08	General Biology major and Russian minor
		Planning to attend medical school. Currently working on a research project in Dr. Guild's lab investigating the effect of actin filament bundles on cell shape.