Celdara Medical Fellows

Dartmouth College

Xhoela Bame

Xhoela graduated with the highest distinction from Istanbul Technical University, Turkey where she majored in Molecular Biology and Genetics and minored in Economics. Her academic achievements were recognized with prestigious awards including the Albanian government Scholarship of Excellence and the Turkish government Success Scholarship. She also earned two consecutive Erasmus fellowships to receive research training in Spain and Germany. Xhoela is currently a PhD candidate at Dartmouth College and has won the American Heart Association predoctoral award and been recognized as an Albert J. Ryan Foundation fellow. She studies organellar and cellular dynamics in the live brain in Dr. Robert Hill’s lab. Her research holds broad implications in neurodevelopment, neurodegeneration, and age-related pathologies. She is committed to advancing her expertise in neurodegenerative diseases through her role as a Celdara Medical fellow.

Outside lab, Xhoela is a dedicated STEM advocate, recognized among the top 100 Leaders of Tomorrow from Global Biotech Revolution, and has recently joined the Homeward Bound leadership initiative as one of the 100+ global women leaders in STEMM. She enjoys hiking, traveling, and learning new languages.

Baylor College of Medicine

Matthew Dysthe

Matt is a graduate student in the Translational Biology & Molecular Medicine program at Baylor College of Medicine where his research aims to identify strategies to improve the efficacy of natural killer cell therapies for the treatment of solid tumors. Another aim of his research is to develop novel in vitro and in vivo models to better recapitulate extra-tumoral components of the tumor microenvironment. In his spare time, Matt enjoys spending time with his dog, playing golf, and trying all the great food the Houston area has to offer. He received his BS in biochemistry from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Cornell University

Seth Lieberman

Seth is in the final year of a combined DVM/PhD program at Cornell University. He completed his PhD in 2021 at the Schaffer-Nishimura lab, pioneering a novel laser scalpel neurosurgical approach for treating focal neocortical epilepsy. Currently, he is completing his veterinary degree, gaining clinical experience across specialties at Cornell University Hospital for Animals.
With a passion for laboratory animal medicine, Seth pursued externships at prestigious institutions like Yale University, New York University – Regeneron, and the Tri-Institutional Training Program (Memorial Sloan Kettering, Weill Cornell, and Rockefeller University). He is also actively working with Dr. Yael Merbl, a veterinary neurologist, on a translational research fellowship. Their research focuses on studying deficits in blood flow and lymphatic drainage in dogs with canine cognitive dysfunction, a natural model for Alzheimer’s disease.

Seth’s ultimate goal is to become a laboratory animal veterinarian and establish a translational research facility dedicated to neurodegenerative research. In his leisure time, he enjoys traveling with his wife, indulging in photography, savoring new culinary experiences, or simply spending time outdoors with his four canine companions.

Dartmouth College

John Molinski

John is a PhD candidate at the Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth College under the supervision of John XJ Zhang. His thesis research focuses on the development of microtechnologies for the isolation and engineering of exosomes for therapeutic applications. John is originally from Rhode Island and received a BS in Bioengineering at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth. Outside of the lab, John enjoys trail running, rock climbing, and mountain biking.

Dartmouth College

Rachel Saxe

Rachel is a 5th year PhD candidate in the department of Molecular and Systems Biology at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth College. Her current research focuses on engineering and applying CRISPR-based cellular lineage tracing technologies to understand treatment-mediated cancer evolution and the emergence of chemoresistance. Her scientific interests span drug development and the applications of next generation sequencing technology in advancing human health. Prior to graduate school, she received her BS in Biology from Tufts University, where she researched novel drug target candidates for parasitic nematode infections. Outside of lab, Rachel enjoys drawing, cooking new recipes, and being outdoors.

Tulane University

Cemaliye Semmedi

Cemo is a fifth-year Neuroscience PhD Candidate in Dr. Ricardo Mostany’s lab at Tulane University. She studies cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying synaptic plasticity deficits in rodent models of Alzheimer’s disease. Prior to graduate school, Cemo worked as a research apprentice in Drs. Susan and Joe Travers’ lab at Ohio State University, where she assisted in research on taste perception mechanisms in the rodent brainstem. Originally from Cyprus, Cemo received a B.A. in Neuroscience and a B.A. in Psychology at Ohio Wesleyan University. In her free time, Cemo enjoys hiking, cooking, and playing card games with her friends.