NEWS

Welcome to our new program manager, Kristin Beiswenger!

12/10/2025

Welcome to Claire Sattler, a rotation student from the Department of Biological Sciences.

9/15/2025

Congratulations to Davida Rios and Tea Crnković for submitting their paper “A Living Yeast Biosensor for Rapid Diagnosis of Asoergillus fumigatus Infection".  This work was done in collaboration with Dr. Amir Seyedmousavi, Chioma Aneke, and Jung-Ho Youn at the National Institutes of Health.  We look forward to translating this diagnostic through continued collaboration.

4/7/2025

Welcome to Aryaman Saksena, a rotation student from the Department of Biological Sciences.

3/31/2025

Congratulations to Thomas Tao whose research was recognized by a Columbia University Research Initiatives in Science & Engineering (RISE) grant.  This grant supports our collaboration with Professor Stavroula Kousteni, the Edward P. Evans Professor of Myelodysplastic Syndromes in the Department of Physiology & Cellular Biophysics, and is entitled “Exploring the contribution of the microbiome to the pathogenesis, prevention, and treatment of Acute Myeloid Leukemia.” 

3/28/2025

Congratulations to Ahmed Hamdan, a freshman in Columbia College, for receiving the Deresiewicz Research Fellowship to support summer research in the laboratory!

3/27/2025

STEM Funding and Research Opportunities - For Undergraduates: Paid Summer 2025 Undergraduate Research Placements: Over 700 programs – NSF REU, NASA, NIH and other paid summer research opportunities for undergrads. For Financial Support in Graduate School: Fellowships and graduate programs in a wide variety of STEM disciplines. For tips on applying and associated resources.

12/16/2024

Michigan Summer Undergraduate Research Experience. The 2025 M-SURE program will support 16 undergraduate trainees for a summer research experience with mentors from an outstanding pool of faculty investigators engaged in cutting-edge basic and clinical research related to diabetes, endocrinology, and metabolic diseases. The funding amount for 2025 will be $7200, pre-tax, for twelve weeks of full-time work from May 27 through August 15.

12/16/2024

University of Michigan Samuel & Jean Frankel Cardiovascular Center is now accepting applications through January 10, 2025 11:59 PM EST, for a paid Undergraduate Summer Research opportunity. Where students will be matched to a laboratory led by an Frankel CVC faculty member and participate in nationally recognized, basic science research in areas such as atherosclerosis, genetic cardiomyopathies, blood clotting disorders, cardiac arrhythmias, vascular biology, and heart failure. 

12/2/2024

Congratulations and welcome to Yiwen Wang, a first year Ph.D. student, on joining the laboratory.

11/21/2024

Welcome to Matthew Dennen, a first year M.D./PhD student, Fall 2024 rotation in the laboratory.

9/5/2024

Welcome to Thomas Tao, a first year PhD student, Fall 2024 rotation student in the laboratory.

9/3/2024

Welcome to Gabriel Valencia Sandu, a visiting Chemistry student from the University of Glasgow.  We are excited for you to join our Biosensor program.

8/22/2024

Welcome to Parmanand Ahirwar, our newest post-doctoral fellow.  Parmanand received his B.S. from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, and his Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Alabama.  

8/20/2024

Congratulations to Sonja Billerbeck, a former Cornish Laboratory Post-Doctoral fellow and Simons Foundation Junior Fellow, who has been recruited by and will join the Bioengineering Department of Imperial College London as an Associate Professor in January 2025.  All of our best in your new position!

7/3/2024

Congratulations to Zsolt Marká, a current 4th year undergraduate student with Cornish Lab, for graduating with Department Honors in Chemistry!

4/25/2024

Pamela Peralta-Yahya, former Ph.D. student in the Department of Chemistry at Columbia University in the Cornish laboratory, was promoted to Full Professor in the Schools of Chemistry and Biochemistry and Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Georgia Tech.  Congratulations Professor Peralta-Yahya!

4/4/2024

Gonzalo Gutierrez, a current 4th year undergraduate student with Cornish Lab, was selected for the Summer Program for Undergraduate Rising Stars (SPURS). Congratulations Gonzalo!

3/15/2024

Virginia was a guest speaker at the University of Michigan's Alpha Chi Sigma Seminar event. Her talk was titled “Expanding the Synthetic Capabilities of Yeast”.

3/13/2024

Two of our undergraduate students; Jenny Deng and Elliot Bossi, were selected for the Guthikonda Fellowship allowing them the opportunity to participate in full time summer research. Congratulations to you both!

3/7/2024

Our team was selected to participate in Phase 1 of the National Science Foundation Convergence Accelerator program. While focusing on the development of engineered microbial sensors for assessing water quality, we will be collaborating with many outstanding groups from Columbia University and City College of New York, with the mutual goal of addressing real-world chemical sensing challenges.

For more details, check out the NSF announcement on https://new.nsf.gov/news/nsf-spurs-technology-development-biological.

2/13/2024

Virginia was a speaker at the Sanders Tri-Institutional Chemical Biology Seminar Event hosted by Sloan Kettering Memorial. Her talk was titled “Expanding the Synthetic Capabilities of Yeast”

2/5/2024

Virginia was the inaugural Columbia College Alumni Association and Columbia College Women Women at the Podium speaker.  Her talk was titled: “Synthetic Biology: A New Therapeutic Platform."

1/17/2024

Welcome to Dr. Adriana Di Nanni who recently started as a Post-Doctoral Researcher in the Cornish laboratory.  Adriana grew up in Andria, Puglia and carried out her Ph.D. studies at the Werner Siemens Imaging Center, University of Tuebingen, Germany.

1/16/2024

PathwaysToScience.org is now accepting applications for Paid Summer Research Programs. Most programs offer both a stipend and housing and travel support. Programs range across all STEM disciplines and all areas of the country! HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS – 80+ programs for high school students, UNDERGRADS - 600+ programs for undergraduates, GRADUATE STUDENTS - 65+ programs for graduate students

12/18/2023

Welcome to Qianna Wilson our new Laboratory Manager.

10/02/2023

Welcome to Wenxu Ge, a Masters student in Biotechnology, on joining the laboratory.

09/15/2023

Congratulations to Arden Lee for Successfully Defending her Thesis “Metabolic Engineering of Live Yeast for the Production of Current and Novel Tetracyclines”!   

09/12/2023

Congratulations to Brian Qi whose research project “Immunological testing of a yeast Candida vaccine” was chosen for seed funding by the  Irving Institute Collaborative and Multidisciplinary Pilot Research (CaMPR) Pilot Award.  This research has been made possible by our collaboration with Professor Moriya Tsuji.   

05/21/2023

Join us in celebrating Arden Lee as a recipient of one of this year’s Pegram Awards and the Service Award from the Department of Chemistry.

05/15/2023

Congratulations to Amir Jafariyan whose research was recognized with a Pilot Feasibility & Study Award from the Columbia University Naomi Berrie Diabetes Center.  This research is carried out in collaboration with the laboratories of Professors Charles LeDuc, Department of Pediatrics, and Erbil Abaci, Department of Dermatology, CUIMC.  We appreciate the support of our collaboration by the Diabetes Center and acknowledge the many contributions of Dr. Alicja Skowronski.

05/10/2023

We are glad to have Shimul Das join us as our new Cornish Group Lab Manager.  Welcome!

05/08/2023

Congratulations to Davida Rios on an outstanding defense of her Thesis "Engineering G-Protein Coupled Receptor-based Living Yeast Diagnostics for Infectious Diseases”.

04/17/2023

Congratulations to Miguel Jimenez who has been hired as an Assistant Professor in the Biomedical Engineering program at Boston University!  Miguel is a 2017 graduate of the Cornish Laboratory from the Department of Chemistry at Columbia University.

03/29/2023

Congratulations to Tea, Ben, and Mead whose publication “Peptide Variant Detection by a Living Yeast Biosensor via an Epitope-Selective Protease” is set to be in press at BioDesign Research.

02/28/2023

Congratulations to Kiavash Garakani, rising third-year M.D./Ph.D. student, on joining the laboratory.

02/07/2023

Welcome to Kiavash Garakani, a second year M.D./Ph.D. student, spring 2023 rotation student in the laboratory.

01/18/2023


Welcome to Shannon Weng, first-year M.D./Ph.D. student, current rotation student in the laboratory.

11/02/2022

Congratulations to Amir Jafariyan for winning a best poster award at the Columbia University Department of Systems Biology 2022 Retreat “ Living yeast dressings engineered via synthetic biology to deliver protein factors to diabetic wounds”!

09/30/2022

Congratulations to Amir Jafariyan for successfully defending his Thesis “Applications of Engineered Living Yeast Systems in Human Health"!

09/21/2022

Welcome to Devin King-Thomas, first-year Department of Biology Ph.D., fall 2022 rotation student.

09/11/2022

Congratulations to Bunmi Fariyike, Cornish Lab SPURS Undergraduate and Lab Technician alum, on completing his first year of medical school at Stanford.

08/02/2022

Congratulations to Amir Jafariyan for presenting at the New York Academy of Sciences Chemical Biology Discussion Group Year-End Symposium 2022,Ω “On-site topical application of recombinant living yeast secreting wound-healing factors accelerates the healing of acute and chronic diabetic ulcers”!

05/26/2022

Congratulations to Tea Crnkovíc for delivering her Thesis Defense on “Expanding Biosensing Capabilities of Engineered Yeast”!

04/11/2022

Congratulations to Pedro A. Baldera-Aguayo for publishing “High-Titer Production of the Fungal Anhydrotetracycline, TAN-1612, in Engineered Yeasts” in ACS Synthetic Biology!

Pedro’s manuscript in ACS Synthetic Biology on high-titer production of the fungal anhydrotetracycline TAN-1612 was featured in the Science Blog “In the Pipeline”

03/02/2022

Congratulations to Arden Lee and Virginia for Winning HHMI Gilliam Graduate Fellowship!

07/22/2021