Lab Members

Dr. Jelani Zarif
Principal Investigator
Hometown – Chicago, IL
Favorite Book – Between the World and me
Scientist I’d invite to dinner – Dr. Donald Coffey

Fan Shen, M.B.B.S., M.S.
Postdoctoral Fellow
Hometown – Guangzhou, China
Favorite Book – Sophie’s World
Scientist I’d invite to dinner – Nikola Tesla

Kenneth Adusei
Ph.D. Candidate

Alex Lee
Ph.D. Candidate

Debebe Theodros
M.D. / Ph.D. candidate
Immunology Graduate program
Hometown – Tough given all the travel but I like to claim Los Angeles
Favorite Book – Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl
Scientists I’d invite to dinner: Drs. Albert Einstein, Abraham Wald, Richard Feynman, Bertrand Russell, and Max Planck

Thomas Nirschl
Ph.D. Candidate
Pathobiology Graduate Program
Hometown is – Herndon, Virginia
Favorite book – Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
Scientist I’d invite to dinner – Dr. James P. Allison

Monali Praharaj, M.S.
Ph.D. Candidate
Pathobiology Graduate program
Hometown – Odisha and Mumbai, India
Favorite Book – Wings of Fire: An Autobiography of A P J Abdul Kalam
Scientist I’d invite to dinner – Drs. Saumya Swaminathan, Marie Curie and James P. Allison.

Xiaoxu Wang, M.S.
Ph.D. Candidate
Immunology Graduate program
Hometown – Zibo – Shandong Province, China
Favorite Book – Journey Under the Midnight Sun
Scientist I’d invite to dinner – Dr. Shimon Sakaguchi

Raekwon Williams
Ingenuity ScholaR
Raekwon is a Senior Baltimore Polytechnic HS and an Ingenuity Scholar.Â
Hometown – Baltimore, MD
Favorite Book – The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
Scientist I’d invite to dinner – Dr. John Carpten

Anna Smith
Admininstrator
Hometown – Baltimore, MD
Favorite Book – The other Wes Moore
Scientist I’d invite to dinner – Dr. Mae C. Jemison
Collaborators
Johns Hopkins School of Medicine


University of California - San Diego
Moores Cancer Center
Compugen, LLC.

Zarif Lab Alumni
Dr. Margueritta El Asmar, M.D. is now an Assistant Professor in Internal Medicine at the Johns Hopkins Hospital!

Dr. Debebe Theodros completed his M.D./Ph.D. training and is now a Resident Physician at Stanford health in Neurosurgery!