Stanford Bio-X is delighted to announce the 2025 Stanford Bio-X Undergraduate Summer Research Program (USRP) cohort. With guidance and support from Bio-X, their Stanford faculty mentors, and their research labs, these 69 stellar undergraduates will undertake full-time research – many of them for the first time – in the labs of 65 Stanford faculty who represent 34 different departments.
Since its inception in the summer of 2005 with a single first-generation college-going Stanford undergraduate student looking for a chance to do hands-on laboratory research, the Stanford Bio-X USRP has awarded 1,071 Stanford undergraduates. Our richly fulfilling summer program nurtures these stellar students’ careers and enriches their Stanford experience by supporting them for ten weeks while they conduct hands-on research, build their skill sets, learn about interdisciplinary research taking place at countless labs across campus, and connect with the faculty, postdocs, graduate students, and other undergraduates who make up the Bio-X community.
This summer, our 2025 cohort will immerse themselves in ten weeks of full-time research, take ownership of a research project, design experiments, collect data, analyze their data, and conclude the program by presenting their results to their peers and over 700 members of the Bio-X community at our poster session. Over the course of the ten weeks, they will hear from 30 Stanford faculty sharing their research journeys and current projects, learn in journal club sessions how to critically analyze and present scientific manuscripts, and establish and refine scientific skills through Bio-X’s rigorous and unique workshop series.
The formative experience of the Bio-X program influences undergraduate students’ subsequent work at Stanford and beyond. Alumni of the program have founded and co-founded start-up companies, acquired faculty positions in institutions around the world, and obtained PhDs, MDs, and MD/PhDs and other post-graduate degrees, opened medical practices, and much more. Two Bio-X USRP alums – Dr. Jesse Engreitz (Genetics) and Dr. Alex Gao (Biochemistry) – have already returned to Stanford to become faculty members here on campus, where they now mentor up-and-coming graduate and undergraduate researchers in their own labs. Alumni of the program are giving back to Bio-X USRP in many ways including monetary donations and/or mentoring our students.
We are honored to welcome the 2025 undergraduate cohort to the Bio-X community and look forward to supporting them as they pursue their research endeavors, broaden their horizons, and discover the exciting frontiers of interdisciplinary research at Stanford.
To learn more about the program, meet the previous cohorts, and read about the successes of our alumni, please check out our previous years’ brochures or browse our students’ research abstracts!
Bio-X is grateful to our donors, including The Rose Hills Foundation, for providing support to the Stanford Bio-X Undergraduate Summer Research Program. To help support this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for these bright young researchers, please contact us!
MEET OUR USRP PARTICIPANTS Check out the 2025 USRP Brochure
The 2025 Stanford Bio-X Undergraduate Summer Research Program (USRP) Cohort and Their Faculty Mentors:
| Uchenna Abba (Undeclared), Faculty Mentor: Naima Sharaf (Biology) | Cordelia Li (Human Biology), Faculty Mentor: Margaret Fuller (Genetics, Obstetrics/Gynecology (Reproductive & Stem Cell Biology), Developmental Biology) |
| Nisha Acharya (Bioengineering), Faculty Mentor: Todd Coleman (Bioengineering) | Colin Liu (Biology), Faculty Mentor: H. Craig Heller (Biology) |
| Dwija Adamala (Undeclared), Faculty Mentor: PJ Utz (Medicine (Immunology & Rheumatology)) | Natalie Logan (Undeclared), Faculty Mentor: Michelle Monje (Pediatric Neurology) |
| Zainab Al-Atya (Undeclared), Faculty Mentor: May Htwe Han (Neurology & Neurological Sciences (Adult Neurology)) | Marjorie Rose Luzuriaga (Undeclared), Faculty Mentor: Tracey McLaughlin (Medicine (Endocrinology)) |
| Basel Alkanjo (Biology), Faculty Mentor: Ron Kopito (Biology) | Alyssa Manche (Undeclared), Faculty Mentor: David Myung (Ophthalmology) |
| Jeonghyun An (Undeclared), Faculty Mentor: Daniel Palanker (Ophthalmology) | Massiel Melian (Human Biology), Faculty Mentor: Christin Kuo (Pediatrics (Pulmonary Medicine)) |
| Rod Azghadi (Undeclared), Faculty Mentor: Kevin Shea (Orthopaedic Surgery) | Nathalie Moreno (Human Biology), Faculty Mentor: Alison Marsden (Cardiovascular Diseases, Pediatrics (Cardiology), Bioengineering) |
| Michael Balagula (Chemistry), Faculty Mentor: Alice Ting (Genetics, Biology) | Nicholas Neoman (Chemistry), Faculty Mentor: Kathleen Sakamoto (Pediatrics (Hematology/Oncology)) |
| Sydney Barta (Bioengineering), Faculty Mentor: Scott Delp (Bioengineering, Mechanical Engineering) | Sean Nesamoney (Undeclared), Faculty Mentor: Joshua Makower (Bioengineering, Cardiovascular Medicine) |
| Loran Baxter Mercado (Symbolic Systems), Faculty Mentor: Jaimie Henderson (Neurosurgery) | Vivian Nguyen (Undeclared), Faculty Mentor: Calvin Kuo (Medicine (Hematology)) and Emma Lundberg (Bioengineering, Pathology) |
| Kaya Ben-Efraim (Undeclared), Faculty Mentor: Matthew Porteus (Definitive & Curative Medicine, Pediatrics) | Angel Ochoa Rodriguez (Computer Science, Engineering), Faculty Mentor: Jesse Engreitz (Genetics) |
| Carmen Boyan (Undeclared), Faculty Mentor: Anthony Wagner (Psychology) | Gavin Oh (Undeclared), Faculty Mentor: Mary Beth Mudgett (Biology) |
| Ashley Carter (Human Biology), Faculty Mentor: Jill Helms (Surgery (Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery)) | Sanjay Palta-Hill (Undeclared), Faculty Mentor: Laura Prolo (Pediatric Neurosurgery) |
| Darren Chan (Engineering), Faculty Mentor: Christina Curtis (Genetics, Biomedical Data Science, Medicine (Oncology)) | Marta Pambukhchyan (Undeclared), Faculty Mentors: Kristy Red-Horse (Biology) and Mark Skylar-Scott (Bioengineering) |
| Hyun June Cho (Undeclared), Faculty Mentor: Vivianne Tawfik (Anesthesiology, Perioperative & Pain Medicine) | Kristine Pashin (Public Policy, Symbolic Systems), Faculty Mentor: Sarah Heilshorn (Materials Science & Engineering) |
| Andrea Cortez Rodriguez (Bioengineering), Faculty Mentor: Rogelio Hernandez Lopez (Bioengineering, Genetics) | Isabelle Peña (Undeclared), Faculty Mentor: Monther Abu-Remaileh (Chemical Engineering, Genetics) |
| Pedro De La Torre (Biology), Faculty Mentor: Eric Gross (Anesthesiology, Perioperative & Pain Medicine) | Anna-Katharina Preidl (Chemical Engineering, Materials Science & Engineering), Faculty Mentor: Vayu Hill-Maini (Bioengineering) |
| Alice Finkelstein (Bioengineering), Faculty Mentor: Sergiu Pasca (Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences (Sleep Medicine)) | Ariana Rodrigues (Bioengineering), Faculty Mentor: Scott Delp (Bioengineering, Mechanical Engineering) |
| Hemali Gauri (Undeclared), Faculty Mentor: PJ Utz (Medicine (Immunology & Rheumatology)) | Brooke Ruszkiewicz (Engineering), Faculty Mentor: Konstantina Stankovic (Otolaryngology (Head & Neck Surgery)) |
| Tyler Girard (Biology), Faculty Mentor: Boris Heifets (Anesthesiology, Perioperative & Pain Medicine) | Eliza Schnitzer (Undeclared), Faculty Mentor: Ivan Soltesz (Neurosurgery) |
| Nathan Godsey (Undeclared), Faculty Mentor: Jenn Brophy (Bioengineering) | Akash Shah (Biology), Faculty Mentor: Joseph Woo (Cardiothoracic Surgery) |
| Arizbel Gomez (Undeclared), Faculty Mentor: Paul Wang (Medicine (Cardiovascular Medicine)) | Lucas Sosnick (Bioengineering), Faculty Mentor: Felix Horns (Genetics) |
| Marie Goodson (Undeclared), Faculty Mentor: Ellen Kuhl (Mechanical Engineering) | Mihajlo Stojkovic (Bioengineering), Faculty Mentor: Martha Cyert (Biology) |
| Caio Gould (Physics), Faculty Mentor: Craig Levin (Radiology) | Fuga Takahashi (Undeclared), Faculty Mentor: John Huguenard (Neurology & Neurological Sciences, Neurosurgery) |
| Ella Homewood (Bioengineering), Faculty Mentor: Charles Gawad (Pediatrics (Oncology & Hematology)) | Laura Tong (Undeclared), Faculty Mentor: Stephen Quake (Bioengineering, Applied Physics) |
| Marcus Hsieh (Undeclared), Faculty Mentor: Julien Sage (Pediatrics (Hematology/Oncology), Genetics) | Heather Tran (Bioengineering), Faculty Mentor: Michael Howitt (Pathology, Microbiology & Immunology) |
| Kiian Huenemann (Undeclared), Faculty Mentor: Nidhi Bhutani (Orthopaedic Surgery) | Arin Vansomphone (Undeclared), Faculty Mentor: Tammy Sirich (Medicine (Nephrology)) and Justin Sonnenburg (Microbiology & Immunology) |
| Elyse Hwang (Undeclared), Faculty Mentor: Gheorghe Chistol (Chemical & Systems Biology) | Linh Vo (Engineering), Faculty Mentor: Michelle Monje (Pediatric Neurology) |
| Tim Jing (Engineering), Faculty Mentor: Markus Covert (Bioengineering) | Ann Vu (Undeclared), Faculty Mentor: Jonas Cremer (Biology) |
| Audrey Jung (Undeclared), Faculty Mentor: Fan Yang (Orthopaedic Surgery, Bioengineering) | Katherine Wang (Undeclared), Faculty Mentor: Alex Gao (Biochemistry) |
| Jenna Kang (Undeclared), Faculty Mentor: Frank Longo (Medicine (Adult Neurology)) | Seiji Yang (Art Practice, Mathematics), Faculty Mentor: E.J. Chichilnisky (Neurosurgery, Ophthalmology) |
| Weston Keller (Symbolic Systems), Faculty Mentor: Cory Shain (Linguistics) | Ethan Zhang (Computer Science), Faculty Mentor: Grant Rotskoff (Chemistry) |
| Ethan Kirgan (Biology), Faculty Mentor: Dean Felsher (Medicine (Oncology), Pathology) | Nancy Zhang (Undeclared), Faculty Mentor: Ellen Kuhl (Mechanical Engineering) |
| Kasey Lassen (Undeclared), Faculty Mentor: Jennifer Cochran (Bioengineering) | Zhao Bang Zhu (Undeclared), Faculty Mentor: Kerwyn Casey Huang (Bioengineering, Microbiology & Immunology) |
| Alexis Li (Undeclared), Faculty Mentor: Ehsan Adeli (Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences) |