Graduate School of Medical Sciences
A partnership with the Sloan Kettering Institute

Thesis Defenses

Maximizing Structural Insights With Minimal Data: Lessons From Membrane Protein Activation and Computational Drug Design
Alexander M. Payne
Date: Friday, October 24, 2025 - 1:00pm

Alexander M. Payne
Tri-Institutional Ph.D. Program in Chemical Biology (TPCB)

Chairperson: Dr. Richard Hite
Major Sponsor: Dr. John Chodera
Minor Sponsors: Dr. Daniel Bachovchin and Dr. Jiankun Lyu

Additional Member: Dr. David Huggins (Sanders Tri-Institutional Therapeutics Discovery Institute)

Modeling Sensitivity to Antibody Drug Conjugates in Urothelial Cancer Using Patient-Derived Models
Xinran Tang
Date: Monday, October 27, 2025 - 3:00pm

Xinran Tang
Cell and Developmental Biology

Chairperson: Dr. Yu Chen
Major Sponsor: Dr. David Solit
Minor Sponsor: Dr. Sarat Chandarlapaty

Additional Member: Dr. Michael M. Shen (Columbia University)

Small Molecules, Big Impact: Enhancing Intestinal Organoid, Islet Function and Survival Through Systems-Level Discovery
J. Jeya Vandana
Date: Friday, October 31, 2025 - 12:30pm

J. Jeya Vandana
Tri-Institutional Ph.D. Program in Chemical Biology (TPCB)

Chairperson: Dr. Daniel Bachovchin
Major Sponsor: Dr. Shuibing Chen
Minor Sponsors: Dr. Lorraine Gudas and Dr. Tobias Meyer

Improving the TCR Without Changing the TCR
Zita Aretz
Date: Friday, November 21, 2025 - 2:00pm

Zita Aretz
Physiology, Biophysics & Systems Biology

Chairperson: Dr. Xinbo Yang
Major Sponsor: Dr. David Scheinberg
Minor Sponsors: Dr. Morgan Huse and Dr. Alex Kentsis

Additional Member: Dr. Christopher Klebanoff (Weill Cornell Medicine)

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