Leadership

Anna-Mariya Kukuyan
President

Anna-Mariya joined Dr. Tomasz Skorski’s laboratory at Fels Institute of Personalized Medicine in the Spring of 2020 where she studies DNA damage in cancer cells. She worked on her PhD research in mesothelioma in Dr. Joseph Testa’s laboratory at Fox Chase Cancer Center.

Anna-Mariya is passionate about bettering postdoc life at Temple. She is a huge admirer of Temple Hospital Cafeteria, loves animals, and hopes to become a vegetarian one day.

Monika Toma
Treasurer

Monika earned her Ph.D. in Łódź, Poland, where she worked on a synthetic lethality approach in the treatment of melanoma and glioblastoma. She joined Dr. Skorski’s lab (Fels Cancer Institute for Personalized Medicine) in 2020, and her current research is focused on the clonal response of acute myeloid leukemia and myeloproliferative neoplasm to the treatment with DNA damage inhibitors and/or standard treatment regimens. She is extremely passionate about her work. Monika loves outdoor activities like hiking or swimming but she will also appreciate a good nap and a lazy day at home.

Lucia Coronel
Social Events Coordinator

Lucia is a postdoc in the Lab of Professor Vincenzo Carnevale at the Institute for Computational Molecular Science (ICMS) at Temple University.

She did her Ph.D. in biophysics on DNA-entanglement at SISSA Trieste, Italy. Now, she studies the inhibition mechanism of ion channels, in the presence of compounds or proteins, or self-assembling metamaterials, such as DNA-origami.

She is passionate about a wide range of outdoor activities, from biking and hiking to simply wandering around and exploring. She is also determined to challenge gravity through pole dancing and bouldering, although, so far, gravity seems to have the upper hand. Despite that, she will describe herself as a lazy person.

Enkhee Purev
Communications Officer

Dr. Anke studied in different countries in Europe and Asia. She is a postdoctoral fellow at the Center for Lung Research of the Lewis Katz School of Medicine. She did her Ph.D. in a tech hub in Nagoya City, Japan. She likes to think about science from different angles to create new knowledge using her previous interdisciplinary experiences.

She loves cooking, reading rare books, and discovering hidden sites of unexplored world. Dr. Anke wants to say to all of you, whoever reads this bio, be cool and be the one who uses your beauty of brain.

Jimmy Murillo-Gelvez
Webmaster

Broadly, Dr. Murillo-Gelvez investigates the fate of anthropogenic pollutants in the environment. His research focuses on understanding the factors that control the degradation of contaminants under natural and engineered conditions and modeling the rates at which these processes occur. In his current position at Temple University, he investigates the degradation of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) via non-thermal plasma.

If not in the lab or sleeping, Jimmy enjoys hiking, reading (mostly pop science and thrillers), playing video games, growing his side hustle with his fiancé (all things plants), and listening to music (with a predilection for rock). He joined TUPA to – jointly with the other officers – improve the postdoc experience at Temple.

Qianhao Xiao
Outreach and Advocacy Coordinator

Kathy A. Whelan
Faculty Adviser

Dr. Kelly Whelan is an Assistant Professor at the Fels Institute. Her lab takes a multi-disciplinary approach to studying pathologies of the esophageal squamous epithelium. Kelly is a mom of 2 children and 3 giant breed dogs. She enjoys hot yoga, audiobooks, and tacos.

Kathy Keefe
Faculty Liaison

Dr. Kathy Keefe is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biomedical Education and Data Sciences who teaches Neuroanatomy and Histology to medical, dental, and podiatry students. She was once a Temple postdoc herself. She loves to sing and play board games.