Our team
Principal Investigator
Dr. Jennifer Small-Saunders, M.D./Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Columbia University Department of Medicine: Infectious Diseases
Columbia University Center for Malaria Therapeutics and Antimicrobial Resistance.
Jen is an Infectious Diseases physician-scientist who studies molecular mechanisms of antimalarial drug resistance in Plasmodium falciparum parasites. She received her MD and PhD degrees from the Weill Cornell/Rockefeller/Sloan-Kettering Tri-institutional MD/PhD program, where she studied mechanisms of acid resistance and cytochrome c maturation in Mycobacterium tuberculosis. She then completed Internal Medicine residency and Infectious Diseases fellowship at Columbia University Irving Medical Center (CUIMC). Her postdoctoral studies investigated the landscape of mutations in the P. falciparum chloroquine resistance transporter PfCRT and how these mutations contribute to parasite resistance to chloroquine and piperaquine in Asia and Africa. Her group now uses mass spectrometry and gene editing techniques to study the role of tRNA modification reprogramming and translational control in resistance to the first line antimalarial, artemisinin. The goal of her group is to uncover novel epigenetic and epitranscriptomic stress-response pathways in malaria parasites that can be targeted for new antimalarials. Her work has been supported by a Doris Duke Physician Scientist Fellowship, an NIH/NIAID K08 Career Development Award and a Louis V. Gerstner, Jr Scholar Award. She is also the recipient of an ASCI Young Physician Scientist award and the 2024 Infectious Diseases Society of New York Junior Faculty Research award. In addition to her laboratory research, she is a practicing Infectious Diseases physician who sees patients on both the Internal Medicine and Infectious Diseases teaching services. When she’s not in the lab she can be found with her husband, 2 kids and 2 dogs
email: jls2302@cumc.columbia.edu
Lab Technician
Cammi Bielawa
2024-present
B.A. in Biology from Bryn Mawr College, 2024
email: cb4022@cumc.columbia.edu
Cammi is a recent graduate from Bryn Mawr college where she studied Biology. She conducted her undergraduate research in a lab exploring the effect of dietary shifts on the digestive enzyme activities of Podarcis siculus lizards. Furthermore, she has worked as a Wildlife Biologist, a Biology tutor, and a Biochemistry laboratory teaching assistant. Please don’t hesitate to reach out with any questions.
Undergraduate Researcher
Elena Sasu
2024-present
Barnard College Class of ‘27 majoring in Cellular and Molecular Biology
email: ejs2250@barnard.edu
Former Members
Talia Bloxham
Laboratory Technician
Current: Doctoral Student at Columbia University
email: tsb2149@cumc.columbia.edu
Marvin Schwickert, Ph.D.
Visiting Post-Doc - 2023
Current: Junior Quality Assurance Manager at BioSpring
Amanda Benneh
High School summer student - 2023
Current: Undergraduate student at Columbia University, Class of ‘27
