Parmesh Thakoordial is a rising senior at the University at Albany, SUNY, majoring in Biochemistry & Molecular Biology and Psychology with a minor in Spanish. Parmesh is a National Institutes of Health Maximizing Access to Research Careers (NIH-MARC) Fellow, conducting research at the RNA Institute in the Sammons and Shorrock labs. His work uses molecular biology approaches to better understand the pathogenesis of cancer and neurodegenerative disorders.  

As a Yale Amgen Scholar and as a Harvard-MIT MD/PhD Summer Research Fellow, he developed his interest in stem cell biology, regenerative medicine, and science policy, ensuring that the therapeutics in the lab reach the communities they are meant to serve. In the future, he plans to pursue an MD/PhD to develop cost-effective, stem cell-based therapies that can reverse ischemic heart tissue death.  

Outside of the laboratory, Parmesh is a volunteer EMT and has been on numerous national service trips with the Elks National Foundation. He has integrated his research with service, facilitating educational outreach opportunities for students within his community and raising funding to purchase school supplies for his local school district. Through his work, Parmesh has been recognized with numerous accolades, including being named a recipient of the Obama-Chesky Voyager Scholarship for Public Service, a member of the Cengage All-USA Academic Team, a Coca-Cola New Century Scholar, and a recipient of the SUNY Chancellor's Award for Student Excellence.  

This summer, he will return to the Sankaran Lab at Harvard Medical School as a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Cech Fellow to work on optimizing gene editing conditions of hematopoietic stem cells to improve therapeutic options for patients.