- Doctoral Student, Ulijn Lab, Nanoscience Initiative
Gia Berisha
Naxhije Berisha graduated summa cum laude in 2016 from Hunter College of the City University of New York with a bachelor’s degree in biochemistry. She worked under Charles Michael Drain’s photonics laboratory on harnessing the photo-properties of porphyrin and phthalocyanine dyes for applications in energy harvesting, biomedical imaging, and photo-dynamic therapy. In 2017, she continued work with Dr. Drain as a Ph.D. student at the Chemistry Graduate Program at CUNY, co-mentored by Moritz Kircher in the department of Radiology at Memorial Sloan Kettering. While there, she further explored the use of cyanine-based dyes adsorbed to gold nanoparticles for applications in multiplexed molecular imaging. Due to health complications and relocation of her principal investigators, Naxhije transitioned to Rein Ulijn’s peptide nanotechnology lab and became co-mentored by Dan Heller in the department of Pharmacology at Memorial Sloan Kettering. She now focuses on developing new nano-therapies for applications in personalized medicine. Her major interests lie in engineering new tools to diagnose and treat cancer.
Research Interests
Nanotechnology, Imaging, Bio-engineering, Cancer research
