People
Dr. Mahajan’s lab provides an immersive, intensive training environment for students and fellows to discover the molecular mechanisms that cause blindness and develop therapies to prevent vision loss. Highly collaborative research teams are made up of scientists, surgeons, and engineers from around the world, interacting on a daily basis and using advanced scientific methods.
Undergraduate Students
Caitlin Kunchur
Caitlin is a first-year undergraduate student planning on studying bioengineering or biomedical computation. She is currently interested in drug design, personalized medicine, and molecular diagnostics. On campus, she is involved in Stanford Students in Biodesign (SSB) and is a member of Stanford’s Biological Interdisciplinary Open Maker Environment (BIOME).
Elena Mujica
Elena is a first-year bioengineering student at the University of California Berkeley, concentrating in synthetic and computational biology. She is most excited about the potential applications of genetic engineering, from curing heritable diseases to better feeding the planet. Her career aspirations are to obtain her doctorate degree and work in industry, with a focus on global health. At UC Berkeley, she is a team member and intern director for the Berkeley iGEM Team and is involved with the Bioengineering Honors Society (BioEHS).
Richard Phan
Richard is a first-generation sophomore undergraduate student interested in the biological sciences and clinical medicine. He aspires to become a physician and hopes to ameliorate disparities in health care, especially in underdeveloped countries. Outside of academics, he is a co-chair of Stanford’s Vietnamese Student Association (SVSA).
Claudia Phillips
Claudia is a first-year undergraduate student who intends to study bioengineering and ultimately pursue a career in research. Her interests include proteomics, the relationship between physiology and molecular biology, and novel biotechnologies in agriculture. In her free time, she enjoys coaching her local Science Olympiad team.
Jennifer Vu
Jennifer is currently a third-year undergraduate studying human biology and education. She is interested in proteomics, personalized medicine, and the structural biology of blinding eye disease proteins. On campus, she is involved with the Global Health Student Council.
