Laboratory Staff
Jérèmy Willekens
Research Associate
Jeremy Willekens, PhD, trained in cell biology at the University of Lorraine in Nancy, France, before completing graduate work focused on fetal programming and the long-term neurodevelopmental consequences of early-life stressors. His research interests center on the cellular and molecular mechanisms that contribute to disease, with particular emphasis on epigenetic regulation, metabolism, and brain vulnerability during development. In Dr. Cole’s lab, he studies the molecular basis of chemotherapy-related cognitive impairment in pediatric cancer, using both clinical and preclinical approaches. His current work includes CSF metabolomic studies in children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia and juvenile rat models of methotrexate exposure, with the goal of identifying molecular changes associated with long-term cognitive outcomes and treatment-related neurotoxicity.
Frank Diglio
Research Teaching Specialist
I graduated from Marist College as an undergraduate and Hunter College with a Masters in Animal Behavior. In the lab I mainly work with rats administering existing rat experiments and creating new ones to meet our lab’s needs.
Nirajan K C
Research Teaching Specialist
I hold an undergraduate degree in Biology from Caldwell University and currently focus on analyzing genetic variants related to oxidative stress and neurocognitive decline. My research also involves testing biomarkers to predict treatment-related cognitive deficit in individuals with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL).
Prior Laboratory Members
Jing Wen, MD PhD. Dr. Wen received her PhD at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, working with Dr. Chaim Putterman, studying the role of inflammatory mediators including cytokine, B cells and macrophages in the pathogenesis of neuropsychiatric lupus. Dr. Wen first worked with Dr. Cole as a post-doctoral fellow in his laboratory at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, studying the pathophysiology of methotrexate-induced cognitive deficits. She returned to continue this project in Dr. Cole’s laboratory after he moved to the Rutgers Cancer Institute. Dr. Wen is currently in the pediatric residency training program at Morristown Medical Center, pursuing her goal of a career in clinical pedriatric oncology.
Dina Fradkin. Ms. Fradkin began working with Dr. Cole as an undergraduate student at Rutgers, contributing to both laboratory and clinical research projects. She developed a protocol to explore the concordance between self-reported race/ethnicity and the data recorded in the electronic medical record, leading a team of undergraduate and medical students working on this project.
Ibraheem Sharaf. Mr. Sharaf began working with Dr. Cole as an undergraduate student at Rutgers, contributing to both laboratory and clinical research projects. He will be enrolling in New Jersey Medical School in the Fall of 2023.
Antonia Kaz. Ms. Kaz worked in the Cole laboratory as a laboratory technician. She primarily contributed to a translational project using human specimens to identify biomarkers in blood or cerebrospinal fluid that correlate with toxicity during therapy for childhood leukemia. Ms. Kaz is now pursuing graduate studies in the Rutgers Plant Biology PhD program.
Chadni Patel, PhD. Dr. Patel began working with Dr. Cole as a pre-doctoral fellow in his laboratory in the Summer of 2020. She developed 3 independent projects to understand the biological underpinnings of doxorubicin-induced neurotoxicity and cognitive impairment. She tested whether harboring ApoE4 increases susceptibility to doxorubicin-induced cognitive impairment and the neuropathological changes involved in a juvenile rat model.