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 a Louis V. Gerstner, Jr Scholar Award and an M. Irene Ferrer Scholar Award from the Foundation for Gender-Specific Medicine. In 2024, she received an NIH Director’s New Innovator 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
Post-Doc
Wahida Tabassum
2025-present
Wahida hails from India, where she completed her Ph.D. with Prof. Mrinal Kanti Bhattacharyya at the University of Hyderabad. Her doctoral research focused on exploring the canonical and non-canonical functions of Hsp90 in Plasmodium chromatin biology. Following her Ph.D., Wahida joined the laboratory of Dr. Björn F. C. Kafsack at Weill Cornell Medical College, New York, as a Postdoctoral Associate. Beyond the lab, she enjoys reading novels and gardening.
email: wt2398@cumc.columbia.edu
Graduate Student
Maraake Taddese
2025-present
Maraake is a 2nd year graduate student in the CMBS PhD program. She is originally from Denver, Colorado, and graduated from Johns Hopkins University with a degree in Molecular and Cellular Biology. In the lab, she is studying how tRNA-modifying enzymes contribute to drug resistance in malaria. In her downtime, she likes to play squash, cook, and hang with her kitty, Michu.
email: mt3835@cumc.columbia.edu
Lab Technician
Britney Jiang
2025-present
Britney is a recent graduate from Amherst College, where she majored in Chemistry. While there, she conducted her undergraduate thesis research in the Olshansky Lab, studying the photophysical properties of Indium Phosphide quantum dots for use in biosensing applications. In her free time, she enjoys going on walks, watching scary movies, doing yoga, and reading.
email: bj2548@cumc.columbia.edu
Undergraduate Researchers
Amanda Benneh
2023-present
Columbia University, Class of ‘27
email: aab2324@columbia.edu
Elena Sasu
2024-present
Barnard College Class of ‘27, majoring in Cellular and Molecular Biology
email: ejs2250@barnard.edu
Former Members
Cammi Bielawa
Laboratory Technician
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