Living and Working in Philadelphia
Tuesday, February 10, 2026
2:40 - 3:25 PM
2:40 - 3:25 PM
Moderator
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Valentina Parma, PhD
Assistant Director & Assistant Member, Monell Chemical Senses Center Postdoc, Monell Chemical Senses Center; International School for Advanced Studies, Trieste, Italy PhD, University of Padova, Italy Dr. Valentina Parma is a psychologist whose passion for the science of chemical senses began during her academic journey at the University of Padova, Italy, where she earned her BSc, MSc, and PhD. Just two days after completing her PhD, she embarked on a postdoctoral fellowship at the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia, where she now serves as faculty and administrator. Along the way, she has held positions in Italy, Portugal, and at Temple University in Philadelphia. Dr. Parma’s lab takes an interdisciplinary approach to studying smell and taste in large, diverse cohorts, linking chemosensory function to health outcomes and translating discoveries into practical applications. She is deeply committed to mentoring while embracing life in Philadelphia as an international scholar. |
Panelists
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Cândida da S.F. Barreto, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow, School of Biomedical Engineering, Science and Health Systems Drexel University Postdoc, University of Johannesburg PhD, Universidade Federal do ABC Dr. Candida Barreto is currently a Postdoctoral Fellow at Drexel University. Her research focuses on the application of non-invasive brain imaging techniques such as functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) and electroencephalography (EEG) to investigate the neural mechanisms underlying everyday life situations. Through international collaborations, she has studied human brain activity in children and adults from both healthy and clinical populations across a range of contexts, including education, emotional responses to music, and social stimulus processing. Beyond her individual research contributions, Dr. Barreto is deeply committed to fostering collaboration and knowledge sharing. She strongly believes in the transformative power of education and is particularly motivated to apply scientific research in ways that benefit society, especially communities facing social and economic vulnerability Mary Esmeralda Fuentes, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow, Lewis Katz School of Medicine Temple University PhD, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, UTHealth Houston Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences Dr. Fuentes received their PhD in Cancer Biology with a focus on Clinical and Translational Oncology from The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center UTHealth Houston Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences in 2024. Her graduate training focused on identifying novel epigenetic vulnerabilities and characterizing an in vivo model for Pancreatic Neuroendocrine Tumors (PanNETs). Currently, Dr. Fuentes is a postdoctoral research fellow at Temple University in Dr. Abdul-Aziz’s lab, where her work focuses on understanding how aging and metabolic changes within the bone marrow microenvironment contribute to treatment resistance in Acute Myeloid Leukemia. Adrian Luna, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Microbiology and Immunology Thomas Jefferson University Postdoc, University of Michigan PhD, University of New Mexico Health Science Center Dr. Adrian Luna received his Ph.D. in Biomedical Sciences from the University of New Mexico, where his research uncovered a targetable molecular pathway involved in HPV-associated cancers. He continued his scientific training as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Michigan, studying how aging and cellular senescence influence the outcomes of respiratory viral infections, including influenza and coronaviruses. Adrian is currently a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at Thomas Jefferson University in the laboratory of Dr. Luis Sigal. His research focuses on understanding the mechanisms of vaccine-induced protection, developing adjuvants, and dissecting antiviral innate immune responses. Across his graduate and postdoctoral work, Adrian has contributed to therapeutic discovery efforts by integrating in vitro and in vivo models to identify antiviral targets and improve vaccine strategies. Blair Schneider, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Pediatrics Children's Hospital of Philadelphia PhD, Albert Einstein College of Medicine Dr. Blair Schneider received her PhD in Biomedical Sciences from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in 2023. Blair’s PhD thesis focused on how retrotransposon expression, largely non-coding RNAs, impact aging and healthspan in a Drosophila model system. This work showed that DNA damage from de novo insertions is minimal however that lifespan could be extended by knocking down a single transposon and this increased lifespan was likely due to an increased immune response. Staying in the field of non-coding RNAs Blair is doing her post-doc in Colin Conine’s lab, studying the effects tRNA fragments have on fertility and development within the C. elegans model system. Blair is also, part of the PennPORT (Penn-Postdoctoral Opportunities in Research and Teaching) program. The PennPORT program is a postdoctoral training program that emphasizes both excellence in research but, most importantly, trains scholars in inclusive teaching and leadership. This training included a course on best practices in STEM Education facilitated by Penn’s Center for Excellence in Teaching, Learning and Innovation and teaching a semester of Genetics at Rutgers University Camden. |
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Miao Tang, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow, Perelman School of Medicine University of Pennsylvania PhD, Queen's University Belfast Dr. Miao Tang received her PhD from Queen's University Belfast. Her graduate research focused on understanding inflammation and age-associated transcriptional changes in the retina, which sparked her interest in applying computational biology approaches to investigate disease mechanisms. During her postdoctoral training at the University of Pennsylvania, she is investigating the genetic contributions to neurodevelopmental and neuropsychiatric disorders. Her work leverages long-read sequencing, single-cell multiomics, and population genetics to study alternative splicing—particularly its role in genetic susceptibility to neuropsychiatric disorders. |
