The Friedman Brain Institute

Riccardo Masetti
Riccardo is an Italian student pursuing a master’s degree and completing a 7-month rotation in the Kenny Lab at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Originally from Monfalcone, Italy (a small, forgettable city in Italy near the border with Slovenia and about an hour and a half from a less forgettable city, Venice) he was encouraged by his family to explore the world and has since lived in Trieste, Sevilla, Pisa, and New York. An avid traveler, Riccardo has visited over 20 countries and 15 U.S. states in the past year alone.

Emma Shaw
Emma is a clinical research coordinator working in the Program in Psychosis Risk at Mount Sinai. She is from San Francisco, CA and she graduated from Stanford University in 2025 with a major in Psychology and a minor in Psychiatry. She hopes to attend medical school. She loves being outside, exploring New York City, and walking on the West Side Highway. She is also a foodie and likes trying new restaurants and ranking them on Beli. 

Shaniel Bowen, Ph.D. 
Shaniel is an Imaging & Engineering for Women’s Health Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of OBGYN & Reproductive Science at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. At the Marshall Lab, she is helping to identify MRI biomarkers of female genito-pelvic (dys)function and develop novel biomedical approaches to assess female genito-pelvic health in high-need populations. She was previously an Engineering Excellence Postdoctoral Fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the Edelman Lab, where she studied the histology of animal clitoral anatomy and age/racial differences in human clitoral anatomy on MRI. Outside of research, Shaniel is deeply committed to improving women’s health education and STEM outreach through enrichment programs for underrepresented and marginalized communities.

Naomi Mitchell-Hutchinson
Naomi received her Bachelor of Science in Biology and minor in Mathematics from Brooklyn College and is now a first-year graduate student at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai getting her master’s in biomedical sciences. She enjoys reading, watching movies and listening to music in her free time.

Anjani Ramayanam
Anjani is a master’s student in neuroscience at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. She earned her bachelor’s degree in neuroscience from New York University, where her passion for research began to grow. At Sinai, her research focuses on how cholinergic neurons in the brain regulate sleep. Although she loves the world of research, her ultimate goal is to become a surgeon, and she is currently preparing for the path to medical school. Outside of academia, she loves to cook, crochet, and rediscover her love for reading. Despite being a mediocre baker, she claims her chocolate chip cookies are phenomenal - second only to her sister’s.

Nicole Dennis Talley
Nicole grew up in Tucson Arizona, but moved to New Jersey right before she started college. She studied Neurobiology at Brown University, and is now obtaining a masters in Biomedical Sciences from Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, with the hopes of one day getting her MD and becoming a doctor. She is currently studying for the MCAT, but in her free time outside of that, she enjoys hot yoga, running, trying all of the NYC restaurants saved on my Beli, and attending Broadway shows.

Stories of Brain and Beyond, a special Icahn School storytelling event in which five scientists shared true, personal stories of their scientific paths. Created through a collaboration between The Friedman Brain Institute and The Story Collider, and spearheaded by Aya Osman, PhD, and Abha K Rajbhandari, PhD, this event was performed live on-stage at Caveat, a New York City performance space. From the tragic to the hilarious, the storytellers explored the deeply human side of science.

Listen to our past “Stories of Brain and Beyond” storytellers

Meet our 2025 Storytellers

Abby Fogarty has worked for Mount Sinai for almost four years, first as a care manager for the Children's Health Home, and currently as a clinical research coordinator for a psychosis risk lab. Originally from North Carolina, Abby spends her free time romanticizing living in New York City by going for runs in Central Park, enjoying concerts and Broadway shows, and methodically hunting down the best croissant in the city.

Sabina Guliyeva is a dynamic leader with a diverse career spanning finance, international development, and research. After earning her B.B.A. in Finance from Khazar University, she spent five years in banking before making a bold career shift. She led a multimillion-dollar project at the British Council (part of the British Embassy in Azerbaijan), funded by the EU and implemented across seven countries, before earning the prestigious Civil Society Leadership Award, bringing her to Columbia University for her MS degree in 2016.

Now in New York, Sabina is a Program Manager at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, overseeing nationwide research studies. Passionate about education, she has co-taught courses on impact investing at Columbia University and to first-year medical students at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.

Beyond work, Sabina thrives on adventure and creativity. Trained in ballet, she is also an avid long-distance jogger and aspiring mountaineer, preparing to conquer Mount Kilimanjaro this summer. She enjoys visual and performing arts and considers cooking a fine art - often hosting friends and family with gourmet meals. Multilingual and always seeking growth, Sabina embraces every challenge with curiosity and determination.

Pablo Knobel is an environmental epidemiologist by trade and a geek by choice. Born and raised in Barcelona, he is currently a postdoctoral fellow at Mount Sinai, where he studies how the neighborhood we live in shapes our health. When he's not analyzing data or ruminating on what to do with his life, he's likely at the movies, playing board games, or complaining—sometimes even in a combination.

Akhil Kumar is a computational biologist in the lab of Dr Alex Tsankov. He is a lifelong learner and recently turned endurance athlete, who thrives on pushing limits—both in science and sports. Born and raised in Jammu, India, he earned a B.Tech. in Chemical Engineering from IIT Delhi, where an internship at the University of Oxford first sparked his interest in genomics. Before joining Mount Sinai, he trained in evolutionary bioinformatics as a Research Fellow at IIT Delhi. Now, he works with single-cell technologies, and is excited to apply them to biomedical discovery. In his free time, he enjoys playing sports, experimenting in the kitchen, getting lost in books, and listening to music. His friends refer to him as a competitive eater—a title he neither confirms nor denies.

Darielle Lewis-Sanders is a current second year PhD student in neuroscience at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. She is in Dr. Jinye Dai’s lab studying synaptic molecules related to social behavior. Outside of the lab Darielle enjoys anything that involves creativity. She loves to go to museums, see Broadway shows, and dance. Storytelling has been a fun way to collide the world of science and creativity together.