Ahlina Archibald

Ahlina graduated from Howard University with a B.S. in Biology with a minor in Chemistry. During her undergraduate years, Ahlina developed her love of research through her various research experiences. While she always loved medicine, her interest in basic research was sparked while investigating the LRRK2 protein’s role in Parkinson’s disease at the National Institute of Aging under Dr. Cookson, and progressed as she developed Ewing's Sarcoma cell lines at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Research Center under Dr. Ohm and compared treatment response across triple-negative breast cancer mutations at Howard University College of Medicine under Dr. Sharma. After graduating, Ahlina received a Cancer Research Training Award to pursue post-baccalaureate research in the RNA biology lab of Dr. Ashish Lal, where she investigated and published on the role of RNASE1 in the regulation of colorectal cancer at the National Cancer Institute. Ahlina is now pursuing her MD at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine and her DPhil at the University of Oxford under the co-mentorship of Dr. John Tisdale (NHLBI), Dr. Douglas Higgs, and Dr. Mira Kasssouf (Oxford). Her project seeks to understand the role of embryonic gene reactivation in the treatment of Barts Hydrops fetalis and the optimization of therapeutic delivery models in patients with various hematopoietic disorders such as thalassemia and sickle cell.