Our Team

Co-President

Akshita Virdy

Akshita is the Co-President of the Undergraduate Research Club. She is a third-year majoring in Cell and Molecular Biology on the pre-medical track. Akshita is currently on co-op as a Patient Care Technician at Beth Isreal Deaconess Medical Center working in the Hematology/Oncology and Bone Marrow Transplant Unit and is also a certified clinical medical assistant. Before this co-op, she worked as a medical assistant at Carbon Health Urgent Care. Akshita is also an ambassador for the College of Science.

 In the past, Akshita assisted with a cancer research project examining cancer stem cell markers associated with triple-negative breast cancer and androgen-independent cancer, using the molecular analyzation system called Pymol. More recently, this past summer, she was awarded the COS Dean’s Undergraduate Research Award. Akshita worked as an Undergraduate Research Assistant to develop microfluidic models of the retina barrier with the TUMOR lab and Dr. Cynthia Hajal.

Furthermore, her interests include oncology, gynecology, immunology, and pediatrics. In her leisure time, you can find Akshita reading, dancing, and exploring Boston.

Co-President

Lia Maag

Lia is the Co-President for the Undergraduate Research Club. Lia is a second-year at Northeastern pursuing a major in biochemistry and minors in math and business administration. Her topics of interest include oncology, endocrinology, immunotherapy, and neurodegenerative diseases. Lia is a member of NU’s club roundnet team and on the e-board for Peace Through Play, a club dedicated to after-school programs in Roxbury elementary schools.

Vice President, Director of Art and Design

Swathy Narayan

Swathy is the Vice President and Director of Art and Design and the creator of the URC logo. She is a second-year Business Administration and Design major with a concentration in Corporate Innovation. Swathy wants to design solutions to real-world problems, as well as start her own design business in the future. She’s very passionate about design and enjoys anything that allows her to use her spark for creativity.

Secretary

Olga Meserman

Olga is a Cell and Molecular Biology Major from Boston. In her free time she loves crafting and watching movies!

Assistant Secretary

Jonathan Gayton

Jonathan is a Third Year Biology Major from Ellington, CT. He did a Co-op at Brigham and Women’s Hospital as a medical assistant and is currently on Co-op as a clinical assistant at Dana Farber. He Will start research at BU medicine in fall 2025. In his free time he enjoys lifting, skiing, and traveling

Director of Media

Gabriella Zulenchuk

Gabriella is a first-year student pursuing a combined major in Health Science and Psychology. She is the director of media for the Undergraduate Research Club at Northeastern. She was a student researcher at Boston Children’s Hospital for the Camp Zon lab. There, She conducted research to study anemia using zebrafish and various lab techniques, such as flow cytometry and fluorescence microscopy. With a group, She had to come up with a hypothesis about which transcription factor would increase globin production and embryo viability the most in zebrafish embryos. After all the research was completed, we had to present our work to the Boston Children’s Hospital staff and other various science professionals. Currently, She is a part of Northeastern’s APPEAR lab, which is the Applied Psychology Program for Eating and Appearance Research lab. Lastly, She is from Sharon, Massachusetts. 

Assistant Director of Media

Ally Descoteaux

Ally is a third-year undergraduate student majoring in Computer Science and Mathematics. She is currently on Co-op as a DevOps QA Engineer at Verisk, and she did her first Co-Op at TJX. She is passionate about the intersection between technology and psychology, focusing on the uses of AI to solve innovative problems. She is a member of Generate and part of SGA

Director of Events

Elizabeth Luo

Elizabeth is a 3rd year Cell and Molecular Biology from Sharon MA. She has worked as a Research assistant at the Cichowski Lab at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital studying cancer therapeutics! She has studied abroad twice: once in Shanghai, China and once in Dublin, Ireland!

Student URC Representative

Lily Lane

Lily is a 2^nd Year Chemical Engineering and Computer Science major from Fremont California. She did ballet for 10 years and Hip hop for 3 years! She was inspired into going into engineering and computer science by her grandma who worked at AMES laboratory and did space shuttle test launching at NASA.

Student URC Representative

Heewon Jung

Heewon is a Computer Engineering and Computer Science major in class of 2028 from New Jersey. In her free time she loves art, baking, and trying new foods!

Co-Founder

Dillon Nishigaya

Dillon Nishigaya is a Co-founder of The Undergraduate Research Club. He is very passionate about finding tomorrow’s cures and transformative research. Through Northeastern University, he traveled to the American College of Thessaloniki, Greece and researched breast cancer and its relation to food aditives and perservatives. At Northeastern in Boston, he became an undergraduate research assistant at the Laboratory for Aging and Infertility Research. He was also a member of a full-time summer research pilot program titled REALTIME (Research Experience And Learing Through Integrated Mentorship and Engagement) where he investigated the impact of chemotherapeutics on germline stem cell differentiation and function. He is an ambassador for the College of Science and Biology Department and a proud winner of four Ascent and Summer research awards

Outside of Northeastern, he worked at Sana Biotechnology in South San Francisco. At Sana, he developed and optimized novel allogenic chimeric antigen receptor T (CAR T) cell manufacturing processes and conducted his own independent research projects. Dillon also worked as a research associate and program leader at the NASA Ames Research Center in the Space Lide Sciences Training Program. At NASA, he investigated how simulated radiation and altered gravity affect the female reproductive system. He also worked part time on a research team at the Whited Laboratory at Harvard University’s Department of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology focusing on conducting studies on tissue regeneration in axolotls.

Co-Founder

Dominic Nishigaya

Dominic Nishigaya is a Co-founder of The Undergraduate Research Club is passionate about the practice of law and legal research. He studied international relations and international business at Northeastern University London before arriving on the Boston campus. As a freshman in Boston, he was hired as a research assistant at Northeastern’s Violence and Justice Research Laboratory. He worked on multiple different research teams analyzing human trafficking. Researching trafficking within the agriculture industry, he used 14 federally prosecuted cases and performed nation-wide statutory research to co-author a paper set for publication. He is now working on labor trafficking within the construction and hospitality industry, facilitating data collection, coding, and legal research. He is set to perform field research in Boston, Colorado, and New York.

Outside of research, Dominic performed two internships at the Hall of Justice, Superior Court of Santa Clara County, California. He clerked for the judges by researching procedural and substantive issues during trials and writing recommendations about remands for resentencing ordered by the appellate court. He also worked full-time at Silicon Valley trial firm McManis Faulkner in San Jose, California. At the firm, he prepared deposition outlines, worked on discovery, and facilitated client meetings in high profile cases representing both corporations and individuals. He also prepared trial exhibits, attended court, and assisted in Pro Bono litigation.