D’Armiento Lab

Dr. Monica Goldklang is a pulmonary and critical care physician-scientist at Columbia University. She grew up in Michigan, completing undergraduate, medical school, and residency training at the University of Michigan. She moved to Columbia University for a pulmonary and critical care fellowship and post-doctoral research training in the laboratory of Dr. Jeanine D’Armiento. In addition to caring for patients with rarelung diseases including alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency and lymphangioleiomyomatosis, and working in the ICU, Dr. Goldklang has an active research portfolio. She has several clinical and translational studies in alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency, including aninvestigation into novel imaging biomarkers of lung disease as well as studies regarding long term disease trajectory and serum biomarkers following acute exacerbations of COPD.

Dr. Unachukwu received his bachelor’s degree in Microbiology from the University of Nigeria, and concurrent master’s degrees in Education and Biology from Pace University and Herbert Lehman College of the City University of New York respectively, both in New York City. Subsequently, in 2015, he obtained his doctoral degree in Biochemistry from the City University of New York. Due to his prior work and strong recommendations, he was awarded an NIH T32 postdoctoral fellowship in the Department of Anesthesiology to work in the laboratory of Dr. Jeanine D’Armiento, one of our department's highly regarded faculty members. In 2018, he was offered a position as an associate research scientist in the Department of Anesthesiology. In his current role, Dr. Unachukwu studies molecular mechanisms driving neoplastic growth in tuberous sclerosis complex disorder (TSC) and lymphangioleiomyomatosis (LAM), a pulmonary manifestation of TSC, utilizing gene editing and molecular biology techniques, and bioinformatics. His long-term research goal is to understand how these signaling mechanisms can be modulated to accelerate the development of effective therapies for TSC and LAM. In his most recent efforts, Dr. Unachukwu has identified a neural crest origin for pathogenic cells in spontaneously developing renal tumors in mice models of TSC and is actively studying mechanisms inducing neoplastic transformation of these pathogenic cells.

Xinran Ma earned her bachelor’s degree in biological sciences from Cornell University in 2017. She then entered the Nutritional and Metabolic Biology PhD program at CUIMC and joined the D’Armiento lab thereafter to pursue her thesis research. Her research focuses on the role of matrix metalloproteinases in regulating chronic cigarette smoke induced lung injury and repair. She is also involved in studying lung pathology in alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency.

Alexis Fisher graduated from Columbia University’s Class of 2021, holding a bachelor’s degree in Medical Humanities. During her undergraduate career, Alexis studied medicine through an interdisciplinary lens, exploring its intersections with science, history, and literature. In addition to volunteering for her local health outreach programs, she actively participated in neuroscience research at both the Columbia University Zuckerman Institute and the New York State Psychiatric Institute. Over the span of two years, she completed two projects investigating the neural patterns of Alzheimer’s disease. In her research, Alexis studied specific hippocampal regions and their roles in the learning, aggression, and social behaviors of mice.

Ms. Fisher is currently employed as a clinical research coordinator at the Columbia University Irving Medical Center. For the past year, she has worked closely with Dr. Jeanine D’Armiento and Dr. Monica Goldklang, managing several interventional and observational clinical research studies. She also assists operations for the Center for LAM and Rare Lung Diseases, where these physicians see patients clinically. She intends to matriculate into medical school in the fall of 2023.