Alumni Highlights

Umut Aypar, PhD, FACMG

Umut Aypar, PhD, FACMG moved to USA from Cyprus for his undergraduate degree at Ohio Wesleyan University. His strong interest in Human Genetics led him to the graduate program at University of Maryland, Baltimore, where he completed his PhD. After receiving his degree, he completed Clinical Cytogenetics and Clinical Molecular Genetics fellowships at Mayo Clinic and received board certification in both by ABMGG. He then joined the staff at Mayo Clinic as a Co-Director of the Clinical Cytogenetics Laboratory. He authored 23 journal articles and 1 book chapter, and gave numerous talks at conferences. Recently, he was recruited by the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center as a Co-Director of the Clinical Cytogenetics Laboratory.

Modupe Coker, PhD

After graduation, and based in part on the skills I developed during my thesis, "HIV Infection and its Association with Caries and the Oral Microbiome in Nigerian Children aged 6 to 72 months", I was offered a faculty position at Geisel School of Medicine, Dartmouth College. My research interests focus on the application of microbial genomics, comparative genomics and metagenomic approaches to the study of host-bacteria immune interactions in the human body. My training as a dentist and a public health professional, and my doctoral training at UMB has adequately prepared me to teach and conduct independent research. I can attest to the fact that the high-quality scholarship offered at UMB provides many attractive opportunities within academia at many types of institutions. While in GPILS, Dr. Coker was mentored by Dr. Samer El-Kamary.