Alanna Kaplan

Originally from New York state, Alanna attended Dartmouth College where she majored in Neuroscience and studied abroad in Buenos Aires, Argentina. In college, she worked as a student intern for Dartmouth College Health Services, was vice president of her sorority, Alpha Phi, and had a brief stint on the Dartmouth Women’s Rugby team. Her research in college included studying the relationship between social context and emotional processing, as well as the role of thyroid hormone in brain development. After graduation, to help her figure out her career goals, Alanna spent two years working at the National Institutes of Health as a postbaccalaureate IRTA fellow in the laboratory of Dr. Veronica Alvarez, where she studied dopamine signaling and drug addiction. Her time at the NIH confirmed her desire to pursue a career in science and in medicine.

Alanna is now a sixth-year MD/PhD student in Dr. Peter Glazer’s lab. While she was originally interested in pursuing a career in neuroscience, she now studies cancer biology and is particularly interested in targeting DNA repair as a form of cancer therapy. Outside of the lab, she has worked at HAVEN Free Clinic, a student-run primary clinic in New Haven. In her free time, she enjoys salsa dancing, rock climbing, traveling, crossword puzzles, and reading.