Undergrad Explores the Therapeutic Potential of Organoids

Shiya Lin - the URECA researcher of the month for June - is a double major in biology and psychology who has been working in the Mallipattu Lab in the Department of Medicine, Division of Nephrology and Hypertension, since September 2024. She currently investigates "Developing human kidney organoids to investigate the role of NFkB signaling in glomerular disease and model kidney diseases for high throughput drug testing."

This summer, Lin is participating in the 10-week SUNY SOAR (Summer Opportunity for Academic Research) program, a CIE-URECA collaborative celebrating its fourth year that supports research opportunities for first-generation and/or economically disadvantaged students.

Lin has already benefited from multiple opportunities to present her work, including an oral presentation at the First Annual Long Island Kidney Education and Research Symposium/LIKER Symposium in December 2024. She also presented posters at the Women in Medicine and Science Research Day (March 2025), the Annual Department of Medicine Research Symposium (September 2025), the URECA Celebration (May 2026), and attended the ASN Kidney Week 2025 in Houston, Texas.

When asked about her advice for other students interested in doing research, Lin responded, "A lot of people don't realize that Stony Brook professors and PIs want you to reach out to them. They want to see that there's someone who's interested in learning about what they're doing, and they're willing to provide that guidance for someone who's just starting out."

Lin is currently working on a first-author manuscript for a project regarding "The Impact of Size on Differentiation and Metabolic Activity in Human Kidney Organoids" as well as a second manuscript related to the effects of Birc3 in NFkB signaling and glomerular disease. Her long-term goal is to pursue MD and PhD degrees and to continue researching organoid models.

Lin's fascination with the therapeutic potential of organoids began when she was a high school student at Bronx High School of Science. Later, as an undergraduate seeking to develop her interest in organoids, she initiated contact with the lab of David Tuveson at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratories (CSHL) in her first year at Stony Brook and arranged to be a Summer 2024 intern at CSHL to work on pancreatic organoids and develop hands-on laboratory techniques and skills.

At Stony Brook, Lin has been active as a resident assistant and teaching assistant, and is spearheading a Biological Beautification Committee to paint a mural in the Center for Molecular Medicine. In the fall, she will serve as the editor-in-chief and president of Young Investigators Review and work as a nursing assistant at the Stony Brook Hospital Surgical Oncology & Kidney Transplant Floor.

Read the full interview with URECA Director Karen Kernan.