Emily graduated from Catawba College with a Bachelors in Biochemistry and a minor in History in 2023. She is excited to be with the Sumner Lab and looks forward to learning everything that she can. She is a Michigan native that misses the snow but does not miss the cold. In her down time, Emily loves to read, play games, and crochet many different things.

Mansi Choudhari is a Summer intern at the Sumner Lab. She is a BSPH Nutrition student at the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health. She is also pursuing a minor in Medicine, Literature, and Culture. She is interested in preventative medicine and looks forward to learning from the NRI team. In her free time, she enjoys trying new recipes and spending time with friends.

Rachel Joined the UNC Chapel Hill NRI in August 2020 as a Research Technician in the Sumner Lab. As a local of Rowan County, specifically China Grove, she graduated from Catawba College in 2020 with a B.S. in Biochemistry. She has always wanted to have some kind of involvement at the NCRC ever since she saw the campus being built as a little girl. Since joining Sumner’s lab, Coble returned to school to further her education. Pursuing her Master's degree in Informatics and Analytics with a Bioinformatics concentration has been a transformative journey, significantly enhancing her expertise in handling and interpreting complex data sets. By learning analytical techniques and informatics tools, she is equipped to process vast amounts of metabolomic data with greater accuracy and efficiency. The skills and knowledge gained through her Master's program enable her to contribute more to her metabolomics research, drive impactful data-driven insights, and support the NRI's goals in advancing metabolomics.

Grace joined NRI and began her MS program in June 2024. She graduated from UNC Chapel Hill in May 2024 with a BSPH in Nutrition and minors in Chemistry and Studio Art. Her research involves integrating multi-omics data to compare individuals with healthy lifestyles versus unhealthy lifestyles and looking for associations with cancer. She wishes to use the knowledge she gains this year in her future medical career. Outside of academics, Grace enjoys reading, discussing her faith, and playing volleyball, basketball, and guitar.

Sabrina graduated from UNC Charlotte with a degree in biology, working in a bioinformatics lab during her time there. She began as a student intern in the Sumner lab and is now working as the Assistant Laboratory Manager. She is very excited to continue working with all the amazing people at the NRI. In her spare time, Sabrina enjoys cooking, kayaking, fishing, and dirt biking.

Blake Rushing, PhD, is an assistant professor of nutrition at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Nutrition Research Institute (NRI). Dr. Rushing’s is trained in pharmacology and toxicology, and has experience using liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry, nuclear magnetic resonance, in vitro model systems, and various biochemical assays to study the interactions between small molecule toxins/drugs with macromolecular targets such as proteins and DNA. He is well versed in using analytical instrumentation to study metabolic products of exogenous small molecule agents and their biological effects. Learn more.