Congratulations to Abbe Pannuci, featured as a 2022 CCNY Great Grad, graduating with Bachelor of Science Degree in Biotechnology! Abbe worked in our lab in the engineering of our SafeToddle Toddler Cane! Best of luck in your future studies as a Physician Assistant!
Abbe Pannuci, 2022 CCNY Great Grad
When Abbe Pannucci was 10 years old, she was diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer, a diagnosis that subjected her to two years of chemotherapy and radiation therapy. When she was 11 and a half, she earned her second-degree black belt in karate. At 12, she dedicated herself to the study of science “with the goal of contributing to research that helps minimize the severity of a cancer diagnosis for others.”
She credits the Macaulay Honors College for helping to launch her on that journey. After spending a summer interning at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases in Fort Detrick, Md., near her hometown, where she “got my hands on some real science,” she applied to City College. “I definitely knew I wanted to go to CCNY; it was just that I didn’t think I would get into the Macaulay Honors College when I applied” – but she did.
She has made the most of that decision, participating in clubs, acting as a peer mentor and orientation leader, and conducting research in the labs of Professor of Biomedical Engineering Marom Bikson and Dean of the Division of Science Susan Perkins, a biologist and her thesis advisor.
In addition to interning at Rockefeller University and Columbia University Medical Center, Pannucci volunteers as a patient advocate for Children’s National Medical Center in Washington, where she was treated, to help to improve the experience of current patients and to encourage new research in pediatric oncology.
Pannucci plans to spend the next year as an oncology laboratory technician before applying to the Physician’s Assistant Program at City College.
All of these experiences to date— and the ones yet to come—“help me give back to the community that helped me so much during my diagnosis,” she said.