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Authors & Editors: Medical (USMLE Step 1)
Frank Lau, MD
Founder and Senior Author
Frank is a resident in the Harvard Combined Plastic Surgery Residency Program and a clinical research fellow at the Massachusetts General Hospital. In the lab, he’s directing the differentiation of hepatocytes from induced pluripotent stem cells and embryonic stem cells. He’s also investigating the physiology of adipogenesis. One of his greatest passions is teaching, which is a pursuit that’s engaged him since high school. He taught the MCAT during his undergraduate years at Yale, where he graduated in 3 years with a B.S. in Molecular Biochemistry & Biophysics. He also taught undergraduate-level genetics during medical school at the University of Michigan, from which he graduated with research honors. His passion for teaching drives many of the technological innovations at Gunner Training. Frank is also Gunner’s Founder and Chief Medical Officer.
Sean Alemi
Editor in Chief (USMLE)
Sean is a 4th year medical student at the University of California Irvine School of Medicine. Prior to beginning his medical education, he graduated from the University of California Berkeley with honors in Molecular and Cell Biology. Sean recently completed a one year research fellowship at the University of California, San Francisco focusing on virally mediated gene therapy for inheritable forms of hearing loss. He plans to pursue residency training in otolaryngology-head and neck surgery. In addition to his efforts on the USMLE Step 1 content, Sean has also been applying his love for silly mnemonics to the Firecracker5 video series. Outside of medicine, Sean enjoys a good half-caff Americano, all forms of exercise, learning new cooking techniques and continuing his quest to learn the Chopin nocturnes and Rachmaninoff etudes.
Mike Daly, MS
Senior Author
Mike is a medical student at the University of California Irvine School of Medicine. He is currently analyzing the biomechanical advantage afforded by different instrumentation techniques used in the augmentation of the osteoporotic cervical spine, and he plans on pursuing residency training in orthopaedic surgery. He has an unbridled passion for teaching. As a tutor throughout middle school and high school, as an MCAT teacher in college, and now as an author and editor of Step 1 content at GunnerTraining, he remains steadfast in his belief that teaching is not only the best way to learn a subject cold, but also one of the most rewarding ways to give back. Prior to medical school, he earned a B.S. in Bioengineering: Bioinformatics at the University of California San Diego and a M.S. in Physiology & Biophysics at Georgetown University. At UC San Diego he ran NCAA Division II cross country and track—he continues to balance academics with running, golfing and skiing, dreaming of the day he’ll get to run the Western States 100 miler.
John Lin, MD
Senior Author
John recently completed his Anesthesiology Residency at Harvard Medical School. He grew up in southern California where he juggled time playing poker and studying statistical mechanics as a participant in the Caltech Young Engineering and Science Scholars program. After high school, he graduated magna cum laude at the University of Pennsylvania. While in college, he was awarded a research grant for his work on sequencing a putative XIAP psuedogene. Afterwards, John stayed in Philadelphia and attended Temple Medical School. After residency, he returned home to California and now aspires to own courtside seats to the L.A. Lakers.
George Mundanthanam, MD
Senior Author
George recently completed his Orthopaedic Hand Fellowship at Harvard Medical School. He spent his formative years in the great state of New Jersey. After winning a state title in the 400 intermediate hurdles, he moved on to the 7-year medical program at Drew University/UMDNJ-New Jersey Medical School. In college, he spent 3 weeks in Athens, Greece studying the public transportation system for the 2004 Olympics. He also spent 6 months in Oxford, England where his two biggest accomplishments were a publication in The Lancet, and a 6-week spring break during which he managed to trek through the Sahara desert and ski the Swiss Alps all in the same week. He was an Orthopaedic surgery resident at Baylor College of Medicine. He is joining a private practice in Massachusetts, and is keen on helping medical students “gun down” Step 1.
Leland Stillman
Senior Editor
Leland Stillman is a medical student at the University of Virginia. He graduated from Connecticut College in 2010 where he studied Biology and Environmental Health. His honors thesis was on the public health effects of industrialized agriculture and the changing needs for agricultural policy. He is also a literary enthusiast, graduating from college with almost 800 pages of short stories and one very long novel. When not busy cultivating his literary or medical skills, he devotes his time to Shaolin Long-fist kung fu and Chen style Tai Chi. In his spare time you'll likely find him at Para Coffee, drinking breve cappuchinos sprinkled with chocolate, and chatting with the barista, Jonny. He plans to pursue a career in allergy and immunology, a sub-specialty of internal medicine.
Alex Rozenberg
Senior Editor
Alex is a medical student at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, soon to be a part of Rutgers University. Prior to starting his medical education, he graduated from Rutgers University summa cum laude with a double major in mathematics and chemistry. In the lab, he used several computer models to simulate and predict enzymatic mechanisms which resulted in first-author publications and presentations. However, nothing could overshadow his passion for education, which led him to teach freshman chemistry seminars, Kaplan MCAT classes, and basic science reviews. While in medical school, he continues to teach review courses for first year med students and has been active in research with the vascular surgical outcomes group. Outside of medicine, Alex loves playing pick-up basketball, volleyball, investing and dreaming of one day owning a sushi restaurant.
Trevor Rosenlof
Associate Editor
Trevor is a student at Tulane University School of Medicine. He began his undergraduate education at BYU with the desire to pursue a career in physics. While at BYU he tutored physics students and taught a physics lab class. But after shadowing some doctors, he made the wise decision to change course and go into medicine. He is currently conducting research on a signaling pathway in breast cancer, and exploring the effect of pharmaceuticals in this pathway. His plans for a medical career have changed frequently and have included neurology, psychiatry, and radiation oncology. He has discovered that what he enjoys most about medicine is the interaction physicians get to have with their patients. During his free time he enjoys playing sports and spending time with his wife and very young son (i.e. changing diapers).
Patrick (PJ) Bonavitacola
Associate Editor
PJ is a 2006 graduate from Williams College. He took a few years off after college selling capri pants at J Crew while writing a novel: The Lovely Promise of Breaking. On the subject of writing, he just received honorable mention in the WCW national medical poetry contest. PJ attended the post-bac program at Bryn Mawr and is at UMass Med (2014), hoping to pursue radiation oncology. One of his most proud accomplishments is running a very respectable Philly marathon. Now he enjoys riding his 83 Suzuki Blade-runner-esque motorcycle, and using a stairmaster in his living room.
James Sellman, PhD
Former Contributor
James is an experienced medical editor. Originally from the Midwest, he headed out East and earned his PhD at Harvard. He has spent 11 years copyediting, fact-checking, and writing for, among others, Harvard Women’s Health Watch, Harvard Health Letter, Harvard Men’s Health Watch, and About.com’s Health Channel, as well as contributing to several online CME courses. His noteworthy exploits include working as a backpacking instructor, managing a folk music coffeehouse, and serving on staff at a youth hostel in Oslo, Norway. James has also written extensively on jazz, blues, and R&B (and co-authored the liner essay for Quincy Jones’s Q’s Jook Joint).
Hillary Hoffman, PhD
Former Contributor
After finishing her B.A. in chemistry and fine arts at Amherst College, Hillary moved across the Atlantic and spent the next five years living in Prague, Czech Republic. She recently received her Ph.D. in biochemistry from Charles University in Prague and resettled in the Boston area. During her time in Prague, Hillary proofread and copyedited dozens of manuscripts for her colleagues at the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, and she decided that she prefers editing and writing to pipetting. Outside of the lab and away from her laptop, Hillary enjoys drawing, yoga, and jogging.
Shannon Prograis
Former Contributor
Shannon Prograis is a medical student at Weill Cornell Medical College. He has a strong interest in immunology and is published in the journal of Photodermatology, Photoimmunology & Photomedicine. As an undergrad, he attended Stanford University. He believes Gunner Training to be the best Step 1 preparation utility he’s encountered to date.
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