Past Trainees

Theodore Johnson

Associate Research Fellow, Pharmacokinetics at Pfizer
Trainee 1996/1997 and 1997/1998
Silverman, Chemistry 
Enzyme kinetics and mechanisms and inhibition

Eric Sundberg

Professor and Chair, Department of Biochemistry at Emory University
Trainee 1996/1997 and 1997/1998
Jardetzky, IBiS 
Coordination chemistry, bioinorganic chemistry, biological molecular imaging 

Valerie Leesch

Associate Director at CMIC, Inc
Trainee 1998/1999 and 1999/2000
Hoffman, Chemistry 
Electron transfer in the zinc cytochrome c: and cytochrome c: peroxidase complex

Caryn Outten

Professor of Chemisty at University of South Carolina
Trainee 1998/1999 and 1999/2000
O'Halloran, DGP 
Biophysics and structural studies of metalloregulatory proteins

Hena Alam

Scientist
Trainee 2001/2002
Freymann, DGP
Structure & function of the GTPase domain of SRP54

Michael Schwartz

Scientist 1 at Generate Biomedicines
Trainee 1997/1998 and 1998/1999
Matouschek, IBiS 
Biophysical studies of protein translocation through membranes

David Lorber

VP of Customer Service at Persyst Development Corporation
Trainee 1997/1998 and 1998/1999
Shoichet, NUIN 
Molecular docking biophysics of ligand binding

John Payne

Trainee 1997/1998 and 1998/1999
Godwin, Chemistry 
Biophysical studies of lead-protein interactions

Cindy Wu

Director at AbbVie
Trainee 1998/1999 and 1999/2000
Barron, ChBE
Biophysical studies of novel biomimetic polymers with medicinal value (polypeptoids)

Beth Beadle

Professor of Radiation Oncology at Stanford University
Trainee 1999/2000 and 2000/2001
Shoichet, DGP/MSTP
Stability-function tradeodds, Beta-lactamase structure-function

Anita Changela

Research Associate at NIH Vaccine Research Center
Trainee 1999/2000 and 2000/2001
Mondragón, IBiS
Structural studies of type IA topoisomerase/DNA complexes

Raquel Lieberman

Professor at Georgia Institute of Technology
Trainee 2000/2001 and 2001/2002
Rosenzweig, Chemistry 
Biophysical and structural studies of particulate methane monoxygenase 

John Magyar

Trainee 2000/2001 and 2001/2002
Godwin, Chemistry 
Mechanism of metal binding to structural zinc-binding domains

Walter Voegtli

Excecutive Director of Discovery Research at Alexion Pharmaceuticals 
Trainee 1999/2000 and 2000/2001
Rosenzweig, Chemistry 
X-ray crystallographic studies of dinuclear metal cluster containing proteins

Kristi Calvert

Trainee 2001/2002
Silverman, Chemistry 
Inactivation of GABA aminotransferase

Jennifer Czlapinski

Trainee 1999/2000 and 2000/2001
Sheppard, Chemistry 
DNA template directed synthesis and biophysics of metallosalen DNA

John Pham

Trainee 2001/2002 and 2002/2003
Sontheimer, IBiS 
Reversible control of RNA srtructure with small biarsenical ligands

James Patch

Director at Pfizer
Trainee 2002/2003 and 2003/2004
Barron, ChBE
Poly-N-substituted glycines as structured, biostable mimics of cationic, amphipathic antibacterial peptides

Kurt Swanson

Sr. Director Biophysics and Protein Biochemistry at Ring Therapeutics
Trainee 2002/2003
Radhakrishnan, IBiS 
Protein interactions of promiscuous proteins with their multiple partners at the atomic level

Jon (Jonathan) Pokorski

Professor at UC San Diego
Trainee 2002/2003
Appella, Chemistry 
Synthetic organic chemistry to create new molecules with unique biological activity

Elise Schultz

Quality Engineer at Medline Industries
Trainee 2003/2004
Meade, Chemistry 
Coordination chemistry, bioinorganic chemistry, biological molecular imaging

Kristen Dietrich

Strategic Corporate Account Manager at Illumina
Trainee 2006/2007 and 2007/2008
Rice, DGP 
Understanding the mechanism of kinesin regulation and its structural base using x-ray crystallography

Gabriel Rosanio

Senior Associate Attorney at WilmerHale
Trainee 2007/2008, 2008/2009 and 2009/2010
Widom/Uhlenbeck, IBiS 
Direct in vivo DNA binding in yeast and mammals

Mark Seeger

Research Scientist at PPD
Trainee 2008/2009 and 2009/2010
Rice, DGP 
Structural and biochemical studies of an intramolecular regulatory mechanism in the molecular motor protein kinesin-1, and the role of this interaction in the cell

Samuel Light

Assistant Professor at University of Chicago 
Anderson, DGP
Structural studies of proteins from the biosynthetic shikimate pathway

Victoria Harrison

Meade, Chemistry 
High relaxivity contrast agents for molecular imaging applications

Ken Durbin

Kelleher, IBiS 
Focused on the cellular phenomenon of senescence, which is a permanent cell cycle arrest

Kirby Martinez-Fonts

Matouschek, IBiS
To determine the mechanism of Cdc48 in protein unfolding

Houqing Yu

Matouschek, IBiS
In eukaryotic cells, the ubiquitin-proteasome system is involved in protein quality control by hydrolyzing the misfolded or damaged protein.

Eliza Zielazinski

Senior Process Scientist at Abbott
Trainee 2009/2010 and 2010/2011
Rosenzweig, Chemistry 
Structural and Biochemical Studies of the P1B-4 ATPases: Determination of Cobalt Binding and Transport

Clarence Chan

Trainee 2010/2011 and 2011/2012
Mondragón, IBiS, MSTP
The universally conserved regions in RNase P as they relate to its recognition of tRNA

Sarah Kamper

Senior Invention Manager at Northwestern University
Trainee 2009/2010 and 2010/2011
Meade, Chemistry
Bioinorganic chemistry, biological molecular imaging

Julian Klosowiak

Resident Physician, Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery at Northwestern Medicine
Trainee 2011/2012 and 2012/2013
Rice, DGP, MSTP
Crystal structure of the outer mitochondrial membrane protein Miro

Austin Rice

Principal Scientist at Amgen
Trainee 2009/2010 and 2010/2011
Pinkett, IBiS 
Efflux transporters involved in multi-drug resistance in Saccharomyces cerevisiae to better understand the mechanisms of drug binding and transport

Leidamarie Tirado

Senior Manager, Marketing Content at 10x Genomics
Trainee 2009/2010
Prakriya, DGP
Understanding control of drug resistance at the transcriptional level using structural and biochemical methodologies

Po-Han Chen

Trainee 2010/2011
He, DGP, MSTP
Elucidate the strucutral basis of HGF-MET interactions using x-ray crystallography complemented with other biophysics cell-biological approaches

Thomas Wytock

Postdoctoral Researcher at Northwestern University
Trainee 2010/2011
Motter, Physics 
Constroction and Characterization of the Cellular Gene Interaction Network

Kathryn Gunn

Assistant Professor at Stony Brook University
Trainee 2011/2012 and 2012/2013
Mondragón, IBiS
Elucidating teh relationship between conformational changes in toposiomerases and topological changes in DNA using single molecule techniques.

Kari Tanaka

Principal Scientist at Abbott
Trainee 2009/2010 and 2010/2011
Pinkett, IBiS
The role of Zinc Cluster Proteins in Antifungal Resistance

Megan Shelby

Staff Scientist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Trainee 2011/2012 and 2012/2013
Hoffman/Chen, Chemistry
Excited-state structural dynamics of Zn-substituted hemoproteins and model compounds detected by transient and steady state X-ray Absorption Spectroscopy

Katarzyna Soczek

Mondragón, IBiS
Elucidation of mechanistic details from structural studies of DNA gyrase

Anthony Chipre

Trainee 2012/2013
Leonard/Nguyen, Chemistry
Development of Polymer-grafted Nanobins (PGN) as a Versatile Platform for the Delivery of Biomedicals

Amanda Davis

Wignall, IBiS
Biochemical characterization of a novel protein complex required for meiotic chromosome congression and segregation

David Krist

Medical Student at Carle Illinois College of Medicine
Trainee 2013/2014
Statsyuk, Chemistry
Exploring interaction dynamics of E2 enzymes in the ubiquitin system.

Quentin Dudley

Assistant Professor at University of Wisconsin-Madison
Trainee 2013/2014 and 2014/2015
Jewett, ChBE
Synthesis of isoprenoids from methane using cell-free metabolic engineering.

Ryan Marcum

Postdoctoral Researcher at Northwestern University
Trainee 2013/2014 and 2014/2015
Radhakrishnan, IBiS
The assembly and activity of the Sin3/HDAC corepressor complex in transcriptional repression.

Kyle Smith

Principal Scientist at Xilio Therapeutics, Inc
Trainee 2013/2014 and 2014/2015
Rice, DGP
Structural Studies of Phosphorylation-Dependent Movement in the Proteins Kinesin and Miro

Sumitabha Brahmachari

Postdoctoral Researcher at Rice University
Trainee 2014/2015 and 2015/2016
Marko, Physics & Astronomy
Free Energy model for a braided DNA system

Soo Ro

Senior Scientist, Biophysics in Biochemical & Cellular Pharmacology at Genentech
Rosenzweig, IBiS
Characterizing and engineering methane oxidation by creating methanotroph genetic manipulation tools and mutant particulate methane monooxygenase (pMMO)

Priscilla Yeung

Resident Physician at Stanford Health Care
Trainee 2014/2015 and 2015/2016
Prakriya, MSTP 
Identification of structural rearrangements that mediate CRAC channel gating 

Amy Nilles

Chemical Laboratory Analyst at AbbVie
Trainee 2014/2015 and 2015/2016
Lackner, IBiS
A biochemical and structural analysis of the MECA complex 

Ian Wolff

Postdoctoral Fellow at Cornell University
Trainee 2014/2015 and 2015/2016
Wignall, IBiS
The role of kinesin-12 KLP-18 in acentrosomal meiotic spindle assembly 

Anne d'Aquino

Analyst at inThought Research
Jewett, IBiS
Characterizing the role of 23S rRNA peptidyltransferase center interactions in translation fidelity

Ryan Abdella

Postdoctoral Research Associate at University of Minnesota
Trainee 2015/2016 and 2016/2017
He, IBiS
Structure-function studies of the human Mediator complex in transcription initiation

Ronald Biggs

Postdoctoral Fellow at Northwestern University
Trainee 2015/2016 and 2016/2017
Marko, IBiS
Understanding the Roles and Interplay Between Topoisomerase II and the Condensin Complexes in Mitotic Chromosomes

WeiTing Chen

Visiting Assistant Professor at Marist College
Trainee 2015/2016 and 2016/2017
Lackner, IBiS
The regulation and assembly of the syntaphilin tethering complex

Matthew Ross

NIH K99 Postdoctoral Fellow at University of Chicago
Trainee 2015/2016 and 2016/2017
Rosenzweig, IBiS 
Advanced spectroscopic characterization of an integral membrane metal transporter

Darren Hsu

Solutions Architect at NVIDIA

Trainee 2016/2017 and 2017/2018

Chen, Chemistry

Probing Metal Binding Sites and Conformations of Cytochrome c during its Folding Triggered by Electron Transfer

Christopher Koo

Postdoctoral Fellow at Genentech

Trainee 2016/2017 and 2018/2019
Rosenzweig, IBiS
Characterizing particulate methane monooxygenase (pMMO) using cell-free protein synthesis

Nicolas Daffern

Postdoctoral Researcher at University of Colorado
Trainee 2016/2017 and 2017/2018
Radhakrishnan, IBiS
Experimental and computational analyses of protein dynamics in the ligand-binding domain of NR5A nuclear receptors

Alexis Reyes

Postdoctoral Research Fellow at UC San Diego
Trainee 2016/2017 and 2017/2018
He, IBiS
Structural and functional insights toward the visualization of human telomere maintenance macromolecular machines

Antoineen White

Analyst at inThought Research
Trainee 2016/2017 and 2017/2018
Lackner, IBiS
Functional Characterization of Novel Proteins Involved in Vesicular Trafficking and Membrane Contact Sites

Michael Schamber 

Scientist 1 at Generate Biomedicines
Trainee 2017/2018 and 2018/2019
Vafabakhsh, IBiS
Single-molecule characterization of calcium-sensing receptor activation

Siyu Chen

Graduate Assistant at SOA Northwestern University
Trainee 2017/2018 and 2018/2019
He, IBiS
Structural mechanism of DNA-PK allosteric activation in NHEJ pathway

Miranda Jacobs

Protein Scientist at Teledyne FLIR
Trainee 2017/2018 and 2018/2019
Kamat, IBiS
The effect of membrane mechanical properties on mechanosensitive channel activity

Luyi Cheng

Reseacher at Public Citizen
Trainee 2017/2018 and 2018/2019
Lucks, IBiS
Structure-function principles of RNA in Cotranscriptional folding pathways

Maggie Boyd

Lauren Adams

Julie Liang

Carnie Abajian

Rosenzweig, Chemistry
Biophysical and structural characterization of proteins involved in copper delivery to cytochrome c oxidase

David Klumpp

Pinto, IBiS 
Ion channels

Rebecca Martin

Widom, IBiS
Nucleosome Positioning and Gene Regulation in Drosophila

Robert Meagher

Barron, ChBE 
DNA Sequencing and Genotyping by End-Labeled Free-Solution Electrophoresis

Madison Sendzik

Trainee 2019/2020-2020/2021

Rosenzweig, Chemistry

Richard Jodts

Scientist at 3M
Trainee 2019/2020-2020/2021

Rosenzweig/Hoffmann, Chemistry

Arnold Chan

Data Scientist at Abbott
Trainee 2019/2020-2020/2021

Chen, Chemistry

Kristen Rivera

Trainee 2020/2021 - 2021/2022

Pinkett, IBiS
Structural and biochemical investigation of the nontypeable Haemophilus influenzae Sap ABC transporter mechanism of selectivity and transport

Megan Larmore

Postdoctoral Fellow at UC San Diego
Trainee 2020/2021-2021/2022

DeCaen, DGP
Ion Channel Biophysics – Novel Receptor Sites and Ligands of Two Ion Channels: NaV and TRPP2

Elijah Taylor

Trainee 2020/2021-2021/2022
Mondragon/Marko, IBiS

Jiexi Chen

Trainee 2021/2022
Satchell, DGP
Structure and function analysis of MARTX toxin repeat regions

 Caitlin Willett

Trainee 2021/2022 - 2022/2023
Rosenzweig, Chemistry
Biophysical and Structural Characterization of the Putative Copper Transport Protein, YebZ, from Escherichia coli

Alexander Vogt

Trainee 2021/2022 - 2022/2023
He, IBiS
Structural Studies of Nonhomologous End Joining Accessory Factors

Citlayi Villasenor

Trainee 2021/2022 - 2022/2023
Kamat, IBiS
The lipid bilayer's role in membrane protein folding, structure, and function

Alexis Jacob

Trainee 2021/2022 - 2022/2023
Brickner, IBiS
Real-time tracking of gene positioning, transcriptional bursting and mRNA fate

David Bushhouse

Scientist at BiomeSense
Trainee 2021/2022 - 2022/2023
Lucks, IBiS
Sequence and structure features of the Cbe pfl ZTP riboswitch regulate leak, sensitivity, and dynamic range

Madeline Ho

Trainee 2022/2023
Chen/Hoffman, Chemistry
Continuing Studies on FeS Enzymes and Biomimetic Systems: Radical SAMs and IspG

Joey Ayala

Trainee 2023/2023 -2023/2024
Rosenzweig, Chemistry
Characterization of Particulate Methane Monooxygenase Mutants from Methylotuvimicrobium buryatense 5GB1C

Sé Martin

Trainee 2023/2023 -2023/2024
Prakriya, DGP
Identifying the mechanisms behind CRAC channel fastCa2+-dependent inactivation

Weifeng Lu

Trainee 2023/2023 -2023/2024
He, IBiS
NHEJ in the context of chromatin

Tucker Shriver

Trainee 2023/2024
Ziarek, DGP
Arrestin-2's Entropic Redistribution Drives Binding of GRK-independent Cannabinoid 2 Receptor

Hang Yang

Trainee 2023/2024
He, IBiS
Investigating the molecular mechanism of nucleosome ejection during chromatin remodeling by BAF complexes