Rudy Sharar: Enriching young minds as a volunteer for Teach for America. Rudy played in the Little League World Series in 2001 and was a member of the 2010 UW Husky Men’s Basketball team that won the Pac-10 tournament.
Claire Williams: Obtaining her Law degree at the University of Minnesota. Claire is an expert swimmer and competed in the 2012 U.S. Paralympic Swimming Trials where she established a world-best clocking in the 200-meter S9 category butterfly. Claire visited us in Summer 2011, while she was an undergraduate at Grinnell College.
Kalkena Sivanesam: Graduate student in the Andersen Labs at UW Chemistry. Kalkena was president of the Malaysian Students’ Association as an undergraduate student in Chemistry at UW. She is presently studying roles for the small protein alpha-synuclein in incurable neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s disease.
Colin Jones: Working toward his Ph.D. in Oceanography at the University of Rhode Island. Obtained his B.A. in Chemistry at Willamette University, OR. Colin spent the Summer of 2012 working toward applying fluorescent probes to follow enzyme activity in lysates of M. smegmatis. Shine on you crazy diamond.
Denis Smirnov: MD-PhD candidate at UCSD. Dennis is originally from Russia, but is now a Kirkland native. Before joining the Chatterjee lab, he was a research assistant at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center where he learnt techniques such as tissue culture and confocal microscopy in the Cooper lab. In the Chatterjee labs he was instrumental in studies of the pupylation pathway in M. tuberculosis. He is deeply passionate about protein function, coffee-shops, and the Republican party.
Markandeya Nagula (Mark): Postdoctoral research associate with Prof. Ivan Huc. Obtained his Ph.D. working jointly between Kakatiya University and the Indian Institute of Chemical Technology in Hyderabad, India. During his Ph.D. Mark developed novel methodologies for the synthesis of new biologically active pyrrolobenzodiazepine analogues and also synthesized the C-ring modified PBD imines and dilactams by asymmetric syntheses employing a ‘cation-pool’ host/guest supramolecular approach. In the Chatterjee labs, Mark developed a new chemical method for site-specific protein modification and enjoyed working at the interface of chemistry and biology. He also performed at stint at the European Institute of Chemistry and Biology (IECB), Bordeaux, France. In 2018, Mark started his own company in India manufacturing complex organic molecules. It is called Chemedsyn Life Sciences Pvt Ltd. and is located in Hyderabad, India.
Aurea Chu (Au): Lecturer at Baylor University, TX. Aurea is from the Phillipines and obtained her Ph.D. from the University of California at Davis, with Prof. Sheila David. She has expertise in the design and synthesis of transition-state analogs for mechanistic studies of base excision repair DNA glycosylase enzymes. Aurea was instrumental in starting our program addressing histone demethylation using semisynthesis.
Christa Schiesswohl: Christa worked with us on loan from the U.S. Air Force. She was working toward understanding how Pupylation controls protein function in Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Now she is back at the Air Force Research Labs in Ohio, doing stuff that she cannot tell us about.
Photo: Christa winning a prestigious award from the USAF.
Ian Eustis: Quality Assurance Officer, Lightscale Labs. Ian is a Seattle native and obtained his BA in Chemistry from Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington. Ian worked toward developing novel assays for enzymes in the Pup-proteasomal pathway. He is also an accomplished Jazz musician who has played in venues across the U.S., Nepal and India.
Nick Senger: Software Development Engineer at Esri. Nick is from California. Before arriving in Seattle, Nick conducted research in mechanistic organic chemistry in the laboratory of Professor Weiming Wu at San Francisco State University. As a member of the Chatterjee lab, Nick developed synthetic strategies to incorporate ligation auxiliaries into full-length proteins. These are now being tested in collaboration with the Mehl research group at Oregon State University.
Meagan Pilkerton: Analytical Chemist at IEH Laboratories and Consulting Group. Meagan is from Alabama and graduated from Auburn University with a Chemistry major. Meagan is a fitness expert and enjoys both teaching and taking exercise classes. While in the group, she designed activity-based probes to detect specific enzymes from pathogenic bacteria.
Abhinav Dhall: Postdocotoral fellow at Boston Children’s and Harvard Medical School in Dr. Yang Shi’s labs. Abhinav (AB) was born and raised in New Delhi, India but always felt he was not getting enough of Bollywood, so he moved to Mumbai for his undergraduate studies. After completing his integrated Bachelors and Masters in Chemistry from I.I.T. Bombay, he joined the University of Washington, Seattle, as a graduate student in 2010. He is interested in applying synthetic organic chemistry to understand biological processes and is studying how ubiquitin-like proteins influence chromatin structure and function.
Vincent (Wei) Huang: Hofstra Northwell School of Medicine. Vincent graduated from the University of Washington in summer 2013 with a Chemistry major. He collaborated closely with Caroline Weller and his projects included the synthesis of masked chromophores as enzyme probes and the development of new methodologies for protein ligation.
Jessica Huang: Research Technician, Medical Laboratory Associates. Jessica graduated from the University of Washington in summer 2014 with a Biochemistry major. She collaborated closely with Meagan Pilkerton and her projects included the development of a TR-FRET assay for the depupylase of Pup and the synthesis of fluorescent probes of proteasome function in tuberculosis.
Caroline Weller: Research Scientist at Revolution Medicines in Redwood City, CA. Caroline is from Oregon and graduated from the University of Colorado at Boulder with a Biochemistry major. Besides her many awards at UW (NSF Graduate Fellowship and ARCS Scholar), Caroline also achieved a Green Laboratory Certification at Yale! Caroline applied synthetic protein chemistry to design novel enzyme substrates for biophysical characterization. She now directs her own projects and continues to go hiking on weekends.
Alex Santiago: Recruiting Specialist at Kelly Scientific Resources. Alex grew up in North Seattle and obtained his B.S. from Loyola Marymount University. He remains the only member of our lab to volunteer at the Paradiso Festival at The Gorge Amphitheater every year. Alex was an ARCS Scholar and the founding member of our subgroup focused on transcription factor regulation by PTMs.
Paul Lawrence: Assistant Professor of Chemistry at Keystone College, PA. Paul obtained his Ph.D. with Joshua Price at BYU in Utah studying the site-specific effect of PEGylation on protein stability. In his spare time he likes to spend time with his wife and three kids. Paul accomplished the first semisynthesis of transcription factors with site-specific modifications in our labs.
Lorena Perkins: Junior Scientist at Accutar Biotechology, NY. Lorena is the most enthusiastic chemist you will ever meet. She can take your multi-step synthesis and one-pot the heck out of it. At UW, Lorena pursued new strategies for the semisynthesis of modified proteins for biophysical and biochemical studies.
Samuel David Whedon: Sam (Ph.D. 2018) is currently a postdoc at Harvard Medical School in the labs of Prof. Phil Cole. Sam obtained his undergraduate degree from Pacific Lutheran University (PLU) where he did research with Dr. Neal Yakelis on urea-based degradable polymers. As an undergrad, Sam double majored in Biology and Chemistry. In our labs, Sam investigated several projects aimed at incorporating chemical probes into peptide/protein targets. His most impactful work was in the development of cool acronyms to accompany his projects, such as a clickable glutamine named CliQ.
Elizabeth Tyson: Instructor in Chemistry at UW Bothell. Liz was a postdoc in our group from 2016-2018. She obtained her Ph.D. with Teshik Yoon at the other UW in Madison. Liz blazed new trails in cell culture in our lab. A very different direction than her previous experiences in organic synthesis and inorganic complex characterization. Liz would be described as an all-rounder in the game of cricket, in our lab she was a Chemical Biologist. Liz contributed to several key projects in the lab that revolved around histone sumoylation.
Patrick Shelton: Patrick (Ph.D. 2019) is currently a postdoc at The Rockefeller University in the lab of Prof. Tarun Kapoor. He is a fan of the Seattle Sounders, the Seahawks and Home-brewing. In mixed order. He is the first member of our group to file a patent based on his research. In our labs he investigated the biochemical crosstalk between SUMO and histone demethylase and deacetylase enzymes. He is a pro at peptide synthesis.
Jianming Kang: Scientist at Primera Analytical Solutions Corporation. Joint postdoc with the Klevit Lab at UW Biochemistry from 2019-2020. He worked on unraveling the role of BRCA1-BARD1 mediated histone ubiquitylation in gene regulation. JK did his Ph.D. with Prof. Ming Xian at Washington State University, where he published an impressive 10 papers looking at effective ways to deliver H2S in cells! JK is an avid basketball player and knows the best places to get dim sum in Seattle’s iDistrict.
Marissa Parker: Marissa is a native of California. She did her undergraduate studies at the University of Chicago, where she also pursued her passion in organic chemistry research with Prof. Jared Lewis. Marissa swam competitively in school and specialized in 200 m and 400 m IMs. In Seattle, Marissa enjoys yoga and weight-lifting at the IMA while she is waiting around for proteins to refold.
Yvonne Zhu: Yvonne is an international student from China and spent her undergraduate years at Sun Yat-sen University, where she did research in chemical biology with Prof. Hui Chao. In her spare time, she enjoys playing the piano and painting. She is currently working on projects involving the master regulator of the genome, p53.
Salsabeal Al Saedy: Salsabeal is a Biochemistry major. She is interested in using peptide inhibitors to control enzyme function. Prior to joining us she did research at Edmonds Community College to analyze bacterial species in drinking water. In her spare time she tutors at Edmonds Community College and also teaches Sunday School where she instructs bright-eyed and bushy-tailed kindergarteners in the fundamentals of the Arabic language.
Calvin Leonen: Calvin is the gentleman from Guam. He is best known for racking up the mileage points every time he flies home for Christmas. He performed undergraduate research in glycoconjugation in the Langenhan research lab at Seattle University. Calvin is developed new methods to make semisynthetic histones and investigated the biochemical crosstalk between histone sumoylation and acetylation. He is now a postdoc in the Funabiki Lab at Rockefeller University.
Dylan Lynch: Dylan was a visiting student researcher from the Scanlan Lab at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland. His PhD research focused on glycoprotein synthesis and the incorporation of non-canonical amino acids into proteins, in collaboration with Prof. Marina Rubini (UCD, Ireland). At UW, Dylan researched the inhibition and degradation of deubiquitylating enzymes.. He was supported by a scholarship from the Fulbright Commission in Ireland.
Meihuan Ji: Meihuan is a recent alumna of UW, receiving a BS in Biochemistry in 2020 and an MS in Applied Chemical Science & Technology with the Chatterjee lab in 2022. During her time as an undergraduate student, Meihuan worked as a STEM-Dawg Program Peer-Mentor and Instructional Designer in the Chemistry Department. Additionally, she assisted Michael Bradshaw, PhD, on the Powdery Mildew project to develop a new protocol for sequencing herbarium specimens in the Tobin Disturbance Ecology Laboratory. In the Chatterjee lab, she worked on semi-synthesis of ubiquitylated H2B.
Sumeet Singh: Sumeet did his Ph.D. at the Technion- Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa, Israel. His thesis work with Prof. Ashraf Brik involved the challenging synthesis of tetra-Ubiquitin modified globin proteins for uncovering the rules for proteasome-mediated protein degradation. In our lab, Sumeet developed new chemical strategies for making modified histones and transcription factors. Now, he is at Neurocrine Biosciences in San Diego developing peptide based antibody drug conjugates.
Reuben Allen: Reuben was an undergraduate researcher in the Chatterjee Lab. During his high school years, he worked for ReValve Solutions, a biomedical devices company based out of Bainbridge Island, where he developed computer vision software for the characterization of orthotropic materials. He is now a graduate student at MIT.
