Members of the Lab
Undergraduates
Glenn Guglietta B.S. Chemical Engineering, UMD (2009) Research Topics Initial studies on H2 storage in Gas Hydrates. Placement Ph.D. program at Drexel University. |
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Joseph Lim B.S. Chemical Engineering & Biochemistry, UMD (2010) Sc.D. Chemical Engineering & MIT (2015) Research Topics Simulation studies of model yeast and Chyladmida membranes. MD simulations of the peripherial membranes protein Osh4. Awards: UMD Bioscience Day (2008) best poster (Biochem/Biophys) and HHMI Undergrad Fellowship (2009-2010) Placement Ph.D. program at MIT. (NSF Graduate Fellow in ChemE, graduated) Current: Yale Medical School |
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Joseph O'Connor B.S. Chemical Engineering, UMD (2010) Research Topics Simulation studies DMPC/cholesterol bilayer with a majority of cholesterol. Interactions of AQP0 with these model membranes. Placement Penn State Ph.D. in Chemical Engineeering |
Arpan A. Bandyopadhyay B.S. Chemical Engineering, IIT-Bombay (2012) Research Topics Thermodynamic modeling of gas hydrates in electrolyte solutions. Placement Ph.D. program at the University of Minnesota. | |
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Ivy Muregi B.S. Chemical Engineering, UMD (2012) Research Topics Studies of model asphaletene aggregration in water and organic solvents. Placement Consultanting engineer at Accenture |
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Diana Villanueva B.S. Chemical Engineering, UMD (2013) Research Topics Diana aided in force field development and interesting studies of oxidized lipids. She has tested a new united atom chain model for the CHARMM lipid force field. However, her main project was studies of oxidized lipid models and how these influence bilayer properties. Her research has indicated how the oxidized lipids can alter the stability of lipid membranes. Award: Travel award to the ACC "Meeting of Minds" Research Conference (2011) Placement GSK (Rockville, MD) as a Biopharmaceutical Manufacturing Engineer |
Robert Pullen B.S. Chemical Engineering, UMD (2013) Research Topics Rob began simulations of lipid bilayers and the influence of their stability with ethanol. The applications to this are for studying the effects of byproducts of biofuels production. Placement Ph.D. Program at the University of Tennessee (Knoxville) |
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Alan Tran B.S. Chemistry, UMD (May 2014) Research Topics Alan's research ocused on aiding in the development of a new united atom chain model for the CHARMM lipid force field. Placement Graduate Studies at UMD and working as a pharmacy technician |
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David Weglein B.S. Chemical Engineering, UMD (May 2014) Research Topics David research involved simulation studies of a bilayer DOPC for future studies of peptide binding. Placement TBD |
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John Daristotle B.S. Chemical Engineering, UMD (May 2014) Research Topics John's reserach involved studies of ethanol and its interaction with model membranes. His focus was on how ethanol influence structural and dynamical properties of POPE bilayers. Ultimate interest in this work is the effect of toxic products/byproducts to cell membrane during biofuels production. Placement Ph.D. Bioengineering at UMD |
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Sarah Lee B.S. Chemistry, UMD (May 2014) Research Topics Sarah's research initially focused on aiding in the development of a new united atom chain model for the CHARMM lipid force field. This has resulted in faster simulations for systems that do not require the all-atom detail for the acyl-lipid chain. She also studied peptide binding of the ALPS-like motif to membranes under the advisement of Viviana. Placement University of Maryland Easter Shore School of Pharmacy (Pharm.D.) |
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Matthew Allsopp B.S. Chemical Engineering, UMD (May 2014) Research Topics Matthew's interest lied in the self-assembly of amphillic molecules. He probed the ability of the CHARMM-UA force field to describe surfactant self-assembly. He also started work on MD simulations of potential pore-forming lipids. Placement M.Eng. Georgia Tech. Current: Sumitomo Bakelite High Performance Plastics |
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Judah Makover B.S. Chemical Engineering, UMD (May 2015) Research Topics Judah studied the thermodynamic properties of model lipid bilayers and the accuracy of the CHARMM36 force field to predict the temperature dependence of these properties. Placement Israeli Army |
Ndubuisi (Ben) Harbor B.S. Chemical Engineering, UMD (May 2014) Research Topics Ben's research involved studies of ethanol and its interaction with model membranes. His focus has been on how ethanol influence structural and dynamical properties of POPC bilayers. Ultimate applications lie in the areas of biofuels and anesthetics. Placement University of Toronto (Master's program) | |
Mengesteab Adera B.S. Chemical Engineering, UMD (May 2014) Research Topics Mengesteab's research has involved studies of a polarizable water model for use in biological and gas hydrate applications. The goal is to have an accurate but efficient water model. Placement Schreiber Foods (Production Supervisor) | |
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Chris Boughter B.S. Physics, UMD (May 2015) Research Topics Chris' initial interest was in alternate energy and alternate energy sources. This resulted in a project of studying a new class of molecules that form quasi-micelles in collaboration with Dr. Anisimov (UMD/IPST). He switched interest to biophysics and studied the influence of cholesterol on lipid bilayer properties of different lipid headgroup and chain types. Placement University of Chicago (Ph.D. Biophysics Program) |
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Jacob Hebert B.S. Chemical Engineering, UMD (May 2015) Research Topics Jacob worked on studies on the temperature dependence of the surface tension of alkane/water interfaces. He also studied the effect of side chains to a model for asphalatenes on aggregation. Placement Northeastern University (Ph.D. ChemE Program) |
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Sook Wong B.S. Chemical Engineering, UMD (May 2014) Research Topics Sook's research focused on a sugar binding domain of a a bacterial protein that is known to enzymatically attack polysaccharides of its host. She is studying the pH binding dependence of binding of HA to this protein. Placement ORISE Research Fellow (FDA) |
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Ryan Konas B.S. Chemical Engineering, UMD (May 2015) Research Topics Ryan's research involved studies of ethanol and its interaction with model membranes. His focus was on how ethanol influence structural and dynamical properties of POPE, POPC, POPS and mixed bilayers. Ultimate interest in this work is the effect of toxic products/byproducts to cell membrane during production of biofuels and chemicals for single-celled organisms. Placement TBD |
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Josh Condon B.S. Chemical Engineering, UMD (May 2015) Research Topics Sook's research focused on a sugar binding domain of a a bacterial protein that is known to enzymatically attack polysaccharides of its host. She is studying the pH binding dependence of binding of poly-Gluc to this protein. Placement M.S. program at the University of Delware (Chemical Engineering) |
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Connor Welch B.S. Chemical Engineering, UMD (May 2016) Research Topics Connor's research involved studies of gas hydrate formation using a newly developed polarizable water model. However, his main focus was in testing the formation of gel and ripple phase lipid bilayers and worked with Pouyan on the phase diagram of these lipid bilayer structures. Placement Deloitte Consulting (Business Technology Analyst) |
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Francis Bacarisas B.S. Bioengineering (May 2016) Research Topics Francis tested our newly developed sphingo/ceramide all-atom parameter set. His specific interest was testing ceramide lipid bilayers and mixtures with PC lipids. Placement Consulting Firm Job |
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Rui Ponte B.S. Chemical Engineering and Computer Science (May 2017) Research Topics Rui was involved in testing our CHARMM36UA model for various lipids to verify its accuracy and futher use for more complex lipid membrane models. Placement Tetracore, Inc. |
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Tylar Clark B.S. Chemistry (May 2018) Research Topics Tylar was involved in testing the polarizable Drude force field for lipids in CHARMM. Placement Johns Hopkins University (Ph.D. Student in Physical Chemistry) and awarded NSF GRFP in 2019. |
Mark Adams B.S. Chemical Engineering (May 2016) Research Topics Mark is involved in testing our CHARMM36UA model for various lipids to verify its accuracy and futher use for more complex lipid membrane models. He also developed models for the ocular lens. Placement Stryker Communications(Integration Specialist) |
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Hojin Kang B.S. Computer Science (December 2016) Research Topics Hojin tested the accuracy of the CHARMM36 lipid force field for POPG lipid bilayers. She also worked on testing sphingo lipid bilayers mixed with cholesterol. These studies were important with our development of model membranes of the nerve and ocular lens. She also was involved in developing and eductional website for high school and early undergraduates in the general area of molecular biology. Placement Facebook (Seattle, WA) |
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Lidiya Gavrilenko B.S. Chemical Engineering (May 2016) Research Topics Lidiya continued work by others in the lab on asphalatene aggregration. She studied important functional groups and how these effect aggregration kinetics and structure. Placement Federal Aviation Administration (as a general engineer) working for NextGen |
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Yusuf Khan B.S. Chemical Engineering (May 2017) Research Topics Yusuf worked on simulation of ceramide bilayers with different hydroxylations to study the effects on bilayer properties. Placement Vici Health Sciences |
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Monica Chu B.S. Bioengineering (May 2018) Research Topics Monica was involved in understanding how certain antiobotics interact and potentially partition within cell membranes. Placement Journey Man Research Fellow (Army Research Lab) |
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Ky Wildermuth B.S. Chemial Engineering with Minor in Physics (May 2017) Research Topics Ky was involved in running HMMM MD simulations on the ALPS-like peptide of the Osh4 protein of yeast. The focus here is to enhance timescales of binding to membranes. He also developed a code for quantifying lipid packing defects. Placement Planisware USA, Inc. |
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Lenny Fobe B.S. Chemial Engineering and Chemistry (May 2018) Research Topics Lenny was working on two projects involving lipid membranes. His initial project studied the effect of pH buffers on lipid bilayer properties. His second project involved the study of pores forming in ceramide bilayers with applicaitons to skin delivery of drugs. Placement U. of Colorado-Boulder (Ph.D. Student in Chemical Engineering) |
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Nebeyu Mesfin B.S. Chemial Engineering (expected, May 2019) Research Topics Nebeyu studied model membranes of E. coli and how mutations in the membrane composition influence membrane properties. The focus was on understnading how to tune the membrane to be toleratant to fuels/chemicals produced by this bacteria. Placement TBD |
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Emma Moore B.S. Bioengineering (expected, May 2020) Research Topics Emma studyied the peripherial myelin sheath and developed simulation models to probe its structure and function. Placement TBD |
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Lauren Moyer B.S. Bioengineering (expected, May 2020) Research Topics Lauren worked with Linnea on studying antimicrobial peptides and their interaction with cell membranes. Placement TBD |
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Kirellos N. Abou Elsaad B.S. Chemical Engineering (December 2018) Research Topics Kirellos studied the formation and growth of cyclohexane/benzene/methane hydrates with molecular simulations. Placement TBD |
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Juan Correa B.S. Chemical Engineering (Class of 2021) Research Topics Juan studied the formation and growth of cyclohexane/benzene/methane hydrates with molecular simulations. Placement TBD |
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Eric Wang B.S. Bioengineering (May 2019) Research Topics Eric studyied bilayer and multilayer lipid mixtures of the skin with potential applications in transdermal drug delivery. He was the first to study the long periodicity phase of the stratum corneum and its associated properties (published in JACS in 2019). Placement Cambridge University - UK (M.S. Student from the Churchill Scholarship, 2019-20) |
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Chris Hiner B.S. Bioengineering (May 2019) Research Topics Chris studied the structural and electrostatic characters of the protein CDK5 and its inhibitory peptide, p5. Placement Albert Einstein College of Medicine (Ph.D. student in Biomedical Sciences, 2019-) |
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Kyle Pomykala B.S. Chemical Engineering (December 2019) Research Topics Kyle studyied the applications of Boltzmann-Gibbs entropy to economics, with particular attention paid to economic phase equilibrium e.g. the thermal and superthermal income classes. Placement TBD |
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Linnea Warburton B.S. Mechanical Engineering (May 2020) Research Topics Linnea stuydied an Osh4 peptide and antimicrobial peptides and how they disturb the membrane. Placement UC Berkeley (PhD Program in MechE on a NSF GRFP Fellowship, 2020-) |
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Niayesh Razi B.S. Chemistry (Expected 2021) Research Topics Niayesh stuydied lipid bilayers and their interaction with drugs. The focus was on antibiotics and how these partition into model lipid membranes. Placement TBD |
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Marc Harron B.S. Chemical Engineering (May 2020) Research Topics Marc simulated the effects of chemicals produced by microbes and how the lipid membrane can be tunned to improve its tolerance to value-added chemicals produced by these microbes. Placement MPR Associates a consulting firm (Engineer) |
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Owen Roy B.S. Bioengineering (Expected 2021) Research Topics Owen studied antimicrobial peptides and their interaction with the skin to improve our understanding in the mechanism of peptide translocation. Placement TBD |
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Jacob Olondo Kuba B.S. in Biology (2020) Research Topics Jacob stydied how statin drugs interact with the model membranes and compared with recent experimental measures. Placement NIH Postbac (Bethesda, MD) |
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Varunaa Sri Hemanth Kumar B.S. Bioengineering (Class of 2022) Research Topics Varunaa worked on modeling antimicrobial peptides in model bacterial membranes. Placement TBD |
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Josh Fernandes B.S. Chemical Engineering & Math (May 2021) Research Topics Josh studied the ocular lens and developed accurate models for the complex lipid mixture for future studies on proteins involved in childhood cataracts. Placement UC Berkeley (PhD Program in ChE, 2021-) |
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Tyla Holoman B.S. Chemical Engineering (May 2021) Research Topics Tyla started in the lab during a summer program when she was in high school. She continued in the lab as an undergraduate researching peptide binding to the skin. Placement UT-Austin (PhD Program in ChE, 2021-) |
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Crystal Lin B.S. Chemical Engineering (TBD) Research Topics Crystal was co-adivised with Dr. Dongxia Liu and was dong QM studies of reactions at surfaces with density functional theory (DFT). Placement WR Grace & Company intern (2021) & Tesla Intern (2021-current) |
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Deepika Tripu B.S. Biochemistry (TBD) Research Topics Deepika was working on learning about how metal ions bind to cellular membranes.). Placement TBD |
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Leonard Unger B.S. Mathematics & Music Performance (2023, Brown U) Research Topics Leonard studied the plasma membrane of the Lyme Bacteria. His focus was modeling the unique glycolipids in this bacteria and accurate membrane models of this bacteria. Placement TBD |
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Yiding Yuan B.S. Bioengineering (May 2023) Research Topics Yiding studied cellular membranes with a focus on neurological membrane modeling. Placement TBD |
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Jai Dadarwala B.S. Bioengineering (May 2022) Research Topics Jai investigated the influence of lipid composition asymmetry on transmembrane proteins of E coli. Placement Technomics, Inc. |
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Zach Teselko Bioengineering (Class of 2024) Research Topics Zach researched models for membranes that are targetted by accessory proteins of SARS-CoV-2. Placement TBD |
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Edward (Yueqi) Niu Biology (Class of 2022) Research Topics Edward studied cellular membranes with a focus on macrophage membrane models. Placement Postbac at JHU in Ankrit Sodhi's lab (2022-2024)
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Erin Jackson Bioengineering (Class of 2023) Research Topics Erin studyied how antibiotics bind to cellular membrane. Placement TBD |
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Pavan Bhat Bioengineering (Class of 2023) Research Topics Pavan researched polyunsaturated lipid membranes and cholesterol placement and organization in these membranes. Placement Northwestern joint PhD/JD program in Biomedical Engineering |
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Sriya Pothapragada Bioengineering (Class of 2023) Research Topics Sriya modelled stereocilia membranes that is of the cilia of the inner ear as part of her honor's thesis. Placement Clemson PhD program in Genetics and Biochemistry |
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Dylan Mendes Bioengineering (Class of 2023) Research Topics Dylan worked on how antimicrobial peptides bind to model membranes of the stratum corneum (outer layer of the skin). Placement RIVA Solutions (programmer for NOAA Center for Weather and Climate Protection) |
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Shyam Patel Neuroscience and Computer Science (Class of 2024) Research Topics Shyam investigated TLR receptors and sugar binding. Placement TBD |
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Taran Mahta Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering (Class of 2023) Research Topics Taran simulated the sugar enzyme Smlt1473 with it recently determined crystal structure at varied pH. Placement Proctor & Gamble (Georgia) |
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Yash Porwal Physiology and Neurobiology (Class of 2026) Research Topics Yash learned computational tools developedi in the lab. Placement TBD |
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Anjola Akintoba Bioengineering (Class of 2024) Research Topics Anjola learned how to build, simulate and analyze membrane models. Placement TBD |
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Sho Sniderman Takeshita Computer Sciene and Biology (Class of 2024) Research Topics Sho focused on developing initial model membranes of microglia towards interest in interactions with the Abeta-peptide and Alzheimer's Disease. Placement JHU's Ph.D. Program in Biophysics |
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Sasha Coates-Park Biochemistry (Class of 2022)
Research Topics Sasha researched a plant hormone interacting with model plant membranes. Placement Yale University (Medical School) Ph.D. Program in Biochemistry, Biophysics, Neuroscience |
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Joseph Kutza Materials Science and Engineering (Class of 2023) Research Topics Joseph investigated TLR receptors and sugar binding. He was also involved in work on FGF and tramatic brian injury. Placement Postbac at UMD |