Group Members

Group Members

Aldo  Salazar Morales (Postdoc  – Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry)

Cong Shen (Postdoc)

Joey Erwin (Ph.D. student in Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry)

Jonmatthew Bile

Profile photo of Jonmatthew Bilé

Sibel Ebru Yalcin (Research Scientist)

Vasilije Pantelic (Undergraduate Student - Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry)

Yixuan Chen (Ph.D. Student - Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry)

Yixuan Chen

Aiwei Sui (Technician)

Jackie Mendes (Technician)

SUPERVISION OF POST-DOCTORAL/RESEARCH SCHOLARS – Former: 8, Current: 4 #indicates woman, underrepresented minorities, or disabled mentees) (in parenthesis: present position)

  • Anthony Coelho# 2023-2024 (Postgrad, NIH, PREP Fellow, Selected for PhD, UC, Davis)
  • Cong Shen, 2023-present
  • Aldo Salazar-Morales#, 2023-present
  • Sibel Yalcin#, 2017-present. Alda Center Women in STEM Leader (Future Faculty Fellow, Offered position at CUNY, interviewed at Stanford, Rochester, Washington University, St. Luis, Hunter-ASRC, and Auburn).  
  • Daniel Shapiro, 2020-2021 Postgrad (Ph.D. Student, Duke University) (offered at Northwestern and Yale)
  • Yuri Londer, 2020-2021 (Visiting Research Scientist, Yale)
  • Jens Neu, 2019-2022 (Asst. Professor, University of North Texas) (Interviewed at Perdue and Rutgers) 
  • Matthew Guberman-Pfeffer#, 2019-2022. NIH F32 Postdoc Fellow. (Postdoc, Baylor University, Texas)
  • Ruchi Jain#, 2018-2020 (Senior Scientist, Artisan)
  • Xinglong Ren, 2019 (Postdoc, University of Cambridge, UK)
  • Fadel Samatey#, 2019-2022 (Senior Scientist, Texas A&M University)
  • Sophia Yi#, 2016-2021. 1st prizes in the poster competitions for dept. retreat and Postdoc Research Day. (Visiting Assistant Professor of Biology, Lake Forest College)

SUPERVISION OF Ph.D. STUDENTS  Graduated with Ph.D.: 7. Current: 4 (in parenthesis: present position)  

  • Patrick Obrien, PhD. Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry. 4/2016-10/2020 NSF-GRFP Fellow. Thesis: A Tale of Two Nanowires: Characterization of OmcS and OmcZ. (Boston Consulting)
  • Yangqi Gu, PhD. Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology. 4/2016-3/2022 Thesis: Trinity of Geobacter Filaments: OmcS, OmcZ, and Pili. Winner of the 3-minute thesis award. (Video) (News), Finalist, Schmidt Science Fellowship. (EMBO Postdoctoral Fellow, MRC-LMB, Cambridge-UK).
  • Catharine Shipps#, PhD. Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry. 4/2018-10/2022 (Scientist, Quantum-Si). Thesis title: Electrons on the move proteins: microbial cytochrome nanowires in electron transfer and as functional materials Annie Le Fellowship for academic achievements & service: News release.
  • Vishok Srikanth, PhD. Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry. 4/2018-10/2022 (Consultant, Bain & Co.). Outstanding Teaching Fellow for Quantitative Methods Course (2019). Thesis: Structural basis for OmcS-like nanowire assembly. Mary Ellen Jones Prize for the most distinguished dissertation
  • Peter Dahl, PhD. Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry. 4/2018-8/2023. (Thesis title: Mechanism of charge transport in nanowires. NSF-GRFP honorable mention. Selected for National Graduate Student Symposium & Future Fellow Research Conference, St. Jude. (Postdoc, National Renewable Energy Lab)
  • Aldo Salazar-Morales#, PhD. Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry. 4/2019-6/2023. (Postdoc, Yale)  Thesis title: Assembly and secretion of Geobacter pili and nanowires. Finalist, HHMI Gillum Fellowship
  • Cong Shen, PhD. Microbiology, 6/17- 6/23. (Postdoc, Yale) Thesis title: Assembly machinery of OmcS-like cytochrome nanowires in diverse microbes involved in direct interspecies electron transfer.
  • Joey Erwin, PhD. Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry. 4/2020- Present. Thesis title: Widespread bacterial cytochrome complex required for extracellular electron transfer.
  • Pilar Castillo Portela#, PhD. Biochemistry, University of New Lisbon (Co-mentor), 4/2021—present. Thesis title: Identification of an electron transfer pathway for charging bacterial nanowires using NMR.
  • Yixuan Chen#, PhD. Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry (3/2024-present). Thesis title: Mechanism of high conductivity of microbial cytochrome OmcZ nanowires.
  • Jonmatthew Bile#, PhD. Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry (3/2024-present). Thesis title: Mechanism of OmcZ nanowire assembly driven by intergenic short RNA.

SUPERVISION OF MASTERS STUDENTS Former: 1. Current: 1. %indicates published. (present position)

  • Guna Mandava%, M.S. Mol. Biophysics & Biochemistry, 2019-2023 (Ph.D. student, University of Chicago, offered at MIT, UIUC). Thesis: Assembly of Microbial Nanowires into Ordered Lattices. (Paul Sigler Prize)
  • Vasilije Pantelic, B.S./M.S. MB&B 2022-Present. Thesis: Mechanism of OmcZ nanowire assembly.

SUPERVISION OF UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS Former: 17. Current: 4. % published. (present position)

  • Daniel Shapiro%, Yale, Physics & Molecular Biology. 2018-2020 (Ph.D. Student, Duke University)
  • Dennis Vu#% Yale Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry. 2016-2020 (Medical School)
  • Winston Huynh#% Yale Biomedical Engineering. 2016-2019 Becton prize in Yale Engineering & Applied Science and Stanford MBA Future Leader (2019) (Knight-Hennessy Scholar Graduate Student, Stanford)  
  • Vanessa Saldivar#  (REU) – UC Irvine 2022 (Ph.D. Student, University of California, Los Angeles)
  • Andrew Rodriguez#,  (REU) B. S. Physics, 2020 (Graduate Student, Yale University)
  • Titir De#. M.S. Biology. 2020 Khorana Scholar (Ph.D. Student, New York University)
  • Disha Kashyap# B.S. Chemistry 2021 Khorana Scholar (Graduate Student, University of Cambridge)
  • Rakshi. Qureshi# (REU) 2016 (Regulator at Maesa),
  • Nuzzrath Mohamed Jabarullah (Hazzeena) # (Exchange student - Singapore), 2016
  • Ronald Hood#  2019-2021. Goldwater Scholarship: R. Hood (2021). News-1, 2 & 3 (Intern, Identity.com)
  • Lauren Delgado# 2019-2021  (Medical School)
  • Michelle Lee# 2020 (Medical School)
  • Hyerim Bianca Nam# 2019-2021(Research Fellow, DAAD German Academic Exchange Service)
  • Claire Sheen# 2016-2017 (Science Writer)
  • Hanwen Zhang# 2021-22 (Yale Ecology and Evolutionary Biology). President’s Public Service Fellow
  • Jerry Ruvalcaba#% 2020-2023 (Yale, Molecular. Cellular & Developmental Biology-MCDB)  (Med School)
  • Anthony Coelho#% 2022-2024 (Yale MCDB) (NIH R25 Post-bac Fellow) (Selected for PhD, UC, Davis)
  • Agamony Saha# 2024- (Yale Chemistry)
  • Paloma Lenz# 2024 - (Yale Biomedical Engineering)
  • Talia Kolodkin# 2024- (Yale, Molecular Cellular & Developmental Biology)
  • Anwesha Dutta# 2024 M.S. Biology Khorana Scholar

SUPERVISION OF ROTATION STUDENTS (12, excluding 11 students who graduated or working in the lab)      

BQBS Track            

  • Raj Basak (Fall 2016- Summer 2017)
  • Sachita Ganesa# (Spring 2018
  • Matthew Cook (Fall 2018)
  •  Emerson Santiago# (Spring 2019),
  •  Zion Perry# (Spring 2021)
  •  Anjana Kammath# (Fall 2020)
  •  Christian Freniere (Fall 2020)
  •  A. Rodriguez# (Spring 2021-Summer 2022), Finalist, HHMI Gillum Fellowship

Microbiology Track      

  • Elizabeth Nand# (2018-19)
  • Andrew Verdegaal (2018-19)

MCGD Track               

Gabrielle Andrade# (2019-20)

Physics Track              

Amber Hudspeth# (Summer 2016)