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)

Sibel Ebru Yalcin (Research Scientist)

Vasilije Pantelic (Undergraduate Student - Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry)

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: 2 (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.

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
  • Yixuan Chen# (Fall 2023-Summer 2024)
  • Jonmatthew Bile# (Spring 2024-Summer 2024)

Microbiology Track      

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

MCGD Track               

Gabrielle Andrade# (2019-20)

Physics Track              

Amber Hudspeth# (Summer 2016)