Biophysics | Research Interests

Name	Email	PhD Program
Simmons, Jake EMAIL	PHD PROGRAM RESEARCH INTEREST Biochemistry, Biophysics, Molecular Biology	“I find myself loving molecular biology techniques, but I always come back to asking how the chemistry works. For this reason, I maintain a great openness in where I land in my rotations, however, I am confident any sort of mechanistic approach will fill my curiosity. Anywhere between protein and cells, interests me. Biochemistry or molecular biology is where I see myself thriving. Particularly, I recently developed an interest in Cryo-EM, however, I’ll admit I have never researched using it.”
Do, Jamie EMAIL	PHD PROGRAM RESEARCH INTEREST Biochemistry, Biophysics, Chemical Biology	“Building on my previous research experience in thiol redox chemistry, enzymology, and protein design, I am eager to delve deeper into the field of macromolecular structure and dynamics as well as chemical biology. For instance, I want to investigate the conformational changes of macromolecules and develop novel small molecule inhibitors for targeted drug delivery. From my current knowledge, the Biochemistry and Biophysics and Pharmaceutical Sciences programs within BBSP will provide the ideal environment for pursuing these research interests. I am also excited about the opportunity to rotate in a lab whose research focus is beyond what I have mentioned.”
Jimenez, Alli EMAIL	PHD PROGRAM RESEARCH INTEREST Biochemistry, Biophysics, Physiology	“I am interested in using biochemistry and biophysics to investigate mechanisms underlying certain disease states. In particular, I find the mechanics of protein folding and dynamics to be very intriguing.”
Hughes, Jake EMAIL	PHD PROGRAM RESEARCH INTEREST Biophysics, Drug Discovery	“I am interested in exploring the world of novel protein design and development for a variety of applications including disease and drug discovery, novel synthetic methods and environmental impacts.”
Oguche, Solomon EMAIL	PHD PROGRAM RESEARCH INTEREST Biophysics, Computational Biology, Structural Biology	“I am interested in understanding the underlying principles of protein engineering and design (PED). My goal is to utilize computational and experimental tools with the understanding of PED principles in developing novel protein-based therapeutics against human diseases.”
Arango, Maria EMAIL	PHD PROGRAM RESEARCH INTEREST Biophysics, Drug Discovery, Structural Biology	“Interested in pursuing research that focuses on using biophysical methods to answer and elucidate structures of protein/small molecule that can be used a potential therapeutic and has wide applications in medicine. Also interested in protein design and gaining computation skills to potentially design proteins from scratch.”
Kratochvil, Huong WEBSITE EMAIL PUBLICATIONS	PHD PROGRAM Chemistry RESEARCH INTEREST Biophysics, Chemical Biology, Structural Biology	We take inspiration from Nature to build new proteins that guide our understanding of how natural proteins function: we can distill complex natural proteins into simple model proteins where we have exact control over the physicochemical properties of the entire system. Our group combines protein design strategies with biochemistry, biophysics, and structural biology to 1) test mechanistic hypotheses of membrane protein structure and function, and 2) define novel protein-protein interactions in immunology for engineering protein-based therapeutics.
Yan, Zijie WEBSITE EMAIL PUBLICATIONS	PHD PROGRAM Applied Physical Sciences RESEARCH INTEREST Biochemistry, Biomaterials, Biophysics, Cell Biology, Nanomedicine	The Yan lab works at the interface of material science, photonics, and biology. We synthesize metal, metal oxide and upconversion nanoparticles for biophotonics and biomedicine applications. We use holographic optical tweezers and atomic force microscope (AFM) to trap and manipulate single nanoparticles, and use them as probes to study nano-bio interactions, including biosensing, bionanomechanics and cell biology. We conduct these studies with a customized multi-modal correlative optical system that combines the nanomanipulation module with advanced optical microscopy and spectroscopy techniques.
Nazockdast, Ehssan WEBSITE EMAIL PUBLICATIONS	PHD PROGRAM Applied Physical Sciences RESEARCH INTEREST Biomaterials, Biophysics, Cell Biology, Computational Biology	We are interested in the physics of soft and squishy materials, especially the organization and mechanics of living cellular materials. We use theory and simulation in close collaboration with experiments to understand the complex structural and mechanical behavior of these systems. These questions and our approach to them are interdisciplinary and intersect several traditional fields, including cell biology, biophysics, fluid dynamics and applied mathematics.
Freeman, Ronit WEBSITE EMAIL PUBLICATIONS	PHD PROGRAM Applied Physical Sciences, Biomedical Engineering, Chemistry RESEARCH INTEREST Biomaterials, Biophysics, Cancer Biology, Cell Biology, Cell Signaling, Drug Delivery, Drug Discovery, Nanomedicine, Translational Medicine	My lab focuses on developing bioinspired molecular constructs and material platforms that can mimic proteins and be programmed to respond to stimuli resulting from biomolecular recognition. Major efforts are directed to design peptide- and nucleic acid-based scaffolds or injectable nanostructures to create artificial extracellular matrices that can directly signal cells.

Research Interest: Biophysics