Alumni

Post-Docs

Name Year(s) Project Where Are They Now?
Christine Wurth 2000 – 2002 Mapping the Sequence Determinants of the Aggregation of the Alzheimer’s A-beta Peptide Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd, Basel, Switzerland
Luke Bradley 2001 – 2006 Design and Construction of Combinatorial Libraries of Novel Proteins Associate Professor, University of Kentucky Medical School, Lexington, KY.
Michael Ackerman 2003 – 2005 Structural Studies of de Novo Designed Beta Sheet Proteins Bristol-Myers Squibb, Princeton NJ.
Ryoichi Arai 2006 – 2007 Phage Display of Combinatorial Libraries of Novel Proteins Assistant Professor, Shinshu University, Nagano, Japan.
Izhack Cherny 2007 – 2011 Functional Proteins from an Artificial Proteome Felsenstein Medical Research Center
Betsy Smith 2010 – 2014 Laboratory evolution of de novo proteins toward higher activity and enhanced specificity Assistant Professor, Elimra College
Grant S. Murphy 2012-2016 Computational/Combinatorial Design of Libraries of Stable Proteins Merck Inc.
Josh Mancini 2017-2018 Designing a De Novo Hydrogenase with combinatorial protein design Beyond Meat
Shlomo Zarzhitsky 2015-2021 De Novo Expession Enhancer Proteins (DEEPs) for Production of Insulin and other Bio-active Peptides Bristol Myers Squibb

Graduate Students

Name Department Year(s) Thesis Title Where Are They Now?
Dave Moffet Chemistry Ph.D. 2002 Functional Proteins From a Designed Combinatorial Library Professor, Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles, CA.
Yinan Wei Chemistry Ph.D. 2003 Structural and Functional Studies of Well Folded Alpha Helical Proteins from a Designed Combinatorial Library Associate Professor, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY.
Aditi Das Chemistry Ph.D. 2005 Electrochemical and Functional Studies of de Novo Alpha Helical Proteins from a Designed Combinatorial Library Associate Professor, University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign
Woojin Kim Chemistry Ph.D. 2006 Sequence Determinants and Inhibition of the Aggregation of the Alzheimer’s ABeta Peptide Harvard Medical School
Abi Go Chemistry Ph.D. 2008 Structural and Dynamics of de Novo Proteins form a Designed Superfamily of 4-Helix Bundles Univeristy of Houston Law School
Shona Patel Chemical Engineering Ph.D. 2008 The Functional Potential of De Novo Designed Four-Helix Bundle Proteins Merck Inc, West Point, PA.
Jermont Chen Chemistry Ph.D. 2008 Using High Throughput Screens to Identify Lead Compounds for Alzheimer’s Disease Theraputics Propulsion Directorate, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, OH.
Mike Fisher Molecular Biology Ph.D. 2009 Toward de Novo Genomes Informed by Protein Design Senior Fellow, Federation of American Scientists
Emily Breneman Chemistry M.A. Screening de Novo Four-Helix Bundle Protein Libraries for Enzymatic Activity Using mRNA Display Vector Biolabs, Inc., Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic
Angela Fortner-McKoy Chemistry Ph.D 2011 Characterization of Novel Inhibitors of Alzheimer’s Peptide Aggregation and Implications for Disease Therapeutics Visiting Assistant Professor, Wheaton College
Maria Korolev Chemistry Ph.D 2013 Investigating the mechanism of two synthetic proteins found to rescue E. coli auxotrophic strains ΔgltA and Δges Lecturer at University of Florida
Ann Donnelly Chemistry Ph.D 2016 Exploring the Functional Potential of de novo Proteins University of Pittsburg
Katie Digianantonio Chemistry Ph.D 2016 Uncovering the Mechanism by which de novo Designed Proteins Rescue Auxotrophic E. coli cells Arninas Inc.
Kenric Hoegler Molecular Biology Ph.D 2016 Natural and de novo Proteins in Transition Metal Binding and Toxicity Senior Analyst,  Insight Strategy Advisors
Christina Karas Molecular Biology Ph.D 2019 A strategy for combinatorial cavity design in de novo proteins Modern Meadows
Michael Wang Chemistry Ph.D 2022 Life Essential Interactions Between Metals, Nucleotides, and De Novo Proteins ZymoChem

Undergraduate Students

Name Department Year(s) Thesis Title Where Are They Now?
Anna Wang Chemistry AB 2006 Sequence, Expression, and Structural Characterization of a High-Quality De Novo Combinatorial Four Helix Bundle Library Harvard University, Cambridge MA
Jesse Platt Chemistry AB 2007 Biophysical Characterization of De Novo Four Helix Bundle Proteins University of Pennsylvania Medical School, Philidelphia PA.
Ellen Duncan Chemistry AB 2007 Expression and Enzymatic Activity in Proteins from a Combinatorial Library of De Novo Proteins Columbia University Medical School
Debbie Chen Molecular Biology AB 2007 The Aβ42-GFP Fusion Screen: A High Throughput Screen for Compounds that Inhibit Aggregation of the Alzheimer’s Peptide University of Connecticut Medical School
Sayuri Jinadasa Chemistry AB 2008 Screening, Purification, and Kinetic Characterization of de novo Proteins from a Designed Combinatorial Library Columbia University Medical School, New York, NY.
Anne Armstrong Chemistry AB 2008 Exploring the Primary Sequence Det, erminants of Amyloid Beta Aggregation: Towards a Targeted Therapeutic Approach to Alzheimer’s Disease Mount Sinai Medical School
Sara Viola Molecular Biology AB 2008 Novel Proteins from a Designed Combinatorial Library Restore Prototrophy in Single Gene knockouts of Escherichia Coli. Columbia University Medical School, New York, NY
Steve Sasson Chemistry AB 2009 A Bacterial Surface Display Library for the High-Throughput Screening and Selection of De Novo Designed Four-Helix Bundle Proteins JP Morgan, New York, NY
Sam Leachman Chemistry AB 2009 Redesigning a Dynamic Artificial Protein University of California, Berkeley
Beverly Hon Molecular Biology AB 2009 Novel Proteins from a Designed Combinatorial Library Suppress Conditional Auxotrophs in Saccharomyces Cerevisiae University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey
Jessica Langholtz Chemistry AB 2009 Screening and Enzymatic Characterization of De Novo Proteins from a Designed Combinatorial Library Teaching in Philadelphia, PA.
Atrish Bagchi Chemistry AB 2010 Synthetic Biology: Metal-Binding Proteins from a Combinatorially Designed Artificial Proteome Grad Student at UPenn
Kara McKinley Molecular Biology AB 2010 Conditionally Essential and Promiscuous Function of De Novo Designed Proteins in Escherichia coli Grad Student at MIT (Biology)
David Canner Chemistry AB 2011 Examination of Efficacy of Pro-Aggregation Compounds in the Treatment of A-Beta Mediated Toxicity in a Drosophila melanogaster Alzheimer’s Disease Model Grad Student at MIT (Biology)
Dan Echelman Chemistry AB 2011 A biochemical characterization of a synthetic iron metabolism protein Columbia University, MD/PhD program
Ros Kellen Molecular Biology AB 2011 De novo four-helix bundles restore cell growth of auxotrophic Escherichia coli Cornell University Medical School
Charlotte Rajasingh Chemistry AB 2011 Characterization of De Novo Sequences that Rescue the Deletion of Phosphoserine Phosphatase in Escherichia coli Stanford University Medical School
Maria Aristova Chemical Engineering AB 2012 Characterizing the Function of a de novo Protein Conferring Antibiotic Resistance in E. Coli Northwestern, MD/PhD program
Laura Bock Molecular Biology AB 2012 Characterization of a de novo Sequence that Rescues the Delection of Phosphoadenosine Phosphosulfate Reductase in E. Coli Consultant at Oliver Wyman
Richard Hildreth Molecular Biology AB 2013 Investigations into the Activity of the Novel Protein SynFes-2
Eliza Hompe Chemistry AB 2014 Investigation into the Enzymatic Function of an Evolved de novo Protein
Jack Greisman Molecular Biology AB 2014 Characterization of Functional Proteins from a Combinatorial Library of de novo Designed Sequences D.E. Shaw Research
Kelly Ivins-O’Keefe Chemistry AB 2014 Probing Unevolved Sequence Space for Metal Binding Uniformed Services University Medical School
James Agolia Chemistry AB 2016 Toward Functional de novo Proteins: Searching for Kemp Elimination Catalysis and Embelin Binding in Designed Combinatorial Libraries Harvard Medical School
Bennett McIntosh Chemistry AB 2016 Negative Selection with a de novo Library of Amphiphilic Peptides from Unevolved Sequence space Scientific Writer for the Hertz Foundation
Matthew Volpe Chemical & Biological Engineering BSE 2016 Structural Characterization of a Computationally Designed de novo Protein Library by NMR Grad Student at Harvard (Chemistry and Chemical Biology)
Taylor Myers Chemistry AB 2017 Characterization of Functionally Active Proteins from a Combinatorial Library of Novel Sequences
Elizabeth Stanley Chemical & Biological Engineering BSE 2018 Enhancing Expression of Hydrophobic Peptides in E. coli via Fusion to Novel Proteins Brigham and Women’s Hospital at Harvard University Medical School
Emily Schneider Chemical & Biological Engineering BSE 2018 Creating a Library of Functional, Well Ordered de novo Proteins Broad Institute at Harvard University and MIT
Colin Yost Chemistry AB 2019 Searching for de novo Proteins Capable of Performing Non-natural, Life-sustaining Reactions in E. coli Sidney Kimmel Medical College at Thomas Jefferson University
Esther Choi Chemistry AB 2019 Searching for RNA-Protein Interactions: Methodology to Screen Library of Artificial Proteins for RNA-Binding Robert Wood Johnson Medical School at Rutgers University
Jessi Dessau Chemistry AB 2020

Design, Construction, and Characterization of the Synthetically Derived Homodimeric Enzymatic Activity Library
Alex Jiang Molecular Biology AB 2020

A “DEEP” alternative to heterologous protein expression

 Robert Wood Johnson Medical School at Rutgers University
Natalie Bahrami Chemistry AB 2021
Shanaz Deen Chemistry AB 2021
Kaelix Johnson Chemistry AB 2022 Steps Toward a New Biological Canon: Directed Evolution of a Structurally Unique de novo ATPase
Ananya Vinayak Chemistry
Daniel Strayer Chemistry