Zhen Yu
He is a fifth year Chemistry graduate student. He is also a 2014 Pelotonia fellow. His current research involves G-quadraplex-targeting catalytic metallodrugs, artificial glycosidases that degrade carbohydrates, and sugar recognition.
Jessica Al
exander
She is a fifth year Chemistry graduate student. Her current research involves developing antimicrobial metallopeptides and metallodrugs targeting HCV IRES RNA.
Stephen Pears
on
He is a fourth year Biophysics graduate student. His current research focuses on Atm1p, an inner mitochondrial transporter whose proposed function is iron-sulfur cluster export. His main project focuses on Atm1p mutant that results in disease state.
Christine Wachnowsky
She is a fourth year OSBP graduate student. She is also a 2016 Presidential Fellow. Her current research focuses on kinetic models to describe the process of iron-sulfur cluster biosynthesis. She is also working on disease causing Atm1p mutants along with Stephen Pearson and also studying the disease causing mutant of the human protein Nfu.
Andrew Pinkham
He is a fourth year Chemistry graduate student. His current research focuses on developing catalytic metallodrugs as antivirals for West Nile virus, Zika virus and Dengue. Additionally, he is also investigating aspartyl (asparaginyl) beta-hydroxylase and its role in cancer.
Sambuddha Sen
He is a third year Chemistry graduate student. His current research focuses on iron-sulfur cluster environment in glutaredoxins and exonuclease proteins.
Joshua Olive
He is a second year OSBP graduate student. His current research focuses on iron-sulfur cluster proteins specifically glutaredoxins and IscA and the role of these proteins in cluster maturation from [2Fe-2S] clusters to [4Fe-4S] clusters.
Zech Thompson
He is a first year Chemistry graduate student. He is currently exploring small molecule/peptide lectins for drug delivery and use in industrial applications. He is also investigating sulfite reductase’s potential for reducing CO2 to CH3OH.
Elizabeth Auckley
She is a sophomore undergraduate student and works with Stephen Pearson in the lab. Her project involves studying the role of Dre2 and Erv1 in iron-sulfur cluster transport. She is also a recipient of the Research Scholar Award and Undergraduate Research Scholarship.
Nate Wesley
He is a senior biochemistry undergraduate student and works with Christine Wachnowsky in the lab. His project involves understanding the structure-function relationship of various disease-causing mutants of NFU1 protein. He has received several awards from the Undergraduate Research Office and the Honors College of Arts and Sciences to conduct research.