Figure 1: The Chien lab, circa 2024
Principal Investigator
Peter Chien, Ph.D.
Current Lab Members
Graduate Students
Graduate training and education is a crucial aspect of our laboratory culture. Here are our current students:
Justyne Ogdahl
MCB PhD student; BTP trainee
Studying how regulators affect the Lon protease.
jogdahl@umass.edu
Berent Aldıkaçtı
MCB PhD student; CBI trainee
Studying how systems wide fitness profiling informs on protein homeostasis.
baldikacti@mcb.umass.edu
Kübra Yiğit
MCB PhD student; CBI trainee
Understanding how Lon manages oxidative stress.
kyigit@mcb.umass.edu
Dylan Frank
MCB PhD student; BTP trainee
Discovering new protein effectors of Lon.
dafrank@mcb.umass.edu
Hidayet Pütün
MCB PhD student
Clarifying the role of proteases in DNA damage.
hputun@umass.edu
James Russo
Microbiology PhD student; CBI trainee
Exploring adaptor-mediated degradation.
jamesrusso@umass.edu
Alex Martinez
MCB MS student
Determining how small molecule binding affects adaptors.
alexmartinez@umass.edu
Undergraduate Students
Many of us gained our passion for science through undergraduate experiences, we are thrilled to host these students:
Chidinma Nwodo (BMB)
Anna Chapman (BMB)
Khrystyna Fedak (BMB)
Previous Lab Members
The lab has had the privilege of hosting many scientists from all paths, cultures and career stages.
Laura I Francis (postdoc 2010-2011, senior adviser) – provides needed guidance, insight, and general sanity. Instructor with the Biology Department here at UMass.
Anastasia Amankwah (BS, 2024) currently working in the Boston area
Kylie LaBianca (BS, 2024) currently working in the Boston area
Sydney Correira (BS, 2024) currently working in the Boston area
Brian Lageman (BS, 2024) currently working in the Boston area
Busola Oreofe (BS, 2024)
Maxwell Campbell (MS, 2024) currently PhD student at UMass Chan Medical School
Thomas Scudder (MS, 2023) currently PhD student at University of Rochester
Samar Mahmoud (PhD, 2022) currently working at Becton Dickinson
Patrick Cann (BS, 2022) currently PhD student at Johns Hopkins University
Pheobe Kim (BS, 2021) currently working in the Boston Area
Nathan Kuhlmann (PhD, 2021) currently working at New England Biolabs
Tommy Tashjian (Postdoc; PhD from Northeastern University, 2018) currently faculty at Amherst College.
Dylan Doxsey (BMB, 2020) is currently a PhD student at UMass Chan.
Benjamin Barros (BMB, 2020) is working as a technician at MIT.
Kethney Massenat (BMB, 2020) is working as a technician at MGH.
Rilee Zeinert (MCB PhD, 2020) is now a postdoc with Gigi Storz at NIH.
Nina Conzelmann (visiting MS student from Germany) was characterizing the Lon protease.
James Spencer (BMB, 2019) is a lab manager for the Bernhardt lab at Harvard Medical School.
Liam Fitzgerald (BMB, 2019) is working at Sanofi.
Elizabeth Bond (BMB, 2019) is a graduate student at UCSF in the Tetrad program.
Jeff Gao (BMB, 2019) is working as a technician at MGH.
Robert Vass (MCB PhD) is working at Onyx Therapeutics.
Jing Liu (MCB PhD) is living in San Francisco.
Madeline Sutherland (lab assistant) is now a doctoral student at MIT
Jake Nascembeni (BMB, 2017) is working at Abbvie
Kamal Joshi (MCB PhD, 2017) is working at Genentech as a postdoc.
Lisa Hernandez Alicea (MCB PhD)
Joanne Lau (Microbiology PhD, 2016) is working as a postdoc at Caltech.
Vincent Borowy (BMB, 2015) worked on ClpC unfoldases in chloroplasts.
Saskia Heybrouck (visiting student, Ruhr University, Germany; 2014) is finishing her diploma in Germany
Justin Li (BMB, 2014) worked on determining how DnaA is degraded.
Daniel Dicorpo (BMB, 2013) is currently a PhD student at Brown.
Ying Zhang (BMB, 2013) is currently working as a technician in Boston.
Gagandeep Singh (BMB, 2013) is currently an MD student at Brown.
Brian Shin (Biology, 2013) is a technician in the Burton lab at Harvard MCB.
Alexander Duval (BMB, 2013) worked on characterization of novel PAS domains in Caulobacter.
Nousheen Hamid Bhat, Ph.D. (postdoc) was developing new methodologies for discovery of novel ClpXP substrates.
Paula Muchlnickel (MS, 2012-2013 Ruhr University, Germany) is currently a PhD student at the Max Planck Dortmund.
Amber Cantin (MS 2012, BS BMB 2012) currently working at Novartis Institute for Biomedical Research in Cambridge.
Martin Susskind (BMB, 2012) currently on the West Coast.
Patrick Stoddard (BMB, 2012) currently a PhD graduate student at Harvard MCB.
Claudine Mapa (BMB, 2012) currently a PhD graduate student at UMass Worcester.
Sid Avani (MCB) was a rotation student in fall 2011.
Keith Ballard (MCB) was a rotation student in spring 2010.
Keith Rood (BMB MS) current position: Sasisekharan Lab at Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research (MIT).
Nathan Colon (BMB, 2010; technician) graduated from MD program at Drexler University