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)
Others
Laura I Francis (senior adviser) – provides needed guidance, insight, and general sanity
Previous Lab Members
The lab has had the privilege of hosting many scientists from all paths, cultures and career stages.
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, class of 2020) is currently a PhD student at UMass Chan.
Benjamin Barros (BMB, class of 2020) is working as a technician at MIT.
Kethney Massenat (BMB, class of 2020) is working as a technician at MGH.
Rilee Zeinert (MCB graduate student, graduated 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, Class of 2019) is a lab manager for the Bernhardt lab at Harvard Medical School.
Liam Fitzgerald (BMB, Class of 2019) is working at Sanofi.
Elizabeth Bond (BMB, Class of 2019) is a graduate student at UCSF in the Tetrad program.
Jeff Gao (BMB, Class 2019) is working as a technician at MGH.
Robert Vass (Doctoral Student, MCB) 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 (BS-BMB 2017) is working at Abbvie
Kamal Joshi (MCB-PhD 2017) is working at Genentech as a postdoc.
Lisa Hernandez Alicea (Doctoral Student, MCB)
Joanne Lau (Micro-PhD 2016) is working as a postdoc at Caltech.
Nathan Colon undergraduate (Spring 2010)/technican (Summer 2010), graduated 2010, BMB. – MD program – Drexler University
Laura I Francis, Ph.D. (postdoc 2010-2011) is now an instructor with the Biology Department here at UMass.
Keith Rood (Masters Student, BMB) has graduated – current position: Sasisekharan Lab at Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research (MIT).
Keith Ballard (MCB) was a rotation student in the lab – Spring 2010.
Sid Avani (MCB) was a rotation student in the lab – Fall 2011.
Claudine Mapa (graduated 2012, BMB major) currently a PhD graduate student at UMass Worcester.
Patrick Stoddard (graduated 2012, BMB major) currently a PhD graduate student at Harvard MCB.
Martin Susskind (graduated 2012, BMB major) currently on the West Coast.
Amber Cantin (MS 2012, BS 2012, BMB) currently working at Novartis Institute for Biomedical Research in Cambridge.
Paula Muchlnickel (Masters Diploma Student, Ruhr University, Germany); 2012-2013 is currently a PhD student at the Max Planck Dortmund.
Nousheen Hamid Bhat, Ph.D. was developing new methodologies for discovery of novel ClpXP substrates.
Gagandeep Singh (class of 2013, BMB major) is currently an MD student at Brown.
Alexander Duval (class of 2013, BMB major) worked on characterization of novel PAS domains in Caulobacter.
Brian Shin (class of 2013, Biology major) is a technician in the Burton lab at Harvard MCB.
Ying Zhang (class of 2013, BMB major) is currently working as a technician in Boston.
Daniel Dicorpo (class of 2013, BMB major) is currently a PhD student at Brown.
Justin Li (class of 2014, BMB major) worked on determining how DnaA is degraded.
Saskia Heybrouck (visiting student, Ruhr University, Germany; 2014) is finishing her diploma in Germany
Vincent Borowy (class of 2015, BMB major) worked on ClpC unfoldases in chloroplasts.