Outcomes Data
Trainee Survey Results
What We've Done Well - Tier 1 Trainee Survey Results
72.3% of Tier 1 Trainees rated a 5 or 4 when asked "In general, I found the "What's hot presentations to be informative and interesting on a scale of 1 to 5" |
64% of Tier 1 Trainees rated a 5 or 4 when asked "In general, I found the Alumni presentations to cover a range of topics that were relevant to my career goals and interest on a scale of 1 to 5" |
64.7% of Tier 1 Trainees rated a 5 or 4 when asked "My participation in the Tier 1 program helped develop my awareness of the broad range of Structural Biology and Molecular Biophysics research across the schools at UPenn" |
64.7% of Tier 1 Trainees rated a 5 or 4 when asked "Overall my participation in the Tier 1 program was useful to my graduate training at UPenn" |
Comments: |
"Learning more about the techniques and research in other fields within the department (especially during the "what's hot" presentations) was helpful because it provided great examples of how to present niche, focused work to a broader audience in a clear and succinct manner. I didn't necessarily apply anything from those presentations to my research directly, but it was a broadly instructive experience in terms of presentation skills" |
"It helps for collaborations and thinking differently about my projects to hear about diverse research happening in BMB at Penn" |
"Overall, career talks were helpful especially during those years because the graduate group was not actively hosting other events specific to alternative careers" |
"Participating in the alumni talks helped reinforce my career decision" |
Areas to Improve
"I generally did not find the journal club presentations useful especially because we didn't have the papers ahead of time. I found it hard to follow given the broad topics they are presented on when I haven't read the paper myself. I think in the future it would be helpful to have the trainees send the paper around to facilitate better discussion. It might be even better to meet twice a month and alternate a JC [Journal Club] with a research talk so there is more time." |
"Maybe a short discussion of a journal club paper with the faculty discussion leader prior to the presentation could be helpful for thinking about the paper and how to effectively lead a discussion." |
"including the ability to use the TG funding for printing posters would be beneficial, if possible. Having a meeting/discussion about the main techniques used in various labs in the department could be an exciting way to foster collaboration." |
2023 Graduates
Name | Graduate Group | Thesis Advisor | Current Position | Thesis Topic |
---|---|---|---|---|
Julian Stoute | BMB | Kathy (Fange) Liu |
Scientist, Strand Therapeutics |
Understanding the biological functions and importance of RNA modification and their associated writer enzymes and methods of regulation |
Mary Szurgot | BMB | Ronen Marmorstein | Law Student, Georgetown University Law Center | Structure and mechanism of the chaetomium thermophilum HIRA histone chaperone complex |
Faviolla A. Baez-Cruz | BMB | E.M. Ostap | TBD | Drosophila Class-I myosins that can impact Left-Right asymmetry have distinct ATPase kinetics |
2022 Graduates
Name | Graduate Group | Thesis Advisor | Current Position | Thesis Topic |
---|---|---|---|---|
Robert J Ontiveros | CHEM | Kathy (Fange) Liu |
Scientist, Sanofi Pasteur Biologics, LLC |
The coordination of mRNA and tRNA modifications |
Edwin Carl Fluck | BMB |
Vera Moiseenkova-Bell |
Cryo-EM Core Facility Manager, Weill Cornell Medical College | Structural Studies of TRPV5 Modulation |
Chloe Jones | BMB | E. James Petersson | Investigator, GlaxoSmithKline | Towards the Development of Intrinsically Fluorescent Unnatural Amino Acids for In Vivo incorporation into Proteins |
2020 Graduates
Name | Graduate Group | Thesis Advisor | Current Position | Thesis Topic |
---|---|---|---|---|
Jacquelyn Blum | CHEM | Jeffrey Saven |
Chemistry and Mathematics Teacher at Montclair Kimberley Academy |
Computational Design and Modeling of Helical Peptide Bundles in One-Dimensional Nanomaterials |
Austin Zimmet | BMB |
Roberto |
Associate, McKinsey & Company | Mechanisms of Activation and Inhibition of Arp2/3 Complex |
2019 Graduates
Name | Graduate Group | Thesis Advisor | Current Position | Thesis Topic |
---|---|---|---|---|
Dirk Auman | BMB | Les Dutton | Postdoc at the Karolinska Institute | Uncovering Biophysical Determinants of Oxidoreductase Function Through De Novo Protein Design |
Nicholas J. Porter | CHEM | David W. Christianson | Merck-HHWF Fellow, Frances H. Arnold Lab at Caltech | Selective Inhibition of Histone Deacetylases |
2018 Graduates
Name | Graduate Group | Thesis Advisor | Current Position | Thesis Topic |
---|---|---|---|---|
Christine Jorge | BMB | Josh Wand | Senior Scientist at Bristol-Myers Squibb | Optimization of Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy Methods for Measuring Protein Hydration in Reverse Micelles |
Evan O'Brien | BMB | Josh Wand | Postdoctoral Scholar at Stanford University | Structure, Function & Dynamics at the Membrane |
James Townsend | BMB | Alison Sweeney | Postdoc at U of Florida | Biophysical Methods in Ctenophore Physiology, or Tentacular Spectacular: A Jellyfishertation |
2017 Graduates
Name | Graduate Group | Thesis Advisor | Current Position | Thesis Topic |
---|---|---|---|---|
Eric Babiash | BMB | Gideon Dreyfuss | Postdoctoral Research Associate, Howard Hughes Medical Institute | The Gemin2 Complex: An Evolving View of SMN Mediated snRNP Assembly |
Chris Bialas | BMB | Les Dutton | Postdoctoral Researcher, University of Pennsylvania | The Design and Engineering of an Artificial Protein Magnetosensor |
Jarrett Remsberg | BMB | Mitch Lazar/Benjamin Garcia | Research Associate, Scripps Research Institute | Biochemical and Functional Studies of Histone Deacetylase 3 in Metabolic Tissues |
2016 Graduates
Name | Graduate Group | Thesis Advisor | Current Position | Thesis Topic |
---|---|---|---|---|
Atrish Bagchi | BMB | Kate Ferguson | Postdoctoral Researcher, University of Pennsylvania | Mechanisms of Extracellular Oncogenic Dysregulation and Antibody Targeting of the Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor |
Evan Smoak | BMB | Ben Black /Mike Lampson | Medical Writer, Arcus Medica | Mechanisms of Transgenerational Centromere Inheritance |
Matthew Stetz | BMB | Josh Wand | Postdoctoral Researcher, University of Pennsylvania | Revisiting Allostery in Lac Repressor |
2015 Graduates
Name | Graduate Group | Thesis Advisor | Current Position | Thesis Topic |
---|---|---|---|---|
Roland Rivera-Santiago | BMB | Roberto Dominguez | Licensing Intern (secondary), Wistar Institute | Application and Refinement of a Zero-Length Chemical Cross-Linking and Mass Spectrometry Method to Examine Native Protein Structures |
2014 Graduates
Name | Graduate Group | Thesis Advisor | Current Position | Thesis Topic |
---|---|---|---|---|
Nick Bessman | BMB | Mark Lemmon | Postdoctoral Associate, Weill Cornell Medical College | Novel Insights in the Allosteric Activation of the Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor |
Devin Dersh | BMB | Yair Argon | Postdoctoral Research Fellow, National Institutes of Health | Quality Control Machinery of the Endoplasmic Reticulum in Health and Disease |
David Slochower | BMB | Paul Janmey | Postdoctoral Scholar, University of California San Diego | Multiscale Simulations of Phosphatidylinositol Bisphosphate: Understanding Its Biological Role Through Physical Chemistry |
Currently In Training
Trainee | Faculty Member | Topic of Research | Status |
---|---|---|---|
Yannatos, Isabel | Macmillian, Corey | DNA methylation as a biological marker of racial disparities in age-related health outcomes | In Training |
Fiore, Kristen E. | Petersson, E. James | The effects of thioamide incorporation into prevalent secondary structure motifs | In Training |
Srikumar, Neha | Issadore, David Aaron | Microfluidic applications for mass spectrometry, specifically pertaining to single cell proteomics and hydrogen-deuterium exchange | In Training |
Yanas, Amber | Liu, Fange (Katherine) | Investigating sex-dimorphic RNA helicases in regulation of RNA metabolism through phase separation | In Training |
Gallo, Pamela N. | Moiseenkova-Bell, Vera Yuryevna | Investigating the role of TRPV2 in the endosomal pathway of neurons | In Training |
Ostaszewski, Christopher | Saven, Jeffrey | Researching a computational method for making water soluble variants of membrane proteins | In Training |
Owens, Michael | Liu, Fange (Katherine) | Contributions of intrinsically disordered regions to RNA modifying and RNA interacting enzymes | In Training |
Sustek, Samantha | Skordalakes, Emmanuel | Structure and function of Telomerase nucleoprotein assembles, with the well-motivated goal of pursuing atomic resolution structures of intact telomerase assemblies that will in turn inform drug design | In Training |
Creekmore, Benjamin | Chang, Yi Wei & Lee, Edward B. | Structural and mechanistic insights into VCP's interaction with neurodegenerative disease related fibrils | In Training |
Copley, Katie E. | Shorter, James | Developing RNA therapeutics targeting TDP-43 proteinopathy in ALS/FTD | In Training |
Fregoso, Fred | Dominquez, Roberto | Regulatory mechanisms of cytoskeleton remodeling and how defects in these systems contribute to human disease | In Training |
Santiago-Ruiz, Adriana | Lakadamyali, Melike | Influence of hyper-phosphorylation sites of tau on the morphology of tau aggregates of all sizes, especially pre-NFT tau aggregates found in neurodegenerative diseases | In Training |
Rafizadeh, Diane N. | Chenoweth, David M. | Synthesis and application of cyclic collagen mimetic peptides (CMPs) | In Training |
Gardner, Sarah | Marmorstein, Ronen | Molecular characterization and inhibition of hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase family member VII | In Training |
Eaton, Samuel | Christianson, David | Analyzing structure-function relationships of terpene cyclases through x-ray crystallography, cryo-EM, mutagenesis, GC/MS product analysis and computational modeling and docking | In Training |
Boka, Alan | Mir, Mustafa | Biophysical modeling of transcription factor diffusion and the spatiotemporal regulation of transcriptional kinetics during eukaryotic embryogensis | In Training |
Baltrusaitis, Elana | Dominguez, Roberto | Biochemical and structural studies of the role of the cytoskeleton in mitochondrial dynamics | In Training |
Jabak, Adam A. | Goldman, Yale | Protein synthesis dynamics by ensemble and single molecule experiments | In Training |
Woodward, Helen L. | Sgourakis, Nikolaos | Investigating the important biophysical and structural features of interleukin-2 and other therapeutically relevant immune proteins using NMR | In Training |