Outcomes Data & Alumni
Trainee Survey Results
What We've Done Well - Tier 1 Trainee Survey Results
| 61% 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" |
| 89% 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" |
| 72% 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" |
| 94% 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: |
| "The exposure to a wide breadth of potential career options beyond academia was incredibly valuable to my career trajectory." |
| "Hearing alumni tell stories of turning struggles into success gave me the confidence to face some challenges that I experience, especially ones that seem small in comparison to these stories" |
| "Most scientists I know only talk about going into academia or industry post grad, as if these are the only two choices. It was nice to hear about other paths that UPenn graduates have taken and the opportunities at Penn that are available to us now to help set us on track to reach out end goals by the time of graduation." |
What We've Done Well - Tier 2 Trainee Survey Results
| 57% of Tier 2 Trainees rated a 5 or 4 when asked "I found the journal club presentations of my cohort to be informative and interesting" on a scale of 1 to 5 |
| 100% of Tier 2 Trainees rated a 5 or 4 when asked "I appreciated having the chance to learn more in depth about the research carried out by other trainees and found the Tier 2 presentations a useful format for this" on a scale of 1 to 5 |
| 86% of Tier 2 Trainees rated a 5 or 4 when asked "I found preparing the journal club presentation to be useful to my overall training" on a scale of 1 to 5 |
| 100% of Tier 2 Trainees rated a 5 or 4 when asked "I found preparing the research presentation to be useful to my overall training" on a scale of 1 to 5 |
| 100% of Tier 2 Trainees rated a 5 or 4 when asked "Overall my participation in the Tier 2 program was useful to my graduate training at UPenn" |
| Comments: |
| "My participation in Tier 2 of the SBMB Training Grant has had a tremendously positive impact on my graduate school experience. I have had the opportunity to network with alumni working in careers I would like to pursue, attended a conference that helped accelerate my research progress, and learned more about the resources I can use for my dissertation project." |
| "Access to a community of peers enabled me to apply many methods beyond those used regularly in our lab, and provided useful feedback and suggestions for my current and future research." |
| "Preparing for my journal club presentation was very useful for me because I was able to really dive deep into the methods-based paper I presented. I learned the specifics of the method and had a thoughtful discussion about the limitations of the method with my fellow trainees." |
Areas to Improve
| "Maybe more forums to present our work? Perhaps with the other TGs?" |
|
Careers/Topics not covered that trainees would like to see include:
|
2024 Graduates
| Name | Graduate Group | Thesis Advisor | Current Position | Thesis Topic |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Karen Acosta | BBCB | Elizabeth Rhoades | ||
| Benjamin Creekmore | BBCB | Yi-Wei Chang & Edward Lee | Medical Student, University of Pennsylvania | Structural and Functional Characterization and Therapeutic Targeting of valosin-containing protein (VCP) |
| Sam Eaton | CHEM | David Christianson | Research Scientist, Penn State University | Studied the structural and mechanistic biochemistry of terpenoid natural product biosynthesis |
| Sarah Gardner | BBCB | Ronen Marmorstein | Structural Biology Co-op, Kymera Therapeutics | Led the development of high throughput screening initiative targeting a potential therapeutic target candidate and evaluated mechanism of action of small molecule inhibitors using fluorescense and luminescense based assays. Additionally utilized both cryo-EM and x-ray crystallography to determine structures of multi-protein complexes and small molecule inhibitor bound proteins. |
| Fred Fregoso | BBCB | Roberto Dominquez | Scientist I, Structural Biology General Proximity | Regulatory mechanisms of cyroskeleton remodeling and how defects in these systems contribute to human disease |
| Pamela Gallo | BBCB | Vera Moiseenkova-Bell | Postdoctoral Research Associate, Biochemistry Weill Cornell Medicine | Structural and Dynamis Proximal Proteomic Analysis of TRPV2 Ion Channel Activation |
| Amber Yanas | BBCB | Kathy (Fange) Liu | Scientist, Johnson and Johnson | Unveiling the Biophysical Choreography of DDX3X and DDX3Y in Enzymatic Clusters |
2023 Graduates
| Name | Graduate Group | Thesis Advisor | Current Position | Thesis Topic |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Julian Stoute | BMB | Kathy (Fange) Liu |
Scientist, Strand Therapeutics |
Nucleo-loss: Characterization of Ribosome Biogenesis Factor DIMT1 |
| Faviolla Baez-Cruz | BMB | Mike Ostap | Postdoctoral Research Scientist, University of Pennsylvania | Drosophila Class-I myosins that can impact Left-Right asymmetry have distinct ATPase kinetics |
| Mary Szurgot | BMB | Ronen Marmorstein | Law Student, Georgetown University Law Center | Structure and mechanism of the chaetomium thermophilum HIRA histone chaperone complex |
| Kristen Fiore | CHEM | E. James Petersson | Scientist, Amide Technologies, Inc | The effects of thioamide incorporation into prevalent secondary structure motifs |
| Isabel Yannatos | BMB | Corey MacMillian | Science Policy Fellow, Ways and Means Healthcare Team, New York Assembly | Conduct rigorous quantitative research and data analysis to investigate the role of environmental, psychosocial, and structural factors in racial disparities in epigenetic aging and cognitive health |
2022 Graduates
| Name | Graduate Group | Thesis Advisor | Current Position | Thesis Topic |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nikaela Bryan | BMB | Ben Black | Journal Manager, AIP Publishing | Studied the structural basis of protein phase separation using various mass spectrometry and biophysical analyses |
| Robert J Ontiveros | CHEM | Kathy (Fange) Liu |
Scientist, Sanofi Pasteur Biologics, LLC |
The coordination of mRNA and tRNA modifications |
| Charlotte Fare | BMB | Jim Shorter | Investigator, GSK | My thesis work focused on engineering the nuclear-import receptor, Karyopherin-β2, to recognize and disaggregate ALS-associated mutants of RNA-binding proteins with prion-like domains, including FUS and hnRNPA1. |
| 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 |
2021 Graduates
| Name | Graduate Group | Thesis Advisor | Current Position | Thesis Topic |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ryan Cupo | Pharmocology | Jim Shorter | Postdoctoral Research Fellow, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) | |
| Jacque Faylo | CHEM | David Christianson | Investigator of Biophysics & Target Discovery, GSK | |
| Nicole Kerstetter | BMB | Josh Wand | Investigator, GSK | |
| Hau Truong | BMB | Nik Sgourakis | Associate Scientist, Janssen Research & Development, LLC | To investigate the global domain motions of class I major histocompatibility complex using nuclear magnetic resonance |
| Carolyn White | CHEM | Jessica Anna | Phamaceutical Chemist, Catalent | Research focuses on using two-dimensional electronic spectroscopy (2DES) to study chlorophyll in different solvent environments and under different aggregation states |
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 University 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Srikumar, Neha | Issadore, David Aaron | Microfluidic applications for mass spectrometry, specifically pertaining to single cell proteomics and hydrogen-deuterium exchange | In Training |
| Ostaszewski, Christopher | Saven, Jeffrey | Researching a computational method for making water soluble variants of membrane proteins | In Training |
| Owens, Michael | Liu, Fange (Kathy) | 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 |
| Copley, Katie E. | Shorter, James | Developing RNA therapeutics targeting TDP-43 proteinopathy in ALS/FTD | 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 |
| Bailer, Peter F. | Kohli, Rahul M. | Combine the principles of the PAGE system with structural knowledge of the DNA-binding proteins to develop the first reported fully-protein-based HDR gene editing system | In Training |
| Flores, Joseph A. | Trauner, Dirk H. | Developing photoswitchable PROTACS designed to selectively engage POIs fused with a unique degron tag | In Training |
| Holubovska, Polina | Rhoades, Elizabeth | To identify the interactome of tau and determine how individual binding partners impact tau function | In Training |
| Nguyen, Andy T. | Murakami, Kenji | Dissecting the Molecular Basis of Nucleosome Stabilization to Yeast Rpd3L | In Training |
| Kelly, Devin | Bowman, Gregory | Capturing co-crystal structures of small molecules that bind to cryptic pocket in Ebola VP35 | In Training |
| Kim, Hannah H. | Lakadamyali, Melike | Examining chromatin organization and transcriptional activity in chondrocyte dedifferentiation | In Training |
| Garfinkle, Samuel E. | Kulp, Daniel | Novel methods for structure and machine-learning driven antigen design and vaccine development, applicable to HIV, EBV, and other viral pathogens | In Training |
| Solieva, Shahlo O. | Kulp, Daniel | Combining bioinformatics, deep learning structure prediction, and molecular dynamics simulations to accelerate HIV vaccine design by identifying potential bnAb precursors within the human antibody | In Training |
| Carter, Raymond D. | Blobel, Gerd & Mir, Mustafa | Provide a quantitative understanding of transcription factor specificity using a combination of single-molecule tracking, genomics, and genetic perturbations | In Training |
| Mer, Elie | Black, Ben E. | Temporal and spatial architecture of the human centromere | In Training |
| Pham, Linh | Murakami, Kenji | Molecular mechanisms underlying nucleotide excision repair (NER) | In Training |
| Bray, Mark B. | Bowman, Gregory | Developing peptide inhibitors to treat Ebola by combining computational protein design and experimental biophysical methods | In Training |