Outcomes Data & Alumni

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." 

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
Dominguez

 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