Meet the lab!
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Akbar Ali , PhD
Associate Professor -
Vincent Azzolino
MD/PhD StudentResearch Theme: Drug Resistance
Disease: Enterovirus, specifically EV-D68Proteins: Enteroviral 3C protease and other 3C and 3C-like proteases
Research Techniques: Protein Expression and Purification, Computational Modeling, Molecular Dynamic Simulations, X-ray Crystallography, Enzyme Activity and Enzyme Inhibition Assays, Structure Aided Drug Design.
Research Interest: Understanding the complexity behind inhibitor design to mitigate formation of resistance in hyper-mutating viruses. My goal is to apply this understanding and skill set as a future physician-scientist through the lens of Dermatology as I study diseases with skin manifestations requiring novel therapeutic design.
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Dinesh Barak , PhD
Postdoctoral AssociateResearch Theme: Drug Resistance
Diseases: HIV; Cancer; SARS-CoV-2Proteins: HIV-1 protease; HTLV-1 protease; SARC-CoV-2 Main protease
Research Technique: Synthetic Organic and Medicinal Chemistry
Research Interests: Synthesis of novel heterocycles as potential antiviral agents
Lab Location: LRB 840 E
Phone: 508-856-8873
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Sabihur Farooqui , PhD
Postdoctoral AssociateResearch Theme: Cell-Virus interaction, Antivirals
Disease: Influenza Virus and HTLV-1
Proteins: Influenza HA and HTLV-1 Protease
Research Techniques: Molecular Biology and Cryo-ET
Research Interest: To investigate the cell entry mechanisms and neutralization of viruses using the Influenza virus as a model system. -
Judy Huang
PhD StudentResearch Interest: Judy is interested in using quantitative cryo-electron tomography to analyze structure-function relationships of influenza viruses. Outside of lab, they are an active UMass Chan student leader. Judy is the current Diversity Pillar of the Student Government Alliance and the Diversity and Inclusion Co-chair of the Graduate Student Body Council
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Lauren Intravaia
PhD StudentResearch Theme: Drug Resistance
Disease: HIV, SARS-CoV-2
Proteins: HIV-1 protease, SARS-CoV-2 Spike and Mpro, neutralizing nanobodies
Research Techniques: Machine learning, molecular dynamics simulations, Gaussian QM calculations, protein structure prediction, cryo-EM
Research Interest: Design computational tools to counter resistance in structure-based drug design and reveal the molecular mechanisms underlying protein inhibition. -
Jagroop Kaur , PhD
Postdoctoral AssociateResearch Theme: Drug Resistance
Disease: Diabetes, Viral Infections
Proteins: Renalase, HIV-1 Protease, SARS-CoV2 MPro
Research Techniques: Organic Chemistry Methodologies; Small Molecule Synthesis, Purification and Characterization; Enzyme Inhibition Assays
Research Interest: Design and synthesis of Small Molecule Viral Protease Inhibitors. Furthermore, evaluation of Enzyme Inhibition via Both Direct and Indirect Binding Assays, Employing Varied Approaches Such as ITC, UV-Vis, Fluorescence, and NMR Spectroscopy
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Nese Kurt Yilmaz , PhD
Associate ProfessorResearch Theme: Drug Resistance
Diseases: HIV; HCV; Cancer; Influenza; Dengue
Proteins: HIV-1 protease; HCV NS3/4A protease; APOBEC3's; Influenza neuraminidase; Dengue NS2B/NS3
Research Technique: Enzyme Inhibition; Structural Analysis; Lab Managing
Office Location: LRB 919
Lab Location: LRB 907
Phone: 508-856-1867
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Jeong Min Lee , PhD
Sr. Research ScientistResearch Theme: engineering cytosine base editor
Diseases: diverse genetic diseases
Proteins: APOBEC3's; Cas9; uracil glycosylase inhibitor; the components of CRISPR gene editing
Research Technique: protein engineering and biochemistry
Research Interests: engineering proteins, nucleic acids, or nanomaterials with novel structures, dynamics, and functions for basic biology/biomedical applications and effective therapeutic approaches.
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Arooma Maryam , PhD
Postdoctoral AssociateResearch Theme: Small molecule drug discovery against autoimmune disease
Diseases: Type 1 Diabetes, Cancer Proteins: Human Renalase, APOBEC3 isoforms
Research Techniques: Protein Expression and Purification, molecular modelling, and molecular dynamics simulation. Structural analysis, virtual small molecule drug screening.
Research Interest: Utilizing computational methodologies, including molecular modeling and conventional molecular dynamics simulations to understand the relationship between the three-dimensional structures, dynamics and the biological functions of DNA-binding enzymes and proteins central to Type I Diabetes.
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Celia Schiffer , PhD
Chair and Professor of Biochemistry & Molecular Biotechnology. Arthur F. and Helen P. Koskinas Professorship in Biochemistry & Molecular Biotechnology. Director of the Institute for Drug ResistanceResearch Theme: Drug Resistance
Diseases: HIV; HCV; Cancer; Influenza; Dengue
Proteins: HIV-1 protease; HCV NS3/4A protease; APOBEC3's; Influenza neuraminindase; Influenza hemagglutinin; Dengue NS2B/NS3 protease
Research Technique: Everything
Office Location: LRB 927
Lab Location: LRB 970
Phone: 508-856-2251
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Al Shaqra , PhD, MBA
Lab ManagerResearch Theme: Drug Resistance
Diseases: HIV; HCV; Cancer; Influenza; Dengue
Proteins: HIV-1 protease; HCV NS3/4A protease; Influenza neuraminidase; Dengue NS2B/NS3
Research Techniques: Lab Managing; Protein Expression; Protein Crystallization; Enzyme Inhibition
Research Interest: Using structural biology in conjunction with biochemistry and biophysics to design potent therapeutic candidates for human diseases.
Office Location: LRB 970
Lab Location: LRB 970
Phone: 508-856-2636
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Mohan Somasundaran , PhD
Associate Professor. VirologistResearch Theme: Virus-Cell interactions, Antivirals, Drug Resistance
Diseases: HIV; Influenza; SARS-CoV2; Cancer
Proteins: Influenza hemagglutinin/neuraminidase; SARS-CoV2 Spike/Proteases; Ace2, TMPRSS2; APOBEC3's; HIV-1 protease
Research Technique: Molecular Virology; Cryo EM/ET; Virus lab
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Matthew Wong
PhD CandidateResearch Theme: HIV maturation
Disease: HIV
Proteins: HIV-1 Gag and GagPol
Research Techniques: Molecular dynamics, Structure prediction and modeling
Research Interest: Using molecular dynamics simulations to probe the dynamics of HIV Gag and GagPol processing
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Sarah Duggan Zvornicanin
PhD StudentResearch Theme: Drug resistance
Diseases: HTLV-1, SARS-CoV-2Proteins: HTLV-1 Protease, SARS-CoV-2 Main Protease
Research Technique: Protein Purification, Enzyme Inhibition Assays, X-ray Crystallography, Protein Structure Analysis, Structure-based Drug Design, Protein Modeling, Molecular Dynamics Simulations
Research Interests: For HTLV-1 Protease, I'm inspired to design and characterize novel, resistance-preventing, potent inhibitors against HTLV-1 protease using structural and biochemical techniques. For SARS-CoV-2 Mpro, I'm interested in characterizing cooperativity and/or dimerization of the enzyme as well as interpreting the drug resistance mutations which have arisen from current antiviral treatments.