Graduate Student Profiles

Program: NUIN

alex.briegel@northwestern.edu

Research Description

Alex is interested in how mutations in ion channel genes, including the sodium/potassium exchanger result in a wide spectrum of diseases, but especially those involving cortical malformations.

Program: DGP

andra.campbell@northwestern.edu

Research Description

Andra is interested in the structure and design of cell penetrating miniproteins (CPPs) as potential therapeutics and scientific tools. Her current project includes designing a high-throughput assay to characterize the properties that allow these miniproteins to cross cell membranes.

Program: BME

JohnCarinato2028@u.northwestern.edu

Research Description

Program: DGP

carolina.clark@northwestern.edu

Research Description

CC is working on elucidating multi-omic drivers of drug metabolism in African Americans using primary human hepatocytes.

Program: NUIN

erin.corbett@northwestern.edu

Research Description

Erin is interested in studying neurodevelopmental disorders. Specifically, she is interested in how disrupted neural circuits influence behavior in these disorders.

Program: DGP

KaitlynDemeulenaere2025@u.northwestern.edu

Research Description

Kate's research interests involve microglia, neuropathic pain, inflammation behavioral analysis.

Program: DGP

mario.garcia@northwestern.edu

Research Description

Mario is interested in investigating the protein energy landscapes of nanobodies. His current project involves applying a high throughput approach that uses hydrogen-deuterium exchange mass spectrometry to determine the folding stability and conformational dynamics of nanobodies.

Program: DGP

karen.gomez@northwestern.edu

Research Description

Karen is working to develop novel arrestin-biased allosteric modulators for the neurotensin receptor 1 (NTS1), a promising target for treating substance use disorders. Using pharmacophore modeling, virtual screening, and NMR fragment-based drug discovery, she aims to create a framework for engineering pharmacologically distinct GPCR ligands to explore broader mechanisms of allosteric modulation.

Program: NUIN

EduardoGuadarrama2025@u.northwestern.edu

Research Description

Eduardo is interested in the function and pharmacology of calcium channels. His research harnesses high-throughput electrophysiology to examine the pharmacophore of a ciliary TRP channel.

Program: DGP

dalton.huey@northwestern.edu

Research Description

Dalton's research interests focus on understanding the role and therapeutic potential of noncanonical translation in the context of channelopathies.

Program: DGP 

Viry@u.northwestern.edu

Research Description

Program: NUIN

yasmeen.lowe@northwestern.edu

Research Description

Yasmeen is interested in exploring neural circuits and behavior. Specifically how different factors (i.e. stress) influence the development of neural circuits and how it alters behavior in adulthood.

Program: DGP

cydneymartell2024@u.northwestern.edu

Research Description

Cydney is interested in studying the determinants of stress-induced protein aggregation. She is using a high-throughput experimental approach to generate data to build models for predicting a protein’s aggregation propensity. This can be used to engineer more stable proteins for therapeutic and industry applications.

Program: DGP

se.ferrell@northwestern.edu

Research Description

Sé is studying the structural basis of gating in Ca2+ release-activated Ca2+ (CRAC) channels using cryoEM and other biophysical techniques. She is interested in understanding the molecular mechanisms of CRAC channels to develop novel theraputics for CRAC- associated channelopathies.

Program: DGP

hannah.mubarak@northwestern.edu

Research Description

Hannah has been combining machine learning with experimental biology to prioritize neutralizing antibody development against SARS-CoV-2 broad strains as well as engineering next generation exosome biologic platform to boost anti-tumor immunity and vaccination.

Program: DGP

sharath.narayan@northwestern.edu

Research Description

Sharath is interested in RNA biology. His current research aims to elucidate how an RNA-modifying enzyme regulates translation and drives carcinogenesis in a model of liver cancer.

Program: DGP 

adun.obisesan@northwestern.edu

Research Description

Adun is interested in leveraging high-throughput experiments and machine learning approaches to establish design criteria for engineering highly stable proteins with low hydrophobicity. This can be used to develop soluble and durable proteins suitable for applications in medicine, biocatalysis, agriculture, and various other industries.

Program: DGP

claire.pho@northwestern.edu

Research Description

Claire is interested in the design and biophysics of miniproteins for potential therapeutics. Her research includes high-throughput approaches to identify the determinants of cell-penetrant miniproteins.

Program: NUIN

leonardopinzn@northwestern.edu

Research Description

Leo is interested in how the sensory systems capture the information of the outside environment and the way this is transmitted and processed in ulterior structures to build an internal representation of the world. He would like to address this question by studying the dynamics of ion channels and neuronal circuits, as well as investigating how alterations or modulations at these levels can impact behavior.

Program: DGP

tanu.priya@northwestern.edu

Research Description

Tanu is interested in learning about sequence-function relationships of enzymes using high-throughput approaches for protein characterization. She will then use machine learning to capture enzyme stability and activity into quantifiable models. The learnings from this project will help the Rocklin design highly stable and active enzymes for applications ranging from chemical and pharmaceutical biosynthesis, food production, waste degradation, and regenerative medicine.

Program: DGP

x7q2b8@u.northwestern.edu

Research Description

David's research utilizes high-throughput data to understand the mechanisms that underly circulating tumor cell-white blood cell clusters.

Program: BME

NaiyuShi2027@u.northwestern.edu

Research Description

Naiyu's research aims to study the functional roles of RNA translation, specifically the translation of noncanonical open reading frames and translation-dependent decay pathways. 

Program: DGP 

tucker.shriver@northwestern.edu

Research Description

Tucker studies the interaction and regulation of Arrestin signaling at G Protein-Couple Receptors via NMR and other biophysical techniques. He is interested in understanding Arrestin-biased signaling and how that relates to better development of substance use disorder treatments

Program: DGP

anmol.singh@northwestern.edu

Research Description

Anmol is working on predicitive models of drug response and disease in African Americans.

Program: ChemE

kevinvasquez2026@u.northwestern.edu

Research Description

Kevin is a student in the chemical engineering department. His research aims to understand cellular stress response through genetic and epitranscriptomic signatures. By understanding the regulation of translation, we aim to develop novel cancer therapeutic approaches. Outside of research, Kevin loves learning languages and exploratory cooking experiences. He is also a huge meme enthusiast.

Program: NUIN 

syed.wafa@u.northwestern.edu

Research Description

Adil is interested in the neurophysiological consequences of mutations associated with childhood brain diseases. He uses mid-throughput experimental methods and machine learning to elucidate the genotype-phenotype relationship landscape of channelopathies.

Program: BME

yuwan2026@u.northwestern.edu

Research Description

Yu is interested in computational biology and the application of deep learning in genomics. Her research focuses on developing innovative computational models to analyze ribosome pausing and elongation dynamics.

Program: BME

shengwang2025@u.northwestern.edu

Research Description

Program: NUIN

BrynnaWebb2024@u.northwestern.edu

Research Description

Brynna studies human pathogenic kainate receptor variants that cause neurodevelopmental disorder in mouse models to identify disorder mechanisms and therapeutic targets.

Program: DGP

CarlyWeddle2023@u.northwestern.edu

Research Description

Carly is studying hiPSC models of breast cancer. She received her BS in Biochemistry from Elon University while conducting research in analytical chemistry.