Dr. Wali Karzai, Principal Investigator
Dr. Thiago Rodrigues, Research Scientist
thiago.rodrigues@stonybrook.edu
Hometown– Curitiba, Brazil
Likes– Photography, guitar, watercolor painting
Project Description– Thiago is interested in studying protein-protein interactions. He uses structural biology and functional biochemistry to study the ribosomal regulation in protein quality control pathways.
Melanie Cragan, MCB PhD student
Hometown- Smithfield, Rhode Island
Likes- Knitting, reading, teaching spin, shopping
Project Description- Melanie uses biochemical and structural approaches to study how Lon protease recognizes and engages its substrates. She primarily uses Lon from Yersinia pestis, but she also dabbles with Lons from other bacteria to study how well conserved Lon’s functionality is across the eubacterial domain.
Javon Lo, Technician
Hometown- Mississauga, Canada
Likes- Baking, hiking, dancing
Project- Javon’s research focuses on understanding how ribosomes regulate defective mRNA. She investigates the mechanisms by which defective mRNA is degraded through post-translational modifications of the ribosome.
Tianhan Wang, Master’s Student
Anastasia Akapnitis, Undergraduate Biochemistry Major
anastasia.akapnitis@stonybrook.edu
Hometown- Huntington, NY
Likes- Painting, drawing, and running
Project- Anastasia studies how the substrate recognition domain of Lon protease is able to specifically engage different classes of substrates.
Emily Zhou, Undergraduate Biochemistry Major
Elya Meylikhov, Undergraduate Biochemistry Major
Hometown- Brooklyn, NY
Likes- Reading, watching movies, playing tennis
Project- TBD