OUR TEAM

Dr. Stefan Sarafianos

Nahmias-Schinazi Chair, Professor Laboratory of Biochemical Pharmacology Emory University

Education: Ph.D. 1993, Georgetown University

Fields of Interest: Viral Replication and Entry; Antivirals

E-mail: ssarafi [at] emory.edu

Office: (404) 727-9579

Links to publications: Google Scholar | MyNCBI | ResearchGate

CV

Assistant Professors

Karen Kirby, Ph.D.

Education: B.S. Chemistry, University of Minnesota Ph.D. Chemistry, University of Missouri

Fields of Interest: Structural Biology, X-ray Crystallography, Structure-Based Drug Design, HIV, HBV, Enterovirus 71

Email: karen.kirby [at] emory.edu

Office: (404) 727-7619

Links: Google Scholar | PubMed

Ivo Melčák, Ph.D.

Education: Ph.D. Cell Biology, Charles University; Postdoctoral Training, HHMI, The Rockefeller University

Fields of Interest: Structural aspects of viral entry through the Nuclear Pore Complex

Email: ivo.melcak [at] emory.edu

Links: PubMed

Shuiyun Lan, Ph.D.

Education: B.A. in Medicinal Chemistry from Shanghai Medical University; Ph.D. in Pathogenic Biology from Fudan University

Fields of Interest: Molecular Biology; Virology | Virus replication and antivirals development.

Project(s): Development of HBV Reporter System; Discovery and Characterization of Novel Inhibitors against HBV and HIV.

Email: shuiyun.lan [at] emory.edu

Links: MyNCBI

Research Staff

Huanchun Zhang

Research Specialist, Lead

Education: B.S. in Public Health at West China University of Medical Sciences

Fields of Interest: Molecular Biology and Biochemistry

Project(s): Investigating the function of different compounds on human virus disease such as HIV and HCV

Email: huanchun.zhang [at] emory.edu

Andres Emanuelli

Research Specialist

Fields of Interest: Microbiological research on Pathogenesis of Infectious Diseases

Email: andres.emanuelli [at] emory.edu

Zach Lorson

Research Specialist

Fields of Interest: Microbiology

Email: zlorson [at] emory.edu

Jonathan (Nathan) Winkjer

Research Specialist

Education: BS in Biochemistry and Biotechnology, Southern Polytechnic State University.

Fields of Interest: Biotechnology, human disease.

Project(s): HIV drug synergy.

Email: JWinkje [at] emory.edu

Links: PubMed

Niki Azadi

Research Specialist

Fields of Interest: Biology

Projects: RNA

Email: nazadi [at] emory.edu

Postdocs

Ryan Slack, Ph.D.

Post-Doctoral Fellow

Education: PhD in Molecular Biophysics and Structural Biology (University of Pittsburgh, School of Medicine), BS in Biophysics (Centenary College)

Fields of Interest: Biophysics, Structural Biology, Biochemistry, Virology, Molecular Biology

Project(s): Interaction of HIV-1 Reverse Transcriptase with Host Restriction Factors, Screening and Characterization of Small Molecule Inhibitors to SARS-CoV2 Replication

Email: rslack [at] emory.edu

Links: PubMed

Jasper Lee, Ph.D.

Post-Doctoral Fellow

Education: PhD, Microbiology, University of Tennessee Health Science Center; BS, Microbiology, The Ohio State University

Fields of Interest: Virology, RNA viruses, drug resistance

Project(s): Interaction of HIV-1 Reverse Transcriptase with Host Restriction Factors, Screening and Characterization of Small Molecule Inhibitors to SARS-CoV2 Replication

Email: jasper.lee [at] emory.edu

Links: PubMed

Asha Maria Mathew, Ph.D.

Post-Doctoral Fellow

Education: Ph.D. Biotechnology, National Institute of Virology, Pune, India

Fields of Interest: Virus entry and replication, Virus Like Particles ,Molecular Virology , Cell Biology

Project(s): TBD

Email: asha.maria.mathew [at] emory.edu

Links: LinkedIn

Graduate Students

Alexa Snyder

Education: B.A. in Biochemistry (ACS)

Fields of Interest: Structural biology, Biochemistry, Chemistry

Project(s): HIV Reverse Transcriptase and HIV Capsid

Email: alexa.snyder [at] emory.edu

Grace Neilsen

Education:

Fields of Interest:

Project(s): Drug resistance of SARS-CoV-2 nsp5 mutants

Email: grace.neilsen [at] emory.edu

Links:

Will McFadden

Education: B.S. in Molecular Biology & B.A. in Political Science from the University of Pittsburgh

Fields of Interest: Biochemistry, Structural Biology, Virology, and Intrinsically Disordered Proteins

Project(s): HIV-1 capsid studies (TSA, assembly, biochem + EM); Purification of CA (spheres, R. Dick, nanobody); TSAR package

Email: will.mcfadden [at] emory.edu

Links: Research Gate

Xin (Kristy) Wen

Education: B.S. in Chemistry, University of Utah.

Fields of Interest: Drug discovery and development.

Project(s): SARS-CoV-2 small molecule inhibitors.

Email: Xin.Wen [at] emory.edu

Jose Castro

Education: M.S. in Biochemistry, University of Texas

Fields of Interest: Drug development, protein therapeutics, and structural biology

Project(s): Purification, structural determination, and drug discovery for SARS-CoV-2 nonstructural protein 13

Email: Jose.Castro [at] emory.edu

Rotation Students

Xinyong (Steven) Cai

Fields of Interest: Structural biology, molecular cell biology, biochemistry

Project(s):

Email: xinyong.cai [at] emory.edu

Office: (404) 727-9425

Undergraduate Students

Candy Gao

Fields of Interest: Computational Biology, Bioinformatics, Genetics, Virology

Email: candy.gao [at] emory.edu

Dhanya Muppalla

Fields of Interest: Virology, Infectious Disease, Drug Resistance, Pediatrics

Email: dhanya.muppalla [at] emory.edu

Jessica Fahim

Fields of Interest: Structural Biology, Virology, Genetics

Email: Jessica.Fahim [at] emory.edu

Margaret Vogelpohl

Fields of Interest: Biology, Ethics, Pediatrics

Email: MVogelp [at] emory.edu

Isabella Kaufman

Fields of Interest: Infectious Disease, Virology, Epidemiology

Email: Bella.Kaufman [at] emory.edu

Rachel Lee

Fields of Interest: Cell culture, Microscopy, Anti-viral drug resistance

Email: Rachel.Lee [at] emory.edu

Kristin Edwards

Fields of Interest: Biochemistry, Immunology, Neuroscience

Email: kristin.edwards2 [at] emory.edu

Zhijiang Ye

Fields of Interest: Genetics, drug discovery, biostatistics, bioinfomatics

Email: zhijiang.ye [at] emory.edu

Riley Aiken

Fields of Interest: Neuroscience, Biology, Pediatrics, Virology

Email: riley.aiken [at] emory.edu

Aaron Wei

Fields of Interest: Chemistry, Infectious Disease, Virology

Email: aaron.wei [at] emory.edu

Administrative Staff

Sarah Prewoznik

Administrative Coordinator

Email: sprewoz@emory.edu

Office: (404) 727-1387

Lab VIP (Very Important Pets)

Bean

Maya

Meli

Cannoli

CMYK (GloFish)

Hammy

Macaroni

Odie

Alumni

Previous Research Faculty

Dr. William Cantara (Research Assistant Professor, 2020 – 2023)

Dr. Philip Tedbury (Research Assistant Professor, 2016-2023)

Dr. Tanya Ndongwe (Post-doctoral fellow 2015)

Dr. Eleftherios Michailidis (Post-doctoral fellow, 2012-2013)

Dr. Adeyemi Adedeji (Post-doctoral fellow, summer 2012)

Dr. Bruno Marchand (Post-doctoral fellow, 2007-2011)

Dr. Atsuko Hachiya (Post-doctoral fellow, AIDS Government Clinic, Tokyo, Japan, 2009-2011)

Dr. Kamal Singh (Research Assistant Professor, 2008-2018)

Dr. Devendra Kumar Rai (Post-doctoral fellow, 2010-2012)

Dr. Robert Ralston (Research Assistant Professor, 2012-2014)

Dr. Bechan Sharma (Sabbatical training 2011)

Previous Graduate Students

Darius Mahboubi PhD MSP, Emory U. (2018-2023)

Maria Cilento PhD BCDB, Emory U. (2018-2022)

Raven Shah PhD BCDB, Emory U. (2018-2021)

Seongmi Kim MS Pathobiology area, U. of MO (2016-2017)

Assi Vincent Yapo PhD MMI, U. of MO (2015-2020)

Mahmoud Farghali PhD MMI, U. of MO (2015-2019)

Mary Casey PhD MMI, U. of MO (2014-2019)

Andrew Huber PhD Vet Path, U. of MO (2013-2017)

Obiaara Ihenacho Ukah PhD MMI, U. of MO (2013-2017)

Maritza Puray Chavez PhD MMI-Fulbright scholar, U. of MO (2013-2018)

Jackie Flores MS MMI, U. of MO (2013-2017)

Anna Gres PhD Chemistry, U. of MO (2013-2017)

Ademola Kassim MSc University Illinois (2012)

Dandan Liu PhD MMI, U. of MO (2012-2017)

Zhe Li Salie PhD Biochem, U. of MO (2012-2016)

Eleftherios Michailidis PhD MMI, U. of MO (2006-2012)

Adeyemi Adedeji PhD MMI, U. of MO (2007-2012)

Yee Tsuey Ong PhD MMI, U. of MO (2008-2014)

Tanya Ndongwe PhD MMI, U. of MO (2009-2015)

Matt Schuckmann MSc MMI, U. of MO (2006-2010)

Ignacio de la Higuera PhD, U.A. de Madrid (2012)

Flore De Witt PhD KU Leuven (2017)

Previous Undergraduate Students

2022

  • Cole Smith
  • Gitika Chaudhry
  • Jack MacQuillan

2021

  • Pablo Morell Jr.
  • Niki Azadi
    • Research Specialist, Sarafianos Lab
  • Debbie Kitzler
    • Biomedical Engineering student, Georgia Institute of Technology
  • Vishal Shankar
  • Ansh Patel

2020

  • Talia Sisroe
    • MD student, Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University
  • Jason Jiang (Gwinnett School of Mathematics, Science, and Technology high school intern)
    • Undergraduate student, Yale University
  • Nicole Lulkin
    • Medical Assistant at Erie Family Health Center

2019

  • Alex Welsh
  • Claudia Wahoski
    • PhD student, Vanderbilt Microbiology & Immunology
  • Ciro Carrillo Marcano Jr.
    • MD student, The Universidad Central del Caribe
  • Ally Jin
  • Andres Emanuelli

2018

  • Melina Khorrami
    • Clinical Research Associate at Syneos Health
  • Madeline Lazar
    • Research Associate, GreenLight Biosciences
  • Olivia Blackman
  • Kanwal Momin
    • MD student, UTMB Galveston medical school

2017

  • Adit Shah

2016

  • Skyler Kramer
    • PhD student, University of Missouri – Columbia Informatics Institute.
  • Cortney Hutson
  • Gilberto Perez

2015

  • Rohit Rao
  • Emily Coonrod
    • Biological Sciences Discovery fellow, Human and Statistical Genetics PhD program, Washington University of St. Louis
  • Blake Nourie
    • MD student, Sidney Kimmel Medical College
  • Seongmi Kim

2014

  • Maria Boftsi (Visiting scholar, Greece)
  • Hannah Brenton
  • Leonard Rogers
    • PhD student, Washington University of St. Louis Molecular Cell Biology
  • Samuel Min
    • VP, Functional Genomics and Host-Directed Therapy
  • Alejandra Pinillos
  • Robert Newman
  • Olajumoke Akala

2013

  • Dominique Stephens
    • Post-doctoral fellow, Vanderbilt University Molecular Physiology and Biophysics
  • Benjamin G. Langsten
  • Sumidha Katti
    • Senior Client Delivery, Cloudmed Healthcare Systems
  • Ipsa Chaudhary
    • Consultant, Cerner Corporation
  • Arzoo Singh (Visiting scholar, India)
    • Junior Researcher, Step Innovations Africa
  • Aakansha Singh (Visiting scholar, India)
  • Thomas Gerard Laughlin
    • Structural Biologist at Altos Labs
  • Nnamdi Ihenacho
    • Medical Lab Manager, University of Missouri Health Care
  • Amanda Pelletier, Biological Sciences HHMI fellow, LSUROP fellow
  • Nicholas Wiegers, Biological Sciences HHMI fellow
  • Kelsey Boschert, Nutritional Sciences Discovery Fellows Program HONORS college, University of Kansas Medical School
  • Briana Bester
  • Connor V. Abbott
    • Senior Process Engineer, Nestlé Purina North America
  • Paul K. Cho
  • Jung Y. Nam
  • Jeremy Clincy, Biochemistry McNair fellow
  • Andrew Huber, Biological Sciences Trail to a Cure fellow
    • Post-doctoral Fellow, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital Chemical Biology and Therapeutics
  • Dallas Pineda, Biochemistry EXPRESS fellow, LSUROP fellow
    • Dentist, Creating Smiles Family and Cosmetic Dentistry
  • Grahmm Funk
    • PhD student, University of Kansas Pharmaceutical Chemistry

2011
Hilary A Schmidt, Biological Engineering HHMI fellow
Leslie Chiang, Biological Sciences HHMI fellow
Katherine Laddusaw, Biological Sciences
Kristin Ponzar, Biological Sciences
Yun Pan, Biological Sciences
Ariel Hagedorn HHMI fellow; McNair fellow
Achilles Meskos visiting scholar, Greece

2010
Nicholas E. Calcaterra, Biochemistry LSUROP fellow, Johns Hopkins University, UC Berkeley School of Law
Ceili A. Cornelison, Computer Science
Jackie Carrico, Biochemistry LSUROP, HHMI, Trail to a Cure fellow, U of Colorado School of Medicine
Kayla B. Matzek, Biol Sci, U of Missouri School of Medicine, Bryant Scholar
Maxwell D. Leslie, Biological Sciences and Psychology HHMI fellow, Veterinary Medicine program at Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine
Christopher Dorst, Washington University of Saint Louis, Graduate School UNC Chapel Hill
Tracy L. Fetterly, Vanderbilt University, Neuroscience Graduate Program Vanderbilt U.

2009
Jacob C. Jackson, HONORS Biological Sciences LSUROP fellow, School of Medicine at Cornell, Weil, Anesthesiologist Resident, Cornell U, NYC
Ryan Durk, Biol Sci, LSUROP fellow, School of Medicine of Vanderbilt University; Physician resident at Barnes Jewish
Christie Pautler, HONORS Biological Sciences Conley Scholar, Pre-accepted at the School of Medicine of University of Missouri
Phuong Bich Do, HONORS Biological Sciences McNair fellow, Graduate School of Biological Sciences, University of Missouri
Daniel Griffin, Biochemistry Discovery Fellows Program, Saint Louis University, School of Medicine
Alan C. Leslie, Biochem, Technician at ABC labs, Columbia MO) EXPRESS fellow

2008
Shannon D. Arnold, HONORS Biological Sciences McNair fellow
Christopher Brownsworth, Year 1, Medicine
Saeed J Kahn, HONORS Biological Sciences
Amelie Olga Mafotsing Fopoussi, Biological Sciences McNair fellow, accepted at the Graduate School of Public Health at Ann Arbor Michigan
Musetta Steinbach Carleton College, Minnesota, accepted at the University of Chicago
Emily M. Ryan, HONORS Biological Sciences LSUROP fellow, A.T. Still University Osteopathic Medical School
Ali M. Sawani, Biochemistry EXPRESS fellow, accepted at the MD/PhD program at Ann Arbor Michigan
Daniel Sietsema, Biol Sci, Technician at the University of Colorado, Denver

2006-07
Michael O. Boyd, Biological Sciences
Candace Clayborne-Harris, Biological Sciences.
Timothy J. Graven, Biological Sciences
Sandor F. Jones, Biological Sciences
Ryan M. Kelly, Biochemistry
Patrick Mulligan, Biological Sciences
Michael Owens, History
Heather M Uhles, Biological Engineering
Chi-Hin Wong, Mechanical Engineering, Work study