Current Members

Research Theme: Drug Resistance Diseases: HIV; HCV; Dengue; Cancer 
Proteins: HIV-1 protease; HCV NS3/4A protease; Dengue NS2B/NS3; APOBEC3's
Research Technique: Organic Chemistry

Office Location: LRB 840
Lab Location: LRB 840
Phone: 508-856-8873
  

Research 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. 

Lab Location: LRB 970 C
Phone: 508-856-2636
  

Research 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
  

Research 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.

Lab Location: LRB 802
Phone: 508-856-4408
  

Research 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

Lab Location: LRB 970
Phone: 508-856-2636
  

Research 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.

Lab Location: LRB 970
Phone: 508-856-2636
  

Research 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

Lab Location: LRB 970
Phone: 508-856-2636
  

Research 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
  

Research 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.

Lab Location: LRB 970B
Phone: 508-856-2636
  

Research 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.

Lab Location: LRB 970
Phone: 508-856-2636
  

Research Theme: Viral Glycoproteins
Diseases: Influenza Virus
Research Technique: Cryo-ET                                  
Research Interests:  Using cryo-ET to study the structure of viral glycoproteins on influenza viruses.

Lab Location: LRB 970
Phone: 508-856-2636
  

Research 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
  

Research 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
  

Research 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

Lab Location: LRB 802
Phone: 508-856-4408
  

Research 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

Lab Location: LRB 970
Phone: 508-856-2636
  

Research Theme: Drug resistance
Diseases: HTLV-1, SARS-CoV-2 

Proteins: 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.

Lab Location: LRB 970
Phone: 508-856-6236