Lab Members
Distinguished Professor of Chemistry & Biochemistry
Post-Doctoral Fellows
Ana Luisa (Anilú) Duran-Meza, PhD
Email: analuisa.duranmeza@gmail.com
Projects: Distribution of RNA Ends in Multiplet-Capsid Structures; In Vitro Synthesis of Enveloped Virus-Like Particles (EVLPs); RNA Compaction by Polyvalent Cations; Polyvalent-Cation-Mediated In Vitro Packaging of "Overlong" RNAs into CCMV and BMV Spherical Capsids; In Vitro Reconstitution of Heterologous RNA in Cylindrical versus Spherical Virus-Like Particles
Odisse Azizgolshani, PhD
Email: odisse@chem.ucla.edu
Projects: In Cellulo Reconstituted Therapeutic-replicon-containing Sindbis Virus-like Particles for Targeted Gene Delivery; Persistent Sindbis Replicons and Persistent-Sindbis-replicon-expressing Cell Evolution
Jerrell Tisnado, PhD
Email: jerrelltisnado@gmail.com
Projects: Targeted Delivery of Gene Therapies through Protein Fusions and Chemical Conjugations of Ligands to Reconstituted Virus-Like Particles
David Silverio Moreno-Gutierrez, PhD
Email: davidsilverio@chem.ucla.edu
Projects: Quantification of In Cis versus In Trans RNA Replication; Targeted Delivery of Constitutively-active Cell-killing Peptides in Self-amplifying mRNA Form
Graduate Students
Zach Gvildys (2017 - present)
Email: zgvildys@chem.ucla.edu
Projects: Atomistic Molecular Dynamics Studies of Protein-RNA Interactions
Nina Harpell (2020 - present)
Email: nharpell@ucla.edu
Projects: Targeted Delivery of Gene Therapies through Protein Fusions and Chemical Conjugation of Ligands to Reconstituted Virus-Like Particles; High Resolution cryoEM Reconstruction of the Ends of TMV Virions, In Relation to its Putative Cotranslational Delivery at its 5' End
Noé Rodríguez (2022 - present)
Email: noerod1317@g.ucla.edu
Projects: In vivo T-Cell Therapy: Delivery of VLP-Protected CAR and TCR mRNA to Killer T Cells
Daniel Kyle Taylor (2023 - present)
Email: taylordk@g.ucla.edu
Projects: Self-Amplifying Small-interfering and MicroRNAs for Gene Knockdown
Undergraduates
Matthew Tsai (Class of 2023)
Email: matthewtsai12@g.ucla.edu
Projects: In Cellulo Synthesis of Self-amplifying-RNA-specific TMV Virus-like Particles; Conjugation of Virus-like Particles to Targeting Antibodies
Selina Juang (Class of 2025)
Email: sjuang@g.ucla.edu
Projects: In vitro Synthesis of Enveloped Virus-Like Particles (EVLPs)
Helen Elmer (Class of 2025)
Email: helmer1@g.ucla.edu
Projects: Quantification of Relative In Vitro Packaging Efficiencies of Heterologous RNA by TMV Capsid Protein
Sophie Porak (Visiting Student from ETH Zürich)
Email: sporak@student.ethz.ch
Projects: Engineering of a New Bromovirus whose Redundant Subgenomic RNA Doesn't Need to be Packaged into Virions
Lab Technicians
Group Alumni "in the virus era" (i.e. since 2000)
Abigail Chapman (UCLA Undergraduate, B. S. 2023)
PhD Student at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Chemistry)
Tracie Luu (UCLA Undergraduate, B. S. 2023)
PhD Student at California Institute of Technology (Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics)
Emily Joyner (UCLA Undergraduate, B.S. and M.S. Student 2020-2022)
PhD Student at Indiana University (Microbiology)
Cheylene Tanimoto (Graduate Student, 2017-2022)
Education Manager at California NanoSystems Institute
Adam Biddlecome (Graduate Student , Postdoctoral Fellow 2019-2021)
Scientist, RNA Engineering at Levatio Therapeutics
Vladimir Musatov (UCLA Undergraduate, B.S. 2021)
Associate at Abzena
Anish Nag (Boyer Cram Libby Teacher Scholar 2019-2021)
Process Development Scientist at Amgen
Nina Le (UCLA Undergraduate, B.S. 2021)
Graduate Student at CalTech (Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics)
Abby Thurm (UCLA Undergraduate, B.S. 2020)
MSTP MD-PhD Student at Stanford University
Christian Beren (Graduate Student 2012-2018, and Boyer Cram Libby Teacher Scholar 2018-2020)
Teaching Assistant Professor at Colorado School of Mines Department of Chemistry, Golden, CO
Rich Sportsman (Graduate Student 2013 -2020)
Diego Castaneda (Lab Technician)
Pamchal Faroghi (Lab Technician)
Devin Brandt (Graduate Student 2012-2018, and Postdoctoral Fellow, 2018-2019)
Lucia Cabrales (Vising Student from Rio Hondo College, 2017-2019)
Undergraduate at UC Santa Barbara
Shriram Chennakesavalu (Amgen Scholar, Summer 2018)
Undergraduate at University of Chicago
Liya Oster (UCLA Undergraduate, B.S. 2018)
Graduate Student at UC Berkeley (Biophysics)
2018 NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Recipient
Yuxin Pan (UCLA Undergraduate B.S. 2018)
Graduate Student at University of Washington (Biochemistry)
Lisa Dreesens (Master's Rotation Student, 2017)
Graduate Student at Delft University of Technology, Netherlands (Bionanomaterials)
Ben Kartub (UCLA Undergraduate, B.S. 2017)
Medical Student at UCLA Geffen School of Medicine
Katie Liu (Visiting Student from Scripps, 2016)
Graduate Student at Stanford University
Cho Ki Tam (UCLA Undergraduate, B.S. 2016)
D.O. Program, Western University of Health Sciences
Walter Singaram (Graduate Student, 2011-2016 PhD)
Postdoctoral fellow at Brandeis University
Cathy (Yan) Jin (Graduate Student, 2015 PhD and Postdoctoral Fellow, 2016-2018)
Rees Garmann (Graduate Student, 2014 PhD)
Post-doctoral fellow at Harvard University
Irina Zhang (UCLA Undergraduate, B.S. 2013)
Graduate Student at University of Michigan
Ruben Cadena-Nava (Postdoctoral Fellow, 2007-2013)
Associate Professor, UNAM, Ensenada
Mauricio Comas-Garcia (Graduate Student, PhD 2013)
Assistant Professor, UASLP, San Luis Potosi, Mexcio
Ajaykumar Gopal (Postdoc, 2006-2012)
Chanrith Siv (UCLA Undergraduate, B.S. 2012)
Graduate Student at University of Michigan
Odisee Azizgolshani (Graduate Student 2004 - 2012)
Li Tai Fang (Graduate Student 2004 - 2011)
Jae Ho Kim (Master's Student, M.S. 2011)
Venus Vakhshori (UCLA Undergraduate, B.S. 2009)
Medical Student at University of Pennsylvania
Aron Yoffe (Graduate Student 2002 - 2009)