Alumni

Hayley Liu is a high school student at Del Norte High School in San Diego. She interned at the Yan Lab for 3 weeks. She was introduced to physical chemistry research through preparing buffers, determining protein concentrations, and identifying protein secondary structures by circular dichroism spectroscopy.

Dan was a joint student with Prof. Hammes-Schiffer’s lab. He used molecular dynamics and developed electrostatic mapping approaches to simulate vibrational sum frequency generation spectra of proteins and their chiral hydration shells.

After graduation, Dan joined Richard Friesner’s lab at Columbia University.

Ethan applied vibrational sum frequency generation spectroscopy to investigate chiral water superstructures at the surfaces of biomolecules.

For postdoctoral research, Ethan joined Adam Cohen’s lab at Harvard then Zhijian “James” Chen’s lab at UT Southwestern Medical Center as a Schmidt Science Fellow.

Justin graduated Yale College with his B.S. in Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology. Justin worked on the biophysical characterization of protein phase separation.

After leaving the Yan lab, Justin began medical school at Columbia University.

Yale College MCDB ‘21

Jiantao was a visiting student from the Zhang lab at South China University of Technology. He applied vibrational sum frequency generation spectroscopy to study chemical-induced protein denaturation at interfaces.

Anna was a joint student with the Ganim lab and researched single-molecule studies of membrane proteins, including rhodopsin and dronpa.

After leaving the Yan lab, Anna worked as a consultant at McKinsey and Company before becoming a Senior Manager at the biotech company Genmab.

Kelly researched the structure and function of family B GPCRs using nanodisc purification methods. Her primary focus was to determine the mechanism of calcium dependence of parathyroid hormone 1 receptor.

After leaving the Yan Lab, Kelly worked as a postdoctoral fellow in the Sivaraj Sivaramakrishnan lab at University of Minnesota Twin Cities. She became an Assistant Professor of Chemistry at Lawrence University.

Allyson researched the parathyroid hormone 1 receptor to determine the mechanism behind the effects of calcium on ligand binding. After graduation, she joined the biotech company ProteoWise, where she became a Project Lead.

Ella researched the binding mechanisms of hormone peptides to parathyroid hormone 1 receptor. After graduation, she earned an MD at Duke University and entered residency at the Northwestern Feinberg School of Medicine Department of Dermatology.

Zahra studied biofilms of BslA using SFG spectroscopy. After the Yan Lab, she became an Assistant Professor at K.N. Toosi University of Technology in Tehran, Iran.

Yingying purified and characterized family B GPCRs, specifically glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor, which is implicated in type 2 diabetes and osteoporosis. She also designed ligands for family B GPCRs.

After leaving the Yan lab, Yingying worked on intellectual property rights in New York City then became a Science Advisor at the law firm Goodwin.

Wei applied SFG spectroscopy and Langmuir-Blodgett trough isotherm methods to study the molecular behavior of biomolecules at interfaces. After leaving the Yan Lab, he became an Adjunct Professor at The University of Hong Kong.

Jeremy worked on ligand design for family B GPCRs. After graduation, he became an MD-PhD candidate at the University of Washington, working in the Baker Lab at the Institute of Protein Design.

Yuting developed methods for purifying G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) using nanodiscs and studies signal transduction of a family B GPCR, parathyroid hormone 1 receptor, which governs calcium homeostasis and is a drug target for osteoporosis.  

After leaving the Yan lab, Yuting joined Boston Consulting Group at Beijing, China then became Head of Business Development and Strategy for Hengrui Phrarma.

ZhuGuang explored topics in biophysical chemistry, especially in the area of surface and interface studies. He used SFG spectroscopy to determine properties of proteins at interfaces, which will provide insight into the mechanisms of protein folding and other related biological processes.  

After leaving the Yan lab, Zhuguang joins PepsiCo at Whiteplains, NY.

Ying focused on thermal properties of rhodopsin and other visual pigments with the aim to understand the molecular evolution mechanism in developing dim-light vision in vertebrates.  

After leaving the Yan lab, Ying became Associate Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Georgia Gwinnett College.

Vicki produces rhodopsin and rhodopsin mutants that have either the retinal chromophore labeled with 13C or amino acids labeled with 15N or 13C. She analyzes the labeled rhodopsin using NMR spectroscopy in order to understand the visual signal transduction process. 

After leaving the Yan lab, Vicki joined the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory as a postdoctoral fellow. She later became Principal Research Scientist at Vertex Pharmaceuticals.

Li developed chiral SFG spectroscopy for characterized protein secondary structures at interfaces. He further applied the chiral SFG method to study aggregation of amyloid proteins on membrane surfaces and introduce new methods to monitor proton exchange in protein at interfaces.

After leaving the Yan lab, Li joined the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory as a postdoctoral fellow. He later became Associate Scientific Fellow at Takeda Pharmaceuticals.

Anne expressed and purified family B G protein-coupled receptors and studied their activation mechanism.

After leaving the Yan lab, Anne returned to France and obtained her Master degree in chemical engineering.

Pedro’s project in the Yan lab concerned the effect of hydrogen-bonding network in polar amino acids located far away from the retinal binding pocket of rhodopsin.

After leaving the Yan lab, Pedro continued his undergraduate studies in Peru.

Devi studied the thermal decay of various mutants of rhodopsin, and their role in the development of ophthalmologic diseases. 

After leaving the Yan lab, Devi continued her undergraduate studies at Yale.

Ray applied SFG spectroscopy to study the interaction of DNA with lipid and various proteins at biological interfaces.

After leaving the Yan lab, Ray started a research position at Northwestern Unviersity.

Jian’s research focus at Yale concerns second harmonic generation and the study of how peptides affect the permeability of the cell membrane.  

After leaving the Yan lab, Jian started a research position at Boston University. He went on to become a Senior Field Service Engineer at Spectra-Physics.

YuMeng’s project in the Yan lab aimed to develop the second-harmonic generation method to study kinetics of detergent molecule transferring between colloidal emulsion particles.

After leaving the Yan lab, YuMeng started a research position at Columbia University. He later became a Professor at Southeast University in Nanjing, China.

Alex’s project in the Yan lab was to investigate how mutations at the active site alter the quantum yield of rhodopsin.

After leaving the Yan lab, Alex joined the NIH as a Postbaccalaureate Intramural Research Fellow. He received an MD from Stanford in 2016, and completed residency at Kaiser Permanente San Francisco Hospital and Stanford Health Care. Alex became a practicing dermatologist.

Monica studied how mutations in the rhodopsin gene lead to retina degeneration. Based on her findings, she proposed a new pathogenic mechanism of retinitis pigmentosa caused by thermally destabilization of the rhodopsin mutants.

After leaving the Yan lab, Monica completed her MD/Ph.D. at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. She became an Assistant Professor of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at the University of Wisconsin.

Eugene’s research in the Yan lab focused on the ligand-binding domain (LBD) of a family C GPCR. He used a combination of techniques in light scattering, fluorescence spectroscopy, and mutagenesis to explore how dimerization of the LBD affects the activation process.

After leaving the Yan Lab, Eugene received a PhD in Biology from MIT. He became an Assistant Professor in the Department of Physiology and Biophysics at Stony Brook University.

Nivedita’s research in the Yan lab focused on using Nanodiscs to purify G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs). She successfully purified a functional family B.

After leaving the Yan lab, Nevidita returned to India. In 2013, she took the position of senior scientist at International AIDS Vaccine Initiative, India. She went on to become a Principal Key Expert at the medical technology company Siemes Healthineers.

Meike spent the spring of 2011 at Yale. Her research focused on elucidating the interplay between membranes and amyloidogenic peptides. She studied the influence of lipids on the aggregation of intrinsically disordered peptides using SFG.

Carolina developed a protocol to purify human blue cone pigment using Nanodiscs and studied the stability of the pigment.

After leaving the Yan Lab, Carolina received a PhD in Biochemistry at Harvard. She later co-founded a biomedical research group and became a Senior Clinical Research Scientist at MD Anderson Cancer Center.

Gang’s research in the Yan lab focused on developing a broad-bandwidth sum frequency generation spectrometer.

After leaving the Yan lab, Gang accepted a faculty position at Hebei University, China. He became a full professor at the Chemistry Department in 2011.

Aditi worked with tissue cultures and made stable cell lines for expressing opsin proteins on a large scale. She also assisted with various projects in the lab. Aditi was the main conductor of the lab’s Bioreactor.

Aditi received an MD from Ross University School of Medicine and is now a family physician in Alamosa, CO.

Harrison’s project in the Yan lab was to incorporate unnatural amino acids into G protein-coupled receptors and intrinsically disordered proteins as vibrational probes for SFG studies.

After leaving the Yan lab, Harrison matriculated at the Yale School of Medicine. He graduated at Yale and completed his residency at University of Pennsylvania. He later became Associate Professor of Radiology at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. 

Qi Wen spent the summer of 2009 in Yan’s lab working on incorporation of unnatural amino acids into rhodopsin.

After leaving the Yan lab, Qi Wen returned to her undergraduate studies at Syracuse University.

Denitza’s project focused on applying the method of unnatural amino acid mutagenesis to rhodopsin.

After leaving the Yan lab, Denitza matriculated at the Georgetown School of Medicine.

Tina used unnatural amino acids to study biomolecules at membrane surfaces. In particular, her research focused on rhodopsin and alpha-synuclein.

After leaving the Yan lab, Tina received an MD at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. She became an Attending Physician and program director at Boston Children’s Hospital, as well as a dermatology instructor at Harvard.

Alicia conducted research concerning rod and cone pigments. She examined the chemical and spectroscopic differences among visual pigments. 

After leaving the Yan lab, Alicia returned to her undergraduate studies at the SUNY College at Old Westbury.

Aaron volunteered for Professor Yan’s lab in the summer of 2008.

After leaving the Yan lab, Aaron returned to his undergraduate studies at Vassar College.