People
Past Group Pictures
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Former members |
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Postdoctoral Scholar |
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Laura PerissinottiDr. Laura Perissinotti joined the Kohen group in Spring 2010 as a postdoc scholar. Now she is living in Canada, and works as a consultant scholar for the Kohen group.
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Anatoly ChernyshevDr. Anatoly Chernyshev was a postdoctoral researcher studying nitrogenase, the first enzyme in a pathway of microbial nitrogen assimilation. He was born in Saratov, Russia, received his PhD from Saratov State University and eventually joined the Kohen group in September 2003. This specimen of H. sapiens describes himself as extremely humble and shy (Really?!--says the current website manager), so that general patterns of his social behavior are still scarcely known. Those few things found to the date about Anatoly are sketched at his website or one may get in touch with him via E-mail at a_chernyshev@yahoo.com.
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Cornelia MihaiCornelia is an Assistant Professor of Organic Chemistry at Northwetern Okalhoma State University. She was born in Bucharest, Romania. She received her B.S. degree in Chemical Engineering from Polytechnic Institute of Bucharest. After that, she was working as a chemical engineer and then as a Research Scientist at the Food Chemistry Institute and at the Institute of Oncology in Bucharest. In 1994 she started her graduate studies in United States and she received her M.S. degree in Chemistry in 1996 and her Ph.D. degree in Medicinal Chemistry in 2001 from University of Illinois at Chicago. After that she was working as Research Associate at Albany Molecular Research, Inc. and as Research Scientist at Integrated DNA Technologies in Coralville, Iowa. In 2002, she took the position as a Postdoctoral Associate in the Kohen group. Currently, she is working on expressing and purifying the enzymes needed for kinetic and structural studies. Her research interests are Bioorganic Chemistry, Medicinal Chemistry and Synthetic Enzymology and she enjoys studying the mechanism, structure and dynamics of the enzymes that are targets for therapeutic drugs. new URL: http://www.nwosu.edu/science/.
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Amandeep SraAmandeep Kaur Sra was born in Mumbai (Bombay), India. She received her Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees in chemistry from the University of Mumbai. For her Ph.D. in Chemistry at the University of Mumbai, she worked on the design and study of molecular magnetic materials with Dr. J.V. Yakhmi, B.A.R.C., India and with Prof. O. Kahn, ICMCB, France. She received the Young Scientist award '99 in Physical Chemistry at the International Symposium of the Indian Chemical Society. Amandeep worked on establishing the vacuum apparatus enabling the study of nitrogenase. After many laborious hours she managed to measure competitive KIEs for this system. Aman has ventured off for her second post-doc at Texas A&M. |
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Arun Sen Arundhuti Sen joined the Kohen group in 2005, after graduating from Knox College in Galesburg, IL. Arun is working on DHFR kinetics, following closely in the footsteps of Lin Wang. She likes to start every day with a loud 'Vive la resistance!' and a short prayer to the gods of the steady-state. |
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Atsushi Yahashiri Atsushi Yahashiri was born in Tokyo, Japan. He received His MS degree from Biochemistry Department at UI 2004 and eventually joined the Kohen group in January 2005. Atsushi is currently studying the mechanism of a non-chromosomal DHFR (R67) as potential antibiotic drug for resistance strains of bacteria. He also enjoys the life in Iowa City with his wife and two kids. His hobbies are swimming, mowing lawn, planting fruits and vegetables, going to farmers market (buying), cooking, making good coffee, expressing ADH in vivo, bothering PI with questions, purifying enzymes, blogging, camping, and canoeing with Bryce Plapp (biannual). |
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Jigar Bandaria Jigar joined the group in January 2004, and had been working on the Formate Dehydrogenase project. He has received his PhD degree in May 2009, and is now a Postdoc in University of California, Berkeley. jigar@berkeley.edu
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Todd Flieschmann Todd is a graduate student that joined our group in 2004 after finishing a B.S. in Chemistry and Agronomy at Northwest Missouri State University. Todd's current project centers around a newly discovered enzyme denoted Flavin Dependant Thymidylate Synthase. Recently, he has been working on protein expression and purification as well as enzyme mechanism studies. His hobbies include hunting, working on his house and playing with his son. . |
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Vishal Sharma Hey, this is Vishal, I did my previous studies at University of Delhi, INDIA. I joined the group in Dec 2006. My interest is to study reaction mechanisms and I aspire to unfold the mysterious steps in enzymatic reactions. In addition to that I like Indian music and I am looking forward to form a music band after graduation. Wish me luck for both of my interests. |
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Lin Wang Lin, joined this group in 2002 and graduated with a PhD in Dec 2006. Currently he is writing a few papers and prepare for his Postdoctoral position.. Before that he spent four years sleeping through classes at Ocean University of Qingdao, P.R.C. and another three years at Zhejiang University, P.R.C.. Lin finds here, in this university, he cannot get enough time for interesting extracurricular activities, which is due to the fact that we have a highly motivated group! His current research focuses on the C-H bond activation project. His main hobbies includes algebra, statistics and software. lin-wang@uiowa.edu |
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Baoyu Hong Baoyu is a graduate student from China and joined this group in summer of 2003. She got B.E. degree in Packaging Engineering in 1999 and M. S. degree in Polymer Science in 2002 from Jilin Unversity, China. Then the same year she came to the Unversity of Iowa. Her current research project is classical TS. At spare time, she loves movies, photography, traveling and celtic music. |
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Kelli Markham Dr.Kelli Markham received her Ph.D. in Chemistry in 2004 and was the first to graduate with Ph.D. from the Kohen Group. Kelli's last position in iowa was a visiting Assistant Professor and a Postdoctoral Scholar in the Kohen Group. She receivedher B.A. degree in Chemistry from Lake Forrest College in Illinois in 1998. The summer after her graduation she completed an internship at Abbott Labs in IL. After this, she worked on a project for the DOE, testing for radioactivity (U-235, Tc-99 etc.) in soil and water samples. Kelli entered this university in the Fall of 1999, and since then has worked out the synthesis of key radio-labeled nucleotides for enzyme kinetic studies and completed preliminary KIE studies with DHFR. Currently, Kelli is investigating the chemistry of several enzymes, including:glutamate dehydrogenase and thermophilic dihydrofolate reductase (DHFR). Kelli's hobbies include home remodelling projects with her husband, Dale, and roughhousing with her 150 lb Great Dane, Apollo.
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Nitish Agrawal Dr. Nitish Agrawal earned his Ph.D in Chemistry in July 2005. He is originally from India. He joined this group in Fall 2001. Nitish loves America. Nitish was born in Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh, in India. He was schooled at Delhi Public School, Mathura Road, New Delhi, India. He received his B.Sc (Honors) degree in Chemistry in 1999 with distinction, and his M.Sc. (Chemistry), specialization in Organic Chemistry in 2001 with distinction from Hindu College, University of Delhi, India. Nitish has qualified National Eligibility Test (NET) in India, which entitles him to join any Public College/University as Lecturer/Research Investigator in India. At UI, he has been a prime researcher on four projects: enzymatic synthesis of labeled nicotinamide cofactor; chemoenzymatic synthesis of labeled derivatives of folic acid; mechanistic studies of E.coli thymidylate synthase (TS); and mechanistic studies of flavin-dependent TS (FDTS). Nitish is currently studying FDTS, which shares no sequence or structure homology with common TS. This is a very high impact type of research since FDTS catalysis is the only path that many biological warfare agents use to synthesize DNA. He has also recently won a prestigious Ph.D fellowship from the Center for Biocatalysis and Bioprocessing (CBB). His general interests and activites include reading and writing articles on science education, traveling, listening to music and playing guitar.
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Jocelyn McCracken Jocelyn McCracken graduated from Fairfield High School, Fairfield, Iowa in 1996 and majored in chemistry and english while attending Central College in Pella, IA. Jocelyn graduated in the summer of 2002 with a Master's degree and is currently living in the suburbs of Chicago with her husband, Tim, as she searches for employment. We wish her the best of luck and are waiting for a phone call when she makes her first million dollars.
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Michael Choi (Deceased) Michael Choi completed my undergraduate studies in chemistry and biochemistry at the University of Washingtong, and began his graduate studies through the University of Iowa's Medical Scientists' training program in 2013. His research studies in the Kohen's group focus on understanding the mechanism of flavin-dependent thymidylate synthase. Outside the laboratory, he enjoyed swimming and food. |
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Malia Moore Malia Moore graduated from Hope High School (in Hope, Kansas) in 1996 and received her B.S. in chemistry in 2000 from University of Rochester in Rochester, NY. Malia graduated the summer of 2002 from this group with a Master's and is curently in medical school at KU. We wish her the best of luck in all of her future endeavors.
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Michael Toraason Michael started working in Kohen lab as an undergrad since the summer of 2009. He is studying Chemical Engineering and Computer Science. He will be a senior next year (2011), but will not graduate until 2012. He likes all sports, music, and chillin' with friends. He was born in Chicago but moved to a small Illinois town when He was younger, and has lived there ever since. |
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Jordan Koehn Jordan started working in Kohen lab as an undergrad during the summer of 2009. |
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Asad Hashmi Asad worked with Asushi as an undergrad in Kohen lab in 2009. |
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Calvin Luzum Calvin worked with Zhen Wang as an undergrad in Kohen lab in 2009. |
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Robert Nixon |
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Laura Tvedte Laura is an undergrad working in the Kohen group during the summer of 2010. She will be a senior Chemistry major at Truman State University in the fall. In the Kohen group, she is investigating inhibitor activity of a series of compounds with different enzymes. In her free time, she loves to read, practice her French, and spend time with her family and her cat, Frannie. |
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Erika Torres Erika started working in Kohen group as an undergrad since the summer of 2010. |
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Angela Torres Angela started working in Kohen group as an undergrad since the summer of 2010. |
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Hyun Jo (Charlie) Charlie was a undergraduate who worked in the Kohen group in 2008. |
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Majd Haddad Majd was born in Brest, France original from Lattakia, Syria. He lived in different countries and decided to continue his college education in the United States. Currently, he was a junior majoring in Biochemistry and an Iowa Biosciences Advantage scholar when he joined Kohen group. Now he's a student in Dental school in University of Iowa.
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Melissa Hall Melissa was a graduate student Jan-Dec 2006.
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Aaron Mason Aaron Mason completed his undergraduate work at Cornell College (2005) with a double major in Chemistry and Biochemistry. His was in the Biosciences Program at the University of Iowa and was rotating through the Kohen Lab. Aaron was studying a flavin dependent thymidylate synthase. |
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Scott Tharp Scott is a talented undergraduate who joined the group in the Summer of 2003. One can often hear Scott talking to himself as he does injection after injection on the HPLC. We consider this normal behavior so please do not feel frightened. He is now a DDC student.
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Pierre Charly Point Du Jour Pierre Charly Point Du Jour was born in Cayes, Haiti. Pierre lives in New York City with his parents whereas he attends Florida Memorial University pursuing his undergraduate studies in biology and chemistry. Planning to attend the Medical Scientist Training Program (MSTP) at the University of Iowa, through the AGEP Program in summer 2004, Pierre worked with the Eyeman Group on ÒSurface Deposition of Single-Site Redox Reactant.Ó This summer 2005, Pierre has joined the Kohen Group while working on ÒMechanistic Studies of Hydride Transfer Catalyzed by E. coli Thymidylate Synthase W80M Mutant.Ó Pierre has not only done science, but he is also a poet/playwright and some of his works can read on his website (www.jeanpointdujour.org) or you may contact him via email at pcpdj@yahoo.com
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Wilmarie Santana Wilmarie Santana is a sophomore student from University of Puerto Rico-Bayamon working inthe Kohen group on a SROP fellowship.
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Steve Sikorski Steve was a post-doc in the Kohen group who received his Bachelor Degree at Bradley University in Peoria and his PhD here at the University of Iowa with Dr. Dan Quinn, working on acetylcholinesterase and low-barrier hydrogen bonds. He has worked at both the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Walter Reed Army Institute. Steve also became a lecturer here at the University of Iowa teaching Organic Chemistry laboratory and Organic and General Chemistry courses, for one year before returning to research. While with the Kohen group Steve studied temperature dependencies on KIEÕs for dihydrofolate reductase. Steve is now holds an industrial position for a company in Springfield, MO.
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Carla Asbury Carla was an undergraduate in the group, working on improving HPLC separations for KIE studies.
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Lena Rydberg Lena was an undergraduate in our lab, from the Department of Biochemistry here at the University of Iowa. Lena worked in our lab for a summer doing synthesis of deuterated substrates.
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Jeff Smith Jeff is an undergraduate student from Burlington, Iowa. He was responsible (among other things) for the web page, and installing any and every new fancy piece of equipment. He graduated in December 2000 with a B.S. degree in Chemistry with Honors. Currently, we have no news as to his whereabouts. Last we heard he was working as a tech for microscopists, here at the University of Iowa where he was treasured as a valuable asset to their laboratory. If you or anyone you know has any information about the location of Jeff Smith, please call America's Most Wanted immediately and then let us know. Do not attempt any communication with this person, you can tell from his picture just the types of evil deeds he is capable of.
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Tim StrutzenbergTim is from the Des Moines area and is studying Biochemistry and Chemistry. He is interested in graduate school for pharmacy or to study medicinal and natural products. In his free time, Tim likes to read, bike, and travel the country playing ultimate frisbee with the Iowa Hawkeye Ultimate Club. |
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Group Pictures from Conferences and Other activities (until 2006) |
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