GRADUATE STUDENTS
![](https://ovmakhly.expressions.syr.edu/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Ali_2023-731x1024.jpeg)
ALIREZA JAFAR ESMAELLI
Joined the lab in January 2023.
Stimuli-responsive hydrogels for wound healing and drug delivery.
![](https://ovmakhly.expressions.syr.edu/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Dona-683x1024.jpg)
DONA IMANGA UPAMADI EDIRISINGHE
Joined the lab in 2021.
Stimuli-responsive hydrogels.
UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS
![](https://ovmakhly.expressions.syr.edu/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/kemi-611x1024.jpg)
Protein evolution.
KEMI KAURUKI
Joined the lab in January 2023.
![](https://ovmakhly.expressions.syr.edu/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/jennifer_jankowski-1-921x1024.jpeg)
JENNIFER JANKOWSKI
Stimuli-responsive hydrogels.
Joined the lab in Fall 2022.
![](https://ovmakhly.expressions.syr.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/emma_herrero-941x1024.jpg)
EMMA HERRERO
Stimuli-responsive hydrogels.
Joined the lab in January 2022.
![](https://ovmakhly.expressions.syr.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/quentenc-224x300.jpg)
QUENTEN CHICON
Joined the lab in September 2019.
Antimicrobial hydrogel project
REU student (summer 2021)
ALUMNI
![](https://ovmakhly.expressions.syr.edu/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Cheyene-576x1024.jpeg)
CHEYENE MUENZEL
Antimicrobial hydrogel project.
Recipient of Renee Crown University Honors Award.
Joined the lab in January 2021; graduated May 2022.
![](https://ovmakhly.expressions.syr.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Johnny_cropped_2-868x1024.jpg)
JONATHAN SOULE
Stimuli-responsive hydrogels for osteoarthritis treatment.
REU student in summer 2022.
![](https://ovmakhly.expressions.syr.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Khoudia-542x1024.jpeg)
KHOUDIA CISSE
Stimuli-responsive hydrogels for wound healing.
ACS Seed project, summer 2022.
![](https://ovmakhly.expressions.syr.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/alexis_pic-258x300.jpeg)
ALEXIS ECKHART
Joined the lab in September 2019.
RNR project, TIGR4 biofilm, stimuli-responsive hydrogels.
Recipient of the SOURCE award.
Graduated in December 2021, now at Moderna in Norwood, MA.
![](https://ovmakhly.expressions.syr.edu/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/matt-e1537201590712-189x300.jpg)
MATTHEW WALSH
Joined the lab in September 2018.
Recipient of the SOURCE award.
Graduated in December 2020.
![](https://ovmakhly.expressions.syr.edu/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Agrim-683x1024.jpg)
AGRIM MANGLA
REU student through BioInspired Institute at SU (summer 2021, from Colgate University),
pH-sensitive hydrogel
![](https://ovmakhly.expressions.syr.edu/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Alana-768x1024.png)
ALANA HUYNH
REU student (summer 2021, from Ursinus College), phosphoester hydrolysis
![](https://ovmakhly.expressions.syr.edu/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Jennifer_photo-2-e1522539397114-240x300.jpg)
JENNIFER YOON
Joined the lab in 2017.
myoglobin project
metal homeostasis in S. pneumoniae
Postdoc in the Justin Kim lab at Dana Farber Cancer Institute.
Now at Amgen, Cambridge, MA.
![](https://ovmakhly.expressions.syr.edu/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Emily-225x300.jpg)
EMILY DYER
Manganese homeostasis
Forensic chemist since March 2021.
![](https://ovmakhly.expressions.syr.edu/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Kameron-1-685x1024.jpg)
KAMERON SHRUM
Joined the lab in 2021.
Antimicrobial hydrogel project
![](https://ovmakhly.expressions.syr.edu/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/11709768_10206396848912460_3418874502284350493_n-e1536786953221-257x300.jpg)
DR. AREETHA D’SOUZA
PhD Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore, 2017
Joined the lab in August 2018.
Now at Vanderbilt at the Chazin lab (starting May 2021).
![](https://ovmakhly.expressions.syr.edu/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/christos-225x300.jpg)
CHRISTOS COSTEAS
Joined the lab in May 2018
Myoglobin project
Defended his Capstone thesis in May 2020.
![](https://ovmakhly.expressions.syr.edu/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Cara-300x200.jpg)
CARA CHESTER
Joined the lab in September 2018. DFsc project
Defended her Capstone thesis in May 2020.
![](https://ovmakhly.expressions.syr.edu/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Maggie-e1533846229933-202x300.jpg)
MAGDELYNN MEGE
Joined the lab in summer 2018.
TIGR4 biofilm project
Defended her Capstone thesis in December 2019.
![](https://ovmakhly.expressions.syr.edu/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Jacky-300x300.jpg)
JACKY WU
RNR project.
Hydrogels for wound healing.
Now PhD student at the Department of Biology and Biochemistry
University of Houston.
![](https://ovmakhly.expressions.syr.edu/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Quyen-283x300.jpg)
QUYEN PHAM
Syracuse City School District high school (summer 2019)
ACS Project Seed
Now undergraduate student at SU!
![](https://ovmakhly.expressions.syr.edu/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/ioyce-240x300.jpg)
JOYCE QUON
REU student from California State University of Los Angeles (summer 2018).
RNR project, stopped-flow
![](https://ovmakhly.expressions.syr.edu/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Lizzy-169x300.jpg)
LIZZY ORTIZ
Upstate Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation program (summer 2018). Lizzy is from Laredo Community College.
Myoglobin project
![](https://ovmakhly.expressions.syr.edu/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Chanh_conference-300x225.jpg)
CHANH DO
Syracuse City School District high school (summer 2018)
M. tuberculosis catalase
![](https://ovmakhly.expressions.syr.edu/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/image1-300x218.jpeg)
JOEL REMPILLO
2016 – 2018
Design of mononuclear non-heme enzyme for oxygen activation.
PhD program at Yale (Biological and Biomedical Sciences).
![](https://ovmakhly.expressions.syr.edu/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/IMG_0866-300x252.jpg)
ALEX STERNISHA
2014 – 2016
Antimicrobial hydrogels
M.D./Ph.D program at UTSW
![](https://ovmakhly.expressions.syr.edu/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Denis-Cipurko-225x300.jpg)
DENIS CIPURKO
REU student from Loyola Chicago (summer 2017)
The role of serine to threonine substitution in NrdF protein of ribonucleotide reductase enzyme.
![](https://ovmakhly.expressions.syr.edu/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/P1000387-300x233.jpg)
KATHARINA HIEBLER
iREU student from University of Graz (summer 2015)
Functional tuning of the catalytic residue pKa in a de novo designed esterase.
![](https://ovmakhly.expressions.syr.edu/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Garrick-300x225.jpg)
GARRICK CENTOLA
REU student from University of Rochester (summer 2015)
Antimicrobial hydrogels