Trainees

Cohort of 2025–2027

• Erica Anton (Wilson Wong’s laboratory)
• Susie Black (Zeba Wunderlich’s laboratory)
• Cristiana DeAgazio (Samagya Banskota’s laboratory)
• Mohamed Yousry ElSadec (Juan Fuxman Bass’s laboratory)
• Matthew Gatto (Michelle Teplensky’s laboratory)
• Julia Linke (Joyce Wong’s laboratory)
• Liz Medvedeva (Erica Pratt’s laboratory)

Cohort of 2024–2026

• Eric Bueno (Mary Dunlop’s laboratory)
• Anjali Gajendiran (Mo Khalil’s laboratory)
• Megan Hopton (Liang Hao’s laboratory)
• Robert Ovalle Jr. (Miguel Jimenez’s laboratory)
• Siyi Zheng (Michelle Teplensky’s laboratory)

Cohort of 2023–2025

• Nery Arevalos (Alex Green’s laboratory)
• Audrey Van Heest (Liang Hao’s laboratory)
• Tori Guerina (Meg Younger’s laboratory)
• Loran Gliford (Erica Pratt’s laboratory)

Cohort of 2022–2024

• Maryam Dashtiahangar (Trevor Siggers’s laboratory)
• Juan Jaramillo Montezco (Alex Green’s laboratory)
• Emily Schwartz (Joyce Wong’s laboratory)
• Liz Tchantouridze (Mo Khalil’s laboratory)

Cohort of 2021–2023

• Eric South (Mary Dunlop’s laboratory)

Cohort of 2020–2022

• Ezira Yimer Wolle (Mo Khalil’s laboratory)

Recent Ph.D. graduates:

• Adam Sanford
  • Cohort of 2019–2021
  • Ph.D. Thesis title: “Development of a Scalable Yeast-Based Functional Selection Platform to Enable the Discovery of Diverse Protein-Based G Protein-Coupled Receptor Modulators” (5/9/2024)
  • Thesis advisor: Mo Khalil
• Eric Bressler
  • Cohort of 2019–2021
  • Ph.D. Thesis title: “Engineering Biomaterial-Enhanced Therapeutics to Control Locally Aggressive Malignancies” (3/17/2023)
  • Thesis advisors: Wilson Wong & Mark Grinstaff
• Jing Zhang
  • Cohort of 2019–2021
  • Ph.D. Thesis title: “Methods for Studying and Manipulating Microbial Ecosystems” (7/24/2023)
  • Thesis advisor: Daniel Segrè
• Menna Siddiqui
  • Cohort of 2019–2021
  • Ph.D. Thesis title: “Engineering Universal Chimeric Antigen Receptor Systems to Expand Cell Therapy Applications” (6/26/2023)
  • Thesis advisor: Wilson Wong
• Cristian Coriano-Ortiz
  • Cohort of 2020–2022
  • Ph.D. Thesis title: “Engineering optogenetic tools for protein degradation in Escherichia coli” (2/26/2026)
  • Thesis advisor: Mary Dunlop
• Michael Zulch
  • Cohort of 2020–2022
  • Ph.D. Thesis title: “Energy-based quantification of the microbial carrying capacity of Arabidopsis thaliana” (4/11/2025)
  • Thesis advisor: Joe Larkin
• Noshin Nawar
  • Cohort of 2020–2022
  • Ph.D. Thesis title: “A Live-cell Reporter to Track Drosophila Innate Immunity Reveals Heterogeneity in NF-κB Activation and Target Gene Expression” (7/21/2025)
  • Thesis advisor: Zeba Wunderlich
• Diana Arguijo Mendoza
  • Cohort of 2021–2023
  • Ph.D. Thesis title: “Droplet microfluidics provides a platform for testing synthetic biology constructs” (12/12/2025)
  • Thesis advisor: Douglas Densmore
• James Robson
  • Cohort of 2021–2023
  • Ph.D. Thesis title: “Decoding sequence-structure-function relationships of programmable RNA sensors” (5/20/2026)
  • Thesis advisor: Alex Green
• Michael Silverstein
  • Cohort of 2021–2023
  • Ph.D. Thesis title: “Principles of Microbiome Structure and the Implications for Climate Change Mitigation” (12/11/2024)
  • Thesis advisor: Daniel Segrè
• Joey (Zhuoying) Huang
  • Cohort of 2022–2024
  • Ph.D. Thesis title: “Synthetic Receptor Engineering for Immune Control: Precision Targeting of Autoreactive T Cells and Quantitative Dissection of T Cell Fate” (3/31/2026)
  • Thesis advisor: Wilson Wong