People
PI: Emad Tajkhorshid
J. W. Hastings Endowed Chair of Biochemistry
Professor of Biophysics and Quantitative Biology
Professor of Chemistry
Professor of Bioengineering
Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology
Po-Chao Wen
Membrane Channels and Transporters
ATP-Binding Cassette Transporters
Zhaleh Ghaemi
Karan Kapoor
Mariano Spivak
Proton Transport in Confined Water
Hybrid Quantum Mechanics/Molecular Mechanics (QM/MM) Methods
Electronic Structure of Transition Metal Complexes
Mohammad Soroush Barhaghi
Noah Trebesch
Biophysics Graduate Research Associate
NSF Graduate Research Fellow
Research Interests
Structural Elucidation and Thermodynamic Characterization of the Mechanisms of Transporters and Other Membrane Proteins
Atomistic Modeling, Visualization, and Simulation of Organelle-Scale Membrane Structures
Massively Parallel Simulation and Analysis Methods Development
Melanie Muller
Biophysics Graduate Research Associate
M.D.-Ph.D. Student
NIH Ruth L. Kirschstein Fellow
Muyun Lihan
Biophysics Graduate Research Associate
Research Interests
Antibody Design Targeting Viral Glycoproteins
Bacteriorhodopsin Unfolding
Chun Kit Chan
Physics Graduate Research Associate
Research Interests
Quantum Mechanics in Photosynthetic Systems
Various Aspects of Higher Plants
Eric Shinn
Biophysics Graduate Research Associate
Zhiyu Zhao
Biophysics Graduate Research Associate
Andres Arango
Biophysics Graduate Research Associate
Shashank Pant
Shashank Pant
Biophysics Graduate Research Associate
Nandan Haloi
Biophysics Graduate Research Associate
Archit Vasan
Biophysics Graduate Research Associate
Sepehr Dehghani-Ghahnaviyeh
Biophysics Graduate Research Associate
Aaron Chan
Biophysics Graduate Research Associate
Moeen Meigooni
Biophysics Graduate Research Associate
Anda Trifan
Biophysics Graduate Research Associate
Defne Gorgun
Biophysics Graduate Research Associate
Ali Rasouli
Biophysics Graduate Research Associate
Tianle Chen
Biophysics Graduate Research Associate
Hyun Park
Biophysics Graduate Research Associate
Hale Hasdemir
Biophysics Graduate Research Associate
Matt Sinclair
Biochemistry Graduate Research Associate
Sunny (Hyea) Hwang
Tao Jiang
Chloride/Proton Transporters, Fluc Channels, Phospholipid Scramblase
Soumyo Sen
Postdoctoral Research Associate, 2019-2021
Currently Postdoctoral Research Associate at Mount Sinai School of Medicine
Kin Lam
Physics Graduate Research Associate, 2016-2020
Research Interests
Neuroscience - e.g., Molecular Properties of Ion Channels, the Study of Neural Model and Network Systems
Giuseppe Licari
Rezvan Shahoei
Physics Graduate Research Associate, 2016-2019
Research Interests
Mechanisms of Protein Synthesis by the Ribosome
Jimmy Do
Biochemistry Graduate Research Associate, 2017-2019
Paween Mahinthichaichan
Biochemistry Graduate Research Associate, 2011-2016
Postdoctoral Research Associate, 2016-2019
Currently Postdoctoral Research Associate at University of Maryland
Molecular Bioenergetics, Protein-Ligand Interactions
Mrinal Shekhar
Biophysics Graduate Research Associate, 2013-2019
Currently Research Scientist at AstraZeneca
Secondary Transporters
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Charles (Chang) Sun
Postdoctoral Research Associate, 2016-2018
Currently Postdoctoral Research Associate at Eric Gouaux HHMI Lab, Vollum Institute
Membrane Protein, Optical and Magnetic Spectroscopy
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Steven (Yuhang) Wang
Biophysics Graduate Student 2011-2017
Postdoctoral Research Associate, 2017-2018
Currently Postdoctoral Research Associate at Grant Jensen HHMI Lab, Caltech
Secondary Transporters
Sundar Thangapandian
Postdoctoral Research Associate, 2013-2017
Currently Research Fellow at Environmental Laboratory, Engineering Research and Development Center, US Army Corp of Engineers
Large-Scale Transitions in Membrane Transporters
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Ahmad Raeisi Najafi
Postdoctoral Research Associate, 2016-2017
Currently Assistant Professor at Drexel University
Membrane Channels, Membrane Transporters
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Christopher Mayne
Postdoctoral Research Associate, 2011-2013
Research Programmer, 2013-2017
Currently Principal Scientist, Computational Chemistry at Loxo Oncology @ Lilly
Estrogen Receptor, Ligand Parameterization
Mohamad Kalani
Currently Faculty of Gorgan University
Influenza Virus
Taras Pogorelov
Postdoctoral Research Associate, 2009-2012
Currently Research Assistant Professor, Department of Chemistry, UIUC
Membrane associated phenomena
Antimicrobial peptides
Mark Arcario
M.D.-Ph.D. Student, 2009-2017
Currently Medical Resident at Washington University in St. Louis
Physical Properties of the Membrane
Molecular Descriptions of Coagulation Protein Dynamics
Cell Adhesion Mechanics and Integrin Activation
Zhe Wu
Postdoctoral Research Associate, 2012-2017
Currently Senior Scientist at Merck
Javier Baylon
Biophysics Graduate Research Associate, 2010-2016
Currently Computational Biologist at Boston Biomedical
Latifeh Navidpour
Visiting Scholar, 2015-2016
Currently Assistant Professor at Tehran University of Medical Science
Josh Vermaas
Biophysics Graduate Research Associate, 2010-2016
Currently Postdoctoral Research Associate at National Renewable Energy Laboratory
Membrane Models, Force Field Development, Bioenergy, Transporters
Mahmoud Moradi
Postdoctoral Research Associate, 2011-2015
Currently Assistant Professor at University of Arkansas
Large-Scale Conformational Transitions
Conformational Changes in Membrane Transport Proteins
Methodological Developments for Biomolecular Simulations
Nonequilibrium Statistical Mechanics
Danial Sabri Dashti
Postdoctoral Research Associate, 2013-2015
Currently Data Scientist at ID Analytics/LifeLock
Large-Scale Transitions in Membrane Transporters
Jing Li
Biophysics Graduate Research Associate, 2008-2014
Postdoctoral Research Associate, 2014-2015
Currently Postdoctoral Research Associate at the University of Chicago
Dynamics and Mechanism of Membrane Transporters
Cell Adhesion Mechanics
Wei Han
Postdoctoral Research Associate, 2011-2015
Currently Associate Professor at Peking University Shenzhen Graduate School
Membrane Channels, Coarse-Grained Methods
Giray Enkavi
Biophysics Graduate Research Associate, 2007-2013
Postdoctoral Research Associate, 2014
Currently Postdoctoral Research Associate at Tampere University of Technology
Membrane Channels and Transporters
Saher Afshan Shaikh
Postdoctoral Research Associate, 2007-2013
Membrane protein-mediated diffusion and active transport
Secondary transporters: LeuT
Ligand gated ion channels: Acid sensing ion channel (ASIC), Nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (nAChR)
Water channels: Aquaporins
Zhijian Huang
Postdoctoral Research Associate, 2007-2013
Currently Senior Analyst at Nielsen
Sodium and Proton Coupled Transporters
Glutamate transporter
Wenxun Gan
Postdoctoral Research Associate, 2011-2012
Yi Wang
Biophysics Graduate Research Associate, 2003-2008
Currently Associate Professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong
Jiankuai Diao
Postdoctoral Research Associate, 2007-2008
Currently Software Engineer at Allison Transmission
Geoff Christensen
Biochemistry Undergraduate Research Associate, 2004-2008
Currently Postdoctoral Research Associate at Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Y. Zenmei Ohkubo (젠메이)
Molecular mechanisms of
Membrane binding and
Complex formation of
Coagulation proteins