Meet Medicinal Chemistry's Five Spring PhD Graduates
June 5, 2024
This spring, the Department of Medicinal Chemistry had the honor of watching five of our students successfully defend their PhD theses:
Brandi McKnight, PhD
"Chemically Self-Assembled Nanorings: A Versatile Platform for Cancer Immunotherapy and Cell Delivery"
Advisor: Carston Wagner
Jessica Fuller, PhD
“Reengineering Caspase-2 for X-ray Crystallography: Use of Novel Protein Constructs to Gain Structural Insights into Alzheimer's Disease Probe Design”
Advisor: Michael Walters
Nick Weirath, PhD
“Leveraging Tools for Ligand Discovery: High-throughput Mixture-based Discovery of Novel Ligands to Interrogate the Molecular Mechanisms of Action of the Melanocortin Receptors”
Advisor: Carrie Haskell-Luevano
Tian Lan, PhD
“Rational Design of Next-Generation Rifamycins”
Advisors: Courtney Aldrich & David Ferguson
Parker Flanders, PhD
“Structure and Dynamics of Penicillin-Binding Protein Inhibitors”
Advisor: Elizabeth Ambrose
Congratulations to these five fantastic scholars and scientists! We know you will all go on to do great things.
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Two-year training opportunity, funded by the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS), integrates a mentored full-time research experience and an individualized curriculum.
PhD candidate Caitlin Lichtenfels has researched cell-based drug delivery, received an award for her community outreach, and earned fellowships for her success in the medicinal chemistry department. But when she was little, she had no plans to be a scientist— she didn’t think she was smart enough. She grew up dealing with significant medical issues in her adolescence— trigeminal neuralgia and hemiplegic migraines— and struggled to engage in high school because of it.
Orimoloye is a PhD candidate in Prof. Courtney Aldrich's laboratory.