Lab Manager
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Arlene Ngor was born and raised in Orange County, CA. She received her B.S. in Human Biology from the University of California, San Diego in June 2015. In September 2015, Arlene joined the Chaput lab to help manage lab affairs, such as purchases/orders and safety, along with expressing and purifying polymerases for lab studies. During her free time, she enjoys spending time with her family and friends as well as participating in various service and volunteer opportunities. [/ezcol_3quarter_end]
Research Scientists
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Dr. Nicholas Chim, also known as Nick, was born and raised in Singapore. He received his Ph.D. in Molecular Biology from Vanderbilt University, where he worked under the supervision of Prof. Andrzej Krezel to elucidate the structure and interactions of a yeast ubiquitin-associated domain to ubiquitin. At UCLA, he was a postdoctoral researcher in Prof. Juli Feigon’s lab that was interested in the structure and function of ribonucleoprotein complexes. Before moving to the Chaput lab, he was a project scientist at UCI in Prof. Celia Goulding’s lab, studying structures and functions of protein from pathways of pathogenic bacteria that are promising therapeutic targets, including the Mycobacterium tuberculosis heme uptake and disulfide bond oxidoreductase systems. In December 2015, Nick joined the Chaput lab to 1) study de novo protein evolution for the selection of novel protein folds that exhibit high affinities to small molecule and protein targets and 2) structural determination of engineered polymerases to elucidate TNA substrate recognition. During his free time, he enjoys staying active, such as running and hiking, as well as food, in which both are of an interdependent relationship. [/ezcol_3quarter_end]
Postdoctoral Fellows
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Dr. Derek Vallejo was born and raised in Los Angeles, CA. He received his B.S. in Bioengineering: premedical from the University of California, San Diego in 2010. In 2016, Derek obtained his Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering under the guidance of Dr. Abraham Lee at the University of California, Irvine, where he focused on microfluidic generation of giant unilamellar vesicles and multisomes imbued with artificial cell functionality. Derek joined the Chaput lab in November 2016 as a postdoctoral fellow that is interested in developing a miniaturized, high-throughout polymerase activity assay for directed evolution of XNA polymerases using microfluidically generated double emulsions. During his free time, he enjoys spending time with his family, playing video games, reading, and exercising.[/ezcol_3quarter_end]
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Dr. Hui Mei was born and raised in Zaozhuang City, China. He received his B.S. in Pharmacy in 2006 and Master’s in Chemical Biology in 2008, both from Peking University, Health Science Center. As a Master’s student, Hui studied the synthesis of neamine-PNA conjugates and their interactions with RNA under the mentorship of Prof. Dr. Lihe Zhang and Prof. Dr. Zhenjun Yang. In 2015, Hui obtained his Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Osnabrueck, where he studied nucleic acids with modified cytosine building blocks, specifically the functionalization with pyene azide, the assembly of parallel duplexes in i-motif DNA, and the construction of silver ion-mediated base pairs under Prof. Dr. Frank Seela. In September 2015, he joined the Chaput lab as a postdoctoral fellow, synthesizing TNA polymers with modified nucleobases for further applications. During his free time, he enjoys traveling and reading.[/ezcol_3quarter_end]
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Dr. Li Zhang was born and raised in Changsha, China. He received his B.S. in Polymer Science in 2010, where he conducted research on constructing metal complexes as metalloenzyme mimic, under the mentorship of Prof. Zongwan Mao. In May 2016, Li obtained his Ph.D. in Chemistry from Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, where he created dynamic chemical networks from chemically-modified peptides and nucleosides under Prof. David Lynn. In August 2016, he joined the Chaput lab as a postdoctoral fellow, using mRNA display to evolve functional peptides and proteins. During his free time, he enjoys swimming, cooking, watching anime, and listening to jazz and classical music.[/ezcol_3quarter_end]
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Dr. Randi Jimenez was born and raise in southern California. She received her B.S. in Biochemistry from the University of California, Riverside in 2009. In 2015, she obtained her Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of California, Irvine, where she studied Molecular Biology & Biochemistry under the mentorship of Prof. Andrej Luptak, studying the discovery and biological function of self-cleaving ribozymes. Then, she joined the Chaput lab in January 2016 as a postdoctoral fellow to develop XNA aptamers for in vivo applications. During her free time, she enjoys camping, hiking, running, archery, and roadtrips. [/ezcol_3quarter_end]
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Dr. Sujay Sau was born and raise in West Bengal, India. He received his B.S. in Chemistry from the University of Calcutta. In 2012, he obtained his Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Idaho, where he specialized in nucleoside/oligonucoletide chemistry under the mentorship of Prof. Patrick Hrdlicka. After graduation, he joined the Chaput lab as a postdoctoral fellow to study the chemical synthesis of threose nucleic acid monomers.[/ezcol_3quarter_end]
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Dr. Yajun Wang was born and raised in Beijing, China. She received her Master’s degree in Experimental Medicine and Pharmaceutical Sciences at Peking Union Medical College & Tsinghua Medical School in 2009. In May 2016, she obtained her Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada, where she studied chemically modified RNA-cleaving DNA enzymes that mimic RNase A, under the mentorship of Prof. David Perrin. Then, she joined the Chaput lab in June 2016 as a postdoctoral fellow to study the structural and functional properties of threose nucleic acid (TNA) by in vitro selection. During her free time, she enjoys hiking, running, snowboarding, and watching Peking Opera. [/ezcol_3quarter_end]
Graduate Students
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Ali Nikoomanzar was born in Tucson, Arizona and raised in Chandler, Arizona. He received his B.S. in Molecular Biosciences and Biotechnology from Arizona State University in 2010. From 2010-2015, he worked as an industrial researcher at Illumina, Inc. with a focus on protein engineering and enzyme kinetics for next generation sequencing (NGS) platforms. In September 2015, Ali joined the Chaput lab to direct the evolution of DNA polymerases for strong in vitro TNA replicative function. During his free time, he enjoys going to the gym, watching football and basketball, reading, and playing games, like chess and poker. [/ezcol_3quarter_end]
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Jen-Yu Liao was born and raised in Taipei, Taiwan. He received his B.S. in Chemistry in 2007 and M.S. in Applied Chemistry in 2011 from National Tsing-Hua University. As a Master’s student, he conducted research in Dr. Chung-Ming Sun’s laboratory, where Jen-Yu worked on the combinatorial synthesis of small molecules for the function of anti-cancer study. In December 2013, Jen-Yu joined the Chaput lab to study the high-order structures of TNA oligonucleotides, synthetic optimization of TNA building blocks and oligonucleotide, and template directed nonenzymatic TNA ligation. During his free time, he enjoys playing basketball and table tennis, along with singing, hiking, and traveling.[/ezcol_3quarter_end]
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Saikat Bala was born in Bongaon, India and raised in Kolkata, India. In 2012, he received his B.Sc. with honors in Chemistry from Ramakrishna Mission Vidyamandira in West Bengal, India. He did his summer intern on the investigation on the design and synthesis of triazoloyl donor/acceptor decorated unnatural nucleosides in Dr. Subhendu Sekhar Bag’s laboratory at IIT Guwahati in 2013. He obtained his M.Sc. in Chemistry from IIT Kanpur, where he was conducting undergraduate research in Dr. Sandeep Verma’s laboratory and studying the synthesis and self-assembly of laminin based peptide conjugates (YIGSD). In October 2014, Saikat joined the Chaput lab to synthesize threose nucleic acid (TNA) and to study TNA’s biological properties as genetic, non-enzymatic material. During his free time, he enjoys traveling, reading, and watching movies.[/ezcol_3quarter_end]
Undergraduate Students
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Chantel Nguyen Tran was born and raised in Garden Grove, CA. She is currently working towards a B.S. in Chemistry with a concentration in Biology with hopes of graduating in 2018 and then entering medical school. In October 2015, Chantel entered the Chaput lab to study protein synthesis as well as understand protein structure and how it affects protein function. During her free time, she enjoys arts and crafts. [/ezcol_3quarter_end]
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Lynnette Jackson was born and raised in Anaheim, CA. She is currently working towards a B.S. in Biological Sciences with hopes of going to medical school to become a physician. With enough clinical experience, Lynnette would like to travel to developing nations with Doctors without Borders to bring healthcare to people who do not have access to such. In November 2015, Lynnette joined the Chaput lab to study protein synthesis in terms of its growth, development, and survival in organisms. During her free time, she enjoys reading, solving puzzles, and watching movies and/or television programs about murder mysteries.[/ezcol_3quarter_end]