Postdoctoral Researchers
Sean Engels, Ph.D.
he/him
smengels@utexas.edu
CPE 5.406
Member since fall 2018
NSF Graduate Research Fellow
Ph.D. Chemical Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin (2024)
B.S. Chemical Engineering,
North Carolina State University (2018)
Research interests: RNA modifications, bioinformatics, omics analyses, air pollution, systems biology
Sungyeon Jang, Ph.D.
she/her
jsungyeon@utexas.edu
CPE 5.406
Member since fall 2022
Postdoctoral Associate Weill Cornell Medicine (2020-2022)
Ph.D. Chemical Engineering, Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH), Pohang, Korea (2020)
B.S. Chemical Engineering, Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH), Pohang, Korea (2014)
Research interests: RNA biology, synthetic biology, systems biology
Blanca Quinones Diaz, Ph.D.
she/her/ella
blanca.quinonesdiaz@austin.utexas.edu
CPE 5.406
Member since spring 2021
Ph.D. Biochemistry, University of Puerto Rico-Medical
Sciences (2020)
B.S. Industrial Chemistry, University of Puerto Rico at Humacao (2015)
Research interests: Environmental stressors and disease, RNA regulation dynamics, epitranscriptomics
Graduate Students
Matthew Burroughs
he/him
mrburroughs@utexas.edu
CPE 5.406
Member since fall 2019
NSF Graduate Research Fellow
B.S. Chemical Engineering, North Carolina State University (2019)
Research interests: RNA modifications, air pollution stress, protein engineering, RNA modification detection methods
Ryan Buchser
he/him
buchser@utexas.edu
CPE 5.406
Member since fall 2021
B.S. Chemical Engineering, University of Delaware (2021)
Research interests: RNA-protein interactions, global RNA regulatory networks, bacterial stress granules
Antonio Cordova
he/him
acordova4144@utexas.edu
CPE 5.406
Member since spring 2021
NSF Graduate Research Fellow
B.S. Biomedical Sciences, Texas A&M University (2020)
Research interests: High-throughput screening, RNA-based method and tool development, RNA structure and function, RNA drug discovery, RNA and protein-based regulation of stress responses
Alyssa Ekdahl
she/her
alyssa.ekdahl@utexas.edu
CPE 5.406
Member since fall 2019
NSF Graduate Research Fellow
B.S. Chemical Engineering, Oregon State University (2015)
Research interests: RNA regulatory networks, RNA design, pathogenic sRNA characterization, bioinformatics
Kobe Grismore
he/him
kobegrismore@utexas.edu
CPE 5.406
Member since fall 2022
B.S. Chemical Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park, MD (2022)
Research interests: Systems biology, protein-metabolite interactions, metabolic engineering, gene regulation
Alexandra Lukasiewicz
she/her
ajlukasiewicz@utexas.edu
CPE 5.406
Member since spring 2019
NSF Graduate Research Fellow
B.S. Environmental Resource Management- Ecology Focus,
The Pennsylvania State University- University Park (2013)
Research interests: Post-transcriptional regulation in pseudomonas aeruginosa, systems biology, bioinformatics
Lucas Miller
he/him
lgmiller@utexas.edu
CPE 5.406
Member since fall 2019
NSF Graduate Research Fellow
B.S. Chemical Engineering, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (2019)
Research interests: RNA modifications, protein-RNA interactions, protein engineering, bioinformatics, computational biophysics
Trevor Simmons
he/him
tsimmons@utexas.edu
CPE 5.406
Member since fall 2019
NSF Graduate Research Fellow
B.S. Chemical Engineering, University of Wisconsin-Madison (2019)
Research interests: Post-transcriptional gene regulation, engineered RNA circuits, dynamic metabolic control, Csr network dynamics
Kathleen Taylor
she/her
katiet@utexas.edu
CPE 5.406
Member since fall 2022
B.S. Chemical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology (2022)
Research interests: Epitranscriptomics, RNA-protein interactions, post-transcriptional circuitry, disease-relevant proteins and environmental stressors
Agata Turula
she/her
agataturula@utexas.edu
CPE 5.406
Member since fall 2022
B.E. Chemical Engineering, The City College of New York (2022)
Research interests: RNA regulatory networks, RNA design, pathogenic sRNA characterization, bioinformatics
Undergraduate Students
Kritika Bisht
she/her
Expected graduation: May 2025
Kritika enjoys painting, hiking, playing the piano, and watching murder mysteries. She also loves playing board games.
Jennah Johnson
she/her
Chemical Engineering
Expected graduation: May 2025
Jennah loves shopping, drawing, and sports (volleyball and the Green Bay Packers).
Laci Moline
she/her
Biology
Expected graduation: May 2027
Laci likes to watch Survivor and trivia shows like Jeopardy, collecting lego sets, running, and working out.
Stavros Pafilis
he/him
Chemical Engineering
Expected graduation: May 2025
Stavros enjoys solving crossword puzzles, swimming, and traveling abroad.
Sahana Suraj
she/her
Chemical Engineering
Expected graduation: May 2025
Sahana enjoys art, dancing, and traveling.