Our Team

Research Fellows

Mia Mihailovic, Ph.D.

she/her
mihailom@utexas.edu
CPE 5.406
Member since fall 2015
Ph.D. Chemical Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin (2020)
B.S. Chemical Engineering, Oregon State University (2015)

Research interests: Synthetic biology, design of RNA-based in vivo tools, sRNA characterization, bioinformatics

Postdoctoral Researchers

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, post-transcriptional circuitry, global RNA regulatory networks

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

Sean Engels

he/him
smengels@utexas.edu
CPE 5.406
Member since fall 2018
NSF Graduate Research Fellow
B.S. Chemical Engineering,
North Carolina State University (2018)

Research interests: RNA modifications, air pollution stress, human lung cells, RNAseq analysis

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: Post-transcriptional gene regulation, engineered RNA circuits, dynamic metabolic control, Csr network dynamics

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

Matsuri Rojano Nisimura

she/her/ella
matsuri.rojano@utexas.edu
CPE 5.406
Member since spring 2018
Fulbright-Garcia Robles Fellow
B.S. Biotechnology Engineering, Tecnológico de Monterrey,
Queretaro, Mexico (2015)

Research interests: post-transcriptional regulation, RNA folding, RNA-protein interactions, RNA binding proteins

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