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Dr. Alfonso Mondragón, principal investigator |
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Nicole Baker, graduate student
After starting her graduate schooling with Northwestern University’s IBiS program, Nicole joined the Mondragon laboratory in the summer of 2005. She is continuing the laboratory’s interest in topoisomerases. Nicole’s research strategy is to look at the structure of these DNA-protein complexes on the atomic level using methods such as transmission electron microscopy, cryoelectron microscopy, and X-ray crystallography. |
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Lei Huang, lab technician
Lei joined in Dr. Mondragon's lab as a research technologist in 2006. She graduated from University of Georgia with M.S in Biochemistry. Currently she is working on characterization of the interaction of the red cell cytoskeletal protein spectrin and the adaptor protein ankyrin. |
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Jonathan Ipsaro, graduate student
A graduate student in Northwestern University's Interdepartmental Biological Sciences Program, Jon has been a member of the lab since 2005. Beginning his thesis project in a collaborative effort with Ruby MacDonald (Research Professor, now retired) he has been working on elucidating the biophysical and structural properties of the spectrin-ankyrin interaction. |
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Amy Osterman, lab technician
Prior to joining the Mondragon lab, Amy worked in the lab of Dr. Robert Miller at the University of New Mexico performing comparative immunological studies of marsupials using BAC library and cDNA library hybridization techniques. Amy joined the Mondragón lab in July 2007 and is continuing structural work of RNase P using crystallographic techniques. |
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Asmita Patel, lab technician After completing her Master's degree at the Ohio State University under Dr. Joseph A. Krzycki in 2002, Asmita joined the Mondragón lab in 2003. Her work in the lab has focused on the crystallization of topoisomerases and DNA-protein complexes. |
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Rakhi Rajan, post-doc
Rakhi joined Dr. Mondragon's lab as a postdoctoral fellow in October 2007. She obtained her Ph.D from the Ohio State University working under Dr. Charles E. Bell. For her Ph.D she was trying to understand the structure and mechanism of RecA, the protein which is the key player for the process of homologous recombination. In Dr. Mondragón's lab she is continuing her interest in protein-DNA complexes by studying topoisomerases. |
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Nick Reiter, post-doc
Nick joined the Mondragón lab in December of 2007 after completing his Ph.D in Sam Butcher's lab at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His research focuses on understanding RNA-RNA recognition and catalysis by RNase P at the atomic level. In describing his interests, Dr. Reiter states, "Exploring the ribonucleoprotein (RNP) world and learning about post-transcriptional processing events are a few of my favorite things." |
