The team

Shahar Sukenik

Shahar Sukenik

Principal Investigator

Taking care of business

Trevor Brandt

Trevor Brandt

Graduate Student

Pooled optical screens of FRET reporters

Kara Hunter

Kara Hunter

Graduate Student

Pooled library screenings of LEA4 protein expression

David Cordone

David Cordone

Graduate Student

Studying inherent tolerance of cells to stress due to desiccation

Eden Vallari

Eden Vallari

Graduate Student

Investigating how missense mutations associated with monogenic diseases disrupt the structural ensembles and functional properties of IDRs

Joint with the Castañeda lab

True Rappold

True Rappold

Graduate Student

Effects of abiotic cellular changes on transcription efficacy

Jessica Niblo

Jessica Niblo

Postdoctoral Researcher

Using molecular dynamics simulations to understand and design protein sensitivity in different environmental conditions

Kavindu Kolamunna

Kavindu Kolamunna

Graduate Student

High-throughput In vitro studies of IDPs using FRET analysis to explore the effect of patient derived single point mutations on structure-function relationship

Lea Day

Lea Day

Undergraduate Student

High-throughput screening of LEA4 proteins as protective agents against reactive oxidative species

Lab alumni

  • Emil Kashua, Summer undergraduate researcher, 2026
  • Jacqueline Hammond, CHEM REU student, 2026
  • Caleb Kyle, CHEM REU student, 2026
  • Celestia Skowronski, Undergraduate student, 2025-2026
  • Erin Hattan, Undergraduate Student, 2025-2026
  • Sini Shqair, Undergraduate Student, 2025-2026
  • Dr. Patrick Koenig, PhD Student, 2020-2026
  • Brooke Nichols, CHEM REU student, Winter + Summer 2025
  • Dr. Eduardo Flores, PhD Student, 2020-2025, now postdoc at the Salk Institute
  • Alexander Truong, Undergraduate Student, 2023-2025
  • Aleah Camacho, Undergraduate Student, 2022-2025, now at Capricor TX
  • Dr. Karina C. Guadalupe, PhD student, 2018-2024
  • Dr. Sofía Romero, Postdoctoral fellow, 2022-2024
  • Azeem Horani, PhD student, 2023-2024, now in the Thompson lab
  • Alec Martinez, Lab manager, 2022-2024
  • Edith Gollub, Undergraduate Student, 2022-2024, now graduate student at UCSD
  • Hadrien Lehman, Undergraduate Student, 2023-2024, currently postbac at the NIH
  • Matthew Muñoz, REU student, Summer 2024
  • Joseph Karuga, Undergraduate student, 2023-2024
  • Mary McCoy, Undergraduate student, 2022-2024
  • Dr. Feng Yu, PhD student 2018-2023 - Now at the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab
  • Dr. David C. Moses, PhD student, 2018-2023 - now at Scripps institute
  • Ryan Lee, Undergraduate student, 2022-2023
  • Jada Marshall, REU student, Summer 2023
  • Gagandeep Kaur, Undergraduate student 2022-2023, currently at UCSF
  • Nora Margaret Shamoon, Undergraduate student, 2019-2022 - Now graduate student at UC Merced
  • Tejveer Bagri, High School student, Summer 2022 - currently at UC Berkeley
  • Ralph McAnelly, Research Specialist, 2021-2022
  • Estefania Cuevas-Zepeda, Undergraduate student, 2021-2022 - currently at UChicago
  • Catherine Nguyen, Undergraduate student, 2021-2022
  • Jaspal Mann, Undergraduate student, 2021-2022
  • Daniela Navarrete, Visiting Masters student, Fall 2021
  • Dianna Liakos, Undergraduate REU student, Summer 2021
  • Andres Eduardo Bonilla, Undergraduate REU student, Summer 2021
  • Adam Rhetta, Undergraduate student, 2020-2021
  • Ashan Lakhani, Undergraduate student, 2019-2020
  • Navtej Singh, Undergraduate student, 2019-2020
  • Kiefer Deen Villacrucis, High school student, Summer 2019

Join us!

The lab is always looking for motivated, talented individuals!

Projects in the lab tend to be interdisciplinary, and can involve live-cell microscopy, protein biophysics, and/or programming, depending on your interests. If you like what you see, drop Shahar a line. Please indicate why you're interested in joining.