Nowick Group Members

THE NOWICK RESEARCH GROUP

THE NOWICK RESEARCH GROUP

2017 Spring

Professor James S. Nowick

jsnowick@uci.edu

Research Advisor

-A.B., Columbia University (1985)

-Ph.D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1990)

-NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1989-1991)

Link to Dr. Nowick's Profile

Kevin Chen

kevinhc1@uci.edu

Graduate Student

-B.S. Bioengineering, University of California-San Diego (2007)

-M.S. Chemistry, California State University-Fullerton (2012)

Kevin Chen was born in Kaohsiung, Taiwan and immigrated to the home of the red, white and blue when he was nine. He initially made his home in the sunny Southern California and been there ever since. He graduated from UCSD with a B.S. degree in Bioengineering: Premedical. He worked at a small pharma in the medicinal chemistry department, and that was when he saw the light and decided to cross over from bioengineering to the dark side. He decided to beef up his chemistry knowledge with a M.S. in Chemistry from CSUF. He is now a third year student hopefully making it all the way and on route to world domination with his drugs.

Adam Kreutzer

akreutze@uci.edu

Graduate Student

-B.S. Biology, University of Utah (2006)

-M.S. Oncological Sciences, University of Utah (2008)

Adam Kreutzer is originally from Salt Lake City, UT, where he enjoyed skiing and snowboarding, until he actually had to start studying for school. Adam received his B.S. and M.S. from the University of Utah, where he enjoyed many research experiences in different molecular biology and biochemistry labs. After working in a developmental biology lab for an additional four years after earning his M.S., Adam decided to change fields (kind of) and pursue a Ph. D. in chemistry. Adam joined professor Nowick’s group in 2012, with the desire to bring his expertise in molecular biology to the different projects in the group. Adam is currently working on understanding the relationship between the structures amyloid oligomers and their biological activity.

Nick Truex

ntruex@uci.edu

Graduate Student

-B.S. Chemistry, Purdue University (2011)

Nicholas grew up in Carmel Indiana and received his B.S. degree from Purdue University, home of the Boilermakers! In regards to his early pursuits of chemistry, they can be described as futile attempts to chase after girls. When he took interest in sciencing, Eli Lilly graciously permitted him to enter their facilities for internships in process and bioanalytical R&D. At Purdue, he worked with Prof. Ei-ichi Negishi on increasing TONs for Pd-catalyzed cross-coupling reactions. Nicholas joined the lab in 2012. His current interests are making molecules that do stuff (but who really knows what that means?!)! In his (sparing) spare time, he plays music and attempts to keep up with whatever other hobbies those midwestern boys have.

Patrick Salveson

psalveso@uci.edu

Graduate Student

-B.S. Chemical Biology, University of California-Berkeley (2013)

Patrick Salveson was born in Bishop CA and spent most of his younger years on the slopes of Mammoth Mountain. After moving with his family to southern California, he completed two years of community college at Riverside Community College before transferring to University of California, Berkeley (Go Bears!) where he graduated with honors with a degree in Chemical Biology. He joined the Nowick lab in the winter of 2014. He is currently studying the structural impacts of familial mutants in chemical models of alpha-synuclein.

Michael Morris

morrisma@uci.edu

Graduate Student

-B.S. Biochemistry, Union College (2014)

Michael Morris was born and raised outside Boston, MA (go Red Sox!). He graduated from Union College in Schenectady, NY in 2014 with a Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry. At Union, Michael worked with Prof. Laura MacManus-Spencer, where he investigated the binding mechanism of perfluoroalkyl acids to human serum albumin using analytical methods. After graduation, Michael moved out to beautiful southern California and began his graduate career at UC Irvine by working in the Nowick lab during the summer. Upon joining the Nowick lab this past fall, Michael is excited to use synthetic and peptide chemistry as well as X-ray crystallography to study amyloidogenic proteins. In his free time, Michael enjoys hiking, eating Chipotle, and expanding his tea collection. Kevin Chen wishes he could be as cool as Michael.

Hyun Jun Yang

yanghj1@uci.edu

Graduate Student

-B.S. Biochemistry, University of Wisconsin-Madison (2013)

Hyun Jun Yang was born in Seoul, South Korea. As a Wisconsin-Madison Badger, he worked under Dr. Samuel H. Gellman and Dr. Younghee Shin, where his research focus was on the peptide foldamer interaction. First project was backbone thioester exchange (BTE) studies where the goal was to calculate the folding/binding energy of natural/unnatural α-helix. Second project was to synthesize α/β/γ-amino acid α-helix mimicry that binds to Bcl-xL inducing apoptosis. As he moved to University of California-Irvine, he started his career as graduate student under Dr. James S. Nowick. He is currenly working to study β-sheet amyloid peptide interaction and peptidic antibiotic teixobactin. Yang has an ambitious goal to master peptide science and peptide interaction.

Stan Yoo

syoo3@uci.edu

Graduate Student

-B.S. Chemistry, University of California-Berkeley (2012)

Stan went to Berkeley where he found organic chemistry fun and enjoyable! There, he worked on synthesizing photoswitch ligands for neurobiology studies in the Isacoff lab. After graduation, he worked in the Zuckermann lab researching on peptoid nanosheets and became interested in biopolymers. He is excited to learn all about chemistry at Irvine and pass along his excitement while teaching classes. Outside of lab, he likes to explore good food and music.

Kate McKnelly

kmcknell@uci.edu

Graduate Student

-B.S. Chemical Biology, University of California-Berkeley (2013)

-M.S. Chemical Biology and Drug Design, University of Leeds (2015)

Kate McKnelly was born in Camarillo, California and discovered her love of chemistry while an undergraduate student at UC Berkeley. While pursuing a B.S. degree in Chemical Biology, she had an internship at EMBL in Monterotondo, Italy under Dr. Paul Heppenstall, which exposed her to the world of neuroscience. After graduating, Kate worked as a laboratory technician at UC San Francisco, studying the pathology of lung diseases such as COPD and cystic fibrosis with Dr. Stephen Nishimura. After deciding to continue her career in academic research, Kate received an M.S. degree in Chemical Biology and Drug Design while researching the ability of stapled α-helical peptides to bind target proteins with respect to their wild-type counterparts. Having experience in both molecular cell biology and peptide chemistry, Kate hopes to apply what she has learned to research in the Nowick Group at UC Irvine.

William Howitz

whowitz@uci.edu

Graduate Student

-B.S. Chemistry, Hamline University (2015)

-B.S. Biology, Hamline University (2015)

Will grew up in the Twin Cities area of Minnesota where he completed his undergraduate studies at Hamline University with degrees in both chemistry and biology. His research at Hamline focused on the synthesis of cell-penetrating peptides as cancer therapeutics and isocyanides for multicomponent reactions under Professor Rita Majerle. After braving the cold winters for many years, he moved out to California to pursue a Ph.D. with an emphasis in chemical biology at UCI. He joined the Nowick lab to develop and validate peptide models of amyloid beta and elucidate their immunological effects on microglia. In his free time, Will practices taekwondo (going on 12 years now) and competes at the national level. If he is not in the lab or the gym, he is probably out exploring. Ask him what he has been up to lately!

Tuan Samdin

tsamdin@uci.edu

Graduate Student

-B.A. Molecular and Cell Biology: Biological Chemistry, University of California-Berkeley (2016)

Tuan was raised in the high deserts of Palmdale, CA where the average temperature in the summer was rarely below 90ºF. He attended UCB for the opportunity to explore his fascination with proteins and to experience a climate with fewer similarities to the Martian surface. While at Berkeley, Tuan investigated nanostructures formed by genetically modified bacteriophage and their use as biosensors for volatile organic compounds. He joined the Nowick Group at UCI in 2016 to explore the structures formed by the intrinsically disordered proteins Aβ and Tau, and to understand their role in neurotoxicity.

Sheng Zhang

shengz4@uci.edu

Graduate Student

-B.S. Biotechnology, East China University of Science and Technology (2014)

-M.S. Biotechnology, California State University, Fresno (2016)

Sheng Zhang was born in Nanyang, China and finished his undergraduate studies in Shanghai, China. While working in a lab at ECUST, Sheng was fascinated by the molecular biology of bacteria and protein biochemistry. Wanting to explore the field of biotechnology, he joined a master’s program at CSU, Fresno (go bulldogs!). He did research in Dr. Qiao-hong Chen’s lab in the field of bio-organic chemistry. He enjoyed splitting his time between organic synthesis and cell assays. He realized chemistry is just as exciting as biology! He left his master’s program seeking opportunities to explore chemistry at the interface of biology. He soon found himself joining the Nowick lab at UCI (go anteaters!) investigating peptides.

Imane Hamza

ihamza@uci.edu