Past Members of the Bogyo Lab

Past Members

Matteo Guerra
Postdoctoral Fellow

Bio

Matteo received his MSc in Biotechnology from Parma University (Italy) in 2016. Under the supervision of Prof. Simone Ottonello and Barbara Montanini, he worked on the development of an in vivo BRET-based platform for the identification of protein-protein interaction inhibitors. Matteo then moved to Heidelberg (Germany) to carry out his PhD at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory under the supervision of Prof. Carsten Schultz and Marcus Mall. During his doctoral studies, Matteo’s goal was to spatially resolve the complexity of the neutrophil serine protease (NSP) network in chronic airway diseases. To do so, he developed probes designed to quantify neutrophil elastase and cathepsin G activity specifically at the neutrophil surface and on eDNA within neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs). Matteo joined the Bogyo Lab in May 2021. He is currently interested in identifying molecular mechanisms that protect the respiratory tract from pathogen biofilm infections and in developing technologies for the in vivo imaging of solid tumors. 

Laura Keller
Graduate Student, Chemical and Systems Biology

Bio

Laura graduated from Bowdoin College in 2015 with a Bachelor of Arts (magna cum laude) in Biochemistry and Neuroscience. Her undergraduate research with Dr. Patsy Dickinson focused on the permeability of connective tissue sheaths in the American lobster to endogenous hormone neuropeptides. After graduation, she worked for two years as a research technician in Dr. Oksana Berezovska's lab at the MassGeneral Institute for Neurodegenerative Disease, studying the interaction between Presenilin 1 and Synaptotagmin 1 in Alzheimer's disease. Before coming to Stanford, she was a ChEM-H summer intern at Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research (NIBR) working in the Ophthalmology Department. In the Bogyo lab, Laura is interested in understanding the function of serine hydrolases in commensal microbiomes.

Ryan Muir
Current Position: Scientist II, Discovery Biology at Septerna, South San Francisco, CA

Bio

Ryan received his B.S. in Biochemistry/Chemistry from the University of California San Diego in 2014. He then earned his Ph.D. in Chemistry and Chemical Biology from the University of California, San Francisco in 2019 where he worked in the lab of Dr. Adam Renslo. His thesis focused on the synthesis and biological evaluation of chemical probes to interrogate aberrant iron metabolism observed in cancer. This approach was used to develop several Fe(II)-activated prodrugs that showed a high selectivity in several KRAS-driven cancer models. Additionally, he developed an Fe(II)-sensing PET reporter that could detect spontaneous KRAS-driven tumors in several murine models. Ryan joined the Bogyo lab in Feb 2020. His current focus is on targeting proteases in P. falciparum parasites for new detection and treatment strategies.   

Brett Babin
Current Position - Senior Scientist, Genentech, Inc.

Bio

Brett received his B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 2009. There he worked in the lab of Dr. Neil Forbes developing microfluidic devices to study the interactions between bacteria and in vitro tumor models. He earned his Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the California Institute of Technology in 2016 where he worked with Dr. Dave Tirrell and Dr. Dianne Newman. His thesis focused on the development and application of a method for time- and cell-selective proteomic analysis in bacteria. He used this approach to study protein synthesis by the opportunistic pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa under dormancy and biofilm growth conditions. Brett joined the Bogyo lab in the fall of 2016. His current focus is on the roles of serine hydrolases in the physiology of pathogenic bacteria.

John Charles Widen
Current Position - Scientist, Frontier Medicines, South San Francisco, CA

Bio

John earned his B.S. in chemistry with a minor in biology at the University of Iowa in 2010. He worked in the lab of Dr. F. Christopher Pigge synthesizing tetraphenylethylene derivatives with aggregative induced emission (AIE) properties. After graduation, John worked as a Junior Chemist at Penford Products Co. in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. His research involved developing biodegradable grease resistant coatings from maize products. He matriculated to the University of Minnesota in the summer of 2011 where he conducted his graduate research in the Department of Medicinal Chemistry in Dr. Daniel A. Harki’s laboratory. John’s graduate work focused on the design, synthesis, and biological evaluation of thiol reactive small molecules that mimic natural product biological activity. John received his Ph.D. in January 2017 and joined the Bogyo Laboratory in April 2017 where he is focusing his research efforts on developing quenched fluorescent probes for in vivo imaging applications.

Sumin Lee
Current Position - Research and Development Scientist, Thermo Fisher Scientific, South San Francisco, CA

Bio

Sumin received her B.S. in Chemistry in 2010 and M.S. degrees in 2012 from Ewha Womans University where she carried out research on transition metal sensors and photoelectrocatalysis with Dr. Wonwoo Nam. She started her Ph.D. at the University of California, Berkeley and joined the group of Dr. Christopher Chang. Her research focused on the development of small molecule fluorescent sensors for sodium and copper ions and porous polymers for transition metal detection. She was awarded her doctorate degree in 2018 and joined the Bogyo lab in September of 2018.

Maly Cosco
Postdoctoral Fellow

Bio

Maly earned her B.S. in Chemistry from Denison University in 2015. During her undergraduate studies, she conducted research in both organic chemistry, under the mentorship of Prof. Jordan Fantini, and radiology, with Dr. Eric Wall at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center. She then began her Ph.D. in Chemistry at UCLA, in the laboratory of Prof. Ellen Sletten. Her graduate work centered around the development of polymethine dyes and nanomaterials for shortwave infrared imaging. In these pursuits, she was co-mentored by Dr. Oliver Bruns at the Helmholtz Pioneer Campus in Munich, Germany, where she established methods for real-time, multicolor optical imaging in vivo. After completion of her Ph.D. in 2020, Maly joined the Bogyo lab in 2021 and is pursuing covalently targeted imaging agents for serine hydrolases in pathogenic bacteria.

Marta Barniol-Xicota
Postdoctoral Fellow

Bio

Marta received her B.Sc. in Pharmacy from the University of Barcelona in 2011 and a MSc in Experimental Organic Chemistry in 2013. She then joined the lab of Prof. Santiago Vázquez where she focused on the synthesis of small molecules targeting ion channels. As a graduate student, Marta also worked in the labs of Dr. Steven Hilton at UCL and Prof. Bill Degrado at UCSF. After earning her PhD in 2017, she received a Marie Curie fellowship to work with Prof. Steven Verhelst at KU Leuven, where she developed new chemical methods to study membrane proteases in their native environments. In October 2021 she joined the Bogyo lab where she works on identifying selective substrates and inhibitors for proteases involved in cancer using phage display approaches.  

Scott Lovell
Current Position: Assistant Professor of Chemical Biology at the University of Bath, Bath, UK

Bio

Scott received his B.S. in Chemistry from the University of Sheffield in the summer of 2013. As part of his bachelor’s degree he worked for AstraZeneca from Sept 2011 – Aug 2012 as an organic synthetic chemist. In 2019 he earned his Ph.D. in Chemical Biology from Imperial College London where he worked with Prof. Edward Tate. His thesis focused on developing covalent inhibitors for KLK proteases to decipher their role in prostate cancer progression. Having joined the Bogyo lab in October 2019, Scott now works on developing selective inhibitors and substrates for serine hydrolases in cancer and pathogenic bacteria by using diverse chemical libraries and phage-display approaches.

Markus Lakemeyer
Current Position: Junior Group Leader University of Jena, Jena, Germany

Bio

Markus Lakemeyer received his B.Sc. in Chemistry from RWTH Aachen University, Germany, in 2011. He moved to Philipps-University Marburg, Germany, and was awarded his M.Sc. in Medicinal Chemistry in 2014. Markus then started his PhD under the supervision of Prof. Stephan Sieber at Technical University of Munich (TUM). His graduate work was focused on the development and biochemical application of small molecule probes targeting the bacterial ClpXP protease. After receiving his Ph.D. in November 2018 and a short postdoc in the same group, Markus joined the Bogyo Lab in April 2019. His current project focusses on the identification and biological characterization of proteases produced by commensal bacteria.

Ouma Onguka
Current Position - Scientist, Codexis, Inc. Redwood City, CA

Bio

Ouma earned his B.S. in cell developmental biology at the University of California, Berkeley in 2003. He worked in the laboratory of Dr. Sarah Hake studying the development of the shoot apical meristem in Arabidopsis thaliana. After graduation, Ouma joined a master’s program at San Francisco State University (SFSU). At SFSU, he worked in the laboratory of Dr. Laura Burrus where he studied the requirement of Wnts and their cognate receptors (Frizzled) in the developing chick neural tube. In 2010, he started his  Ph.D. work at Johns Hopkins University School of medicine in the Department of  Biochemistry Cell and Molecular Biology (BCMB) in the laboratory of Dr. Steven Claypool. Ouma’s graduate work focused on the phosphatidylethanolamine synthesis and metabolism in Saccharomyces cerevisiae mitochondria. Ouma received his Ph.D. in February 2016 and joined the Bogyo Laboratory in June 2016.

Joshua Yim
Current Position - Consultant, Boston Consulting Group, San Francisco, CA

Bio

Josh graduated from Cornell University in 2010 with a Bachelor of Arts (magna cum laude) in Chemistry. His undergraduate research with Dr. Frank Schroeder focused on the total synthesis of the Caeliferins, a plant natural product, and mechanistic studies of long-chain cross metathesis via 2D NMR. After graduation, he spent three years working as a research assistant in the Schroeder lab, synthesizing nematode-derived secondary metabolites. Afterwards, he spent one year with Dr. Ralf Sommer at the Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology in Germany studying the natural variation of small molecule biosynthesis in nematodes. Before starting graduate studies at Stanford, Josh spent his summer at Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research (NIBR) as a ChEM-H pre-graduate intern, synthesizing chemical tool compounds to understand biochemical details of enzyme function for oncology targets. In the Bogyo lab, Josh is interested in using chemical probes to image and study mechanisms of host-pathogen interactions.

Martina Tholen
Current Position - University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany

Bio

B.Sc. Georg-August-Universität Göttingen
Ph.D. Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg

Martina received her Bachelor of Science degree in 2008 in Molecular Medicine under the guidance of Dr. Carsten Lueder working on toxoplasma host cell interactions at the Georg-August University, Goettingen, Germany. In 2010 she received her Master of Science degree in Molecular Medicine focusing on the function of N-terminally truncated isoforms of the lysosomal protease cathepsin L in the lab of Dr. Thomas Reinheckel at the Albert-Ludwigs University, Freiburg, Germany. She continued working in Dr. Reinheckel`s lab on the role of cathepsin L in breast cancer progression and was awarded her Ph.D. in 2015 (summa cum laude). She joined the Bogyo lab in October 2015. In her current project Martina is interested in studying small molecules as modifiers of tumor associated inflammation.

Shiyu Chen
Current Position - Group Leader, Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, Shanghai, China

Bio

B.Sc. Nanjing University, China
Ph.D. Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne, Switzerland

Shiyu received his bachelor degree of science in analytical chemistry from Nanjing University, China in 2005. He then moved to Shanghai Institute of Material Medica in Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai and finished his master degree in 2009. Afterwards, he continued his PhD study in the laboratory of Dr Christian Heinis at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland. His thesis projects were focused on the development of new formats of bicyclic peptides and their application in phage display. He has developed serveral bicyclic peptide linkers that can be widely applied in phage selection and also several new non-natural amino acids (di-thiol amino acids) for generating new formats of bicyclic peptides. Shiyu was awarded his doctorate degree in 2013. After one year postdoc in the same group, he joined the Bogyo Lab in 2015. In his current project, Shiyu will apply bicyclic peptide phage display technique to generate selective and potent activity based probes for imaging purposes.

Gabriela Fernandez-Cuervo
Current Position - Alliance and Business Development Manager, UCSF Innovation Ventures San Francisco, CA

Bio

B.Sc.
Ph.D. University of Arizona

Gaby earned her B.S. in Chemistry in 2011 from the University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras.  She then joined Emory University and was part of PREP (Post-baccalaureate Research Experience Program) under the guidance of Steve Traynelis and Lanny Liebeskind working on the synthesis and SAR studies of NMDA receptor agonists and antagonists. In 2013, Gaby started her Ph.D. work in Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of Arizona. She worked in the Pagel Group and was part of the Biological Chemistry Program NIH Training grant and was a HHMI Gilliam Fellow. Her thesis work focused on the design, synthesis and evaluation of enzyme activated MRI contrast agents. Specifically she worked developing CEST MRI agents for its use in noninvasive reporting gene imaging. She was awarded her Ph.D. in 2017 and joined the Bogyo group in November of 2017. As a postdoc, in addition to research, Gaby has been actively involved in different outreach and mentoring opportunities in the Bogyo Lab and through Stanford. In her free time, Gaby recently started taking sailing classes. She dances ballet and enjoys spending time outside, camping and climbing. 

Euna Yoo
Current Position - Investigator, National Cancer Institute, Frederick, MD

Bio

Ph.D. University of Kansas

Euna received a Bachelor of Science degree in Pharmacy in 2007 and Master of Science in Pharmaceutical Sciences in 2009 under the guidance of Dr. Hea-Young Park Choo working on synthesis and evaluation of serotonin receptor antagonists at Ewha Womans University, South Korea. In 2010 she started her Ph.D. work in Medicinal Chemistry at the University of Kansas, Lawrence and joined Dr. Sunil David’s laboratory. Her thesis focused on the exploration of Toll-like receptor 7 and 8 agonists to understand the mechanism of innate immune response and develop potential vaccine adjuvants. She was awarded her Ph.D. in 2015 and joined the Bogyo group in July of 2015.

Sebastian Loscher
Current Position - Research Scientist, AstraZeneca, Gothenburg, Sweden

Bio

B.Sc. Universitat Stuttgart
Ph.D. Universitat Bayreuth

Christian Lentz
Current Position - Associate Professor, The Arctic University of Norway, Tromso, Norway

Bio

Ph.D. University of Bonn, Bonn, Germany

Dr. Lentz received a Diploma degree (equivalent to M.Sc.) in Molecular Biomedicine from the University of Bonn, Germany in 2009. During his diploma thesis at the Institute of Medical Microbiology, Immunology and Parasitology in Bonn, Germany he studied the role of eosinophils during experimental filarial infection. He then joined the working group of Dr. Kenneth Pfarr/ Prof. Achim Hoerauf at the same institute for his Ph.D. project for which he worked in close collaboration with the Chemical Biology Unit of the LIMES-Institute in Bonn (working group of Prof. Michael Famulok). His Ph.D. thesis focused on the target-based discovery of novel inhibitors of enzymatic targets of the Wolbachia endosymbiotic bacteria of parasitic filarial nematodes. Having been awarded his Ph.D. (Dr. rer. nat.) degree in May 2013, he continued his work in the Pfarr/Hoerauf Lab as a postdoc for several months before he joined the Bogyo Lab as a postdoctoral research fellow of the German Research Foundation (DFG) in March 2014. His current work focuses on the development of a phage-display-based methodology to generate selective activity-based probes for protease targets from Mycobacterium tuberculosis and their translation to and application as noninvasive imaging tools for tuberculosis infection.

Neri Amara
Current Position - Postdoctoral Fellow, Genentech, South San Francisco, CA

Bio

Ph.D. Ben Gurion University, Negev, Israel


Dr. Amara received his Bachelors of Science degree in Chemistry in 2007 from the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. He pursued an integrated program completing his M.Sc and Ph.D. degree under the supervision of Prof. Michael M. Meijler at the Ben-Gurion Univerity of the Negev. His thesis focused on the synthesis of novel covalent inhibitors of quorum sensing for the opportunistic pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa. He joined the Bogyo lab in January 2014 and is currently studying the application of activity-based probes combined with genome editing to image and characterize the biological roles of matrix metallo-proteases.

Ian Foe
Current Position - Scientist, Calico Life Sciences, South San Francisco, CA

Bio

Ph.D. University of California, San Francisco

In 2004 Ian graduated from the University of California at Davis with a Bachelors of Science in biology. In 2006 he started his graduate work at the University of California at San Francisco and in 2007 joined Dr. David Toczyski’s lab. In Dr. Toczyski’s lab, Ian investigated how the Anaphase Promoting Complex (APC) is regulated in mitosis. His work showed that one the APC’s mitotic activators (Cdc20) is ubiquitinated by the Anaphase Promoting Complex (APC). He showed that Cdc20 is turned over by three distinct mechanisms; the previously suggested Cdh1trans mechanism, a novel Cdc20trans mechanism, and a novel in cis Cdc20 auto-ubiquitination mechanism. In addition, Ian showed that the in cis mechanism is the most important mechanism for Cdc20 turnover and is regulated through the cell cycle. In 2012, Ian graduated from UCSF and joined the Bogyo lab in 2013. In the Bogyo Lab, Ian studies how a palmitoylation (a lipid posttranslational modification) regulates host cell invasion by the intracellular parasite Toxoplasma gondii.

Megan Garland
Current Position - Anesthesia Resident, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA

Bio

B.A. Boston University

Megan graduated from Boston University in 2012 with a Bachelor of Arts (with research distinction) in Chemistry with a specialization in Biochemistry, and Neuroscience. Her undergraduate research with Dr. Karen Allen focused on structural determination of enzymes in the haloalkanoate dehalogenase (HAD) superfamily via X-ray crystallography. Megan spent two years working part-time in the Bogyo lab while attending medical school at Stanford before joining the lab full time in June 2014. Her current work in the Bogyo lab is focused on the human protein DJ-1.

Laura Sanman
Current Position - Scientist II, Surrozen, South San Francisco, CA

Bio

B.A., The Ohio State University

Laura graduated from The Ohio State University in 2011 with a Bachelor of Science (with research distinction) in Biochemistry. She began undergraduate research doing field work studying Central Ohio rivers, and then did an internship in surfactant process R&D at Procter and Gamble. Her undergraduate thesis with Dr. Zucai Suo involved using pre-steady state kinetic assays and sequencing assays to characterize human DNA polymerases involved in DNA damage and repair. In the Bogyo lab, Laura is developing chemical tools to study cell death and initiation of inflammation by innate immune cells.

Chris Schulze
Associate Director, Revolution Medicines, Redwood City, CA

Bio

Ph.D. University of California, Santa Cruz

Chris received his Bachelor's of Science degree, summa cum laude, in marine biology from the University of North Carolina, Wilmington in 2008. He then shifted his academic focus towards chemistry and began his Ph.D. work in organic chemistry at the University of California, Santa Cruz under Dr. Roger G. Linington. His thesis focused on the discovery of novel antiparasitic and anticancer lead compounds from marine microbially-derived natural product libraries, as well as the development of a phenotypic image-based screening platform in cancer for mode of action profiling of natural product libraries. Chris was awarded his Ph.D. in 2013 and joined the Bogyo Lab in early 2014. His current research focuses on the development of bicyclic peptide ABPs in cancer using phage display, and screening electrophilic protease inhibitor libraries against viral targets.

Wouter van der Linden
Scientist - GyreOx, Oxford, England

Bio

Ph.D. University of Leiden, The Netherlands

In 2007 Wouter received his Doctorandus degree (equivalent to Master of Science) with honors from Leiden University, The Netherlands. His thesis focused on the synthesis and biological evaluation of activity-based proteasome profiling tools.  He then commenced his PhD research in 2007 in the lab of Prof. Dr. H.S. Overkleeft at Leiden University. His thesis describes the synthesis and biological evaluation of inhibitors specific for the different catalytic activities of the proteasome.  In 2011 he was awarded his doctors degree and briefly continued his research in the Overkleeft lab as a postdoc. He joined the Bogyo lab in October 2012 and is working on the synthesis of specific and broad spectrum cathepsin inhibitors for use in parasitic diseases and cancer.

Matthew Child
Current Position - Principal Investigator, Imperial College London, London, England

Bio

Ph.D. University College London


Matthew received a Bachelors of Science degree with Honors in Genetics from Cardiff University in 2005. He then worked with Professor Liz Smythe at Sheffield University studying the molecular interactions involved in receptor-mediated endocytosis. Following 7 months travelling around the world he began a PhD in the laboratory of Dr Mike Blackman at the National Insitute for Medical Research (NIMR), London, UK in 2006. His thesis project examined the trafficking and function of the malarial sheddase PfSUB2, which he completed and was awarded his doctorate degree by University College London in 2009. He briefly continued his studies at the NIMR as a post-doctoral research scientist, before joining the Bogyo Lab in June 2010. Matthew now works on the DJ-1 protein of Toxoplasma gondii and Plasmodium spp, the P. falciparum cysteine protease Falcipain-1, and mammalian caspases.

Hao Li
Current Position - Assistant Professor, National University of Singapore, Singapore

Bio

B.S. University of Wisconsin-Madison

Hao Li graduated from University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2008 with a Bachelor of Science (with honors) degree in Biochemistry and Biology. Her undergraduate research in Dr Michael Cox's group focused on the RecA protein involved in DNA damage response in E.coli, and directed evolution of radiation resistant E.coli. After graduation, she spent a year in a natural product synthesis laboratory in Singapore headed by Dr David Chen and worked on synthesizing analogues of a novel antimicrobial compound-platencin. Her current work in the Bogyo group is mainly focused on the P. faciparum proteasome.

Tina Oresic Bender
Current Position - Senior Clinical Scientist, Adverum Biotechnologies, Redwood City, CA

Bio

B.S. University of Zagreb, Croatia
Ph.D. University of Ljubljana, Slovenia


Kristina’s completed a B.Sc. in Molecular Biology at the University of Zagreb, Croatia and then earned a Ph.D. from the University of Ljubljana, School of Medicine, Slovenia. She completed the majority of her studies for her Ph.D. work in the laboratory of Dr. Domenico Tortorella in the Department of Microbiology, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York. Her research has been focused on the exploration of molecular pathways in various human pathologies from infectious diseases to cancer, with the unifying factor being the understanding of how disruption of proteolysis contributes to the development of disease-related conditions. For her Ph.D. work, she investigated how human cytomegalovirus evades the immune response via targeting MHC class I for ubiquitin-mediated proteasomal degradation. Her current research at the Bogyo lab is aimed towards development of high-throughput screens to identify inhibitors for C. difficile toxin B protease as non-antibiotic therapeutics. She is also developing and validating tools for non-invasive imaging of Cathepsin S protease activity during tumorogenesis.

Nimali Withana
Current Position - Country Medical Manager, Roche, Auckland, New Zealand

Bio

Ph.D. University of Melbourne, AustraliaIn

Nimali received a Bachelors of Science degree in Molecular Medicine from the University of Auckland, New Zealand in 1999, followed by a Masters degree in Immunology in 2002. After completing her Masters she decided to broaden her knowledge and expertise by working in a biotechnology company. At ViaLactia Biosciences Ltd, New Zealand she was responsible for gene cloning and sequencing projects that supported the Plant Functional Genomics program. Her desire to further challenge herself coupled with her strong interest in medical research brought her to the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, Melbourne, Australia for a PhD position (2012) in Dr. Robin Anderson’s laboratory, to study the molecular mechanisms of breast cancer spread and to identify new specific targets for therapy. In choosing the Bogyo laboratory for her post-doctoral studies, she intends to broaden her knowledge of the application of activity-based probes as potential diagnostic tools in cancer and lung fibrosis.

Leslie Ofori
Current Position - Principal Scientist II, Genomics Institute of the Novartis Research Foundation (GNF), San Diego, CA

Bio

Ph.D. University of Rochester, Rochester, NY


Leslie received his bachelor science degree with honors from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi Ghana in 2006. He then worked as an undergraduate teaching assistant in the chemistry department for a year. In 2007 he moved to Rochester NY, where he began his doctoral studies in the laboratory of Dr. Benjamin Miller at the Department of Chemistry at the University of Rochester, New York. His doctoral dissertation was focused on the design of small molecules for selective targeting of HIV frameshift stimulatory RNA and abnormal RNA repeats in myotonic dystrophy. In December 2012, he joined the Bogyo lab as a postdoctoral fellow. He is currently working of the development of chemical probes as tools for non-invasive imaging of elevated protease activity in cancer and as pro-drugs for targeted-delivery of chemotherapy drugs.

Ehud Segal
Current Position - Sr. Scientific Manager, Translational Oncology, Genentech, South San Francisco, CA

Bio

B.S. Tel-Hai Academic College, Israel
Ph.D. Tel Aviv University, Israel

Dr. Segal received his Bachelors of Science degree in Biotechnology from Tel-Hai Academic College, Israel. In 2004, he completed his Masters studies in the laboratory of Prof. Hanna Ben-Bassat at The Hebrew University, Jerusalem Israel. His thesis work focused on experimental model of bio-engineered skin. In 2008 he completed his Ph.D. research in the group of Prof. Ronit Satchi-Fainaro at Tel-Aviv University, Israel. His thesis work mainly focused on synthesis and characterization of a novel targeted anticancer therapy for bone-related malignances. He joined the Bogyo Lab in October 2011 and is currently focused on the development of non-invasive imaging tools for imaging subpopulations of macrophages associated with inflammation and cancer.

Brooke Anderson-White
Current Position - Therapy Area Director, Biopharma Resource Groups LLC, Palo Alto, CA

Bio

B.S. University of Texas at Austin
Ph.D. Boston College


Brooke received a B.S. in chemical engineering and a B.A. in Plan II (honors liberal arts) from The University of Texas in 2003, where she developed a mathematical model for the interactions between base quenchers and photogenerated acids in Dr. C. Grant Willson’s lab. After graduation, she joined Trinity Consultants where she worked with several industries on air quality projects. In 2006, Brooke joined the lab of Dr. Marc-Jan Gubbels at Boston College, where she completed her Ph.D. in 2011 on the identification and characterization of the IMC protein family in Toxoplasma gondii. In the Bogyo lab, she is identifying essential serine hydrolases in Plasmodium falciparum. Brooke spends her free time training for triathlons, practicing yoga, and blogging (virulentb.com). Follow her on Twitter @VirulentB.

Chelsea Powell
Current Position - Postdoctoral Fellow, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA
Montse Morell
Current Position - Senior Staff Scientist, Takara Bio USA, Mountain View, CA

Bio

B.Sc.
Ph.D

Dr. Morell received her B.S. degree with honours in Chemistry from Autonomus University of Barcelona in 2002. In 2008 she completed her Ph.D. studies in Biotechnology at the same university. Her thesis work focused on the development of protein reporters to study in vivo protein interactions and aggregation. She joined the Bogyo lab in April 2009 and is currently working on the development of activity-based probes for metalloproteases. 

Junpeng Xiao
Current Position - Principal Research Scientist, Eli Lilly, Indianapolis, IN

Bio

B.S. University of Science and Technology of China
Ph.D. Indiana University

Dr. Xiao received his Bachelors of Science degree with honors in polymer chemistry in 2003 from the University of Science and Technology of China. In 2005, he joined Prof. Thomas Tolbert’s research group at Indiana University Bloomington and completed his Ph.D. studies in 2010. His thesis work focused on modulation of protein properties and functions through site-specific protein modification. He was able to utilizing chemical modification to engineer HIV fusion inhibitors with improved potency and engineer antibody fragment Fc for cancer cell targeting. He joined the Bogyo Lab in September 2010 and is currently working on engineering caspases for selective targeting and inhibition of their activity with activity-based probes and inhibitors.

Laura Edgington
Current Position - Head of Research Group, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia

Bio

B.A. Transylvania University

Laura grew up on a dairy goat farm in rural Kentucky. In 1996, Laura received Grand Champion Honors at the American Dairy Goat Association's National Show. In 2002, she decided to leave the farm to pursue undergraduate studies at Transylvania University in Lexington, KY. She double majored in Biology and Chemistry with a minor in French Language and Literature. Upon leaving Transylvania, Laura worked as a research assistant at the Cincinnati Childrens Hopital in the laboratory of Dr. Mitchell Cohen. There, she studied the roles of Guanylyl Cyclase C in hepatocyte proliferation. In 2007, she initiated doctoral studies in the Cancer Biology Program at Stanford and joined the Bogyo Lab. Laura's main research interests lie in developing activity based probes for noninvasive imaging applications and using these tools to dissect functions of cysteine proteases during tumor progression and inflammation.

Juan Carlos Valderramos
Current Position - Clinical Research Coordinator, UCSF, San Francisco, CA
Aaron Puri
Current Position - Assistant Professor, Department of Chemistry, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, CA

Bio

B.A., B.S. University of Chicago


Aaron graduated from the University of Chicago in 2004, where he received a B.S. with honors in Biological Chemistry, a B.A. in Biology specializing in Immunology, and a B.A. in Economics. His undergraduate research in Dr. Robert Keenan’s lab focused on developing new chemical biology tools for identifying substrates of N-acyl transferases. In the Bogyo Lab, Aaron’s is developing new chemical tools for studying activation of caspase-1 and the inflammasome.

Edgar Deu Sandoval
Current Position - Visiting Scientist, The Francis Crick Institute, London, England

Bio

B.Sc.
Ph.D. University of California, Berkeley

Edgar received a BS in organic chemistry and chemical engineering from the Insitut Quimic de Sarria in Barcelona, Spain, in 2000. He joined the research group of Prof. Jack Kirsch at UC Berkeley in the Fall of 2000, where he earned his PhD degree in Comparative Biochemistry in 2007. Edgar's research as a graduate student focused on the thermodynamic characterization of protein stability and protein-protein interactions of large oligomeric enzymes. He also work on protein engineering projects, and was able to design a hybrid aminotransferase enzyme with dual substrate specificity and allosteric communication between its two active sites. He joined the Bogyo lab in the summer of 2007 and is interested in the development of new antimalarial drugs that inhibit essential protease in the Plasmodium falciparum parasite.

Martijn Verdoes
Current Position - Assistant Professor, Radboud Institute for Molecular Life Sciences (RIMLS), Nijmegen, The Netherlands

Bio

B.Sc.
Ph.D. University of Leiden


Martijn Verdoes received his Bachelors of Science degree in organic chemistry from the Hogeschool Leiden, The Netherlands. He then continued at Leiden University, The Netherlands, where he received his Masters of Science degree in chemistry in 2004. In 2008 he completed his Ph.D. research in the bio-organic synthesis group of Prof.dr. H.S. Overkleeft and Prof.dr. G.A. van der Marel at the Leiden Institute of Chemistry, The Netherlands. His thesis work mainly focused on the design and synthesis of activity-based inhibitors and probes to study proteasome function. He joined the Bogyo Lab in April 2009 and is currently focused on the development of non-invasive imaging tools for inflammation.

Aimee Shen
Current Position - Associate Professor, Tufts University School of Medicine, Boston, MA

Bio

B.S. University of Alberta
Ph.D. Harvard University

Dr. Shen received a Bachelors of Science degree with honors in microbiology with a minor in English in 2001 from the University of Alberta. In 2006, she completed her Ph.D. studies in the laboratory of Dr. Darren Higgins at Harvard Medical School. Her thesis work focused on 5'UTR mediated regulation of virulence gene expression and elucidating the molecular mechanism underlying temperature-dependent regulation of flagellar gene expression in the facultative intracellular pathogen Listeria monocytogenes. She joined the Bogyo Lab in April 2007 and is currently working on determining how the Apicomplexan parasite Toxoplasma gondii inhibits intrinsic apoptotic signaling.

Beth Ponder
Current Position - Director of Planning and Operations, Stanford ChEM-H, Stanford, CA

Bio

B.S. Lafayette College

Elizabeth earned her B.S. degree in Biochemistry from Lafayette College in 2004. Her undergraduate studies focused on the effects of Echinostoma caproni and Schistosoma mansoni parasite infections on simple metabolite profiles in snail intermediate hosts and factors affecting shed parasite survival. Elizabeth enrolled in the Stanford Microbiology and Immunology Ph.D. program in the fall of 2004 and is currently working on a thesis project using small molecule inhibitors to understand the role of cysteine proteases in the life cycle of the human malaria parasite, Plasmodium falciparum.

Fangfang Yin
Current Position - Associate Director, Clinical Science, BeiGene, Cambridge, MA

Bio

B.Sc. Anhui University
Ph.D. Cornell Univsersity School of Medicine

Dr. Yin received her Bachelor of Science degree with honors in Biochemistry from Anhui University, China in 1999. She completed her doctorate studies at Cornell Medical School in 2008. Her graduate work focused on the in vivo functions of a gene named progranulin in inflammation and neurodegeneration. She joined the Bogyo lab in January 2009 and is currently working on elucidating the roles of proteases in immune responses using mouse models of diseases.

Margot Paulick
Current Position - Senior Scientist, Initial Therapeutics, South San Francisco, CA

Bio

B.S. University of Wisconsin-Madison
Ph.D. University of California, Berkeley

Margot received her B.S. degree in chemistry from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2000.  She then moved 2000 miles across the country to the University of California-Berkeley where she earned her Ph.D. in chemistry in the laboratory of Professor Carolyn Bertozzi.  During her graduate studies, she developed a chemical approach that enables the investigation of the biological functions of the GPI anchor, a glycolipid structure that anchors modified proteins in the cell membrane.  Margot joined the Bogyo lab in the winter of 2007 and is interested in using activity-based probes to understand the functions of serine proteases involved in cancer.

Paul Bowyer
Current Position - Principal Scientist, National Institute for Biological Standards and Control (NIBSC), Potters Bar, England

Bio

B.S.
Ph.D. Imperial College of London

Dr. Bowyer received his Masters of Science degree in chemistry with honours in 2001 from Imperial College London during which he completed an industrial year placement at Zeneca Agrochemicals. He completed his Wellcome Trust funded Ph.D, ’Studies on the N-myristoyltransferase of Plasmodium falciparum’ in 2006 under the guidance of Prof. D. Smith, Dr. K. Brown, Prof. R. Leatherbarrow and Prof. A. Holder in the Division of Cell and Molecular Biology at Imperial College London. In March 2007 he joined the Bogyo Lab and is currently working on the cathepsins of Toxoplasma gondii in addition to development of novel chemical probes of protease activity in P. falciparum.

Victoria Albrow
Last Position - Postdoctoral Fellow, Pfizer Neusentis, Cambridge England

Bio

B.S. University of Nottingham
Ph.D. University of Nottingham


Dr. Albrow received her Masters of Science degree in chemistry with honours in 2002 from The University of Nottingham, England where she also completed her Ph.D. studies in 2006 in the laboratory of Prof. S. Woodward. Her thesis work involved the design and synthesis of novel chiral ferrocenyl ligands and their application in the conjugate addition of organoalanes to enones. She joined the Bogyo Lab in March 2007 and is currently focused on the effects of isocoumarin-based compounds on the Apicomplexan parasite Toxoplsma gondii.

Jiyoun Lee
Current Position - Associate Professor, Sungshin Women's University, Seoul, Korea

Bio

B.S./M.S. Seoul National University
Ph.D. Northwestern University

Dr. Lee received her Bachelor of Science degree in pharmacy and Masters of Science degree in medicinal chemistry in 2000 under the guidance of Prof. Jeewoo Lee at Seoul National University, Korea. After finishing her Master’s studies on the development of vanilloid receptor ligands as novel analgesics, she joined the laboratory of Prof. Thomas Meade in the department of chemistry at Northwestern University and completed her Ph.D. studies in 2006. Her thesis work focused on the development of transition metal and lanthanide complexes as molecular probes, particularly receptor-targeted MRI contrast agents. After briefly working in the laboratory of Prof. Chris Chang in the department of chemistry at UC Berkeley, she joined the Bogyo lab in December 2007. Her current project involves the development of activity-based probes for lysosomal proteases and their applications for in vivo imaging.

Carolyn Phillips
Current Position - Biological Safety Group Leader, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, CA

Bio

B.A. West Virginia Univ.

Carolyn earned her B.A. degree in Biology at West Virginia University in 2002. Prior to enrolling at in the Ph.D. program at Stanford in 2003, Carolyn was awarded a pre-IRTA Fellowship to work for 1 year at the NIH . Her project was focused on applying yeast genetics to study protein trafficking. She is currently working on a thesis project in the Bogyo Lab to define the functional roles of cysteine proteases in the human parasite, Toxoplasma gondii using small molecule inhibitors and probes.

Kristjana Ásbjörnsdóttir
Current Position - Acting Assistant Professor, University of Washington School of Public Health, Seattle, WA

Bio

B.S. Univ. of Iceland

Kristjana received her BS in Biochemistry from the University of Iceland in 2005. She did her undergraduate work at the University of Iceland and at Universidade de Coimbra, Portugal, where she was an exchange student under the Erasmus scholarship program. Following graduation, she spent two years in the quality control laboratory at Actavis pharmaceuticals before joining the Bogyo lab in March 2007.

Galia Blum
Current Position - Senior Lecturer, The Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel

Bio

B.Sc. Hebrew Univ. of Jerusalem
Ph.D. Hebrew Univ. of Jerusalem

Dr. Blum received her B.Sc. in Chemistry from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel 1994. She carried out her doctoral studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, in the laboratory of Professor Alexander Levitzki, for this work she was awarded the Polack prize for excellence in studies and research from the Institute of Life Sciences, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Her research focused on Development of potent inhibitors of Insulin-like Growth Factor 1 receptor as anti cancer drugs. Dr. Blum received her Ph.D. in the spring of 2003 and has been a postdoctoral researcher at Stanford University in the laboratory of Professor Matthew Bogyo since this time. Her postdoctoral work involves organic synthesis, protein biochemistry, enzymology and fluorescent imaging to investigate protease activity associated with human pathologies.

Jeong Tae Lee
Current Position - Professor, Hallym University, Chuncheon, Korea

Bio

B.S. Hanyang University
Ph.D. University of Texas, Austin

Zhimou Yang
Current Position - Professor, Nankai University, Tianjin, China

Bio

B.S. Nanjing University
Ph.D. Hong Kong Univ. of Sci. & Tech.

Dr. Yang received his B.Sc. in Polymer Science from the Nanjing University of Nanjing, China in 2001. He carried out his doctoral studies in the department of Chemistry of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, in the laboratory of Professor Bing Xu. His research focused on design, synthesis, enzymatic regulation, and biological Applications of molecular hydrogels. Dr. Yang received his Ph.D. in the August of 2006 and now is a postdoctoral researcher at Stanford University in the laboratory of Professor Matthew Bogyo. His postdoctoral work involves in organic synthesis, protein labeling, enzymology and fluorescent imaging to probe protease activity.

Brittany Leader
Undergraduate Researcher

Bio

Brittany is a junior majoring in Human Biology at Stanford University.  She joined the lab in the Summer of 2007 and is currently working on characterizing the role of SUMO and its deconjugating enzymes in the intra-erythrocytic lifecycle of the human malaria parasite, Plasmodium falciparum

Alicia Berger
Current Position - Chief Business Officer, Pionyr Immunotherapeutics, South San Francisco, CA

Bio

B.A. U.C. Boulder

Alicia earned her B.A. degree in Molecular Biology and Biochemistry at University of Colorado, Boulder in 2003. During her undgraduate studies she worked in several research laboratories working on projects related to apoptosis, environmental microbiology and RNAi. She started as a Ph.D student in the Cancer Biology Program at Stanford in the Fall of 2003. She is currently working on a thesis project to develop and apply small molecule probes of caspases.

Steven Verhelst
Current Position - Associate Professor of Chemical Biology, University of Leuven, Leuven, Belgium

Bio

M.S. Leiden University
Ph.D. Leiden University

Website: http://www.wzw.tum.de/verhelst

Dr. Verhelst commenced his studies in chemistry, during which he did two internships. The first one, at the Leiden Institute of Chemistry under supervision of Prof. Dr. J. H. van Boom and Dr. H. S. Overkleeft, concerned the design and synthesis of novel sugar amino acids as conformationally rescricted dipeptide isosters. The second internship was performed at Harvard Medical School in the group of Prof. Dr. H. L. Ploegh and was directed towards the synthesis and evaluation of several protease inhibitors. He received his Masters degree in Chemistry cum laude from Leiden University. He carried out a Ph.D. in bio-organic synthesis under the supervision of Prof. Dr. J. H. van Boom, Prof. Dr. C. A. A. van Boeckel and Dr. G. A. van der Marel. His work involved the synthesis of analogs of aminoglycoside antibiotics. He received his Ph.D. from Leiden University in 2004. Currently, he is employed a post-doctoral fellow at Stanford University in the group of Dr. M. Bogyo, where he is working on the synthesis of serine and cysteine protease activity-based probes and their application as proteomic tools.

Shirin Arastu Kapur
Current Position - Senior Director, Cortexyme, South San Francisco, CA

Bio

B.S. Moravian College
Ph.D. Oregon Health & Sciences Univ

Dr. Kapur received a Bachelors of Science degree in chemistry with a minor in Biology in 1997 from Moravian College. She completed her Ph.D. studies in 2004 in the laboratory of Dr. Buddy Ullman at Oregon Health and Sciences University. Her thesis work was focused on functional studies of the inosine/guanosine nucleoside transporter from Leishmania donovani. She joined the Bogyo Lab in June 2004 and is currently working on functional studies of serine proteases in the human malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum.

Ursa Pecar Fonovic
Current Position - Assistant Professor, University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia

Bio

B.S. Univ. of Ljubljana

Ursa received her Bachelors of Science degree in Biology from University of Ljubljana in 1997. She was awarded the Presern faculty prize for excellent research work. She received her Masters degree in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from the same University in 2000, working at Jozef Stefan Institute under the guidance of Prof. Dr. Borut Strukelj. She constructed different expression systems for steroidal-1-dehydrogenase in bacteria, yeast and plant. In 2001 she joined Department for Plant Protection at Agricultural Institute of Slovenia, where she ran the Diagnostic laboratory for plant pathogenic bacteria and developed methods for detecting GMO in corn. Ursa joined the group of Prof. Dr. Matthew Bogyo in June 2005 and is currently directing lab cell culture work and working on defining functional roles of cysteine and serine proteases in human parasites, Toxoplasma gondii and Plasmodium falciparum.

Amir Masoud Sadaghiani
Current Position - Director, Cygnal Therapeutics, Cambridge, MA

Bio

B.S. U.C. Davis

Mr. Sadaghiani received a Bachelor of Science degree in Biochemistry and Molecular Cellular Biology from the University of California, Davis in 2003. During his undergraduate studies he worked as a Research Associate in the laboratory of Dr. Robert Fairclough in the Department of Neurology at UC Davis. Mr. Sadaghiani joined the laboratory of Dr. Matthew Bogyo at Stanford University in October 2004. He is currently working on the design and synthesis of libraries of small molecule protease inhibitors.

Marko Fonovic
Current Position - Associate Professor, Jozef Stefan Institute, Ljubljana, Slovenia

Bio

B.S. Univ. Ljubljana
Ph.D. Univ. Ljubljana

Dr. Fonovic received a Bachelors of Science degree in chemistry from University of Ljubljana in 1998. He earned his Ph.D. in biochemistry and molecular biology in 2004 at the same university, working at Jozef Stefan Institute under the guidance of Prof. Dr. Vito Turk and Assist. Prof. Dr. Boris Turk. In 1999, he worked three months in Dr. Dieter Brömmes lab, at Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York cloning, expressing and characterizing novel human cysteine proteases. In 2004 he joined the research group of Assist. Prof. Dr. Matthew Bogyo at Stanford Universitiy School of Medicine, where he is working on proteomic analysis of proteases in complex samples and the study of host-parasite interactions of Toxoplasma gondii.

Fang Yuan
Current Position - CEO, Jiangsu Vcare PharmaTech Co., Nanjing, China

Bio

B.S. Jilin University
M.S. Nankai University
Ph.D. Nanjing University

Dr. Yuan conducted his graduate work at Nanjing University in organometallic synthesis, asymmetric catalysis and multi-step organic synthesis. Dr. Yuan then worked as a post-doc in Professor Bing Xu at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. In the Xu Lab, he synthesized oligopeptides using solution and solid-phase chemistries, characterizing gelation rules by changing the peptide structures.

Kelly B. Sexton
Current Position - Associate Vice President for Research - Technology Transfer and Innovation Partnerships, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI

Bio

B.S. Univ. Georgia
Ph.D. U.C. San Diego

Dr. Sexton received her B.S. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from the University of Georgia in 1999. She carried out her doctoral studies at the University of California, San Diego, where she worked in the laboratory of Professor Guy S. Salvesen at the Burnham Institute in La Jolla. From 2002 until 2004 she was funded by a dissertation fellowship from the California Breast Cancer Research Foundation. Her research focused on investigating the mechanisms of initiator caspase activation. For this work she was awarded the Molecular Pathology Excellence in Research Award in 2003. Dr. Sexton received her Ph.D. in the Fall of 2004 and has been a postdoctoral researcher at Stanford University in the laboratory of Professor Matthew Bogyo since this time. Her postdoctoral work involves the integration of protein biochemistry, enzymology and chemical proteomics to investigate pathways associated with human pathologies.

Daisuke Kato
Current Position - Scientist, Nurix Inc, South San Francisco, CA

Bio

B.S. U.C. Davis

Mr. Kato received a Bachelors of Science degree in Biotechnology with a special emphasis in Biochemistry from the University of California, Davis in 2002. While working towards his undergraduate degree Mr. Kato worked as a Research Assistant in the Department of Biochemistry at UC Davis Medical School where he investigated the molecular mechanisms of polysialylation associated with human cancer metastasis and neural development. In 2003, Mr Kato joined the laboratory of Dr. Matthew Bogyo at Stanford University as Research Associate. While at the Boygo Lab, he worked on the synthesis and application of novel activity based probes for proteases. Currently, he is attending graduate school at the Scripts Research Institute.

Sukhjeet Batth
Current Position - Radiation Oncologist, cCARE - California Cancer Associates for Research & Excellence, Fresno, CA

Bio

Sukhjeet is a junior majoring in Biological Sciences at Stanford University. He joined the lab in Spring of 2006 and is working on the design and synthesis of fluorescently quenched activity-based probes for caspases.

Christine Yang
Undergraduate Researcher

Bio

Christine is a junior at Stanford University. She joined the Bogyo Lab in the Spring of 2004. She is currently working on the analysis of falcipain I knockout of the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum.