Principal Investigator

Vincenzo Venditti received a Ph.D. from the University of Siena in 2009 for his work with Neri Niccolai and Sam Butcher on the surface accessibility of biopolymers. From 2009 to 2014 he was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the National Institutes of Health in the group of Marius Clore where he specialized in biomolecular NMR techniques for the investigation of protein structure, dynamics and interactions. Vincenzo joined the Department of Chemistry at ISU in January 2015.

Graduate Students

Aayushi Singh graduated from University of Delhi, India with a Master's of Science in physical chemistry. She joined IIT Delhi as a Junior Research Fellow focusing on studying the effects of small natural compounds on the stability and aggregation of human alpha-synuclein. Also she characterised various transcription regulatory proteins of Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Aayushi joined the Venditti lab in January 2020. She is currently investigating regulatory mechanisms in bacterial Enzyme I.

Dan Burns received his Bachelor of Science degree in Marine Biology from the University of Hawai’i at Manoa in 2009. Dan’s undergraduate research included phylogenetic studies on marine invertebrates and symbionts at the Hawai’i Institute of Marine Biology. After completing his bachelor’s degree, he worked for a large R&D company developing algal biofuel. Dan joined the Venditti and Potoyan labs in January 2020. He is currently using computational methods to study the structure/dynamics/function relationship in multidomain enzymes.

Kyle Malcolm received his Bachelor of Science in biochemistry from the University of Iowa in 2019 and continued to work at UI as a post bacc research assistant. Kyle's undergraduate and post bacc research included, study of yeast gene regulation, gene activation mechanisms, transcription factor biochemistry, and structural biology of the closely related hemi-ascomycetes Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Candida glabrata. Kyle joined the Venditti lab in January 2022. He is currently investigating structure/function of the Alkb family of enzymes using NMR and computational methods.

Baboucarr Faal received his Bachelor of science degree in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from St. Cloud State University in 2021. While an undergraduate student he worked to quantify the amount of antioxidants in different types of blueberries. Baboucarr joined the Venditti lab in January 2023. He is currently investigating the structure/function relationship in human Alkbh7 by solution NMR.

Dilini Dissanayake received her Bachelor of Science degree in Molecular Biology and biochemistry from the University of Colombo, Sri Lanka, in 2019. For her undergraduate degree, she studied the standardization of in vitro RNAi technology in root-knot nematodes using the 16D10 parasitism gene. After completing her bachelor's, she worked in a Molecular biology and cytogenetics laboratory as a Medical Technologist. She also received her Master of Science in Applied Organic Chemistry from the University of Colombo, Sri Lanka. During her postgraduate career, she studied the development of thermochromic materials using bacterial and fungal sources. Dilini joined the Venditti lab in January 2023. She is currently investigating the structure/function of the human enzyme Alkbh1.

Sayan Das received his Bachelor's of Science in 2019 and his Master's of Science in 2021 (in physical chemistry) both from the University of Calcutta. As an undergraduate researcher he used molecular docking and molecular dynamics simulations to identify ligands of the HIV-1 protease that could potentially be used as drugs. Sayan joined the Venditti lab in January 2023. He is currently working on the structure/function characterization of Alkb enzymes by NMR and computer simulations.

Research Scientist

Sergey Sedinkin is an organic chemist with 15+ years of reserch and teaching experience. He joined the Venditti lab at ISU in August 2020. His work at ISU focuses on developping small molecule inhibitors of Enzyme I, FTO, and Alkbh5, and on investigating the role played by sorption equilibria in regulation of nanopaticle catalysts.

Alumni

Yeongseo An DiLorenzo (Ph.D. student 2017-2023) received her Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry from Valparaiso University in 2017. She graduated from the Venditti lab in April 2023. Yeongseo's Ph.D. focused on investigating the implication of the kinetics and thermodynamics of adsorption in the regulation of nanoparticle catalyzed ractions.

Position after Venditti lab: Senior Chemist at 3M.

Bal Khatiwada (Ph.D. student 2016-2021) received his Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry from Winona State University in 2012, and Master's degree in Chemistry from University of Minnesota, Duluth in 2015. Bal graduated from the Venditti lab in December 2021. His research focused on studying self-regulatory mechanisms in the fat mass and obesity associated protein FTO.

Position after Venditti lab: Scientist at Loxo Oncology at Lilly.

Graduate Thesis

Trang Nguyen (Ph.D. student 2015-2021) obtained her BSc in Biotechnology at the International University, Viet Nam. Then she worked as a Research Assistant at the Institute for Computational Science and Technology (Viet Nam) where she used computer simulations to investigate protein-ligand complexes. Trang graduated from the Venditti lab in April 2021. Her reasearch focused on combining NMR spectroscopy and MD simulations to investigate the structure and function of large multidomain proteins.

Position after Venditti lab: Scientist at Pacific Biosciences.

Graduate Thesis

Jeffrey Purslow (Ph.D. student 2017-2021) received his Associate of Science degree and Associate of Arts degree from Williston State College in 2013 and his Bachelor of Science degree in chemistry from Worcester State University in 2015. As an undergraduate, his research investigated immobilizing enzymes in renewable cellulose films for the degradation of dyes. Jeff graduated from the Venditti lab in January of 2021. His research focused on characterizing the structure and function of the human enzyme ALKBH5 through NMR spectroscopy.

Position after Venditti lab: Postdoctoral fellow at Max Planck Institute - Göttingen.

Graduate Thesis

Rochelle Dotas (Ph.D. student 2015-2020) graduated from the University of Minnesota Morris with a Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry. As an undergraduate she worked with organometallic catalysts in an Organic Chemistry research lab. Rochelle graduated from the Venditti lab in April 2020. Her Ph.D. work focused on understanding the role of conformtional disorder in functional regulation of bacterial Enzyme I.

Position after Venditti lab: Sr. Life Science Specialist at Thermo Fisher Scientific.

Graduate Thesis

Read about Rochelle's new job. Ad maiora!

Tim Egner (Ph.D. student 2015-2019) received his Bachelors of Science in Biochemistry and Mathematics from North Central College in 2014. His undergraduate research focused on the kinetic modifications of the inductive effect in radical halogenation reactions. Tim graduated from the Venditti lab in November 2019. His Ph.D. work focused on studying regulatory mechanisms in heterogeneous catalysis.

Position after Venditti lab: Principle investigator at INVISTA.

Graduate Thesis