People in the Kohen Group
Click on the pictures for a larger view.
Dr.
Amnon Kohen is an Associate Professor of Chemistry and of Molecular and
Cellular Biology. Amnon was born in a kibbutz in northern Israel. He served
for six year in the Israeli navy. He received his B.Sc. degree in Chemistry
in 1989 from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and
D.Sc. 1994, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology. After that he was
a postdoctorial fellow with Prof. Judith Klinman at the University of
California at Berkeley. In 1999, he moved to the University of Iowa. His
main interest is bioorganic chemistry and enjoys studying the mechanisms
by which enzymes activate C-H bonds and N2 triple bonds. His
research focuses on the relationship between enzyme structure, dynamics,
and catalytic activity. He is also pursuing medical and technological
applications of biological catalysts. amnon-kohen@uiowa.edu
Anatoly Chernyshev
Dr.
Anatoly Chernyshev is a postdoctoral researcher studying nitrogenase,
the first enzyme in a pathway of microbial nitrogen assimilation. He was
born in Saratov, Russia, received his PhD from Saratov State University
and eventually joined the Kohen group in September 2003. This specimen
of H. sapiens describes himself as extremely humble and shy, so
that general patterns of his social behavior are still scarcely known.
Those few things found to the date about Anatoly are sketched at his website or one may get in touch with him via E-mail at a_chernyshev@yahoo.com.
Todd Flieschmann
Todd
is a graduate student that joined our group in 2004 after finishing a
B.S. in Chemistry and Agronomy at Northwest Missouri State University.
Todd's current project centers around a newly discovered enzyme denoted
Flavin Dependant Thymidylate Synthase. Recently, he has been working on
protein expression and purification as well as enzyme mechanism studies.
His hobbies include hunting, working on his house and playing with his
son. .
Jigar Bandaria
Jigar
has joined the group in January of 2004. jigar-bandaria@uiowa.edu
Atsushi Yahashiri
Atsushi
Yahashiri was born in Tokyo, Japan. He received His MS degree from Biochemistry
Department at UI 2004 and eventually joined the Kohen group in January
2005. Atsushi is currently studying the mechanism of a non-chromosomal
DHFR (R67) as potential antibiotic drug for resistance strains of bacteria.
He also enjoys the life in Iowa City with his wife and two kids. His hobbies
are swimming, mowing lawn, planting fruits and vegetables, going to farmers
market (buying), cooking, making good coffee, expressing ADH in vivo,
bothering PI with questions, purifying enzymes, blogging, camping, and
canoeing with Bryce Plapp (biannual).
Arun Sen
Arundhuti Sen joined the Kohen group in 2005, after graduating
from Knox College in Galesburg, IL. Arun is working on DHFR kinetics,
following closely in the footsteps of Lin Wang. She likes to start every
day with a loud 'Vive la resistance!' and a short prayer to the gods of
the steady-state.
Vanja Stojkovic
Vanja is a graduate student that joined the Kohen group in Nov 2006.
Vishal Sharma
Hey, this is Vishal, I did my previous studies at University
of Delhi, INDIA. I joined the group in Dec 2006. My interest is to study
reaction mechanisms and I aspire to unfold the mysterious steps in enzymatic
reactions. In addition to that I like Indian music and I am looking forward
to form a music band after graduation. Wish me luck for both of my interests.
Zhen Wang
Born
in a small town of Shandong Province, I'm a typical North Chinese girl,
who is easy-going and laughs a lot. At the age of 6, I decided
to be a life scientist, who will invent some medicine that my parents could take and live forever...
As I growed up, I realized it was impossible. However, I still want to be a life scientist
to solve some serious problems
in our world. After graduation from Nanjing University in 2006,
I came to United States. I believe the 5 years Ph.D. study here will help
me to achieve my life legend. My favorite quote is "There are three best things in life--Eating, Sleeping, and Science" by Zhen Wang. *^_^*
Daniel Roston
Daniel
grew up in the suburbs north of Chicago and graduated from Hamilton College
in Clinton, NY with a chemistry degree in 2007. As an undergrad he worked
in labs studying nanotechnology, organic natural products, and infectious
diseases. Daniel joined the Kohen group in the fall of 2007 and is measuring
kinetic isotope effects in the reaction catalyzed by alcohol dehydrogenase.
He is very interested in the extent to which quantum mechanics invalidate
classical transition state theory. When he is not in the lab, Daniel likes
to play rugby and read about the crazy ideas physicists are cooking up
these days. When he grows up, Daniel wants to be an astronaut. For real.
Eric Koehn
Group Pictures from Conferences and Treats
Get-together in the new office when Zhen passed her Comps
Former Members
Lin Wang
Lin,
joined this group in 2002 and graduated with a PhD in Dec 2006. Currently
he is writing a few papers and prepare for his Postdoctoral position..
Before that he spent four years sleeping through classes at Ocean University
of Qingdao, P.R.C. and another three years at Zhejiang University, P.R.C..
Lin finds here, in this university, he cannot get enough time for interesting
extracurricular activities, which is due to the fact that we have a highly
motivated group! His current research focuses on the C-H bond activation
project. His main hobbies includes algebra, statistics and software. lin-wang@uiowa.edu
Baoyu Hong
Baoyu
is a graduate student from China and joined this group in summer of 2003.
She got B.E. degree in Packaging Engineering in 1999 and M. S. degree
in Polymer Science in 2002 from Jilin Unversity, China. Then the same
year she came to the Unversity of Iowa. Her current research project is
classical TS. At spare time, she loves movies, photography, traveling
and celtic music.
Majd Haddad
Majd
was born in Brest, France original from Lattakia, Syria. He lived in different
countries and decided to continue his college education in the United
States. Currently, he is a junior majoring in Biochemistry and an Iowa
Biosciences Advantage scholar. He intends to attend graduate school and
earn a doctoral degree so that he can continue training and conduct research
in enzymology. This summer he was involved with Scott in s
Melissa Hall
Melissa was a graduate student Jan-Dec 2006.
Aaron Mason
Aaron Mason completed his undergraduate work at Cornell College (2005) with a double major in Chemistry and Biochemistry. His was in the Biosciences Program at the University of Iowa and was rotating through the Kohen Lab. Aaron was studying a flavin dependent thymidylate synthase.
Kelli Markham
Dr.Kelli Markham received her Ph.D. in Chemistry in 2004 and was the first to graduate with Ph.D. from the Kohen Group. Kelli's last position in iowa was a visiting Assistant Professor and a Postdoctoral Scholar in the Kohen Group. She receivedher B.A. degree in Chemistry from Lake Forrest College in Illinois in 1998. The summer after her graduation she completed an internship at Abbott Labs in IL. After this, she worked on a project for the DOE, testing for radioactivity (U-235, Tc-99 etc.) in soil and water samples. Kelli entered this university in the Fall of 1999, and since then has worked out the synthesis of key radio-labeled nucleotides for enzyme kinetic studies and completed preliminary KIE studies with DHFR. Currently, Kelli is investigating the chemistry of several enzymes, including:glutamate dehydrogenase and thermophilic dihydrofolate reductase (DHFR). Kelli's hobbies include home remodelling projects with her husband, Dale, and roughhousing with her 150 lb Great Dane, Apollo.
Kellis is now in Washington DC working for NRC. kxm4@nrc.gov
Nitish Agrawal
Dr. Nitish Agrawal earned his Ph.D in Chemistry in July 2005. He is originally
from India. He joined this group in Fall 2001. Nitish loves America. Nitish
was born in Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh, in India. He was schooled at Delhi
Public School, Mathura Road, New Delhi, India. He received his B.Sc (Honors)
degree in Chemistry in 1999 with distinction, and his M.Sc. (Chemistry),
specialization in Organic Chemistry in 2001 with distinction from Hindu
College, University of Delhi, India. Nitish has qualified National Eligibility
Test (NET) in India, which entitles him to join any Public College/University
as Lecturer/Research Investigator in India. At UI, he has been a prime
researcher on four projects: enzymatic synthesis of labeled nicotinamide
cofactor; chemoenzymatic synthesis of labeled derivatives of folic acid;
mechanistic studies of E.coli thymidylate synthase (TS); and mechanistic
studies of flavin-dependent TS (FDTS). Nitish is currently studying FDTS,
which shares no sequence or structure homology with common TS. This is
a very high impact type of research since FDTS catalysis is the only path
that many biological warfare agents use to synthesize DNA. He has also
recently won a prestigious Ph.D fellowship from the Center for Biocatalysis
and Bioprocessing (CBB). His general interests and activites include reading
and writing articles on science education, traveling, listening to music
and playing guitar.
Nitish is now working with GE Global Research in Albany, New York .
Scott Tharp
Scott
is a talented undergraduate who joined the group in the Summer of 2003.
One can often hear Scott talking to himself as he does injection after
injection on the HPLC. We consider this normal behavior so please do not
feel frightened. He is now a DDC student.
Pierre Charly Point Du Jour
Pierre
Charly Point Du Jour was born in Cayes, Haiti. Pierre lives in New York
City with his parents whereas he attends Florida Memorial University pursuing
his undergraduate studies in biology and chemistry. Planning to attend
the Medical Scientist Training Program (MSTP) at the University of Iowa,
through the AGEP Program in summer 2004, Pierre worked with the Eyeman
Group on ÒSurface Deposition of Single-Site Redox Reactant.Ó This summer
2005, Pierre has joined the Kohen Group while working on ÒMechanistic
Studies of Hydride Transfer Catalyzed by E. coli Thymidylate Synthase
W80M Mutant.Ó Pierre has not only done science, but he is also a poet/playwright
and some of his works can read on his website (www.jeanpointdujour.org)
or you may contact him via email at pcpdj@yahoo.com
Wilmarie Santana
Wilmarie
Santana is a sophomore student from University of Puerto Rico-Bayamon
working inthe Kohen group on a SROP fellowship.
Cornelia Mihai
Cornelia is an Assistant Professor of Organic Chemistry at Northwetern
Okalhoma State University. She was born in Bucharest, Romania. She received
her B.S. degree in Chemical Engineering from Polytechnic Institute of
Bucharest. After that, she was working as a chemical engineer and then
as a Research Scientist at the Food Chemistry Institute and at the Institute
of Oncology in Bucharest. In 1994 she started her graduate studies in
United States and she received her M.S. degree in Chemistry in 1996 and
her Ph.D. degree in Medicinal Chemistry in 2001 from University of Illinois
at Chicago. After that she was working as Research Associate at Albany
Molecular Research, Inc. and as Research Scientist at Integrated DNA Technologies
in Coralville, Iowa. In 2002, she took the position as a Postdoctoral
Associate in the Kohen group. Currently, she is working on expressing
and purifying the enzymes needed for kinetic and structural studies. Her
research interests are Bioorganic Chemistry, Medicinal Chemistry and Synthetic
Enzymology and she enjoys studying the mechanism, structure and dynamics
of the enzymes that are targets for therapeutic drugs. new URL: http://www.nwosu.edu/science/.
Steve Sikorski
Steve was a post-doc in the Kohen group who received his Bachelor Degree
at Bradley University in Peoria and his PhD here at the University of
Iowa with Dr. Dan Quinn, working on acetylcholinesterase and low-barrier
hydrogen bonds. He has worked at both the U.S. Department of Agriculture
and Walter Reed Army Institute. Steve also became a lecturer here at the
University of Iowa teaching Organic Chemistry laboratory and Organic and
General Chemistry courses, for one year before returning to research.
While with the Kohen group Steve studied temperature dependencies on KIEÕs
for dihydrofolate reductase. Steve is now holds an industrial position
for a company in Springfield, MO.
Amandeep Sra
Amandeep
Kaur Sra was born in Mumbai (Bombay), India. She received her Bachelor
of Science and Master of Science degrees in chemistry from the University
of Mumbai. For her Ph.D. in Chemistry at the University of Mumbai, she
worked on the design and study of molecular magnetic materials with Dr.
J.V. Yakhmi, B.A.R.C., India and with Prof. O. Kahn, ICMCB, France. She
received the Young Scientist award '99 in Physical Chemistry at the International
Symposium of the Indian Chemical Society. Amandeep worked on establishing
the vacuum apparatus enabling the study of nitrogenase. After many laborious
hours she managed to measure competitive KIEs for this system. Aman has
ventured off for her second post-doc at Texas A&M.
Carla Asbury
Carla was an undergraduate in the group, working on improving HPLC separations
for KIE studies.
Lena Rydberg
Lena
was an undergraduate in our lab, from the Department of Biochemistry here
at the University of Iowa. Lena worked in our lab for a summer doing synthesis
of deuterated substrates.
Jocelyn McCracken
Jocelyn
McCracken graduated from Fairfield High School, Fairfield, Iowa in 1996
and majored in chemistry and english while attending Central College in
Pella, IA. Jocelyn graduated in the summer of 2002 with a Master's degree
and is currently living in the suburbs of Chicago with her husband, Tim,
as she searches for employment. We wish her the best of luck and are waiting
for a phone call when she makes her first million dollars.
Malia Moore
Malia
Moore graduated from Hope High School (in Hope, Kansas) in 1996 and received
her B.S. in chemistry in 2000 from University of Rochester in Rochester,
NY. Malia graduated the summer of 2002 from this group with a Master's
and is curently in medical school at KU. We wish her the best of luck
in all of her future endeavors.
Jeff Smith
Jeff
is an undergraduate student from Burlington, Iowa. He was responsible
(among other things) for the web page, and installing any and every new
fancy piece of equipment. He graduated in December 2000 with a B.S. degree
in Chemistry with Honors. Currently, we have no news as to his whereabouts.
Last we heard he was working as a tech for microscopists, here at the
University of Iowa where he was treasured as a valuable asset to their
laboratory. If you or anyone you know has any information about the location
of Jeff Smith, please call America's Most Wanted immediately and then
let us know. Do not attempt any communication with this person, you can
tell from his picture just the types of evil deeds he is capable of.
