Current Lab Members

Michael Hollander, Ph.D.

09/2022 – present

mjhollander at ucsd dot edu

Postdoctoral Scholar.
Ph.D. in Bioengineering, Stanford University
M.S. in Bioengineering, Stanford University
B.S. in Chemical Engineering, Cornell University

Melody Malek, Ph.D.

05/2026 – present

mmalek at ucsd dot edu

Postdoctoral Scholar.
Ph.D. in Chemistry, UC Davis
B.S. in Biological Sciences, UC Irvine

Rachel Anderson

01/2022 – present

r2anderson at ucsd dot edu

Ph.D. Candidate, Year 6. Chemical Biology.
M.S. in Chemistry, UC San Diego
B.A. in Biochemistry, University of San Diego

Sam Mawson

01/2022 – present

smawson at ucsd dot edu

Ph.D. Candidate, Year 6. Biochemistry & Biophysics.
B.S. (Hons) in Biochemistry, University of Queensland
M.A. in Philosophy, Monash University
B.A. (Hons) in Philosophy, Monash University

Kara Dunne-Dombrink

01/2023 – present

kdunnedombrink at ucsd dot edu

Ph.D. Candidate, Year 5. Chemical Biology.
M.S. in Chemistry, UC San Diego
B.A. in Biochemistry and French, Scripps College

Ben Pollak

01/2023 – present

brpollak at ucsd dot edu

Ph.D. Candidate, Year 5. Biochemistry & Biophysics.
M.S. in Chemistry, UC San Diego
B.A. in Chemistry, Boston University

Natalie Zawalick

01/2023 – present

nzawalick at ucsd dot edu

Ph.D. Candidate, Year 5. Chemical Biology.
M.S. in Chemistry, UC San Diego
B.S. in Biochemistry, UCLA

Zach Krill

01/2024 – present

zkrill at ucsd dot edu

Ph.D. Candidate, Year 4. Biochemistry & Biophysics.
M.S. in Chemistry, UC San Diego
B.S. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology with a minor in Microbiology, North Dakota State University

Nicola Osgood

01/2024 – present

nosgood at ucsd dot edu

Ph.D. Candidate, Year 4. Biochemistry & Biophysics.
M.S. in Chemistry, UC San Diego
B.S. in Biochemistry, Arizona State University

Rohan Pillai

01/2025 – present

r1pillai at ucsd dot edu

Ph.D. Student, Year 3. Chemical Biology.
B.S. in Chemistry, Rice University


Previous Lab Members

Keolu Fox, Ph.D. — Postdoctoral Scholar (10/2018 – 08/2019) — now Assistant Professor of Anthropology at UCSD
Zsolt Bodai, Ph.D. — Postdoctoral Scholar (06/2018 – 07/2022) — now Senior Scientist at Molecular Assemblies
Sifeng Gu, Ph.D. — Ph.D. Candidate (01/2018 – 02/2024) — Postdoctoral Scholar (02/2024 – 07/2024) — now Scientist at General Proximity
Mallory Evanoff, Ph.D. Ph.D. Candidate (01/2018 – 09/2025) — Postdoctoral Scholar (09/2025 – 12/2025) — now Postdoctoral Scholar at Princeton
Kartik Rallapalli, Ph.D. — Ph.D. Candidate (01/2018 – 08/2022) — now Senior Scientist at Metagenomi
Cameron Burnett, Ph.D. — Ph.D. Candidate (12/2017 – 01/2023) — now Research Scientist at Genentech
Elizabeth Porto, Ph.D. — Ph.D. Candidate (01/2018 – 07/2023) — now Senior Associate at Lumanity
Brodie Ranzau, Ph.D. — Ph.D. Candidate (01/2018 – 08/2023) — now Postdoctoral Scholar at UCLA
Quinn Cowan, Ph.D. — Ph.D. Candidate (01/2019 – 05/2024) — now Postdoctoral Scholar at Gladstone Institutes
Carlos Vasquez, Ph.D. — Ph.D. Candidate (01/2019 – 07/2024) — now Chemistry Professor at Butte College
Zulfiqar Mohamedshah, Ph.D. — Ph.D. Candidate (01/2022 – 05/2026) — now Research Scientist at Genentech
Ashley Wong — Ph.D. Candidate (01/2019 – 08/2022)
Maya Parish — Undergraduate
Helen Li — Undergraduate — now Ph.D. student at Duke University
Marc Zepeda — Undergraduate — now Ph.D. student at Harvard University
Emma Deters — Undergraduate
Annika So — Undergraduate — now Ph.D. student at New York University
Eden Davison — Undergraduate
Dominika Sandel — Undergraduate
Preety Iyer — Undergraduate
Harshitha Palacharla — Undergraduate
Sanjana Korpal — Undergraduate
Claire Xie — Undergraduate
Charlotte Sach — Undergraduate
Seunghoon Oh — Undergraduate