Principal investigator

Professor A. James Link

ajlink@princeton.edu

A207 E-Quad
609.258.7191

worms



Professor Link grew up in Newburyport, MA and obtained his B.S.E. in Chemical Engineering from Princeton University in 2000. Following undergraduate studies, he moved to southern California to pursue a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering at Caltech under the direction of David Tirrell. After receiving his Ph.D. in 2005, Prof. Link was an NIH Kirschstein Fellow at the University of Texas, Austin, in the lab of George Georgiou. He began his appointment as assistant professor of Chemical Engineering at Princeton in July 2007.





Current graduate students

Diya Abdeljabbar

dabdelja@princeton.edu

worms Diya Diya obtained his B.S. in Chemical Engineering from New Jersey Institute of Technology in 2007. While an undergraduate at NJIT, Diya held two industrial internships at Bristol-Myers Squibb and Merck & Co. He has also conducted undergraduate research in both biomaterials and microelectromechanical systems (MEMS). Diya is currently working on unnatural amino acid incorporation into recombinant proteins and studying the effects of a defective methionyl-tRNA synthetase on the overall E. coli physiology.

Jessica Pan

sipan@princeton.edu

Jessica Jessica Pan is a 4th year graduate student. She received a BS degree in Chemical Engineering in 2007 from Columbia University. Her research in the lab focuses on the lasso peptide Microcin J25, which has antibacterial activity against strains of E. coli, Salmonella, and Shigella. She was born in Hong Kong and enjoys kayaking, reading, beaches, and shopping in her free time.




Siyan Zhang

siyanz@princeton.edu

worms Ziyan Siyan grew up in Chengdu, China, attended UC Santa Barbara for two years, and graduated from UC Berkeley with a B.S. degree in Chemical Engineering. She worked for Prof. Eric McFarland at UCSB on Pd nanoparticle catalysis for almost 2 years, worked for Prof. Enrique Iglesia at Berkeley on Au nanoparticle catalysis for a year, and interned at Robert Bosch Corp on a lithium ion battery project for a year. Right now Siyan is co-advised by Prof. Link and Prof. Prud'homme and is working on a gene chip project.

Mikhail Maksimov

maksimov@princeton.edu

Mikhail Originally from St. Petersburg Russia, Mikhail found his permanent home in warm and sunny Memphis, TN. While working towards his B.E. in Chemical Engineering at Vanderbilt University, Mikhail worked in a genomics laboratory and held a research internship at IBM Almaden where he worked on polymer self-assembly for nanolithographic applications. He is now excited to start research in the area of protein design and engineering.



Alan Futran

afutran@princeton.edu

Alan Alan is a first year graduate student in the Link Lab. He grew up in Westfield, New Jersey and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 2010 with a B.S. in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. As an undergraduate, Alan did research in the areas of biotechnology and protein engineering and interned at Centocor, where he worked on cell line development. Alan is co-advised by Professor Link and Professor Stanislav Shvartsman. His research focuses on protein interactions involved in the MAPK signaling pathway.


Caitlin Allen

cdatwo@princeton.edu

Caitlin Caitlin Allen hails from New Mexico, where she obtained a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Techonology. She has worked for five years as a technical intern at Sandia National Laboratories, and spent two years studying liposomal drug delivery at her undergrad. Her current research project examines the effects of selective mutagenesis on the structure and antibacterial properties of lasso peptides.




Current undergraduate students

Michelle Luo

mlluo@princeton.edu

Michelle Michelle Luo is a senior at Princeton University, majoring in chemical engineering and pursuing a certificate in engineering biology. She has previously worked with Dr. Craig Foster at the University of Illinois - Chicago, and spent her junior summer in the Link Lab doing preliminary work on her senior thesis. Her current research investigates the binding of pro- and anti-apoptotic Bcl-2 family proteins on the surface of bacteria.




Mehek Punatar

mpunatar@princeton.edu

Mehek Mehek Punatar is a senior from India, majoring in chemical engineering with a certificate in engineering biology. She hopes to go to graduate school next year in biotechnology or biomedical engineering, and has previously performed research in a pharmaceutical lab in India. She is currently working on her thesis with Professor Link. Her research explores the effects of the lasso leader peptides on common fusion proteins.






John Tian

jtian@princeton.edu

John Hailing from Vernon Hills, IL, John is a senior majoring in Chemical and Biological Engineering with a certificate in Engineering Biology. He began research in the Link Lab the summer before his senior year, and plans to write his thesis on loop substitutions in lasso peptides. His other responsibilities aside from the lab include playing on the Princeton Sprint Football team and serving as the Technology Chair of Colonial Club.






Yan Wu

yanwu@princeton.edu

Yan Yan Wu lives in New Jersey is a Sophomore at Princeton University, majoring in chemical engineering and pursuing a certificate Engineering Management Systems. He has previously performed research in the Link Lab during his freshman summer and is currently working on the kinetics of the binding of pro- and anti-apoptotic proteins of the Bcl-2 family on the surface of bacteria. Outside of the lab, Yan enjoys playing Ultimate Frisbee, basketball, as well as reading all kinds of novels. He is also involved in the Princeton Chapter of Engineers Without Borders.

Eugenia Zah

ezah@princeton.edu

Eugenia Eugenia is currently a junior in the chemical and biological engineering department and plans to pursue a certificate in engineering biology. Before joining the Link lab this past summer, she had some previous research experience with protein engineering working as a SURF summer student at Caltech under the guidance of Prof. Frances H. Arnold. Her current research involves the targeted mutagenesis of lasso peptide MccJ25 towards increased antibacterial functionality.




Alumni

Undergraduates

  • Jakub Rajniak '11, PhD program, Stanford University
  • Angel Long '11, MD program, Duke University
  • Hank Song '11, Fellow, Princeton-in-Latin-America
  • Molly Herring '10, DO program, Philadelphia College of Osteopathic
  • Medicine
  • Jayne Choi '10, CNT Energy
  • Wai Ling Cheung '10, Exelus, Inc.
  • Rajiv Ayyangar '09, Fairchild Semiconductor
  • Nicole Clarke '09, PhD program, Stanford University School of Medicine
  • Igor Dikiy '09, PhD program, Weill Cornell Medical College, Cornell University
  • TJ Klein '09, MD PhD program, Wright State
  • Jiyong (Jay) Kwak '09, Harvard-MIT HST Program
  • Karen Aherne '08
  • Rochelle Murray '08, General Mills
  • Ishani Sud '08, Woodrow Wilson School, Princeton University
  • Lucy Xu '08, Nomura

Graduate Students

  • Jingjing Sun, MA '09 Massachusetts Institute of Technology