Current Lab Members
Staff
Sonal Deshpande
Assistant Research Professor
Sonal completed her Bachelors and Masters in Biotechnology from the University of Pune, India. She received her PhD from the Centre for Biomedical Engineering at Indian Institute of Technology-Delhi (IITD), India. Her PhD dissertation was focused on optimizing nanoparticle design for drug delivery, based on the cues obtained from their interactions with cells. Outside of lab she likes to watch cricket and supernatural and sci-fi movies/TV shows.
Cassio Mendes Fontes
Assistant Research Professor
Cassio is from Belo Horizonte Brazil and has a double major in Electronic Engineering and Pharmacy/Biochemistry and a Masters in Electric Engineering. He founded and ran as CEO a GMP certified diagnostics company in Brazil with over 80 FDA approved products. He is working with Angus on some top secret research. Outside the lab he likes to lift weights, ride his Peloton, and hang out with his wife and dogs, Leo and Einstein. Believe it or not, he actually prefers American football over football (soccer)!
David Kinnamon
Senior Research Scientist
Before starting his PhD at Duke, David (a Dallas native) earned his BS and MS in Biomedical Engineering at UT Dallas after which he worked for two years as a Research Engineer for the University. He is interested in working on translational point-of-care diagnostic biosensors and currently has a focus on passively automated microfluidic devices. David loves movies, a good round of golf, cooking, and travelling to new cities.
Josh Milligan
Senior Research Scientist
Josh completed his undergrad at NC State University, where he graduated in 2019 with a BS in Biomedical and Health Sciences Engineering. He is interested in combining ELPs with radiotherapy for cancer therapeutics. Outside of the lab, he enjoys running, photography, and spending time with friends and family.
Xinghai Li
Research Technician
Xinghai is a research technician working on animal model design, drug delivery, and protein radio labels. He comes from Beijing by way of Chapel Hill where he worked in a lab at UNC-CH doing molecular biology. Xinghai enjoys Durham and Duke; when he's not working he likes to read, swim or perhaps play a game of Go.
Krissey Eutsey Lloyd
Lab Manager
Krissey is the lab manager. She is originally from PA and has been working at Duke since 2004. She spends her free time with her family, gardening, or catching up on a good book.
Postdoctoral Researchers
Mark Chen
Postdoctoral Researcher
Mark is from Chicago. He completed his MD/PhD at Duke in the Kirsch lab studying sarcoma and radiation biology using genetically engineered mouse models. Currently, he is a radiation oncology resident on the RORS research track. In the Chilkoti lab, he will study the role of condensates in cancer. In his free time he enjoys traveling/spending time with his wife, reading, church, and cooking.
Chelsea Harris
Postdoctoral Researcher
Chelsea is from Sacramento, California. She completed her MD at Duke and MBA at Stanford. She is currently completing general surgery residency training at Duke. She joins the Chilkoti lab with a focus on using biopolymers to redirect heart tissue towards growth and repair after a heart attack. She plans to become a cardiac surgeon with a translational research lab that can bring solutions developed in the lab directly to patients.
Graduate Students
Afarin Aghassizadeh
PhD Student
Afarin is from Iran, and before starting her Ph.D. in the Chilkoti lab she earned her B.Sc. and M.Sc. in Electrical Engineering at the Sharif University of Technology. She is interested in integrating biosensors, low-cost detectors, and machine-learning algorithms for point-of-care diagnostic devices that can be used in deprived settings. Outside the lab, she loves watching movies, traveling, and spending time with family and friends.
Kat Lazar
PhD Student
Kat completed her undergraduate degree in Chemical Engineering at Tufts University in Boston before moving to Duke. She is co advised by Professor Ashutosh Chilkoti and Professor Joel Collier. Outside of lab she enjoys reading, traveling, art, and dance.
Rachel Strader
PhD Student
Rachel grew up in South Carolina. She completed her undergraduate degree in Biomedical Engineering at the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) in 2022. She is interested in using ELPs for the delivery of immunotherapeutics. Outside of lab, she enjoys running, playing soccer, hiking, and being outdoors.
Rachael Putman
MD/PhD Student
Rachael is from the Kansas City, Missouri area. She then received her B.S. in biomedical engineering from Yale and is currently pursuing her MD/PhD at Duke. In the Chilkoti lab, she is working on a project using partially ordered polypeptides to augment peripheral nerve repair. Outside the lab, she enjoys playing with her cat, Luna, and dog, Peanut Butter.
Kalina Tsolova
PhD Student
Kalina is from Sofia, Bulgaria and completed her bachelors in Molecular Biology at Princeton University in 2020. She is interested in the biophysical and biochemical behavior of immunotherapeutics fused to ELPs. Kalina enjoys traveling, hiking, gardening and a good rock or metal concert every once in a while.
Aine O’Sullivan
MD/PhD Student
Aine grew up in Westchester, NY before completing her degree in Biomedical Engineering at Johns Hopkins University at 2018. She is interested in applications of partially ordered polypeptides for tissue engineering. Outside lab, she enjoys hiking, skiing, climbing, traveling, and trying to keep her houseplants alive.
Erica Peng
PhD Student
Erica is from South Africa and graduated from UC San Diego with a BS in Bioengineering: Biotechnology. She is interested in exploring the applications of partially ordered polypeptides. Outside of lab, she enjoys being outdoors, traveling, music, pottery, and watching F1.
Yoyo Ma
PhD Student
Yoyo is from Palo Alto, CA and graduated from the University of Chicago with degrees in biochemistry and economics in 2024. In the Chilkoti Lab, she is interested in developing POEGMA nanoparticles for RNA delivery. In her free time, she enjoys reading, cooking, and making Spotify playlists for her friends.
Caroline Choi
PhD Student
Caroline is from Toronto, Canada and completed her undergraduate at the University of Toronto in Biomedical Engineering. Her research interests lie in developing point-of-care diagnostics to improve access to healthcare. Outside of the lab, she enjoys reading, music, aimless walks, and watching reality TV with friends.
Conrad Cheung
PhD Student
Conrad is from Staten Island, NY and completed his undergraduate degree in Biomedical Engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI). He is interested in using ELPs for drug delivery applications. Outside of lab, he enjoys cooking, playing saxophone and drums, and climbing.
Shiny Shen
PhD Student
Shiny is from Chapel Hill, NC and completed her bachelor’s degree in Bioengineering at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. She is interested in new technologies for molecular analysis, with applications in diagnostics and precision medicine. Outside of lab, she enjoys all types of crafts, dancing, and exploring the outdoors with friends.
Undergraduate Students
Jennifer Gao
Undergraduate Student
Jennifer is from Shanghai, China. She is currently an undergraduate student at Duke, majoring in Chemistry and planning on a PhD track. She is interested in protein engineering and is currently working with Dr. Sonal Deshpande on expressing the Elastin-like Polypeptides (ELPs) in mammalian cells for cellular engineering. Outside the lab, she likes vocal music, running, and playing badminton.
Emily Song
Undergraduate Student
Emily is from Alpharetta, Georgia. She is currently an undergrad at Duke majoring in Biomedical Engineering and planning to pursue an MD. She is interested in mitigating the effects of neurodegeneration following nerve injuries. At the Chilkoti lab she is researching polypeptide-based scaffolds to aid in peripheral nerve repair under mentor Rachael Putman. Outside the lab, she enjoys painting, cooking, and fishing.
Jaanavi Kaushik
Undergraduate Student
Jaanavi is an undergraduate student from South Bend, Indiana. She's planning to major in biomedical engineering and minor in electrical and computer engineering. In lab, she's working with Chelsea Harris to apply partially ordered polypeptides to a cardiac surgery context. Outside of lab, she's in the Lady Blue acappella group and enjoys playing tennis, running, and music.
Muskaan Iyer
Undergraduate Student
Muskaan is a freshman from Dubai, UAE. She is planning on studying Chemistry and Computational Biology. Muskaan is particularly interested in biotechnology, vaccine development and biomedical sciences, and will be working with Rachel on the use of ELPs for localized drug delivery. Outside of research, Muskaan is involved in Progress Period, Club Swimming, and the Student Collaborative on Health Policy. In her spare time, she enjoys watching movies with friends and learning new languages.
Sayah Trahanas
Undergraduate Student
Sayah is a rising sophomore from Charleston, South Carolina, majoring in biomedical engineering and computer science. His interests include drug delivery, computational biology, medical devices, and advanced therapeutics. In the lab, he works with Kat Lazar on the synthesis and characterization of elastin-like polypeptides, investigating their potential applications in biomaterials and therapeutic technologies.
Lab Alumni
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Damon Burrow, 2019 to 2025, Duke Capital Partners
Jason Liu, 2016 to 2025, Ramona
Max Ney, 2019 to 2025, ETH Zurich
Dan Shapiro, 2019 to 2025, McKinsey
Parul Sirohi, 2019 to 2025, Veil Therapeutics
Jonathan Su, 2018 to 2025, Simon-Kucher
Anastasia Varanko, 2017 to 2024, Vanderbilt University
Jacob Heggestad, 2017 to 2022, LEK Consulting
Michael Dzuricky, 2013 to 2021, Isolere Bio
Garrett Kelly, 2016 to 2021, AstraZeneca
Junseon Min, 2015 to 2021
Imran Ozer, 2015 to 2021, BCG
Mandana Manzari, 2012 to 2018, Sutter Hill Ventures
Jeff Schaal, 2011 to 2018, Theragnostics
Parisa Yousefpour, 2011 to 2018, Columbia University
Isaac Weitzhandler, 2012 to 2017, Stanford University
Eric Mastria, 2012 to 2016, Duke University
Wafa Hassouneh, 2008 to 2013, Immunome
Jonathan McDaniel, 2008 to 2013, UT Austin
Vinalia Tjong, 2008 to 2013, Intel
Miriam Amiram, 2008 to 2012, Yale University
Caslin Gilroy, 2012 to 2019, UC Berkeley
Nicholas Tang, 2011 to 2019, Roche
Daniel Callahan, 2006 to 2011, Medimmune
Gregory Nusz, 2005 to 2010, Early College of Arvada
Andrew Simnick, 2005 to 2010, McKinsey
Dong Woo Lim, 2002 to 2007, Hanyang University
Matthew Dreher, 2001 to 2006, NIH
Hongwei Ma, 2000 to 2005, SINANO
Daniel Meyer, 1997 to 2002, GE Medical Systems
Ryan Aslami, 1999 to 2001
Ronald Piervincenzi, 1996 to 2000, US Pharmacopeia Corporation
Christine Woods, 1997 to 1999
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Taranpreet Kaur, 2022 to 2026
Jayashree Yalamanchili, 2023 to 2026
Yulia Shmidov, 2021 to 2025, UNC Chapel Hill
Hiro Ata, 2023 to 2024
Yunqi Yang, 2023 to 2024, BCG
Yifan Dai, 2020 to 2023, Washington University in St. Louis
Sarah Kim, 2019 to 2023, Washington and Lee University
Ali Eghtesadi, 2018 to 2021, Scientist at CSL Sequirus
Hamed Vahabi, 2019 to 2021
Renpeng Gu, 2018 to 2018
Davoud Mozhdehi, 2015 to 2018
Cristina Fernandez, 2017 to 2017
Joshua Beaver, 2014 to 2016
Jing Wang, 2012 to 2016
Somnath Bhattacharjee, 2012 to 2015, University of Michigan
Jinyao Liu, 2013 to 2015, MIT
Sarah Reagan MacEwan, 2008 to 2015, University of Chicago
Yan Pang, 2014 to 2015
Maréva Fevre, 2013 to 2014, IBM
Felipe Quiroz, 2008 to 2014, The Rockefeller University
Hua Yu, 2007 to 2012, Life Technologies, Ion Torrent
Weiping Gao, 2007 to 2011, Tsinghua University
Sterling Alfred, 2008 to 2010, Bioformix
Mingnan Chen, 2007 to 2010, University of Utah
Trine Christensen, 2005 to 2010, KBI Biopharma
Stella Marinakos, 2003 to 2010, Duke University
Stacey (Yizhi) Qi, 2010 to 2010
Srinath Rangarajan, 2007 to 2010, University of Washington
Peng Yang, 2008 to 2010, Shaanxi Normal University
J. Mackay, 2005 to 2008, University of Southern California
Michelle Nunalee, 2006 to 2008, Ravenscroft School
Sihai Chen, 2004 to 2007, Indium Corporation
Kimberly Carlson, 2000 to 2006
Dominic Chow, 2003 to 2006
Darin Furgeson, 2003 to 2005, University of Utah
Jinho Hyun, 1999 to 2004, Seoul National University
Nidhi Nath, 2000 to 2004, Promega
Li Liu, 2001 to 2003, Neose Technologies
Wolfgang Frey, 1997 to 2001, University of Texas at Austin
Drazen Raucher, 2000 to 2001, University of Mississippi
Byung Shin, 1998 to 2000, KRICT
Zhongping Yang, 1998 to 1999, Medtronic Inc.
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Daniel Joh MD. PhD., University of Mississippi
Daria Semeniak, PhD., 2017 to 2026, EPFL
Soumen Saha, PhD., 2017 to 2025, Coriolis Pharma
Joe Bellucci, PhD., 2010 to 2016, Sutter Hill Ventures
Ryan Hill, PhD., 2007 to 2015, bioMerieux
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Anthony Du, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard
Rohinee Mattikalli
Miranda Zhong, 2026, University of Pennsylvania
Brooke Silverstein, 2021-2024, UCSB
Neel Gupta, 2024
Judy Lee, 2024
Sarthak Agrawal, 2024 to 2026
Emma Goodingham, 2023 to 2025, Georgia Tech
Amaris Huang, 2024 to 2025
Norah Shen, 2025 to 2025
Joy Tong, 2023 to 2025, Amgen
Anna Finkelstein, 2023 to 2024
Achintya Inumarty, 2023 to 2024
Alison Jang, 2023 to 2024
Katy Price, 2021 to 2024
Natasha Santoso, 2023 to 2024
Arun Chakrabarty, 2022 to 2023
Doriz Concepcion, 2022 to 2023
Ethan Ong, 2021 to 2023
Nikhil Peterson, 2022 to 2023
Noel Temesgen, 2023 to 2023
Matthew Wang, 2022 to 2023
Wendy Wang, 2022 to 2023
Daniel Xie, 2023 to 2023
James Zheng, 2021 to 2023
Jarrett Dobbins, 2020 to 2022
Jocoa Kerschen, 2022 to 2022
Perisa Ashar, 2021 to 2021
Joanna Peng, 2021 to 2021
Simone Wall, 2019 to 2021
Isha Arora, 2019 to 2019
Abhi Balu, 2019 to 2019
Yoav Kargon, 2019 to 2019
Easop Lee, 2019 to 2019
Angus Li, 2019 to 2019
Alex Ong, 2019 to 2019
Anna Slezak, 2019 to 2019
Hakan Aydin, 2018 to 2018
Freddy Huang, 2016 to 2018
Mae Lewis, 2017 to 2018
Vincent Miao, 2016 to 2018
Joel Tewksbury, 2017 to 2018
Siddharth Uppal, 2018 to 2018
Natalie Weinrauch, 2018 to 2018
Sinan Xiong, 2017 to 2018
Stephanie Zelenetz, 2018 to 2018
Ayham Abdel, 2017 to 2017
Rohan Achar, 2016 to 2017
Isha Arora, 2017 to 2017
Rebecca Blair, 2016 to 2017
Kristen Buehne, 2015 to 2017
Amy Cheng, 2017 to 2017
Paige Detwiler, 2016 to 2017
Caroline Forster, 2017 to 2017
Camden Kronhaus, 2016 to 2017
Enoch Kuan, 2017 to 2017
Shourya Kumar, 2017 to 2017
Nicholas Kuzma, 2016 to 2017
Janice Liu, 2017 to 2017
Victoria Nguyen, 2016 to 2017
Soham Patel, 2017 to 2017
Aditi Pilani, 2017 to 2017
Varun Prasad, 2016 to 2017
Abdulla Shahid, 2017 to 2017
Nate Watson, 2017 to 2017
Zack Zimmers, 2016 to 2017
Faris Albarghouthi, 2016 to 2016
Leon Cai, 2014 to 2016
Jay Gupta, 2016 to 2016
Grant Jirka, 2015 to 2016
Nadia Kirmani, 2016 to 2016
Sam Lee, 2016 to 2016
Kelsey Li, 2016 to 2016
Chenguang Liang, 2016 to 2016
Gabriela Ordonez, 2016 to 2016
Rachel Skelton, 2016 to 2016
Archit Verma, 2013 to 2016
Tiffany Dong, 2012 to 2015
Darbi Griffith, 2013 to 2015
Andrew Hunt, 2015 to 2015
Kathy Lee, 2014 to 2015
Chandler Moore, 2015 to 2015
Adarsh Nellore, 2015 to 2015
Sunaina Patil, 2014 to 2015
Gauri Prasad, 2015 to 2015
Rishi Subrahmanyan, 2015 to 2015
Tim Bai, 2013 to 2014
Michael Hollander, 2014 to 2014
Ju Wan Hong, 2012 to 2014
Min Ju Park, 2013 to 2014
Claire Vallery, 2013 to 2014
Cameron Aubin, 2013 to 2013
Divya Gupta, 2013 to 2013
Abby Heiller, 2013 to 2013
Andrew Hightaian, 2013 to 2013
Matthew Jones, 2012 to 2013
Pichet (Bom) Praveschotinunt, 2011 to 2013
Eric Wang, 2011 to 2013, University of Pennsylvania
Kyle Langdell, 2011 to 2012
Chris Radford, 2010 to 2012
Deepak Sathyanarayan, 2012 to 2012
Linda Ye, 2011 to 2012
Kevin Zhu, 2011 to 2012
Sophia Kim, 2010 to 2011
Jaemin Lee, 2010 to 2011
Elena Botella, 2009 to 2010
Mike Ge, 2010 to 2010
Wei Han, 2009 to 2010
Linda Qu, 2008 to 2010
Amy Wen, 2009 to 2010
Ray Zhang, 2009 to 2010
Laura Angle, 2008 to 2009
Michael Kramarz, 2008 to 2009
Kun Liang, 2008 to 2009
Mike McGroddy, 2008 to 2009
Drew Braucht, 2007 to 2008
John Pura, 2007 to 2008
Melissa Schneiderman, 2007 to 2008
Coleman Shelton, 2007 to 2008
Andrew Sobel, 2007 to 2008
Kelly Fitzgerald, 2006 to 2007
Michael Zimmerman, 2007 to 2007
Daniel Kim, 2004 to 2006
Png Kim, 2004 to 2006
Inge Osman, 2005 to 2006
Jared Gardner, 2004 to 2005
Aarash Haghighat, 2004 to 2005
Anjum Koreishi, 2004 to 2005
Emily Carl, 2003 to 2004
Shuping Koh, 2002 to 2004
Anand Patel, 2003 to 2004
Phillip Stiller, 2003 to 2004
Adam Piekarski, 2003 to 2003
Vadim Polikov, 2002 to 2003
Deepa Mishra, 2000 to 2002
Pavan Cheruvu, 2000 to 2001
Toni Kwan, 2001 to 2001
Tennyson Liu, 1999 to 2001
Mahesh Narayanswamy, 2000 to 2001
Michael Ferrell, 1998 to 2000
Audrey Kim, 1999 to 2000
Neil Hattangadi, 1998 to 1999
Santosh Venkatesha, 1998 to 1999
Scott Craig, 1998 to 1998
Harsh Nanda, 1997 to 1998
Ashay Parker, 1997 to 1997