THE TEAM

Nandini was born and raised in Hyderabad, India. After her master’s degree she worked in pharmaceutical company for few years. In 2010, she moved to Fargo, North Dakota to pursue her doctoral studies. Her graduate studies focused on design and synthesis of atropisomeric compounds as both catalysts and substrates in photochemical transformations. After graduation, she moved to Boston University for a postdoctoral position in Center for Molecular Discovery under guidance of Prof. John Porco where she developed novel natural product-derived analogs and probes for the use in studying macrophage activation toward the treatment of tuberculosis. She was interested in chemical biology, she joined the Woo lab to study the interactions of small molecules within the context of cellular proteome.

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Fun facts

• Nandini’s favorite hobby is cooking, and she loves experimenting with new recipies.

• Glycine is Nandini’s favorite amino acid.

• Nandini’s favorite reaction is the Wittig reaction.

Zhenguang was born in Shanxi, China. In 2017, he obtained a master’s degree in organic chemistry from Jiangxi Normal University, China (supervised by Professor Junfeng Zhao) and Nanyang Technology University, Singapore (supervised by Professor Chuanfa Liu). Afterward, he moved to The Hebrew University of Jerusalem for his Ph.D. studies under the guidance of Prof. Norman Metanis. In Jerusalem, he focused on developing new selenium chemistry to facilitate the chemical synthesis of challenging protein (especially selenoproteins) and Sec/Cys-specific modification for functional and potential therapeutical studies. In 2022, he joined the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Harvard University as postdoctoral fellow to work on degrons for target protein degradation under the supervision of Professor Christina Woo.

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Fun facts

• Zhenguang’s favorite protein is glutamine synthetase (GLUL).

• Selenocysteine is Zhenguang’s favorite amino acid. It’s not one of the 20 canonical amino acids but it is still his favorite.

Qian (Chace) was born in Sichuan Province, China. In 2017, he received a B.S. in pharmaceutical engineering from China Pharmaceutical University. In the same year, he joined the Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry (SIOC), Chinese Academy of Sciences, and conducted research under the guidance of Prof. Biao Yu. At SIOC, he was mainly engaged in the chemical synthesis of natural glycans. After receiving his Ph.D. in 2022, he joined Christina Woo's research group in the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Harvard University as a postdoctoral fellow, engaging in targeted protein degradation related research.

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Fun facts

• Chace unfortunately has the “cilantro gene” and cannot eat cilantro, for it tastes disgusting for him. Unfortunately, many Sichuan dishes have lots of cilantro.

• Chace’s favorite amino acid is serine.

Robert was born and raised in rural western Massachusetts. His first experience in scientist came as a high school student while doing a summer internship with professor Gabriel Birrane during which he learned the ins and outs of protein purification and was introduced to the fundamentals of biochemistry. From this experience, Robert went on to earn a bachelors degree in Biochemistry and a doctorate degree in Molecular and Cellular Biology from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst under the mentorship of professors Alice Y. Cheung and Hen-Ming Wu. During his time in the Cheung lab, he uncovered a novel phase separation mechanism that underlies a diverse range of extracellular signaling in plants.
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Fun fact

• Rob has known fellow Woo Lab member, Mark, since high school, where they were wrestling partners.

Tengfang was born in Hunan Province, China. She received a BS degree in Chemical biology at Sun Yat-sen University in 2018, under the supervision of Prof. Zong-Wan Mao. In the same year, Tengfang joined Prof. Huan Wang’ group at Nanjing University to pursue the PhD in Chemistry, where she focused on chemical modification of peptides and proteins, as well as the discovery of bioactive peptides via phage display. In 2023, she joined Christina Woo's research group at Harvard University to explore the post-translational modification in protein damage pathway and discover optimal ligands for protein degradation.
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Fun facts

• Tengfang is a spicy food enthusiast and loves to experiment with different recipes in the kitchen.

• As the unofficial Woo Lab influencer, Tengfang loves to record and share her daily life on social media.

• Tengfang is passionate about learning and training in swimming.

Kelvin was born and raised in Hong Kong, China. He graduated from the Chinese University of Hong Kong with a BSc in Chemistry in 2015, followed by an MPhil in 2018. In the same year, he began his PhD studies under Prof. Vladimir Gevorgyan, initially at the University of Illinois at Chicago and later at the University of Texas at Dallas, completing his doctorate in 2024. His research focused on the development of visible light-induced transition metal-catalyzed transformations. He joined the Woo lab in 2025 to pursue studies in targeted protein degradation.
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Fun facts

• Kelvin is a dog lover and used to volunteer at a shelter for dogs during his college days

• Kelvin is a fan of Korean and Japanese cultures

• His MBTI is INFP

Amir joined the Balskus and Woo laboratories in January 2025 as a postdoctoral fellow, after completing his graduate work with Professor Stephen Withers at the University of British Columbia. He research focuses on the process of selective protein degradation in bacteria from the gut microbiome.
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Fun facts

• For some reason, Amir decided to do not one, but two undergraduate degrees— chemistry and chemical engineering. Then, he completed his graduate work in bio-organic chemistry, tackling two projects that broadly included synthetic chemistry and enzymology. Now, Amir is conducting his postdoctoral studies jointly in the Balskus and Woo labs. He thinks he’s starting to notice a pattern here.

• In his spare time, Amir likes to listen to his century-old apartment groaning every morning, shiver through winters, get steamed in summers, and chase around (and be chased around by) the Cambridge wild turkey gangs at all other available times.

Mark is a graduate student in the Chemistry and Chemical Biology Ph.D. program. He earned his BS in chemistry from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where he worked in the lab of Mingxu You to develop novel RNA-based sensors for intracellular imaging of small molecules. He joined the Woo lab in 2019 to study the small molecule-protein interactome of opioid drugs to uncover the biomechanical basis of drug addiction. In his free time, Mark enjoys binge watching TV shows for an unhealthy amount of time, annoying his co-workers, and hanging out with his friends and family.
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Fun facts

• Mark likes to pick up a new hobby every 3 months, as of writing, his current hobby is painting.

• Mark has known fellow Woo Lab member, Rob, since high school, where they were wrestling partners.

Steven is a graduate student joint between the Chemistry & Chemical Biology and Chemical Biology PhD programs. He received a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Stanford University (2019), where he conducted synthetic organic chemistry research on strained ring systems and halogenation under the supervision of Prof. Noah Burns. In 2017, Steven also worked in the lab of Prof. Nediljko Budisa at the Technische Universität Berlin as a DAAD RISE Scholar, studying proteome-wide incorporation of non-canonical amino acids. Steven joined the Woo lab in 2019 to develop tools for manipulating glycosylation and to study its physiological roles. In his free time, he enjoys listening to music from the 19th century and watching movies from the 20th century.
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Fun facts

• Steven’s favorite movies are 2001: A Space Odyssey; Casablanca; Cinema Paradiso; The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly; Mulholland Drive; North by Northwest; Portrait of a Lady on Fire; The Sound of Music; Tokyo Story; The Young Girls of Rochefort

• His ranking of the Beethoven Symphonies (from best to worst) is the following: 9th > 3rd > 6th > 4th > 7th > 5th > 8th > 2nd > 1st

• Steven’s favorite natural product is Calicheamicin

Farah is a graduate student in the Chemical Biology Ph.D. program. She received her B.S. in Biology and Chemistry from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she trained in the lab of Dr. Hadley Sikes to develop paper-based, rapid diagnostic tests for Zika and malaria. She also worked at Elektrofi, Inc., in high-concentration, low-viscosity formulation of monoclonal antibody therapeutics. She joined the Woo lab in 2021 to study target protein degradation, molecular glue design, and chemoproteomics.
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Fun facts

• In her free time, she enjoys rock-climbing, listening to books & podcasts, and trying new cuisines

• Farah’s favorite amino acid is tryptophan.

Hannah is a graduate student in the Chemistry and Chemical Biology PhD program. She graduated from Brandeis University in 2020 with a MS in Biochemistry and BS in Biochemistry and Chemistry. She joined the Woo lab in 2021 to study protein-protein interactions and regulation of protein degradation.
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Fun facts

• Hannah’s favorite amino acid is asparagine

• Green fluorescent protein (GFP) is Hannah’s favorite protein. Not only is it the first protein she purified in the lab, she is a fan of colorful proteins.

Alison is a graduate student in Chemistry and Chemical Biology Ph.D. program. She received her B.S. in Biochemistry and minor in Mathematics from Villanova University, where she trained in the lab of Dr. Dennis Wykoff studying the regulation of thiamine metabolism in Candida glabrata. She joined the Woo lab in 2021 to study O-GlcNAc related chemical biology.
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Fun facts

• When Alison is not in lab, she enjoys cooking, baking, and crocheting.

• Alison has a black belt in karate, so think twice before you mess with her.

• In addition to being a scientist, Alison is also a photographer and has won two national photography awards.

Nicole is a senior graduate student in the Chemistry and Chemical Biology PhD program. She received her BA from Washington University in St. Louis in 2020 with a double major in Biochemistry and French Studies. Since joining the Woo lab in 2021, she has worked to develop molecular glue degraders of therapeutically relevant protein targets for applications in hematologic and solid cancers. Currently, she is working to thoroughly characterize these molecules' mechanism of action with the ultimate goal of translating her findings to the clinic. After graduation, she aspires to go into industry as a discovery-phase chemical biologist to help develop the next generation of innovative therapeutics.
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Fun facts

• One of Nicole's favorite TV shows is the Great British Bake-off, from which she takes inspiration in baking sweet treats like cinnamon rolls, cakes and cookies that she often shares with the lab.

• Besides her science, Nicole is also passionate about the French language and culture. She spent a semester in college studying abroad in Toulouse as part of an immersive language program and loves talking about all things francophone.

• Nicole is originally from Phoenix, Arizona so the winters in Boston are a little cold and grey for her. To brighten them, she has recently started learning to ski, and although the hills still scare her, she can proudly ski blue runs now!

Vanessa is a graduate student in the chemistry and chemical biology Ph.D. program. She received her BA in chemistry from Columbia University in 2021. While at Columbia, she worked in Professor Tomislav Rovis’s lab studying the directed evolution of monomeric streptavidin rhodium (III) artificial metalloenzyme. She joined the Woo group in 2021 to study the small molecule-protein interactome. Outside of lab she enjoys spending time with friends, family and her cats, reading, relaxing in the sauna, and champagne.
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Fun facts

• Vanessa has an obsession with planes. Coincidentally, her project partner in the Woo Lab, Xavier, is also obsessed with planes.

• Vanessa is the lab’s unofficial sommelier. If you want to know what wine to get at your next function, ask her.

Anna grew up in New Jersey and received her A.B. in Chemistry with a certificate in Materials Science and Engineering from Princeton University in 2021. At Princeton, she worked in the Schoop lab on electrochemical impedance spectroscopy of layered and 2D materials. Anna joined the Woo lab in 2021 to work on studying molecular glues and E3 ligase proteins.
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Fun facts

• Anna was born on a Friday the 13th - spooky!

• Anna trained pre-professionally in ballet growing up, including a summer at the School of American Ballet. Now she just dances for fun, often at the Harvard Dance Center.

• Anna loves all kinds of crafts, especially watercoloring, knitting/crocheting, and baking!

Angel received her undergrad degree from UCLA, where she majored in Chemistry and minored in Biomedical Research. With Rachelle Crosbie as a faculty mentor, she did research on the effect of the extracellular matrix on cardiac fibroblasts in the context of Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy. She joined the Woo lab in 2022 to study targeted protein degradation.
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Fun facts

• Angel did not know how to swim until summer 2024.

• Upon learning how to swim (see above), Angel has grown very fond of swimming.

Abigail was born and raised in St. Vincent and the Grenadines. She received her B.S. in Chemistry at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2022, where she investigated the structure of proteins involved in the cytosolic assembly and delivery of iron-sulfur clusters in the lab of Professor Catherine Drennan. She joined the Woo lab in 2022 to study relatively unexplored E3 ligases.
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Fun facts

• Abigail loves salted-caramel goodies, especially ice-cream.

• Some persons are early birds and others are night owls, but Abigail is neither. She lives in the in-between.

• Abigail was built for the tropics and will complain about the weather every cold winter day.

Abigail is a graduate student joint between the Chemistry and Chemical Biology and Chemical Biology PhD programs. She graduated from the University of Maryland, College Park with a BS in biochemistry, a BS in biological sciences, and a BA in Russian language and literature. While at Maryland, she studied novel photoacid generators with solvent-modulated reactivity in the lab of Dr. Daniel Falvey. She also conducted research in cell competition as an Amgen Scholar in Dr. Laura Johnston’s lab at Columbia University Medical Center. Abigail joined the Woo lab in 2022 to delve into glycoscience and use chemical approaches to study the biological roles of O-GlcNAc.
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Fun facts

• Abbie’s favorite post-translational modification is O-GlcNAcylation. That’s why she joined the Woo Lab.

• Hemoglobin is Abbie’s favorite protein.

Lucy is a graduate student in the Chemistry and Chemical Biology department. Born and raised in Santa Rosa, California, she graduated from the University of California, Irvine in 2022 with a B.S. in Chemistry and a B.S. in Biological Sciences. While at UCI, she worked with Professor Andrej Lupták studying the biochemistry of ribozymes in the context of the Origins of Life and the RNA world. She joined the Woo lab in 2023 to study chemoproteomics and small molecule-protein interactions. Outside of lab, Lucy enjoys reading, drawing, making/enjoying music, watching figure skating, and eating food with friends.
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Fun facts

• Lucy is an avid opera fan and a classically trained singer. If you hear someone singing opera in the lab or in a stairwell in this building, it is probably her.

• One of Lucy’s bucket-list items is traveling to Australia in order to hold a wombat. She understands that Australia is home to large spiders, but is willing to go for the wombats despite her extreme arachnophobia.

• Lucy happens to have an IMDb acting credit, having played a side character in one of her college roommate’s short films.

Ethan originally hails from the California Bay Area. He received his B.A. in chemistry and philosophy from Columbia University in 2023. At Columbia, he worked with Prof. Ruben Gonzalez to study the mechanistic details of protein synthesis, illuminating the function of a universally conserved translation initiation factor. Now with the Woo lab, Ethan is interested in gaining new insight into the native function and mechanistic details of cereblon. When he’s not working, you can find him raving about his love for intricate small objects, including watches and Lego!

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Fun facts

• Ethan is a huge Star Wars fan and has Ahsoka Tano’s lightsaber at home. Don’t worry, it is not functional. Or maybe it is. Maybe he’s secretly a Jedi.

• Ethan owns an extremely fat cat named Stella. She currently weighs 20 pounds.

• One of Ethan’s hobbies is making and painting custom lego figurines. Most recently he has painted figurines of the Mandalorian (with Baby Yoda!) and, of course, Ahsoka.

Xavier is a graduate student in the Chemistry and Chemical Biology PhD program. He received his BS in Chemical Biology with a minor in Bioengineering from UC Berkeley (go bears), where he worked in the lab of Prof. Daniel Nomura discovering and characterizing covalent ligand inhibitors for proteins implicated in cancer. He also worked in the lab of Prof. Jay Keasling improving computational tools for engineering natural product biosynthetic pathways. Xavier joined the Woo lab in 2024 to develop small molecules with therapeutic potential and study small molecule-protein interactions.

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Fun facts

• Xavier has an obsession with planes. Coincidentally, his project partner in the Woo Lab, Vanessa, is also obsessed with planes.

• In high school physics class, Xavier successfully whittled (and played!) a carrot-saxophone. If your vegetable jazz band is looking for a carrot-saxophonist, please reach out to Xavier.

• Xavier is from San Diego, CA and likes to make Being From San Diego his entire personality. Some might not think that this counts as a “fun” fact, but Xavier begs to differ.

Yuli is a graduate student in the Chemistry and Chemical Biology PhD program. Born and raised in Dalian, China, he graduated from Tianjin University in 2022 with a B.S. in Chemistry. At Tianjin University, he worked with Prof. Yanfeng Dang and Prof. Guangwei Wang studying computational organic chemistry. Then he became a visiting undergraduate in Prof. Kendall Houk’s lab UCLA, where he did remote research for 3 years. Yuli joined the Woo lab in 2024 to study new post translational modifications.
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Fun facts

• In middle school, Yuli scammed an online stranger out of their account for an online game. Little did Yuli know that this online stranger would also end up pursuing chemistry, and end up in Yuli’s cohort at Harvard CCB. The two have since made up and are now housemates.

• Yuli enjoys going to arcades and playing various arcade games.

Sarah is a graduate student in the Chemical Biology PhD program. Originally from the Philadelphia area, she went on to receive her B.A. in Chemistry from Columbia University (2023). While at Columbia, she worked in the lab of Prof. Neel Shah to study the covalent inhibition of tyrosine phosphatases, as well as broader sequence, structure, and function relationships in these proteins. She then received a fellowship to pursue an MPhil in Chemistry at the University of Cambridge, UK (2024), where she worked in the lab of Prof. Gonçalo Bernardes to study RNA degraders. Sarah joined the Woo Lab in 2024, where she is interested in the roles and mechanisms of cereblon and its substrates. Outside of the lab, Sarah enjoys exploring the city, traveling, spending time in nature, listening to music, and trying out new food.
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Fun facts

• Sarah graduated with a minor in Women’s and Gender Studies. She can talk endlessly about these topics.

• Sarah is a huge fan of hamsters. She had many pet hamsters growing up, and she spoiled them in hamster mansion-sized cages.

• Sarah has visited 44 countries, as she caught quite the travel bug during her year in the UK. (She does not intend or aim to visit them all.)

Hello everyone! My name is Ibrahim Alkuraya, and I am an undergraduate at studying Chemical and Physical Biology, with the hopes of going to grad school in the not-so-distant future. I am currently working on small molecule synthesis for protein degradation. In my free time, I love taking hikes and biking around the Boston area. I am involved with Harvard Prescriptions and HUNICEF.

Hi! My name is Oliver, and I’m in the Class of 2025 at Harvard College studying Chemistry, hoping to pursue either a PhD or MD in the future. I’m currently working on understanding enzymatic catalysis of C-terminal Asn and Gln cyclization as degrons recognized by the E3 ligase substrate adaptor Cereblon. In my free time, I’m also involved in PBHA’s HARMONY program and chemistry outreach at Harvard.

Yewon is an undergraduate concentrating in chemistry with a secondary in history. She joined the Woo lab to explore her interests in the chemistry of selective protein modifications and metabolic processes. In her free time, she enjoys performing with Asian American Dance Troupe and mountain biking. On campus, she serves as an EMT and Y2Y case manager and organizes the HCAP cultural exchange conference.

Hello everyone! My name is Dicle, and I am a senior at Harvard College, studying Molecular and Cellular Biology with a secondary in Economics. I am from Diyarbakir, Turkey. After graduation, I hope to pursue a Ph.D. In my free time, I am involved in the Harvard International Student Club (Woodbridge) and the Boston Refugee Youth Enrichment Program.

Hi everyone! My name is Marina, and I am a first-year undergraduate planning to concentrate in Chemistry. Currently, I am studying aspects of the E3 ligase cereblon's degradation pathway. Outside of lab, I enjoy doing ballet, singing, and spending time with friends and family.

Hello world! I am Selina Zhang, a freshman at Harvard College who is interested in biology and chemistry. I also enjoy music, playing the violin, cooking, drawing, and sampling food.

Hello everyone! My name is Audric, and I am a first-year undergraduate planning to concentrate in Chemistry. In lab, I’m currently studying the role of new E3 ligases and their substrates. Outside of the lab, I enjoy writing poetry, playing guitar, and exploring the city with my friends.