Principal Investigator

Research Staff

Rahela Zaman

Rahela Zaman, PhD

Postdoctoral Fellow

Intersection of mucus transport and infection susceptibility; remodeling the mucus barrier to manipulate drug exposure

Yice Zhang

Yice Zhang

Research Specialist Associate

Mycobacterium abscessus environmental niches and impact on antibiotic activity; ion-pairing to facilitate mucus transport of synergistic antibiotics; microbiome remodeling

PhD Students

Nuz Dechayont

Nuz Dechayont

PhD Candidate

Use of polymers to chemically and physically stabilize small molecules; antibiotic synergy; membrane transport

Nishant Shah

Nishant Shah

PhD Candidate

Development of novel instrumentation and methodology for studying soft matter drug transport via mechanical and electromagnetic waves

Grace Xia

Grace Xia

PhD Candidate

Control of spatial distribution in complex multi-component spray dried particles; protein stabilization and formulation design; inhaler performance modeling; manipulation of mucus viscoelasticity in nasal drug delivery

Emma Schneck

Emma Schneck

PhD Student ยท Co-advised with Guizhi (Julian) Zhu

Transient modulation of airway mucus to improve nanoparticle transport, bioavailability, and gene delivery in cystic fibrosis

Stephanie Kagawa

Stephanie Kagawa

PhD Student

Predicting and controlling interfacial adsorption in therapeutic proteins and airway infection to improve stability, immune recognition, and therapeutic performance

Master's Students

Shawn Li

Master's Student

Reducing variability in infection models for drug susceptibility testing

Xiuhao Guan

Xiuhao Guan

Master's Student

Prediction of protein instability based on sequence

Alumni

Name Degree / Role Next Position Research in Lab
Mariana Romero-Gonzalez PhD Eli Lilly Formulation design for synergistic antibiotics; drug transport in antimicrobial assays; solid-state engineering
Linze Che MS / Volunteer Researcher PhD student, Purdue University Development of inhaled amorphous solid dispersions and novel methods to assess particle dissolution
Mercy Okezue PhD Tenure-track faculty, Michigan State University Formulation design for fragile glass formers; synergistic antibiotics; lung-targeting delivery
Ziting Chen MS PhD student, UC Berkeley Development of chronic infection models for antibiotic susceptibility testing