Principal Investigator
Research Staff
Rahela Zaman, PhD
Intersection of mucus transport and infection susceptibility; remodeling the mucus barrier to manipulate drug exposure
Yice Zhang
Mycobacterium abscessus environmental niches and impact on antibiotic activity; ion-pairing to facilitate mucus transport of synergistic antibiotics; microbiome remodeling
PhD Students
Mariana Romero-Gonzalez, PhD (defended 2026)
Formulation design for synergistic antibiotics to maximize drug loading; incorporation of drug transport into in vitro antimicrobial assays; solid-state engineering (crystal, amorphous)
Nuz Dechayont
Use of polymers to chemically and physically stabilize small molecules; antibiotic synergy; membrane transport
Nishant Shah
Development of novel instrumentation and methodology for studying soft matter drug transport via mechanical and electromagnetic waves
Grace Xia
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
Master's Students
Shawn Li
Reducing variability in infection models for drug susceptibility testing
Xiuhao Guan
Prediction of protein instability based on sequence
Visiting Scholars
Linze Che, MS
Development of inhaled amorphous solid dispersions and novel methods to assess particle dissolution
Alumni
| Name | Degree / Role | Current Position | Research in Lab |
|---|---|---|---|
| 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 |