People

Tina Wang

Assistant Professor

Tina is a native of Rochester, NY and received her B.S. in chemistry at Caltech, where worked in the labs of Robert Grubbs and the late John D. Roberts. She completed her PhD at Yale University with David A. Spiegel, where she developed chemical tools to study protein glycation. She then joined David R. Liu’s lab at the Broad Institute for her postdoctoral studies, where she worked on developing phage-assisted continuous evolution methods for evolving proteins with improved soluble expression. Tina joined the Department of Chemistry at UW–Madison in the fall of 2019. In her spare time, Tina enjoys crossword puzzles and playing the guitar.

James Andon (He/Him)

Sixth Year Graduate Student

James grew up in the suburbs outside of Boston, Massachusetts. He completed a BS and MS in biochemistry at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, where his research focused on developing a new method for directed evolution in bacteria. In Worcester, he spent two summers running HPLC assays in the protein analytics department at AbbVie. His interests in biocatalysis and directed evolution lead him to a co-mentorship between the Wang Lab and Andrew Buller’s lab. While he was in New England, James enjoyed road tripping around the Northeast and is looking forward to exploring the Midwest. His hobbies also include golf, fishing, and video games.

Linwei Yang (He/Him)

Fifth Year Graduate Student

Linwei is originally from Sichuan, China, and finished his B.S. in pharmaceutical sciences at University of Michigan-Ann Arbor. With natural product research experience and an interest in antibacterials, he joined the lab to advance antibiotics discovery using synthetic biology. Outside the lab, Linwei enjoys classical music, video games, trying new recipes and cuddling with his cats.

Siyu Li

Fifth Year Graduate Student

Siyu is from Harbin, China. She completed her B.S. in biochemistry from University of Wisconsin-Madison. She is interested in rubisco chaperone engineering. She also loves listening to music and petting her cat.

Abhijit Behera

Third Year Graduate Student

Abhijit is from Odisha, India. He graduated from the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Kolkata with a degree in biological sciences. He is interested in employing directed evolution for enzyme catalysis and protein folding. In his spare time, he enjoys binge-watching and painting.

Brian Flood

Second Year Graduate Student

Brian grew up in Richmond, Virginia. He completed his B.S. in biochemistry and M.S. in chemistry from William and Mary. Currently, he is exploring engineered transcription factors to study complex biological phenomena. Outside of lab, Brian enjoys making pottery and playing with his cats.

Emily Boyt

First Year Graduate Student

Emily Grew up in Woodbridge, VA. She completed her B.S. in chemistry at William & Mary where her research focused on the development of novel bioconjugation reactions that exploit non-canonical amino acids. Currently, she is interested in evolving biosynthetic pathways to produce non-canonical amino acids. In her spare time, Emily enjoys binge-watching her favorite shows, playing video games, and spending time with her cats.

Hannah Meyers

First Year Graduate Student

Hannah grew up in East Troy, Wisconsin. She completed her B.S. in biochemistry from the University of Minnesota. She is interested in genetic code expansion and cyclic peptides. Outside of the lab, Hannah enjoys running, baking, and watching movies.

Owen Appel

Undergraduate researcher

Owen is from Wilmette, IL. He is working towards a B.S. in biochemistry. He is interested in synthetase evolution, working with his mentor Abhijit Behera. In his free time, he enjoys coaching baseball and hiking.