Tina Wang
Assistant Professor
B.S. 2009, California Institute of Technology
Ph.D. 2015, Yale University
Postdoctoral Fellow at Harvard University 2015-2019
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.
Byung Uk Lee
Fourth Year Graduate Student
Byung Uk is originally from Incheon, South Korea. He graduated from Franklin and Marshall college in Lancaster, Pennsylvania with a degree in Chemistry. Currently, he is very interested in protein folding and stability and works to rescue misfolded proteins. In his spare time, he enjoys golfing, playing computer games, and finding nice places to eat in town.
Alex Tetzloff (He/Him)
Fourth Year Graduate Student
Alex is from Greenville, Wisconsin, and completed his B.S in Chemical Engineering at Michigan Technological University. He then accepted a position as a Process Engineer at Appvion, where he worked for over three years before deciding to pursue graduate research at UW Madison in Fall of 2019. Alex’s research is broadly concerned with chaperones as a means of improving protein expression as well as utilizing directed evolution to improve protein efficiency. In his spare time Alex likes to compose music, roller blade, and play board games.
James Andon (He/Him)
Third 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.
Jack Archer (He/Him)
Third Year Graduate Student
Jack is from New York. He completed his bachelors in biochemistry and computer science from Hunter College, University of New York. His research focuses on rubisco chaperone engineering. Jack used to be barista, which translated into his love for coffee. In the free time he plays video games and does Crossfit.
Linwei Yang
Second 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.
Sirawit Lertwiriyapiti (Nick)
Undergraduate Student
Originally from Lopburi, Thailand. Escaping from burning sun and hot weather, I am pursuing BS in Chemistry and Molecular and Cell biology. Currently, I am interested in research involving with bioengineering and synthetic biology. Outside of class, I enjoy hiking, kayaking, bicycling, iceskating and cooking.
Mahak Kathpalia (She/Her)
Undergraduate Student
Mahak is majoring in chemistry with a certificate in science communication. She grew up in Gurgaon, India. She is currently working with Jack on their project that aims to engineer more promiscuous molecular chaperones of Rubisco and plans to continue pursuing research after graduation. Her favorite way of spending her free time on campus is grooving to music and sipping lemonade while watching the beautiful waves in Lake Mendota at sunset.
Previous Members
Dominic Mattock
Dominic was born in St. John’s Newfoundland, Canada and grew up in Maryville Missouri. He attended Truman State University where he worked in a computational chemistry lab exploring drug bindings and mechanisms through docking and molecular dynamics simulations. In 2019 he graduated with a BS in chemistry and BA in Biology. Coming to UW Madison with an interest in protein folding and modification led him to Tina Wang’s lab where he works on modifying chaperone function to facilitate amyloid beta binding and disaggregation as well as exploring modifications to the M13 bacteriophage to expand their utility and function. In his free time Dominic enjoys photography, movies, comics, hiking, and camping.