Former Lab Members

M.Sc. Pondicherry University, India
Ph.D. Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Mohali (IISER Mohali), India

Hema joined the Chapman lab as a postdoc in November 2018 after completing PhD with Prof. Samrat Mukhopadhyay. She is interested in understanding the spatiotemporal regulation of curli assembly on the bacterial surface.

B.S. San Jose State University
M.S. San Jose State University

Rachael is part of Michigan’s Program in Chemical Biology and joined the Stockbridge and Chapman lab in 2019. Her research includes studying the the physiological role of Guanidinium (Gdm+) in bacteria, specially how it is made and how it affects biofilm formation.
In her spare time she loves anything Disney, sports, and traveling, but also loves to spend her time at home lounging on the couch with her fur baby.

Rachel worked closely with Anthony on cloning and purifying CsgC homologs to test their activity against CsgA proteins of varying amyloid formation kinetics. Their project hoped to fine tune the CsgC protein's general efficiency in preventing amyloid formation, as well as gear its activity toward inhibiting non-native, human client proteins.

She graduated in 2021 and is applying for med school.

Elizabeth was a Biophysics student with a strong background in molecular simulations. She worked on chemical modulators of amyloid formation. She graduated in 2019 and started working in management and consulting with Boston Consulting Group.

Emily is studying Biomedical Engineering with a minor in Spanish. She is involved in Dance Marathon, M-HEAL, and student ambassadors on campus.

Alex was an undergraduate in the Chapman lab who assisted Elizabeth on projects investigating the effects of both synthetic compounds and various types of growth media on bacterial biofilm formation. After graduating she worked as a research fellow in the FDA, and then joined University of Southern California as a graduate student.

B.S. Georgia Tech

Chiamaka (AKA Chi-Chi) obtained her B.S. in Biochemistry and French Minor from the Georgia Institute of Technology. She joined the Chapman lab in Winter 2016 as a Masters student in the MCDB Pathways Program. Her thesis project focused on studying the role of CsgD in biofilm formation in E. coli, specifically how it facilitates the localization and polymerization of CsgA which encodes curli structural components. Outside of the lab you can find Chi-Chi performing spoken word, Nigerian and West African dances, and playing soccer. She also enjoys braiding/twisting hair and is an avid Naruto fan.

After finishing her Masters, she rejoined UoM as a PhD student in the D. Jone's lab.

Katie worked closely with Neha studying cross-seeding interactions between different amyloid proteins.

B.S. Maharani's College
M.S. University of Rajasthan
Ph.D. IISER Mohali Punjab

Neha joined the Chapman Lab as a postdoc in January 2014 after finishing her Ph.D. with Samrat Mukhopadhyay. Her research focused on cross-species modulation of amyloids that were involved in human neurodegenerative diseases and bacterial biofilm formation. She worked on trying to decipher the interactions between human and bacterial amyloids and the consequences of these interactions. She utilized a combination of biophysical and biochemical tools to understand the mechanism of these complex interactions.

She left the lab in 2017 and has started her own lab at Indian Institute of Technology Jodhpur.

Brennan is working closely with Neha on a project looking at cross seeding between functional amyloids and amyloids associated with human diseases.

B.S., Carroll University,
Waukesha, WI 2003

Ph.D., Saint Louis University,
St. Louis, MO 2008

"Good" Matt is now a faculty member at Albion College in Michigan

B.S. Eastern Michigan University
Ph.D. University of Michigan

Dave works on many aspects of biofilm development, with a special interest in how extracellular matrix components are assembled. Biofilms are a major concern for the health industry in infections including medical device transplants, as biofilm infections are very difficult to treat due to their resistant nature.

Graduated from Matt's lab in 2016 with his PhD. Joined Richard Losick's lab at Harvard as a research associate.

Zhejiang University

Yizhou graduated from Zhejiang University and joined the Chapman Lab in 2008. Yizhou graduated with her PhD at the end of 2012 and then took a position with Genetech in California. Explaining she got bored of the weather, she then moved to Massachusetts and now works at Biogen as a mediary between the RnD and Manufacturing departments.

M.S. Microbiology University of Illinois
B.S. Cell and Structural Biology, University of Illinois

Neal earned his PhD in 2009 and then moved on for a post-doc at Vanderbilt with Professor Skaar where he could be regularly seen wearing plaid shirts and line dancing to Hal Ketchum music.

Neal joined the faculty as an assistant professor at Michigan State University in 2015. We're happy to have him so close again!

M.S. Biochemistry CAS Beijing B.S. Biological Science, USTC Hefei

Xuan earned his Ph.D. in the Fall of 2008 and did a post-doc with Lonnie Ingram at Florida State. He now has an Associate Professor position at Arizona State.

Matt was the second McGuffie to work in the lab. He worked as a technician at the UM medical school and then came back for a Masters through Kim Seed's lab. He's currently working on his PhD at University of Texas.

Bryan graduated from Michigan in 2008 and then moved on to obtain his PhD at Harvard in Simon Dove's lab. He's now the lead scientist of the synthetic biology team at Ring Therapeutics.

Jenna was a long time and favorite work study of the lab. Her brother Matt proceeded her to the lab.

Mike was an undergraduate in the department of Chemical Engineering. He worked with Good Matt while in the lab from 2009 through 2010.

JJ worked with Xuan on several projects while in the lab. She then moved on to Wayne State for medical school after graduating with a CMB degree.

Freio Universitaet, Berlin

Jens went on to a PhD program at MIT and then a post-doc with Tom Cech at Colorado where he studies the molecular mechanism of telomerase.

Justin worked as a registered nurse in the Critical Care Medicine Unit at UM after graduating.

Jaclyn worked with Michele Barnhart and was a co-author on the very first paper to come entirely from the Chapman lab.

Kind of a sketchy picture of Aalok.

B.S. Microbiology, University of Michigan Ann Arbor

Jon Jones departed the lab to pursue his PhD at Stanford University in the Monack lab. The lab is pleased (and somewhat amazed) that his car made it across the country with only a few breakdowns! Jon's contributions to the Chapman lab are many, and we wish him the very best.

After obtaining his PhD, Jon moved on from academics and into business. He currently works as the Director of Neurological Rare Disease, Strategic Analytics and Intelligence at Genetech.

Sanjeev or "Jeeves" was one of the first Work Study Students in the lab. Great friend.