Alumni

Agnes Karasik is a PRAT fellow working in the laboratory of Nicholas Guydosh at the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive Kidney Diseases (NIDDK). There she studies the non-canonical role of virus activated ribonuclease L in protein translation using cutting edge methods, including single molecule microscopy and ribosome profiling. She obtained her PhD in molecular and cellular biology at Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences where she characterized a novel group of precursor tRNA processing enzymes from various eukaryotic organisms in the laboratory of Markos Koutmos. Prior to that she completed her MSc thesis research on the working mechanism of a subset of ABC transporters at the Institute of Enzymology in Hungary. In the long term, she would like to lead a research group focusing on current problems in RNA biology.

Kazuhiro Yamada is a Research Specialist in Dr. Ruma Banerjee's lab at the University of Michigan. During his work as a Research Specialist in the Koutmos Lab, he focused on understanding the role of key higher eukaryotic proteins in the vitamin B12, homocysteine, and folate metabolisms.

Leena Mallik is currently a Research Associate at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia in Dr. Nikolaos Sgourakis' lab. During her post-doctoral work in the Koutmos lab, she worked on understanding the structure, function and mechanism of action of protein-only RNase P. She previously earned her PhD at the Institute of Microbial Technology in Chandigarh, India, where she gained insight into the Neph1 and ZO-1 complex in kidney filtration and performed structural analysis of Myo1c and Neph1 complex using small angle x-ray scattering (SAXS). Prior to this, she obtained a Masters Degree in Biotechnology at the University of Allahabad.

Meredith Purchal is a post-doctoral researcher at New England Biolabs in Boston, Massachusetts. During her PhD, she was co-mentored by Dr. Markos Koutmos and Dr. Kristin Koutmou. She used protein crystallography and enzymology to study Pseudouridine Synthases (PUS enzymes), which install pseudouridine, one of the most abundant post-transcriptional RNA modifications.  She previously earned her BS in Biology from the University of Texas at Austin.

Sam Rudin-Rush is a researcher at Tectonic Therapeutic, Inc. in Watertown, Massachusetts working on GPCR-targeted therapies. During her work towards her Master's degree in the Koutmos lab, she investigated the crystal structure of tRNA methyltransferase enzymes. She previously earned her Bachelors of Science at Agnes Scott University. You can reach her by email at srudin-rush@tectonictx.com.

Vojč Kocman is a junior faculty member at The National Institute of Chemistry in Ljubljana, Slovenia, where he is continuing to study the three-dimensional structure of dynamic tRNA molecules using NMR spectroscopy. He completed his post doc in the laboratory of Markos Koutmos, where he initially began investigating tRNA structures. Prior to that, he completed his PhD thesis “Structural studies of guanine rich oligonucleotides connected to autism” under the mentorship of Prof. Dr. Janez Plavec at the University of Ljubljana in Slovenia. In the long term, he would like to lead a research group focusing on structural characterization of biologically relevant and dynamic nucleotides.