Current CBI Trainees

CBI trainees come to Illinois from highly regarded undergraduate programs, nationwide. Regardless of their undergraduate majors, they have in common the potential to perform cutting-edge discipline-spanning work at the interface of chemistry and biology.

2009-2011 Trainees	Home Department	CBI Mentor
Mike Brothers Research Description:	Chemistry
Ryan Cobb Research Description:	Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering
Vanessa Iiams Research Description:	Chemistry
Pat Knerr Research Description:	Chemistry

2008-2009 Trainees	Home Department	CBI Mentor
Jung-un Baek Research Description:	Chemistry	Anne M. Baranger
Nick Marshall Research Description:	Chemistry	Yi Lu
Amit Sachdeva Research Description:	Chemistry	Scott K. Silverman
Juan Velasquez Research Description:	Chemistry	Wilfred van der Donk

2008-2010 Trainees	Home Department	CBI Mentor
Lindsey Johnstone Research Description: Lantibiotics are a special class of antimicrobial peptides containing unusual amino acid residues, including dehydrobutyrine and dehydroalanine, as well as lanthionine-rings, from which these peptides take their name. The most well-known of these is nisin, a 34-residue peptide that has been used extensively in the food industry as a preservative. I will be studying details of its mode of action. Though it is by far the most studied of the lantibiotics, there is still much to be learned.	Chemistry	Chad M. Rienstra and Wilfred van der Donk
Christine Toh Research Description: The goal of my project is to create multi-component gradients of biomolecules on surfaces that can be used for the stratification of heterogeneous cell populations according to their cell surface composition. These surfaces may ultimately serve as a diagnostic platform to asses the metastatic potential of cancer cells from a tumor biopsy sample and allow for single-cell drug efficacy trials on a patient's exact cancer, leading to personalized, disease-specific chemotherapies.	Chemistry	Ryan C. Bailey