Chunyu Wang, MD, PhD
Chunyu Wang, professor of Biological Sciences, and Chemistry and Chemical Biology at RPI, is an expert in NMR (nuclear magnetic resonance) structural biology and in structural mechanisms of Alzheimer’s disease and cancer. He obtained his MD in 1996 from Peking Union Medical College (PUMC). He was then trained in structural biology at Cornell University under the guidance of Linda Nicholson, earning a PhD in Molecular Biology and Genetics in 2000. He carried out postdoctoral work at Columbia University in Art Palmer’s group. After establishing his own research group at RPI in 2005, he developed a strong research program in structural mechanisms in protein autoprocessing and Alzheimer’s disease. Recently, his group is venturing into new and exciting areas such as drug discovery and biological sulfation. He has been awarded multiple grants from NIH and several grants for Alzheimer’s research, from Alzheimer’s Association, Warren Alpert Foundation, New York State and American Health Assistance Foundation (Now BrightFocus foundation).
Personal interests: Tennis, Chess, Piano and Aquarium; past hobbies: bridge and astrophotography
Research Associates
James Gibson
James earned his BS in chemistry from Harvey Mudd College in 1995. Karl T. Mueller. While at Penn State, he primarily worked on solid-state NMR method development and the application of solid-state NMR to glasses. James was a postdoc at the University of Washington from 2001 to 2005, where he had his first foray into biological sciences under the direction of Professors Patrick S. Stayton (bioengineering) and Gary P. Drobny (chemistry). While there, he studied the interactions and dynamics of the binding of salivary peptides to hydroxyapatite, the main mineral component of teeth using solid-state NMR. James ventured into solution-state NMR of proteins under the direction of Professor James G. Kempf in the chemistry department at RPI in 2006 and 2007, primarily working to understand how different CPMG-type sequences worked together. After that, he spent 10 years in industry performing solution-state NMR on silicone materials and their precursors. In 2018, James came back to RPI to work in Dr. Wang's research group. He studies the interactions of proteins and their binding partners with high resolution NMR spectroscopy. He is also responsible for adapting pulse sequences from other laboratories to our laboratory for use.
Lin Pan
Lin earned her BS degree in Pharmacy from Ocean University of China in 2017. Then she took a successive post graduate and doctoral program and joined Laboratory of Glycoscience and Glycotechnology (Advisor: Prof. Guangli Yu, Dean), Ocean University of China. During the graduate student period, she focused on the field of the interaction between carbohydrate and gut microbiota. She used in vitro anerobic fermentation system to investigate how human gut microbiota digest the polysaccharide into oligosaccharide. In addition, she also investigated the therapeutic effects of natural polysaccharide on colitis mouse through modulate the composition of gut microbiota. She earned her doctoral degree of medicine in 2023. She gained professional experience and skills with HPLC, LC-MS, colitis Mouse Models, culture of anaerobic bacteria and analysis of polysaccharide and oligosaccharide. In 2023, she joined Prof. Wang’s lab here in RPI out of interest in research related to NMR technology and Alzheimer's disease. Her focus is working on the protein-protein and protein-glycan interaction in Alzheimer’s disease and drug screening for Alzheimer’s disease, using NMR and SPR. She will mainly focus on the Reelin protein in the Alzheimer’s disease.
Graduate Students
Nathan Smith
Nathan is from Bradford Pennsylvania. He graduated from Mount Aloysius College in the spring of 2020 with a bachelors degree in Biology with specializations in Molecular Biotechnology and Pre-Health as well as minors in Scientific Communications and Vocal Performance. He began his first year as a PhD student in the BCBP program in the fall of 2020. He will characterize the small molecules inhibitors of protein aggregation.
Paige Nowak
Paige is born and raised in Buffalo, NY. She received her bachelor’s degree in chemistry with a minor in Psychological Sciences at RPI in May 2022. Paige joined the PhD program in fall 2022 and focuses on the role of Apolipoprotein E and its isoforms in Alzheimer’s disease.
Kristina Jones
Kristina is from Murrieta, California. She graduated from California State University San Marcos in spring of 2022 with a BS degree in Biochemistry. She started at RPI in Fall 2022 as a PhD student in the BCBP program. Her current research primarily focuses on protein-protein and protein-glycan interaction with an emphasis on Alzheimer Disease.
Matthew Widdicombe
Matt is from Albrightsville, Pennsylvania and received his B.S. in Biochemistry from Wilkes University in 2022. His undergraduate research work with Dr. Henkels involved the site-specific incorporation of fluorine-containing unnatural amino acids into GFP for use in 19F-NMR experiments. He started his PhD program in Biochemistry and Biophysics (BCBP) at RPI in the fall of 2022, where he then joined Dr. Wang's research group in the spring of 2023. The main project he works on is the characterization of the interaction between Tau protein's Proline-Rich Region II (PRR2) and Cyclophilin A (CypA) through solution NMR. He also works on other projects in the lab utilizing analytical ultracentrifugation (AUC) and the R programming language.
Annan Wu
Annan comes from China and is an exchange scholar. He obtained his Bachelor's degree in Food Science and Engineering from Beijing Forestry University and is currently pursuing his Ph.D. in Food Science and Engineering at China Agricultural University. His main focus is on the intervention effects of food-derived bioactive substances on neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's Disease (AD).
Alexandre Pennell
Alexandre grew up in Manchester NH and graduated from Saint Anselm College in 2023 with a BA in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. Here at RPI he is interested in working on drug discovery, specifically inhibiting steps leading to progression of Alzheimer’s Disease. Personal interests: backpacking, bouldering, rock climbing, white water sports and skiing.
Undergraduate Students
Jacob Fuhr
Jacob (Class of 2025) is from Northern New Jersey and is studying Chemical Engineering and Business Management. He has been supporting the lab since March 2023, mainly under Nathan where he has been focusing on protein interactions concerning Alzheimer’s Disease. Jacob has been working with biophysical techniques, column chromatography, and cell expression, but in his free time enjoys reading, fencing, and curling.
Hasitha Nimmagadda
She studies Biology in the Physician-Scientist Program and is in the Class of 2026. Her focus is on Alzheimer’s Disease using techniques such as SPR. She joined Dr. Wang’s lab in the Fall of 2023.
Hannah Burr
Hannah Burr is a Biological Neuroscience major on the Pre-Med track with a minor in Music Composition in the class of 2025. She has been working with graduate student Nathan Smith since Fall 2021. She has a strong interest in studying neurological diseases, Alzheimer’s Disease in particular, and is passionate about studying protein interactions through various biochemical techniques with a goal of improving the lives of those suffering.
Katie Moon
She is in the Class of 2025 majoring in Computational Biology (CBIO). She has a strong interest in research in Alzheimer’s disease and biostatistics with coding and joined Dr. Wang's research lab in Fall, 2023.
Mason Buttaci
Mason Buttaci is a Biochemistry & Biophysics major from Averill Park, New York. Part of the class of 2026 and a member of the accelerated B.S. / Ph. D. program, Mason joined the lab in the Spring of 2024.
Angela Li
Incoming Student.
