Author Archives: hashep

Researchers at the UNC School of Medicine are using artificial intelligence to design proteins with potential applications in vaccines and therapeutics. Brian Kuhlman, PhD, and his laboratory were featured in the video “How the UNC School of Medicine Is Putting AI to Work in the Lab,” highlighted on the UNC School of Medicine homepage and the UNC Health YouTube channel. The video showcases machine learning research from the Kuhlman Lab and features PhD student Henry Dieckhaus.

Uriel Jean-Baptiste successfully defended his dissertation, titled “New Frontiers in Lipase Regulation: Apolipoprotein J as a Chaperone for Endothelial Lipase,” on April 8, 2026, under the direction of Dr. Saskia B. Neher.
Uriel Jean-Baptiste
Uriel received his B.S. in Biochemistry from Florida State University (FSU) in 2018. While at FSU, he was a member of the FSU Center for Academic Retention & Enhancement (CARE), a bridge program providing preparation, orientation, and academic support for first-generation college students. He also conducted research under the supervision of Dr. Hong Li, with whom he co-authored a publication.

Christopher Shelby, a doctoral student in the laboratory of Dr. Brian Kuhlman, successfully defended his PhD dissertation in the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics on March 9, 2026. His dissertation, titled “Enhancing enzymatic bioconjugation efficiency via computer-based installation of a substrate recruitment domain,” focused on improving enzymatic bioconjugation through computationally guided protein design. The work highlights new strategies for increasing reaction efficiency by engineering substrate recruitment mechanisms.

When Gary Pielak, Kenan Distinguished Professor of Chemistry, Biochemistry and Biophysics at UNC-Chapel Hill, began questioning the prevailing wisdom about how proteins behave inside cells three decades ago, he didn’t expect that line of inquiry would span the arc of his career. Now, that journey is entering a decisive new chapter. Pielak has received a Distinguished Scholar Fellowship from the Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program that will fund a four-month research residency in Israel, where he will pursue a fundamental question with far-reaching implications: How do proteins actually behave inside living cells?

The future of gene therapy may not lie in the lab bench but in the algorithm. At UNC-Chapel Hill, chemistry Ph.D. student Kelvin Idanwekhai, who presented his research at the Triangle Student Research Competition, is using machine learning to transform how viruses—the microscopic couriers of genetic medicine—are purified, making the process faster, cheaper and more precise.

On December 19th, 2025, Derek Bolhuis, a graduate student in the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, successfully defended his thesis titled “USP37 Earns its PH-D, and How it Ensures Cell Cycle Progression.” Derek Bolhuis conducted his research jointly mentored in the labs of Drs. Nicholas Brown and Michael Emanuele. Through his 20 publications during graduate school, he explored biochemical, structural, and cell biological mechanisms for how ubiquitination controls cell cycle progression

When you think of technology reshaping the future, you might picture robots, self-driving cars or smart devices. Some of the biggest breakthroughs, however, may come from a much smaller world—the world of proteins, which are the molecules that carry out almost every task inside cells. Two scientists at UNC-Chapel Hill, Gary Pielak and Brian Kuhlman, have just received a $1 million Science and Engineering Research Award from the W. M. Keck Foundation to study these molecules in a new way.

On September 15, 2025, Darex Vera Rodriguez, a doctoral candidate in the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, successfully defended his thesis titled “Role of a Flexible, Allosteric Loop in Regulating Protein Activity.” Darex conducted his research in the lab of Dr. Andrew L. Lee, where he explored protein allostery using Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectroscopy.

Camila Arango, a Ph.D. student in the Department of Biochemistry & Biophysics (Starbird Lab), was selected as one of just 22 international participants for the inaugural Salamanca International Advanced Biophysics and Structural Biology Course, organized by Eva Nogales and Carlos Bustamante. The course, held from June 29th to July 5th in Salamanca, Spain, provides intensive training in cutting-edge techniques such as smFRET, optical tweezers, super-resolution microscopy, cryo-EM, and cryoET.

Mark Kowalewski successfully defended his dissertation entitled “Mucin degrading glycoside hydrolases in the gut microbiome” on March 31, 2025, under the direction of Dr. Matthew Redinbo.