Lara Duerr, Ph.D.
Postdoc
lduerr@ucsd.eduLara's academic journey began with a B.S. in Molecular Biology from the University of Basel, Switzerland. Following this, she conducted internships at both the University of Bergen, Norway, and the biotech company Evolva in Switzerland. During the latter, she gained skills in heterologously expressing plant natural products in yeast, laying the groundwork for her passion in natural product research. Lara then completed her Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of Basel. Her doctoral research focused on hunting for natural products capable of inhibiting melanoma cancer pathways. After spending a year in industry, Lara joined the Moore lab to study the biosynthesis of octocoral terpenes.
Ashleigh Burke, Ph.D.
Postdoc
ajburke@ucsd.eduAshleigh obtained her Ph.D. in the group of Prof. Anthony P. Green, at the University of Manchester, UK, conducting research into the design and evolution of enzymes with noncanonical organocatalytic mechanisms. During a short post-doc with Prof. A. P. Green and Prof. Nicholas Turner, Ashleigh engineered enzymes for the biocatalytic production of pharmaceuticals. Ashleigh’s current research at SIO focusses on discovering and engineering enzymes for the production of marine natural products.
Natalie Grayson
Graduate Student
nagrayso@ucsd.eduNatalie was born and raised in San Diego, California. She graduated from Princeton University in 2020 with a B.S. in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. While at Princeton, Natalie conducted her senior thesis project in collaboration with the Hay lab at Georgia Tech, studying chemically mediated interactions between sea cucumbers and adjacent coral communities. She started her PhD in 2020 and joined the Moore lab in 2022. For her PhD, she is excited to continue exploring corals, with a focus on genomics and isoprenoid biosynthesis.
Felix Hubert
Graduate Student
fehubert@ucsd.eduFelix received his B.S. in Chemistry from UC Santa Cruz where he completed his undergraduate thesis in the lab of Dr. John MacMillan isolating and characterizing highly selective anti-cancer marine microbial natural products. After graduating he worked as a science research associate in the Lipidomics Core at UCSD under Dr. Ed Dennis and Dr. Oswald Quehenberger. Felix joined the Moore lab in Fall 2022 and is broadly interested in the bioengineering of microbial natural product producing enzymes.
Anna Love, Ph.D.
Postdoc
a1love@ucsd.eduAnna was born in Canton, Ohio, and received her B.S. degree in Biochemistry from Messiah University. During her time as an undergraduate, she spent summers at the Cleveland Clinic Lerner Research Institute, investigating mechanisms of action of frontline drugs for multiple sclerosis in the lab of Dr. Richard Ransohoff. Inspired by her undergraduate organic chemistry classes, she pursued a PhD in chemical biology under the tutelage of Professor Jennifer Prescher at the University of California, Irvine. Here, she developed new probes for visualizing and recording cells in living animals using protein engineering, synthetic chemistry, and molecular and cellular biology methods. She joined the Moore lab in February 2022, where she is currently expanding her protein engineering repertoire and revisiting her neuroscience roots by engineering biosynthetic pathways enzymes from marine microbes for production of new neuroactive small molecule therapeutics. Outside of lab, you can find her goofing around at swim practice, optimizing her investment portfolio, or watching "high quality trash" reality TV shows and selected sports like football or formula 1 with her husband, Ryan and their cat, Steven.
Mariah Avila
Graduate Student
mjavila@ucsd.eduMariah Avila was born and raised in Anchorage, Alaska, where she began working part-time for an oceanographic consulting company. She completed a B.S. in Biological Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, followed by a M.S in the laboratory of Kevin Esvelt. Her thesis involved the development of high-throughput screens for the engineering of CRISPR Cas12a systems in mammalian cells. She joined the Moore Lab in Fall of 2021, where her interests include the applications of synthetic biology techniques and continuous evolution to marine natural products and human health research.
Hannah Bone
Graduate Student
hbone@ucsd.eduHannah received her B.S. in Environmental Science with a minor in Chemistry from UC Santa Barbara in 2018. After undergrad, she worked in the Hughes Lab at UC Irvine studying angiogenesis and the creation of an organ-on-a-chip model to create 3D vascularized tissues that are suitable for drug screening. Hannah joined the Moore lab in Fall 2021 and is interested in exploring natural products chemistry in macroalgae, specifically in Native Hawaiian species, and studying the intersection of marine systems and human health.
Leah Bushin, Ph.D.
Postdoc
lbushin@ucsd.eduLeah earned her bachelor’s degree in Chemistry at Princeton University where she completed her undergraduate thesis under the guidance of Prof. Mohammad Seyedsayamdost. Upon realizing her passion for natural product chemistry, she remained in the same laboratory to obtain her Ph.D. Her graduate research focused on the discovery and biosynthesis of radical SAM enzyme-modified RiPPs from streptococcus bacteria. She joined the Moore Lab in January 2021. Here, she is exploring her interests in synthetic biology, microbiomes, and biomedical applications.
Steffaney Wood
Graduate Student
smwood@ucsd.eduSteffaney received her B.S. in Environmental Studies with a minor in Chemistry from Davidson College in 2018, where she studied Pseudo-nitzschia blooms along the US west coast. After, she received a Fulbright-EDUFI grant to research cyanobacterial akinetes and toxin records in sediment archives from the Baltic Sea with Drs. Sanna Suikkanen and Anke Kremp at the Finnish Environment Institute Marine Research Centre in Helsinki, Finland. She earned an M.S. in Microbiology & Microbial Biotechnology from the University of Helsinki after her Fulbright grant period. Steffaney joined the Moore Lab in Fall 2020 and is interested in toxin biosynthesis in harmful algae species.
Sanjoy Adak, Ph.D.
Postdoc
sadak@ucsd.eduSanjoy received his bachelor’s degree in chemistry from the University of Calcutta and a master degree from the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay. During his master studies, he worked in the laboratory of Prof. Suvarn Kulkarni on the synthesis of complex carbohydrates. In 2019, he received his Ph.D. in Chemistry from Texas A&M University under Prof. Tadhg P. Begley. His graduate research focused on bacterial flavoenzymes involved in xenobiotic, nucleobase, and vitamin catabolism. He joined the Moore Lab in February 2020.
Immo Burkhardt, Ph.D.
Postdoc
iburkhardt@ucsd.eduImmo was born in Lueneburg in Northern Germany. He received his bachelor’s degree in chemistry at the Technical University of Braunschweig working on optical superresolution microscopy in the group of Prof. Philip Tinnefeld. At the same university he obtained his master’s degree in biological chemistry working on photoaffinity labeling of small peptides under Prof. Thomas Lindel. For pursuing his PhD he joined the group of Prof. Jeroen Dickschat at the University of Bonn to work in the fields of natural products chemistry and biosynthesis with a focus on fungal isoprenoids. He joined the Moore lab in October 2019.
For a current list of publications visit his google scholar page.
Timothy Fallon, Ph.D.
Postdoc
tfallon@ucsd.eduTim was born in Tokyo, Japan. He earned his B.A. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from Rollins College in Winter Park, FL. During his undergraduate studies, he worked with Dr. Jayaraj Rajagopal at the Massachusetts General Hospital studying the cellular and tissue biology of the mammalian lung epithelium. He obtained his PhD in the laboratory of Jing-Ke Weng at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In his graduate studies, Tim studied the metabolism and evolution of bioluminescence in fireflies and other bioluminescent beetles, including the completion of the genome project for the North American firefly Photinus pyralis. He joined the Moore lab in July 2019. For a current list of publications visit his website at https://photocyte.github.io. Email: tfallon@ucsd.edu.
Vikram Shende, Ph.D.
Postdoc
vshende@ucsd.eduVik was born in Columbus, Ohio. He received his B.S. in Chemistry and Biochemistry from the University of Michigan Dearborn in 2011. After undergraduate he spent a few years working as a synthetic chemist at Cayman Chemical in Ann Arbor, MI, working on the total synthesis of prostacyclins. Vik obtained his Ph.D. from the University of Michigan, working in the Sherman Lab where he characterized bacterial cytochromes P450 and their molecular basis for selectivity in the biosynthesis of non-symmetrical diketopiperazine dimers. Vik joined the Moore lab in March 2020 and is currently exploring the biosynthesis of sponge-derived natural products. Being from the midwest, Vik misses the cold weather, and despite the unforgiving California sun enjoys dark beer, and spicy noodle soups.