Current Group Members

Brian Bachmann

Principal Investigator of the LBS

Principal Investigator of the VLBS
Better living through natural product chemical biology!

Callie Dullin

Graduate Student

Graduate Program: Chemistry (PhD)
Callie is working on the biosynthesis of orthosomycins

Joe Balsamo

Graduate Student

Graduate Program: Pharmacology (PhD)
Drug discovery and single cell chemical biology

Katie Penton

Graduate Student

Discovery and single cell chemical biology of secondary metabolites

Henry Schares

Graduate Student

B.S. in Biology, St. Olaf
Discovery and Chemical Biology of anticancer secondary metabolites

Jenn Wurm

Graduate Student

B.S. Chemistry, The University of Alabama
Biosynthesis and synthetic biology of orthosomycins

William Payne

Graduate Student

Graduate Program: Biochemistry (PhD)
William is working on the discovery of anticancer secondary metabolites

Asher Hollenbeak

Graduate Student

Graduate Program: Chemical and Physical Biology (PhD)
Asher studies the synthetic biology of orthosomycin type antibiotic oligosaccharides

Lab Alumni

David Nannemann

Scientist at EMD Serono

David is currently a scientist at EMD Serono in Boston working in biocomputational modeling of potential therapeutics. David’s work in the VLBS was centered on the directed evolution of biocatalytic enzymes for the production of unnatural compounds. He initiated the didanosine project in the lab, beginning with the directed evolution of human purine nucleoside phosphorylase. Additionally, in collaboration with the Iverson group, David established the novel mechanism of phosphopentomutase via biochemical and structural characterization, laying the foundation for engineering of this enzyme.

Ioanna Ntai, Ph.D

Research Professor

Dr. Ntai is currently a Strategic Marketing Specialist at Thermo Fisher Scientific. Prior to her industrial postion she was a Research Professor at Northwestern in the Proteomics Center of Excellence within the CLP Institute. Ioanna’s research focused on the biosynthesis of the unusual tripeptide phosphonate natural product K-26 where she inaugurated research into the C-P compound K-26.

William Birmingham

Postdoctoral researcher

Will is currently a post-doc at Manchester University in the UK continuing to follow his interests in synthetic biology and biocatalysis. William joined the LBS in 2008 after completing his undergraduate degree at Wake Forest in 2007. He entered Vanderbilt via IGP program and matriculated throught the Biochemistry Department at the VUMC. His work centered on the development of new models of the construction of unnatural biosynthetic pathways.

Vanessa Phelan, Ph.D.

Professsor, University of Colorado Denver

Vanessa is currently a tenure track professor in the Department of Pharmaceutical Science at the University of Colorado Denver. She performed her post-doctoral research at the University of San Diego. Vanessa lead a team applying modern mass spectrometry-based tools in combination with traditional chemical, molecular and biochemical approaches to investigate the role of small molecules in the host associated polymicrobial communities. Vanessa’s research at Vanderbilt centered on the biosynthesis of two peptide natural products, K-26 and anthramycin. She decrypted the basic building blocks of K-26 biosynthesis and studied the nonribosomal mechanisms of anthramycin assembly.

Ruth Mc Nees

Post-doctoral researcher

Dr. McNees is currently a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Kentucky. Ruth is a member of the natural product discovery subgroup and is working on the isolation and structural elucidation of new natural products from organisms isolated from cave ecosystems.

Yu Du, Ph.D.

Post-doctoral researcher

Dr. Du is currently a post-doctoral researcher at Vanderbilt University working in ion channel biology and drug discovery. Sunny joined the lab from Peking Union Medical College, where she received her Ph.D. studying the biosynthesis of polyketide natural products ins Streptomyces. In the LBS, Sunny has worked on the biosynthesis of K-26, Apoptolidin and Anthramycin, generating gene knockouts in actonomycetes, expressing proteins, and performing mechanistic biochemsitry.

Ahmad Al-Mestarihi

Post-doctoral researcher

Ahmad is currently a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Kentucky continuing research into natural product biosynthesis. Ahmad was a member of the biosynthesis subgroup and his research has centered on the biosynthesis of unusual deoxy sugars including the nitrosugar TDP-evernitrose.

Glenna Kramer

Post-doctoral researcher

Dr. Kramer is now a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Toronto.Glenna joined the lab in 2008, after completing her undergraduate degree from Allegheny College in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania. In the LBS, Glenna studying the chemical biology of antihypertensive natural products, from biosynthesis to target identification.

Robert Scism, Ph.D.

Researcher, Pfizer Inc,

Rob’s research explored the engineering and directed evolution of nucleotide biosynthesis. In particular, he generated a new method for in vivo selection of nucleotide biosynthesis and created an in vitro pathway for the biosynthesis of the clinically important compound ribavirin. Rob was a Senior Analytical Chemist at Dow, a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Illinois and Northwestern and is currently a scientist at Alexion Pharmaceuticals.

Yunfeng Hu, Ph.D.

Professor

Yunfeng leads a team of investigators at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, South China Sea Institute of Oceanology. During his Yunfeng’s tenure in the LBS, his research was centered on the biosynthesis of two natural products: everninomycin, an antibiotic octasaccharide, and anthramycin, a benzodiazepine natural product from the thermophillic actinomycete, Streptomyces refuineus.

Emilanne McCranie

Assistant Professor, Mercer University

Emilianne is currently a tenure track professor of chemistry at the premier undergraduate institution Mercer University. Emilianne was a member of the biosynthesis subgroup and has pioneered methods for genome editing of micromonospora involved in orthoester biosynthesis, and is using these tools to dissect the biosynthesis of extremely complicated antibiotic polysaccharides.

Kasia Derewacz, M.S.

Research Associate

Kasia is in the Natural Product discovery discovery subgroup and works on the discovery of new microorganisms from cave ecosystems and the isolation and structue elucidation from natural products from these organisms

David Earl

Graduate Student

David is currently a Research Scientist at Adapsyn Biosciences, a microbial genome mining-based drug discovery company. David’s work straddled the Biosynthesis and Discovery subgroup. His work in the biosynthesis and synthetic biology of cytotoxic glycosylated polyketides has produced new tools for target identification studies and revealed new insights into the biosyntheis of these compounds. In discovery, David is is developing a method to radically accelerate the discovery of bioactive secondary metabolites.

Brett Covington

Graduate Student

Graduate Program: Chemistry (PhD)
Brett is currently a post-doctoral researcher at Princeton University. He was member of the Discovery subgroup and is developing methods in microbial metabolomics to accelerate the discovery of secondary metabolites, and understand their chemical ecological, and biological roles in target organisms.