A big congratulations to Wes MB&B Ph.D. alum Ranjuna Weerasekera, and to Olson Lab, on the publication of the paper "Crystal structure of Vibrio cholerae polysaccharide lyase RbmB bound to Vibrio polysaccharide (VPS) fragments provides insights into substrate recognition and cleavage" in PNAS, the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences!
Read the full paper here: https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2534280123
Congratulations Dr. Weerasekera!
On May 14th, 2025, Ranjuna Weerasekera gave his open Ph.D. defense with a talk titled "Cutting Ties with Style: The Structure and Function of of RbmB in Vibrio cholerae Biolfilm Dispersal".
Ranjuna completed his Ph.D. research in Olson Lab, and goes on to a post-doctoral position at the University of Connecticut. Congratulations Dr. Weerasekera!
Congratulations Dr. Zane Lombardo!
On Friday, October 18th, 2024, Zane Lombardo successfully defended his Ph.D with a talk titled "MutS Homologs Work to Repair Mismatches, But Find Time To Go On Holliday". Congratulations Dr. Lombardo!
Zane completed his Ph.D. research in Mukerji Lab, and departs Wesleyan for a position as a post doctoral researcher in the lab of Dr. Enrique De La Cruz lab in the Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry department at Yale University.
Wesleyan students and faculty attend the 2024 Biophysical Society Meeting in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Wesleyan MB&B was well represented this week at the Biophysical Society meeting in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. From left to right, past and current Wesleyan Biophysics students and faculty Julissa Cruz Bautista ('25), Tai Lon Tan ('24), Professor Ishita Mukerji, Alexa Strauss ('19), Zane Lombardo (PhD candidate), and Justin Nguyen ('23), pose in from of the exhibition hall banner.
Congratulations Dr. Nooshin Shatery Nejad!
Nooshin Shatery Nejad successfully defended her thesis September 23, 2021. Nooshin worked with Professor Candice Etson and received her doctorate in Physics.
Fred Ellis, Francis Star, Nooshin Shatery Nejad, Candice Etson, Ishita Mukerji
Lin ’22 Wins Poster Awards at Two Conferences
During the 65th Biophysical Society Annual Meeting held virtually Feb. 22–26, 2021 Shawn H. Lin '22 was honored with an Undergraduate Poster Award for his work on "Elucidation of Interactions Between Integration Host Factor and a DNA Four-Way Junction." Lin, a Wesleyan Freeman Scholar, is among only six undergraduate students internationally to receive the award.
Lin won a second award from the American Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, announced April 28, 2021, in the category of DNA, Chromosomes and Gene Regulation.
Lin's advisors are Ishita Mukerji, Fisk Professor of Natural Science, professor of molecular biology and biochemistry, and Candice Etson, assistant professor of physics. You can see the poster on Wesleyan's blog here.
David R. Langley, Senior Director of Platform Chemistry, Arvinas, Inc. & Max Tishler Professor of Chemistry, Wesleyan University elected to the Connecticut Academy of Science and Engineering | Press Release
Colleagues Kelly Thayer, Ishita Mukerji, David Beveridge, Jan Naegele, Frederick Cohan, and Joseph Knee attend 44th Annual CASE Meeting and dinner May 28, 2019 to support Dr. Langley.