BIOCHEMISTRY STUDENT AMBASSADORS
Welcome to our biochemistry student ambassador web page! We are a group of students at Indiana University who would like to assist you by answering any questions you have about the Interdisciplinary Biochemistry Graduate Program and about living in Bloomington, Indiana. We invite you to join us at Indiana University-Bloomington and become part of our exciting program.
We look forward to hearing from you!
| Name | Level | Lab |
| Fan Cheng | Ph.D. | Mukhopadhyay |
| Angela Berger | Ph.D. | Danthi |
| Qian Dong | Ph.D. | Bauer |
| Rohini Kohli | Ph.D. | Hardy |
| Chenglei Li | Ph.D. | Zlotnick |
| Robert Vaughan | Ph.D. | Kao |
| Srisathiyanarayanan Dharmaiah | Ph.D. | Walczak |
Hello! My name is Fan Cheng and I a doctoral student in Biochemistry Program. Prior to coming to IU Bloomington, I received my BS degree in Biology and then served as Research Assistant for the Institute of Advanced Materials in Fudan University in Shanghai. Now, I am working in Tuli Mukhopadhyay's lab, studying the function of alphavirus core-like particles. It is a very interesting project which gives me a lot of oppotunities to work with people from different research groups. If you have any questions about the Biochemistry Program, the life in Bloomington or anything else, please feel free to contact me at fancheng(at)indiana.edu.
My name is Angela Berger and I am a fifth year graduate student in the Biochemistry program. I received my BS in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from Michigan State University. I work in the Danthi Lab in the Biology department here at IU. I work with reovirus, a dsRNA virus in the Rioviridae family. My project focuses on how reovirus causes apoptosis in host cells. Specifically I am looking at the activation of NF-κB via an unusual route involving IKKa and IKKγ resulting in host cell apoptosis. Currently, I am characterizing the IKKγ protein interactions needed to activate NF-κB.
What I like about the graduate school here is that it offers a wide variety of research topics to study as well as supportive faculty and staff that are willing to help out.
If you have any questions about anything here in Bloomington please feel free to contact me at akberger(at)indiana.edu.
Hi! I am Qian Dong, a fifth year graduate student in Interdisciplinary Biochemistry program. I am now studying cyst formation in R. centenum in Bauer lab. Specifically, I am working on the structure and function of guanylyl cyclase. I came to IU from Nankai University, China, where I got my BS degree. IU is a very beautiful place, and a perfect place to do research.
If you have any question, feel free to contact me at dong3(at)indiana.edu. I will be more than glad to help!
Hello. I am Rohini Kohli and I am currently in my fifth year of graduate studies in the Interdisciplinary Biochemistry Program at Indiana University , Bloomington . I earned my B.S and M.S degrees in Biochemistry from India before coming here to pursue doctoral studies in the same field.
I am currently working with Richard Hardy and my project involves taking a proteomic approach to understanding alphavirus infection and persistence in host cells. I enjoy working here and more so since now we have moved to the new science building Simon Hall, where there are scientists from every discipline and hence exchanging thoughts and ideas with chemists and physicists is a more feasible option now making the program interdisciplinary in the true sense. I also like the campus atmosphere and Bloomington in particular. It is a very student oriented town with everything that I need in close proximity and so much to do that I never really miss being in a big city. The people here are also very friendly and helpful and it was impossible for me to be homesick here for too long in spite of the fact that I am so far away from home. I totally understand that you would have several questions and anxieties about this place so please feel free to email me at rrkohli(at)indiana.edu and I will try my best to help.
My name is Chenglei Li and I just entered my fifth year as a Ph.D student in the Biochemistry Program. After I received my BS and MS in China, I decided to pursue my Ph.D degree in a more professional and well-equipped university. I then found this fantastic interdisciplinary biochemistry program in Indiana University, Bloomington. It has great scientists from various research areas and provides sufficient resources and supporting staff to help students to get through their research projects. Besides, the brand new home for this program—Simon Hall—has improved the research environment to a higher level. Beyond the study and research, the beautiful scenery and nice people in B-town also give people a good reason to enjoy a graduate life here. Currently I am working in Adam Zlotnick’s lab, mainly focusing on protein biochemical studies.
Feel free to contact me at li70(at)indiana.edu if you want to more details of this program or life here.
My name is Robert Vaughan and I am in my fifth year in the Interdisciplinary Biochemistry PhD program here at Indiana University. I grew up in California and Texas, so the move to Bloomington for my graduate work has been quite an adjustment for me as I finally had to buy a winter coat! I can’t imagine a place more suitable for me to earn my PhD. Between the top notch faculty and all the resources available to graduate students, it is easy to see why everything runs smoothly here. The only thing more beautiful than the new science building is the view it has of campus of the rich vegetation and the incredible limestone buildings. Bloomington is famous for its limestone rock quarries, and offers several sites that are ideal for fossil hunting.
I received my B.S. at Texas A&M University in Molecular and Cell Biology. As a student worker in the protein chemistry service laboratory, I gained 3 years of valuable lab experience on many different projects, as well as acquired my first taste of biochemistry; while I tried other disciplines, I knew biochemistry is what interested me the most.
At Texas A&M I began my graduate work under Dr. Cheng Kao. His lab studies RNA viruses, viral nanotechnology, and innate immune receptors. Shortly after joining the lab Dr. Kao was offered a position here at IU, and after visiting the campus and meeting the faculty I was eager to make the move here with him! My project focuses on Hepatitis C virus NS3 protein and its interaction with the innate immune system. This project suits my background well because it has required quite a lot of mass spectrometry based approaches that I learned as a student worker at Texas A&M, and it allows me to utilize Indiana University’s first-rate mass spectrometry facilities.
I would be glad to answer any of your questions about the program or about living at IU. Please feel free to contact me at robvaugh(at)indiana.edu and I will try my best to help.
My name is Srisathiyanarayanan Dharmaiah, known as Sathiya in the department. I am in the third year of the Biochemistry PhD program at Indiana University. I earned my M.Sc., in life sciences with the specialization of microbiology from India. I worked as a project assistant with Prof. H. S. Savithri at the Indian Institute of Science in India and as a research associate with Prof. Cheng Kao before joining the PhD program.
I am currently working with Prof. Claire Walczak in trying to understand the mechanisms associated with the chromosome movement during mitotic cell division. Specifically, I am working to understand the role of kinetochore proteins and kinesins in chromosome movement. I often do microscopy and we have an excellent world class microscopic facility with the precision high-end confocal and the electron microscopes including the cryo electron microscope. In addition we have the entire bio-physical instrumentation facility, which has the in-house DNA sequencing unit as well, to pursue challenging questions in science. The biochemistry program has faculties from various expertises with whom you can discuss at any time. Altogether this place provides a wonderful atmosphere to do scientific research.
I lived in Texas for a while, and travelled to places but I like Bloomington because of its natural beauty during all seasons, Indiana University campus, friendly people and multi-cuisine restaurants from all over the world in an accessible distance.
Please write to sridharm(at)indiana.edu and it is my pleasure to answer any questions that you may have about the graduate program or living in Bloomington.
