@ Brown University
ABOUT THE PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
Alexandra obtained her undergraduate degree in Chemical Engineering from The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science an Art, and then her doctoral degree in Molecular Biophysics from The Rockefeller University. She conducted postdoctoral studies in the group of HHMI investigator, Dr. Niko Grigorieff, first at Brandeis University and later at the HHMI Janelia Farm Research Campus as a Damon Runyon Fellow. She is the recipient of a At the Interfaces Award from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, a Medical Research Award from The Rhode Island Foundation, a Salomon Faculty Research Award from Brown University, and awards from the German Society of Biochemistry, The International Brain Organization and Japan's Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. She is excited about structural biology, responses to stress and DNA damage, microtubules and things biochemical.
E-mail: alexandra_deaconescu[at]brown.edu
Phone: (401) 863-3215
Alexandra Deaconescu,
B.E., Ph.D.
MEMBERS
Christiane Brugger, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Associate
E-mail:
christiane_brugger[at]brown.edu
Phone: (401) 863-6729
Christiane is a native of Austria, where she obtained both a bachelor's and master's degree in Biotechnology from the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (Vienna). She then completed her doctoral degree in structural biology at the University of Geneva (Switzerland), where she worked on chromatin remodelers in the group of Thomas Schalch. Her scientific interests in the lab center on the regulation of transcription-repair coupling factors. Christiane is co-author on our papers published in Genes & Development (2019), Protein Science (2021) and Frontiers in Genetics (2022), and a first author on our papers in Nature Communications (2020) and Bio-protocol (2021).
Jyoti Vishwakarma, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Researcher
E-mail: jyoti_vishwakarma[at]brown.edu
Phone: (401) 863-6729
Jyoti obtained her Ph.D. degree in structural biology at The Central Drug Research Institute, Lucknow (India). There she studied protein-protein interactions driving DNA base excision repair in Mycobacterium tuberculosis, but also DNA metabolism in Brugia malayi and screened for potential small-molecule inhibitors of proteins from the SARS CoV-2 genome. Her role in the lab involves the characterization of transcription-coupled DNA repair proteins .
Sophia Golub
Undergraduate Researcher
E-mail:
sophia_golub[at]brown.edu
Phone: (401)863-6729
Rebecca Kim
Undergraduate Researcher
E-mail:
rebecca_s_kim[at]brown.edu
Phone: (401) 863-6729
Ketan Pamurthy
Undergraduate Researcher
E-mail:
ketan_pamurhty[at]brown.edu
Phone: (401) 863-6729
Ange Karondo
Undergraduate Researcher
E-mail:
zelie_karondo[at]brown.edu
Phone: (401) 863-6729
Megan Johnson
Administrative Assistant
E-mail:
megan_johnson[at]brown.edu
Phone: (401) 863-7446
Originally from Woodside, California, Sophia is a sophomore at Brown University planning to concentrate in biochemistry and molecular biology. Sophia plays for the Brown Women’s Water Polo team and is an avid baker and dog-lover. Sophia is focusing on how bacteria adapt to phosphate starvation.
I grew up in both New Jersey and South Korea, and now I am studying for my ScB in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at Brown University. I developed an interest in structural biology during a summer internship working in the Tsai Lab at the Baylor College of Medicine. In my free time, I like to swim, draw, and ride my cruiser! I have a strong interest in ClpXP biology.
Ketan is a sophomore at Brown University planning on concentrating in computational biology and art history. He is originally from Dallas, Texas and in his free time he enjoys martial arts, acrobatics, and basketball. In the lab, he likes playing with ClpXP adaptors!
Originally from Burundi, located in East Africa, Ange is a student at Brown University and is pursuing a Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology as well as a Certificate in Data Fluency. Influenced by her origins and the different people who populate her life, Ange has different interests that touch on tropical infectious diseases and tissue engineering, and likes to explore the ethical questions that these interests raise. Her research in the Deaconescu lab focuses on understanding the role of the Mfd protein in mutagenesis. In her spare time, Ange enjoys walking for hours admiring nature and dancing when there are no more restaurants to try, all three her favorite elements when it comes to exploring another culture.
Megan is invaluable to the lab and we could not do without her!