Graduates from each division of the Department of BioMolecular Sciences have found employment in a variety of fields in both the public and private sectors. We have included a list of our graduates from the past 8 years below. Please contact us if you note any omissions or items that need to be corrected!

Environmental Toxicology (ETRP)

• Dennis Carty, Ph.D., 2017
  Characterizing the Developmental and Reproductive Toxicities of Cannabidiol and Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol
  Dissertation Director, Dr. Kristie Willett
• Faisal Albaqami, Ph.D., 2015
  Saffron Extract and Its Active Constituents as Preventative and/or Treatment Agent for Prostate Cancer
  Dissertation Director, Dr. Kristie Willett
• Adam Hawkins, Ph.D., 2014
  Effects of nanosilver and silver nitrate exposure on fathead minnows (Pimephales Promelas) and zebrafish (Danio Rerio)
  Dissertation Director, Dr. Kristie Willett
• Mindi Ansley, M.S., 2014
  Thesis Title: “Characterizing innate immunity in the Hawaiian coral Montipora capitata”
  Advisor, Dr. Deborah Gochfeld
• Cole Easson, Ph.D., 2013
  Thesis Title: “Individual and Population Responses of a Common Caribbean Sponge, Aplysina cauliformis, to Combinations of Natural and Anthropogenic Stressors”
  Advisor, Dr. Marc Slattery
• Frank Booc, M.S., 2013
  Thesis Title: “Benzo[a]pyrene Effects on Fundulus heteroclitus Reproductive Endpoints”
  Advisor, Dr. Kristie Willett
• Kimberly Foster, M.S., 2013
  Thesis Title: “Synthesis and evaluation of naturally occurring halogenated bipyrroles in a relevant marine species, Fundulus heteroclitus”
• Sylvester Lee, M.S., 2012
  Thesis Title: “Adaptive Tolerance to Ocean Acidification in the Marine Sponge Chondrilla nucula”
• Meghan Dailey, M.S., 2012
  Thesis Title: “Temporal and Spatial Assessment of PAHs in Water, Sediment, and Oysters as a result of the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill”
• Suzanne Childress Seale, M.S., 2010
  Thesis Title: “Behavioral and transcriptional effects of acrylamide in rat pups”
• Lindsay Krentz O’Donahue, M.S., 2010
  Thesis Title: “The effect of ethynylestradiol, benzo(a)pyrene and a mixture of the two on the sex change event in the hermaphroditic bridled goby, Coryphopterus glaucofraenum”
• Kelley Ivey Ezell, M.S., 2010
  Thesis Title: “Real time drug abuse by measurement of influent wastewater in sewage treatment plants”

Medicinal Chemistry

• Munia Sowaileh, Ph.D., 2018
  Fluorinated Organic Molecules for Medicinal Applications
  Dissertation Director, Dr. David Colby
• Kelsey McPherson, Ph.D., 2018
  Synthesis and Evaluation of Dual-Acting Ligands for Mu Opioid and Neuropeptide FF Receptors
  Dissertation Director, Dr. Christopher McCurdy
• Michael Cunningham, Ph.D., 2018
  Synthetic Investigation of Natural Products Causing Dopaminergic Neurodegeneration
  Dissertation Director, Dr. John Rimoldi
• Mohammed Jihan, Ph.D., 2017
  Synthesis, Chemistry, Biological Evaluation and Structure-Activity Relationships of rac- and Chiral 6-Desmethyl-5β-Hydroxy-D-secoartemisinin
  Dissertation director, Dr. John Rimoldi
• Veda Gogineni, Ph.D., 2017
  Phytochemical Investigation of Psychoactive Medicinal Plants for the Treatment of Neurological Disorders
  Dissertation director, Dr. John Rimoldi
• Manal Nael, Ph.D., 2016
  Targeting Protein Kinases to Manage or Prevent Alzheimer’s Disease
  Dissertation director, Dr. Robert J. Doerksen
• Walid Alsharif, Ph.D., 2015
  Design, Synthesis, and Biological Evaluation of Sigma Receptors (sRS) Ligands as Potential Pharmacotherapy for Cancer, and Drug Addiction
  Dissertation director, Dr. Christopher R. McCurdy
• Eric Bow, Ph.D., 2015
  Design, Synthesis and Cannabinoid Receptor Activity of Benzofuran Ligands
  Dissertation director, Dr. John M. Rimoldi
• Pankaj Pandey, Ph.D., 2015
  Protein-Ligand Interaction Studies and Identification of New Drug-Like Hits as Cannabinoid Receptor Modulators
  Dissertation director, Dr. Robert Doerksen
• Shuneize E. Slater, Ph.D., 2015
  The Discovery of Novel Inhibitors of Plasmodium falciparum ATPase 6 Obtained Via A Mechanistic Study of Artemisinin
  Dissertation director, Dr.Robert Doerksen
• Amer H. Tarawneh, Ph.D., 2015
  Evaluation of Novel Ligands for Opioid Receptors
  Dissertation director, Dr.Stephen Cutler
• Arindam Chatterjee, Ph.D., 2013
• Khaled Elokely, Ph.D., 2013
• Yushan Wu, Ph.D., 2013
• Shivangi Awasthi, Ph.D., 2013
• Afeef Husni, Ph.D., 2013
• Gang Fu, Ph.D., 2013
• Zarana Chauhan, Ph.D., 2013
• David Watson, Ph.D., 2012
• Xiaoning Wang, Ph.D., 2012
• Jessica Mankus, Ph.D., 2012
• Sarah Chajkowski Scarry, Ph.D., 2012
  Dissertation director, Dr. John M. Rimoldi
• Marco Arribas, Ph.D., 2011
  Synthesis of Analogues Based on the Opioid Alkaloid Mitragynine
  Dissertation director, Dr. Christopher R. McCurdy
• Rohit Bhat, Ph.D., 2011
  Design, Synthesis, Biological Evaluatiohn and Metabolic Stability Studies of Sigma Receptor Ligands
  Dissertation director, Dr. Christopher R. McCurdy
• Vanildo Braga, Ph.D., 2011
  Approaches Towards the Synthesis of Bradyoxetin
  Dissertation director, Dr. John M. Rimoldi
• Jiangtao Gao, Ph.D., 2011
  Fungi Derived Natural Products with Binding Affinities for Human Opiod Receptors or Cannabinoid Receptors
  Dissertation director, Dr. Stephen J. Cutler
• Swapnil Kulkarni, Ph.D., 2011
  Part A: Studies Towards the Total Synthesis of an Anticancer and Antifugal Natural Products: Pseudolaric Acid B, Part B: Synthesis and Biological Evaluation of Berkeleyamid
  Dissertation director, Dr. Mitchell A. Avery
• Rob Smith, Ph.D., 2011
  Design and Synthesis of Novel Agrofungicides Based on Naturally Occurring PBDEs
  Dissertation director, Dr. John M. Rimoldi
• Falgun Shah, Ph.D., 2011
  Use of Structure and Ligand-Based Drug Design Tools for the Discovery of Small Molecule Inhibitors of Cysteine Proteases for the Treatment of Malaria and SARS Infection
  Dissertation director, Dr. Mitchell A. Avery
• Mohamed Helal, Ph.D., 2010
  Melanin Concentrating Hormone Receptor-1 Antagonists: Discovery, Optimization, and Biological Evaluation
  Dissertation director, Dr. Mitchell A. Avery
• Eman Habib, Ph.D., 2010
  Isolation and Structure Elucidation of Biologically Active Compounds from Terrestrial and Fungal Organisms
  Dissertation director, Dr. Stephen J. Cutler
• Velvet Journigan, Ph.D., 2010
  Part I. Design, Synthesis and Biological Evaluation of Ligands for Neuropeptide FF1 and FF2 Receptors. Part II. Design, Synthesis and Biological Evaluation of Ligands for the K Opioid Receptor
  Dissertation director, Dr. Christopher R. McCurdy
• Pankaj Daga, Ph.D., 2010
  Combating Hepatitis B Virus by Targeting DNA Polymerase. Computational Insights into Resistance Development and Search for Novel Inhibitors by Virtual Screening
  Dissertation director, Dr. Robert J. Doerksen
• Tammy Nolan, Ph.D., 2010
  Molecular Recognition Studies for the Kappa Opioid and Sigma Receptors using Virtual Screening, Pharmacophore Modeling and Semi-Synthesis
  Dissertation director, Dr. Christopher R. McCurdy

Pharmacognosy

• Mohamed Albadry, Ph.D., 2018
  Isolation, Structure Elucidation and Synthesis of Some Natural Products From Marine and Plant Sources
  Dissertation director, Dr. Ikhlas A. Khan
• Najla Alzaid, M.S., 2018
  Thesis Title: “Exploring novel botanical ingredients for cosmetics – Efficacy and Safety of Triterpenes”
  Advisor, Dr. Ikhlas Khan
• Adam Keasling, Ph.D., 2017
  Molecular Characterization of the Opioid Receptors: Design, Development, and Preclinical Evaluation of Salvinorin A-Based Molecular Probes
  Dissertation director, Dr. Ikhlas Khan
• Surendra Jain, Ph.D., 2017
  Development of Phenotypic Drug Discovery Models for Tropical Parasitic Diseases
  Dissertation director, Dr. Babu Tekwani
• Jagrati Jain, Ph.D., 2017
  Biochemical and Molecular Assessment of Toxicity of Primaquine Metabolites on Erythrocytes
  Dissertation director, Dr. Babu Tekwani
• Yelkaira Vasquez, Ph.D., 2016
  Biological and Chemical Investigation of Panamanian Plants for Potential Utility Against Metabolic Syndrome
  Dissertation director, Dr. Ikhlas A. Khan
• Chinni Yalamanchili, Ph.D., 2016
  Exploring New Chemical Entities from Traditional Medicine: Synthesis and Specific Bioactivities
  Dissertation director, Dr. Ikhlas A. Khan
• Michael Chan, Ph.D., 2015
  Ethnobotanical- and Chemometric-Guided Investigation of Phytolacca americana L
  Dissertation director, Dr. Iklas Khan
• Joonseok Oh, Ph.D., 2015
  Endangered Plant Species for Potential Drug Lead and Anticancer Prototypes for Treatment of Breast and Pancreatic Cancers
  Dissertation director, Dr. Mark Hamann
• Michael James, M.S., 2014
  Dissertation director, Dr. Mark Hamann
• Amanda Waters, Ph.D., 2014
  Dissertation director, Dr. Mark Hamann
• Christina Coleman, Ph.D., 2014
• Michael Cunningham, M.S., 2013
• Kimberly Auker, M.S., 2013
• Samul Abbas, M.S., 2013
• Kevin Llewellyn, Ph.D., 2013
  Dissertation director, Dr. Mark Hamann
• John Bowling, Ph.D., 2012
• Sandipan Datta, Ph.D., 2012
• Xiang Fu, Ph.D., 2012, St. Jude’s Children Research Hospital
• Mallika Kumarihamy, Ph.D., 2012
• Bin Wang, Ph.D., 2012
• Mohamed Ibrahim, Ph.D., 2011
• Damaris Meujo, Ph.D., 2011
• Amir Wahba, Ph.D., 2011
• Jing Li, Ph.D., 2010

Pharmacology

• Trisha Dhawan, Ph.D., 2018
  Developing Zebrafish as an In vivo Model to Screen Compounds for Anti-cancer Activity in Human Breast Cancer
  Dissertation director, Dr. Kristie Willett
• Santu Singha, Ph.D., 2018
  A Mechanistic Study of the Teratogenic Potential of 4-O-methylhonokiol (MH) on Japanese medaka (Oryzias latipes)
  Dissertation director, Dr. Zia Shariat-Madar
• Taisen Hao, Ph.D., 2017
  Transcriptional Downregulation of MYC Through Nucleic Acid Clamp-mediated Stabilization of the Promoter G-quadruplex
  Dissertation director, Dr. Kristie Willett
• Harshul Batra, Ph.D., 2017
  Binding and Function of Regulatory Proteins to the kRAS Promoter: A Role in Pancreatic Cancer
  Dissertation director, Dr. Kristie Willett
• Rhianna Morgan, Ph.D., 2017
  G-quadruplexes as Molecular Targets for Transcriptional Control
  Dissertation director, Dr. Kristie Willett
• Khalid Alharthy, PhD., 2015
  Dissertation director, Dr. Kristie Willett
• Hassan Madkhali, Ph.D., 2015
  Dissertation Director, Dr. Zia Shariat-Madar
• Surabhi Shukla, Ph.D., 2015
  Dissertation Director, Dr. Babu Tekwani
• Tahmineh Tabrizian, Ph.D., 2015
  Dissertation Director, Dr. Zia Shariat-Madar
• Jingjing Wang, Ph.D., 2014
  Dissertation Director, Dr. Zia Shariat-Madary
• Pranapda Aumsuwan, Ph.D., 2013
  Dissertation Director, Dr. Asok Dasmahapatra
• Monica Gole, Ph.D., 2013
  Dissertation Director, Dr. David Murray
• Mona Haron, Ph.D., 2013
  Dissertation Director, Dr. Asok Dasmahapatra
• Krishna Nagalla, Ph.D., 2013
  Dissertation Director, Dr. David Murray
• Mengmeng Wu, M.S., 2013
  Dissertation Director, Dr. Asok Dasmahapatra
• Xiefan Fang, Ph.D., 2011
  Dissertation director, Dr. Kristie Willett
• Dhaval Kolte, Ph.D., 2011
  Dissertation Director, Dr. Zia Shariat-Madar
• Mohamed Hammad, Ph.D., 2010
• Minghui Wu, Ph.D., 2010
• Monica Gole, M.S., 2010