We are a small team of talented graduate students, post docs, and undergraduate researchers from various backgrounds.
Phil Dawson
Professor of Chemistry & Dean of Graduate Studies
Phil received an A.B. (1992) in Chemistry from Washington University, and Ph.D. (1996) from Scripps Research under the guidance of Steve Kent. After pursuing postdoctoral work at Caltech, he returned to Scripps as an Assistant Professor in 1997. Professor Dawson is a pioneer of chemoselective ligation methods for macromolecule synthesis and modification and has applied these tools broadly to better understand biological systems.
Email me: dawson@scripps.edu
Leonard Yoon
Graduate Student, Fifth Year
Leonard received his B.A. in chemistry and statistics from Amherst College in 2018. He is a joint graduate student between the Dawson and Kelly labs. In the Dawson lab, Leonard is using solid phase peptide synthesis and sequential native chemical ligation with desulfurization to synthesize D-space proteins for use as robust, proteolysis resistant biological tools. Outside of lab, Leonard is a clarinetist in the Coastal Communities Concert Band and plays tennis at UCSD most weekends.
Email me: yoonl@scripps.edu
Albert Kakkis
Post-Doctoral Fellow
Albert received his B.A. in Chemistry from Pomona College (2016) and earned his Ph.D. in Chemistry at the University of California, San Diego (2023), under the supervision of Dr. Faik Akif Tezcan. As part of the Dawson team, he currently pursues applications of the lab’s RASS technology and native chemical ligation to the synthesis of oligonucleotide conjugates with therapeutic potential. When not in the laboratory, Albert also enjoys playing music, tutoring, and studying foreign languages.
Email me: akakkis@scripps.edu
Lab Alumni
| Name | Dawson Lab Title | Most Recent Known Position |
|---|---|---|
| Adams, Zoë | Graduate Student | Scientist, Avidity Biosciences |
| Adhikary, Ramkrishna | Staff Scientist | Scientist, Element Biosciences |
| Assem, Naila | Research Associate | Senior Scientist, Bolt Threads |
| Balambika, Rema | Research Associate | Professor, Department of Chemistry, CUNY Staten Island |
| Boddy, Christopher Noyce | Research Associate | Director, Biochemistry Program and Professor, University of Ottawa |
| Bird, Michael | Graduate Student | Scientist, Avidity Biosciences |
| Brik, Ashraf | Research Associate | Professor, Technion Israel Institute of Technology |
| Brunel, Florence M | Research Associate | Senior Research Scientist, Novo Nordisk |
| Chiorean, Sorina | Research Associate | Business Development Manager, WuXi STA |
| Churchill, Michael J | Research Associate | Product Manager, Azuma Inc. |
| Cistrone, Philip A | Graduate Student | Associate Director, Vilya |
| Culhane, Jeff | Research Associate | Principal Investigator – CMC, Neurocrine Biosciences |
| Dimitrijevic, Elena | Research Associate | Medical Science Liason, Allergan |
| Dirksen, Anouk | Research Associate | Director – Bioconjugation, Mersana Therapeutics |
| Ferreira, David | Research Technician | Graduate Student, University of Washington |
| Flood, Dillon | Graduate Student | Co-Founder and Scientific Director, Elsie Biotechnologies |
| Fu, Xiang | Graduate Student | |
| Ingale, Sampat | Research Associate | Associate Principal Scientist, Exploratory Science Center Cambridge at Merck |
| Manjappara, Uma Venkateswaran | Research Associate | Assistant Professor, Central Food Technological Research Institute, india |
| Muttenthaler, Markus | Research Associate | Associate Professor, University of Vienna |
| Neidre, Chris | Graduate Student | President, Meadowbrook Educational Foundation |
| Offer, John Lawrence | Research Associate | Synthetic Protein Laboratory, The Francis Crick Institute |
| Olson, Erika | Graduate Student | Research Associate, Harvard Medical School, Dept of Systems Biology |
| Palomo Ruiz, Maria Del Valle | Research Associate | Junior Leader, Centro de Investigaciones Biológicas (CIB-CSIC), Madrid, Spain |
| Reichart, Timothy | Graduate Student | Assistant Professor, Hampden-Sidney College |
| Sample, Theresa | Graduate Student | Patent Agent, Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Carlsbad, California |
| Schroeder, Ingrid Christina | Research Associate | ARC Future Fellow, Inst for Mol Bioscience, University of Queensland and Co-Chair, Australian Peptide Association |
| Silvestri, Anthony | Graduate Student | Scientist, Unnatural Products |
| Thompson, Darren A. | Research Associate | Founder, Peptidaho |
| Topert, Florian | Research Associate | Maiwald Patentanwalts GmbH |
| Yan, Liang Zeng | Research Associate | Patent Attorney, Purdue Research Foundation |
| Zhang, Xuejing* | Research Associate | Assistant Professor, Sun Yat-sen University |
| Zhou, Xin | Research Associate | Associate Director – Analytical Sciences, Tanvex Biopharma USA Inc. |
| * Baran Lab Collaboration |
Understanding biomolecules through chemistry. 