April 2023: Congratulations to Natalia Wierzbicki on completing her senior thesis in the lab. Good luck with your next steps!

March 2023: Honored to be elected to NIIMBL’s Technology Advisory Committee and looking forward to help improve biopharmaceutical manufacturing.

February 2023: Looking forward to the contributions of Dr. Soheila Sabouri in our research group.

February 2023: We appreciate the funding from the KEEN Foundation to build our first year program to enhance connectivity on campus. For more details, see this article on elevating WPI’s problem solving approach.

January 2023: Happy to have Emily Stead in our group as she works towards her MS in Computational Neuroscience.

January 2023: Had a great time learning more about the 3 C’s at the 2023 KEEN Foundation National Conference and Leadership Workshop.

December 2022: We have a new paper out, focused on examining the role of ZIP4’s transmembrane domains in oligomerization in Scientific Reports!

November 2022: We are thrilled to welcome Marzieh Rostamirad to the group as a graduate student.

June 2022: Thrilled to talk about our work in biophysics education with the The Biophysicist!

June 2022: Great to present some our recent immersive learning tools at the American Institute of Chemical Engineers Advanced Manufacturing and Processing Conference.

May 2022: Congrats to Yuting Liu for successfully defending her PhD thesis!!

May 2022: Yuting’s paper is now accepted at Biomolecules!

April 2022: Thrilled to see Katy Nippert successfully defend her MS thesis in Neuroscience. The first one at WPI!! Great job Katy!!

February 2022: We are grateful for our new R21 award from the NIH (NINDS/NIMH) entitled: The role of ZIP12 in zinc homeostasis and associated neurodegenerative pathologies.

February 2022: Excited to see Lindsey presenting at the Best of Biophysical Journal Symposium at this month’s Biophysical Society Meeting. Way to go Lindsey!!

December 2021: Great to see our flow chemistry mixed reality app in use at the BETC!.

August 2021: We welcome Katy Nippert, from WPI’s Neuroscience Program, to the lab.

March 2021: In collaboration with the Rempe and Rick groups, Lindsey has had a paper accepted at Biophysical Journal!!

March 2021: Rob has been promoted to full Professor. The press release can be found here.

September 2020: Check out our upcoming Methods in Molecular Biology book, focused on Channelrhodopsin.

August 2020: Great to chat with Patrick O’Shea about our Augmented Reality projects. You can list to our conversation on his Virtualist podcast.

June 2020: Our new paper has been accepted at the J. Chemical Education.

January 2020: Rob presented some of his augmented reality programs at the KEEN National Conference.

October 2019: See our channelrhodopsin algorithm highlighted as part of WPI intellectual property catalog.

August 2019: Great to see some of Beth Bafaro’s NMR work highlighted at UConn Health!

June 2019: Great to see Ryan’s work looking into the role of residual hydrophobic mismatch on channelrhodopsin-2 has been accepted at for a special issue at Applied Biosciences and Bioengineering!.

May 2019: Rob thanks his sabbatical host for highlighting our Augmented Reality work. Thanks ZHAW!.

April 2019: Meghan`s image was selected as the cover image for all April issues of Biochemistry. Cool!!

March 2019: Meghan describes the oligomeric state of hZIP4 in mammalian cells in her Biochemistry paper.

February 2019: Beth`s paper, using NMR to examine the dynamices of zinc binding to hZIP4 was accepted at Protein Science. Look for it soon!

November 2018: Lindsey`s paper on channelrhodopsin was accepted at Analytical Biochemistry.

November 2018: Rob had an opinion piece published in the Worcester Telegram and Gazette.

August 2018: Our paper on augmented reality is now out at the Journal for Chemical Education.

August 2018: Rob is excited to be spending the upcoming year at ZHAW`s Institute for Chemistry and Biotechnology.

May 2018: Congratulations to Meghan and Yuting for successfully passing their PhD candidacy exams!

September 2017: Congratulations to Beth on her new appointment as an Assistant Research Professor!

June 2017: Great to see our paper on hZIP4 highlighted in JBC’s virtual issue on structural biology.

May 2017: We are excited to have Bolin Zhu join us to work on the augmented reality project this summer!

April 2017: Beth and Yuting’s review on zinc’s role in signalling is accepted at Signal Transduction and Targeted Therapy!

April 2017: Yuting won third place at the 2017 Spring Meeting of the American Physical Society New England Section Meeting!!

April 2017: Great to see Aylin Padir present some of her recent results at the Council for Undergraduate Research Annual Meeting!

March 2017: Ryan’s paper using steered MD, a kinetic algorithm and channelrhodopsin-2 functional experiments has been accepted at JBC. Great job Ryan!!

March 2017: Rob will be co-chairing the 2nd Annual Symposium on Advanced Biomanufacturing at WPI.

March 2017: Rob was awarded a WPI grant, with Lane Harrison and Jeffrey Kesselman, to develop a laboratory safety augmented reality program.

Oct. 2016: Congrats to Beth for winning a poster award at the New England Structure Symposium at UConn!

Sept. 2016: Good luck to Louis as he begins his teaching position at Providence College.

June 2016: Beth gave a talk at the FASEB Cell Biology of Metals Meeting!

April 2016: Congratulations to Ingrid for winning the Strage Innovation contest!

March 2016: Congratulations to Ryan for successfully defending his PhD thesis!

March 2016: Congratulations to Sagar for successfully defending his PhD thesis!

February 2016: Our review on zinc signalling in collaboration with the Burdette group has been accepted in Current Opinion in Chemical Biology. Look for it soon.

December 2015: Our new book chapter on voltage clamp fluorometry is now out in Methods in Molecular Biology.

November 2015: Our book chapter on channelrhodopsins is now out in the Springer Series for Biophysics.

September 2015: Ryan’s paper on channelrhodopsin-2 is accepted in Biochemistry!

September 2015: Our paper, in collaboration with the Burdette group, using photocaged zinc is now out in Angewandte Chemie!

September 2015: Check our cover art for our recent paper in Metallomics!

July 2015: Rob’s talk at the 2014 ISZB meeting is mentioned in this editorial.

May 2015: Sagar’s new paper on hZIP4 is in press at J. Biol. Chem.

May 2015: We welcome Louis Marchetti as a new postdoctoral fellow in the lab.

May 2015: We welcome John Pleau as an undergraduate research in the lab.

April 2015: Beth and Sagar’s paper has been accepted at Metallomics.

April 2015: Rob has been appointed to the editorial board of Scientific Reports.

March 2015: Ingrid gave a talk at the 7th Annual Northeast Undergraduate Research and Development Symposium at the University of New England. 

March 2015: Rob has been promoted to Associate Professor and been granted tenure.

December 2014: Rob gave a talk at Science Cafe Woo on December 15. See here for more details.

September 2014: Rob gave a talk about hZIP4 at the International Society for Zinc Biology Conference.

May 2014:  Rob has been awarded a 5 year NIH R01 grant to study the molecular mechanism of the zinc transporter hZIP4!

April 2013:  Brian has been awarded a summer fellowship by WPI to work in the lab!

March 2013:  Olga’s paper describing the the role of transmembrane domain three in ion conductance of channelrhodopsin-2 has been published by Biophysical Journal!

February 2013:  Sagar has been awarded a travel grant by the ASBMB to attend their national meeting in April where he will be presenting his work on hZIP4.

February 2013:  Rob will be presenting the group’s work on channelrhodopsin-2 at the ASBMB meeting.

February 2013:  Rob has been appointed to the Membership Committee of the Biophysical Society!

November 2012:  Ryan will be presenting a poster at the upcoming Biophysical Society Meeting on his research into channelrhodopsin-2 function.

November 2012:  Rob will be giving a platform talk at the upcoming Biophysical Society Meeting in Philadelphia on hZIP4.

November 2012:  Ryan’s paper, describing molecular determinants which contribute to the pore diameter of channelrhodopsin-2 was published at Plos One.

October 2012:  A review, written by Rob, on the ZIP transporters is available online at Current Topics in Membranes!

October 2012:  Ryan was awarded a travel award by the department to present his work at an upcoming meeting.  Great job!

August 2012:  We welcome Stephen Allen to work on his senior thesis in the lab.

May 2012:  Sagar is highlighted in the new departmental web page  See it here!

March 2012:  Ryan won third place in the Life Science Division for WPI’s Grad2012 competition!

January 2012: Sagar’s paper, describing the first cation specificity of the human ZIP4 transporter protein, has just been accepted in Biochemistry.  Great job Sagar!

January 2012: We welcome our newest member of the lab as Kumari Alka has joined the group as a postdoctoral fellow.  Good luck with your experiments!

September 2011: Rob gave a talk at the Molecular Mechanism of Membrane Transport Proteins meeting at Castle Ringberg in Tegernsee, Germany.

August 2011: Emily Rozsahegyi and Ben Morehouse joined the group to work on their senior theses.  Good luck!

July 2011: Rob gave a talk at the Physiological Society Meeting in Oxford, England.

May 2011: Ryan’s paper has just been published in the Journal of Visualized Experiments.  Check it out!!

May 2011: Vi has successfully defended her Masters thesis and has graduated.  We wish her the best in all her future endeavors

May 2011: Ryan received the American Institute of Chemists Foundation Award for Outstanding Biochemistry Graduate Student. Congratulations!

April 2011:  Ryan received a Honorable Mention for the NSF GRF.

March 2011:  Some of Rob’s work has been accepted to Nature Neuroscience.  Check it out!

October 2010: Olga Gaiko, a postdoctoral fellow, has joined the group!

October 2010: We welcome our newest Ph.D. candidate, Sagar Antala, to the group!

September 2010: We welcome Amanda Sargent to the group for her MQP (senior thesis)!

August 2010: Rob gave a presentation at the FASEB Molecular Biophysics of Cellular Membranes Meeting in Saxtons River, VT.

July 2010: We welcome Ryan Richards to the group!

June 2010: Vi received the Arvid Anderson Graduate Fellowship from WPI. Congratulations!

May 2010: Vi received the American Institute of Chemists Foundation Award for Outstanding Biochemistry Graduate Student. Congratulations!