Filippo mancia, ph.d.

Filippo Mancia is a Professor and Co-Director of Graduate Education in the Department of Physiology & Cellular Biophysics at Columbia University. He graduated in Chemistry in Pavia (Italy), and obtained a PhD at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, UK. His post-doctoral work was carried out in the labs of Drs. Wayne Hendrickson and Richard Axel at Columbia University. He is a structural biologist with experience in x-ray crystallography, single particle cryo-EM, and in production and characterization of membrane proteins for structural studies. The main research focus of his lab is on membrane protein – lipid interactions, both in terms of enzymes, which process lipid substrates, and of transporters, which mediate cellular uptake of lipidic substrates.

He is a key member of the NIH-funded biomedical technology resource Center on Membrane Protein Production and Analysis (COMPPÅ; Wayne Hendrickson, PI), where he serves on the executive committee. COMPPÅ’s mission is to develop enabling technology for membrane protein biochemical, structural and functional studies.

Rie nygaard, ph.d.

Rie obtained her undergraduate and graduate degrees at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark. During her doctorate, she was a visiting student in the lab of Dr. Brian Kobilka at Stanford University, where she also did a brief Post Doc, followed by a Post Doc in the lab of Dr. Lynette Cegelski, also at Stanford University. She has focused her career on membrane proteins and biophysical techniques to study their structure and function, including solid- and solution-state NMR, and cryo-EM. 

Jonathan Kim, Ph.D.

E-mail: jyk2124@cumc.columbia.edu

Jonathan received a B.S. in Biochemistry from Syracuse University (#ibleedorange) and a M.A. in Biotechnology from Columbia University. He joined the Ph.D. program in the Department of Physiology and Cellular Biophysics. He is interested in understanding the role of a Plasmodium transporter in antimalarial drug resistance. 

Yaqi Liu, Ph.D.

Yaqi obtained her Ph.D. of structural biology at Pohang University of Science and Technology in South Korea, supervised by Dr. Yunje Cho. During her Ph.D., she received the Young Scientist Award from the Korean Society for Structural Biology for her study on structure and mechanism of DNA repair proteins. She then did a brief postdoc in the lab of Dr. Erhu Cao at the University of Utah to study transporters and was awarded the AHA postdoctoral fellowship. Her current research focuses on membrane proteins with enzymatic activities.

AYSENUR TORUN YAZICI, PH.D.

Aysenur completed her undergraduate degree at Bilkent University, Turkey, and received an MSc from the German Cancer Research Center/Heidelberg University, Germany. She then joined the lab of Dr. Tibor Rohacs for her Ph.D. thesis at Rutgers University. During her thesis work, she explored the regulation of Transient Receptor Potential (TRP) channel function by membrane phospholipids via implementing electrophysiology experiments. In September 2022, she joined the Mancia lab as a postdoctoral fellow. She is interested in investigating the structure of membrane proteins and protein-lipid interactions to understand their roles in key cellular processes and sensory physiology. 

Outside the lab, she can be found discovering the biking trails of New Jersey with her family or trying new baking recipes.

Edoardo Gelardi, PH.D.

Email: eg3089cumc.columbia.edu

Edoardo obtained his PhD in Chemistry and Biology at University of Piemonte Orientale under the supervision of Menico Rizzi and Silvia Garavaglia. He then moved to the European Institute of Oncology for a first post doc in the group of Marina Mapelli where he was awarded with an AIRC fellowship. He joined the Mancia Lab in May 2023 supported by an AICF fellowship. He is interested in using cryo-EM and ET to study the mechanism of drug-resistance in malaria parasites and cancer.

Evan Billings, Ph.D.

Evan graduated from Purdue University with a BS in biochemistry and minors in biology and philosophy in 2018. As a graduate student, he remained at Purdue, where he studied outer membrane protein folding in the pathogen Neisseria gonorrhoeae under Dr. Nicholas Noinaj. He was awarded fellowships through the Purdue NIH T32 Molecular Biophysics Training Program and the American Heart Association. After graduating, he joined the Mancia lab in 2024, where he is interested in structurally characterizing endogenous membrane protein complexes involved in human disease.

Xiao-Ru Chen, Ph.D.

Xiao-Ru obtained her M.S. degree from National Taiwan University. She then received her Ph.D. in Biochemistry & Biophysics at Texas A&M University, under the supervision of Dr. Tatyana Igumenova. Her PhD studies focused on using biophysical approaches to investigate the molecular mechanisms of membrane-associated proteins and the regulation of kinases. In September 2024, she joined Mancia Lab as a postdoctoral fellow, with research interests in protein-lipid interactions and the structural basis of membrane proteins involved in lipid metabolism associated with human diseases.

Allen Zinkle

Allen received his B.S. in biochemistry and philosophy from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He then spent two years working in the lab of Dr. Moosa Mohammadi at the NYU School of Medicine, studying the structure and function of fibroblast growth factors. He is currently interested in using cryo-EM to study the molecular bases of drug resistance in bacteria and malaria parasites. When not in lab, he enjoys drinking beer and chatting about obscure philosophical movements.

Ryan Morgan

Ryan is a first-year student in the Integrated Ph.D. program and joined the Mancia lab in Summer 2023. He received his B.S. in Cell and Molecular Biology from the University of South Florida where he studied the structural basis of beta-lactam antibiotic resistance in bacteria. He is interested in using cryo-EM to study membrane proteins and their physiological roles. Outside of the lab, he loves trying new restaurants around NJ/NYC.

Leora Hamberger

Ting Chen

Ting received her B.A. in Biology at Columbia University. During her undergraduate studies, Ting focused on understanding pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC). In Dr. Anil K. Rustgi's Lab, she was involved in a project that examines the cancer-cell specific role of adenosine pathway on the tumor immune microenvironment of PDAC. Later, she joined Dr. Christine Chio's Lab to study the role of lipid metabolism on PDAC progression. Ting is excited to transition into structural biology and is ready to appreciate the intricate functions of membrane proteins!

Neha Mani

Neha is an undergraduate student at Columbia University pursuing a major in biochemistry and a concentration in linguistics. In high school, she interned for Dr. Jay Tang at Brown University, quantifying and distinguishing bacterial motility with applications in improving the diagnostic process of intestinal diseases like Inflammatory Bowel Disease. She also spent the summer of 2019 working in Dr. Anne Bowcock’s lab at Mount Sinai, creating a novel tool for filtering de novo mutations out of large genomic files from psoriasis patients.

Ankit Singhal

Ankit is an undergraduate student at Columbia University pursuing a double major in Biophysics and Philosophy. In high school, he worked with Dr. Stefan Hildbrand at Roche and Dr. Tejal Desai at UCSF, working on the chemical catalysis of inorganic reactions and computational work related to micro-environments of CAR T-cells respectively. He's also worked on projects to computationally predict both mRNA and small protein stability data and spent a summer with the AlQuraishi lab working on predicting ddG values of protein mutations. 

Priyanka Mathews

Priyanka is an undergraduate student at Columbia University pursuing a major in biochemistry. Formerly, she worked in Dr. Anthony Fitzpatrick’s lab at the Zuckerman Institute assessing urinary proteins as potential biomarkers for preeclampsia. She has also worked with Dr. Julia Brasch’s lab at the University of Utah investigating interactions between synaptic adhesion proteins implicated in developmental disorders. In her free time, Priyanka loves reading and dances on Columbia’s Bhangra team.

Rosemary cater, ph.d.

Rosie is a former Post Doc in the Mancia lab. She is currently an Assistant Professor at the University of Queensland in Brisbane Australia.

Brianna Costabile, PH.D.

Brianna is a former graduate student and Post Doc in the Mancia lab. She is currently a Senior Scientist at Pfizer in San Diego.

Joseph Pepe

Joe is a former technician in the Mancia lab. He is currently pursuing a Phd at UCSF.

Brendon Choy

Brendon is a former undergrad student in the Mancia Lab. Brendon graduated in the summer of 2022 and is currently a medical student at Harvard University.  

INJIN BANG, PH.D.

Injin is a former Post Doc in the Mancia lab, she is currently a Post Doc in the Shohei lab at NYU.

David Roper, Ph.D.

David Roper is a former Columbia University Schaefer Research Scholar and Professor of Biochemistry at the University of Warwick in the UK. 

Khuram Ashraf, Ph.d.

Khuram is a former Post Doc in the Mancia lab. After a Post Doc in the Petrou lab at Rutgers University, he is now a Senior Scientist at Schrödinger.

Giacomo Parisi, ph.d.

Giacomo is a former Post Doc in the Mancia lab. He is currently a Post Doc at the Institute of Italian Technology.

Meagan Dufrisne, ph.d.

Meagan is a former graduate student in the Mancia lab. She is currently doing a Post Doc with Prof. Linda Columbus at University of Virginia.

Christina Chen, ph.d.

Christina is a former Post Doc in the Mancia lab. She is currently working as a senior scientist at Merck.

Chiara Ardiccioni, Ph.D.

Chiara is a former Post Doc in the Mancia lab. Chiara is currently working as fellow and Lecturer in the Department of Life and Environmental Sciences, New York-Marche Structural Biology Center (NY-MaSBiC), Polytechnic University of Marche, Ancona, Italy.

Zahra Assur, Ph.D.

Zahra was a PhD student shared between the Hendrickson and Mancia lab. She is currently a Post Doc in the Klinge lab at Rockefeller University.

David Tomasek, PH.D.

David is a former technician in the Mancia lab. He did his PhD at Harvard University, and is currently a senior scientist at Novartis.

Sabrina Giacometti

Sabrina worked in the Mancia lab as a lab technician from 2016-2019. She is currently pursuing a PhD at New York University.

Vasileios (Vasilis) Petrou, Ph.D.

Vasileios is a former Post Doc in the Mancia lab, and is currently an assistant professor at Rutgers University.

Yong Zi Tan, Ph.d.

Yong Zi is a former joint PhD student between Bridget Carragher, Clint Potter and Filippo Mancia. He did a post doc with Prof. Rubinstein at The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto. In 2021 he started his own lab at NUS Singapore.