Sara Jackson is a PhD student in the Biotechnology Science and Engineering (BSE) program.

She received a BS degree in Cell and Molecular Biology from Troy University, where she conducted undergraduate research under the mentorship of Dr. Philip Reynolds on heat shock proteins and androgen receptor function. She then received a MS degree in Biomedical Science from Florida State University, working in Dr. Mike Blaber’s lab on the role of kallikrein proteases in multiple sclerosis etiology. Work experience in commercial and clinical labs precede her enrollment in the BSE program at UAH. Sara is interested in computationally exploring protein architecture and function to answer biological questions. Current research in the Baudry lab includes quantum mechanical characterization of a small molecule enzyme mediator, informing identification of lead compounds via molecular docking, and building on T cell receptor work from Dr. Joe Ng’s lab with molecular dynamics simulations of large-scale protein-protein interactions.

Maher Mansur is from Chittagong, Bangladesh. He completed his bachelor's and master's degrees in microbiology from the University of Chittagong. Following that, he gained professional experience in the pharmaceutical industry in Bangladesh for one and a half years. He has training in diverse fields of biology and chemistry. His research interests are using computational methods for protein modeling & design and drug discovery. In the Baudry Lab, he leads several projects on rare developmental disorders, viral proteins, and cytochrome P450 enzymes. For the latter, he received the Chateaubriand Fellowship from the Embassy of France in the United States. He is a recipient of the ORISE Fellowship and has joined the Research participation program at the NCTR-FDA. He is a part of an interdisciplinary team on a study to monitor and evaluate mutations of SARS-CoV-2, and their impact on FDA Approved diagnostics, vaccines, and therapeutics.

Armin Ahmadi received both his BSc in Chemical Engineering and MSc in Chemical & Bioengineering from Sharif University of Technology, Tehran, Iran. Followed by receiving an MSE in Chemical Engineering, he continued his PhD studies in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Alabama in Huntsville.

Boshra Rezvanian is from Tehran, Iran. She completed his master's degree in Chemical Engineering with concentration in Pharmaceutical Engineering from the University of Tehran. She started working with Dr. Jerome Baudry at The University of Alabama Huntsville to pursue a PhD in Biotechnology in 2021. Her research interests are focused on using computational methods for protein modeling & design and drug discovery.

Emika grew up in the huntsville area and completed her bachelor's degree in Biology at UAH with a minor in chemistry. She is working on her masters degree and is currently using data clustering methods on Molecular Dynamics trajectory datasets of GPCRs to find a way to reliably distinguish protein conformations that are more successful in binding to its known active ligands among the less successful conformations.

Meredyth is a Huntsville native who first attended the University of Montevallo for fine arts with a concentration in illustration and 2D design. Mid-degree she fell in love with the biological science and transferred to UAH to pursue bachelors degrees in Biology and Chemistry with a concentration in Biochemistry. Meredyth hopes to use her passion for problem-solving and her knowledge of biological systems and chemistry to research new methods of drug discovery and delivery

Jay Spencer is originally from Sevierville, TN. He completed a baccalaureate degree in biological sciences with a concentration in Biochemistry Cellular and Molecular Biology from the University of Tennessee Knoxville (‘17). Upon graduation, he followed his undergraduate advisor, Dr. Jerome Baudry to The University of Alabama Huntsville to pursue a Ph.D in Biotechnology, with a concentration in computational biology. He is currently funded through an R01 grant to develop a group A strep vaccine targeting the M protein using molecular dynamics and in silico epitope prediction.

Dr. Anna Petroff was awarded a PhD in June of 2021, making her the first PhD graduate of the UAH Baudry Lab. Sincere thanks to the Mrs. Pei-Ling Chan Endowment.

Prior to completing a PhD in Biotechnology Science and Engineering, Dr. Petroff completed degrees at Warren Wilson College in Asheville, NC (B.A. English Literature Hon.) and Appalachian State University in Boone (M.A. Experimental Health Psychology). Her overarching research interest is to explore the actions of proteins implicated in the development and persistence of psychological disorders. Her interdisciplinary background has afforded her a range of experiences, from clinical experiments to molecular modeling of membrane proteins.

Kendall Byler is a research associate in computational chemistry/biology in the biology department. He began his education at The University of Alabama in Huntsville, receiving both a B.S. in chemistry, focusing on natural products, and an M.S. in chemistry, focusing on ab initio calculations of DNA-intercalator interactions, followed by doctoral studies at the Computer Chemie Centrum in computational chemistry (3D-QSAR) at Erlangen, Germany. This was followed by postdoctoral appointments at The University of British Columbia, Mayo Clinic and Torrey Pines Institute for Molecular Studies. Kendall also began teaching chemistry at Indian River State College, and later returned to UAH to teach general and organic chemistry as a lecturer in the chemistry department while continuing independent research in improving molecular docking methods for the identification of natural product structures active in targets in neglected tropical diseases, such as Zika virus, in association with ResNet NPND. His experience in computational chemistry ranges from ab initio transition state calculations to quantitative structure activity/property modeling using machine learning to molecular docking and molecular dynamics simulations of ligand-receptor interactions of biological systems associated with disease states.

Although she grew up in southern California, Amy Ridings has called the South her home since 2005. She attended Middle Tennessee State University where she graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Biological Sciences from the Honors College. From there, she went to Tennessee Technological University, where she studied computational chemistry, and earned her master's degree in Chemistry in May 2019. Her research interests are rooted in drug discovery, natural products, especially those from Traditional Chinese herbal medicine, and molecular modeling.

Jana Whittle is native of Huntsville. She started her undergraduate work at UAH and then completed her BS degree at UAB in mathematics with a concentration in statistics. Jana worked as a software developer in the private sector for over 12 years, specializing in user-interface design. Following this work, Jana returned to school at UAH for a degree in Biotechnology. She wants to explore biological questions using computational and big data methods.

Dr. Inoguchi is a postdoctoral research assistant originally from Japan. She completed her bachelor's degree in Interdisciplinary studies in Science and Math at Southeast Missouri State University (Cape Girardeau, MO) and worked as a student researcher for 3 years during the undergraduate period mentored by Dr. Walt Lilly and Dr. Allen Gathman. She received her Ph.D. in Biological Sciences with emphasizing X-ray protein crystallography at University of Nebraska-Lincoln (Lincoln, NE) under the supervision of Dr. Hideaki Moriyama. She started her postdoctoral research at iXpressGenes, Inc. at HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology (Huntsville, AL) focusing on neutron crystallography with Dr. Joseph Ng as a supervisor, then moved to University of Alabama in Huntsville to work on computational biophysics with continue working on protein biochemistry and X-ray/neutron protein crystallography with Dr. Ng.