People

Dr. Erin D. Sheets

Fearless Lab Leader

Undergrad: Juniata College
PhD: University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

Full C.V. for Dr. Sheets

Kanika Vats

Graduate student, Penn State Chemistry

Hometown: New Delhi, India

Education

Undergrad: Bachelor of Science, Chemistry Honors
Miranda House, University of Delhi
Major: Chemistry
Date Graduated: August 1998

Masters: Masters of Science
I.I.T. Delhi
Major: Chemistry
Date Graduated: August 2000
Thesis title: Purification of lipase from a thermophilic bacteria by ion exchange chromatography

Masters: Masters of Technology
I.I.T Delhi & Technical University of Dresden, Germany
Major: Modern Methods of Chemical Analysis
Date Graduated: May 2002
Thesis title: Peptide synthesis using alkaline extracellular protease secreted by H222- a wild type strain of yeast Y. lipolytica

Research interests

For my graduate work, I am developing methods of patterning complexity into membrane model systems that will more closely mimic the structural heterogeneity found in the real biological membranes, using direct and indirect microfabricated approaches. These patterned domains will have well-defined lipid compositions, which will be probed using a variety of quantitative optical techniques.

Angel Davey

Graduate student, Penn State Chemistry

Hometown: Romney, WV

Education

Undergrad: B.S. in Chemistry, minor in Mathematics
Shepherd College, Shepherdstown, WV
Date Graduated: December 2002

Undergraduate research supervised by Dr. Judith Bischoff, conservation scientist for the National Park Service, Department of Conservation, Harpers Ferry, WV

Research interests

Structural heterogeneities within the plasma membrane have been hypothesized to play key roles in cell signaling and membrane trafficking. Because observing cholesterol-rich microdomains, or lipid rafts, directly in living cells remains elusive, I am developing fluorescence anisotropy imaging on a multimode microscope for visualizing localized structural ordering and dynamics in lipid membranes. These tools will first be developed on a model systems and later applied to living cells. Lipid rafts have been hypothesized to facilitate the coupling of Lyn to IgE receptor in a cholesterol-dependent fashion, so steady-state anisotropy imaging will additionally be used on the single cell level to probe the dynamics of IgE receptor signaling in RBL mast cells.

Keith Krise

Graduate student, Penn State Chemistry

Hometown: Wilox, PA

Education

Undergrad: B.S. in Chemistry/Secondary Education
Gannon University, Erie, PA
Date Graduated: December 2004

Undergraduate research supervised by Dr. Melanie Cooper, Clemson University Department of Chemistry, Clemson, SC

Research interests

In the allergic immune response, antigen-induced crosslinking of IgE receptors culminates in the exocytotic release of histamine.  Cholesterol-rich domains (“lipid rafts”) are hypothesized to have a principle role in facilitating exocytosis.  However, conclusive evidence to substantiate the role of lipid rafts remains elusive.  I will use various biophysical techniques to quantitatively assess plasma membrane nanostructure and its relationship to the spatial and temporal dynamics of signaling imperative to uncovering the function of lipid rafts in both signaling and exocytotic events.

Brian Krieg

Graduate student, Penn State Chemistry

Hometown: xx

Education

Undergrad: B.S. in Chemistry/Secondary Education
Gannon University, Erie, PA
Date Graduated: December 2004

Undergraduate research supervised by Dr. Melanie Cooper, Clemson University Department of Chemistry, Clemson, SC

Research interests

Sheets Group Alumni

Minjoung Kyoung

Graduate student, Penn State Chemistry, PhD 2007; currently a postdoc with Axel Brünger (Stanford) and Steve Chu (Lawrence Berkeley Lab)

Hometown: Seoul, South Korea

Education: Ewha Womans University, Major: Chemistry, Date graduated: February 1998; Masters: Ewha Womans University, Major: Physical Chemistry, Date graduated: August 2000, Thesis title: Z-scan studies on metal nanoparticles embedded in dielectric thin films

Minjoung built our custom microscope that is capable of manipulating and measuring molecular interactions.  She then measure lipid dynamics in patterned bilayers (with Kanika Vats) and measured intermembrane dynamics using fluorescence correlation spectroscopy.

Michael Proia

Graduate student (joint with Ahmed Heikal, PSU BioE), Penn State Chemistry

Hometown: Fort Payne, AL

Undergrad: B.S. in Chemistry, University of Southern Mississippi, Hattiesburg, MS, Date Graduated: May 2005

Undergraduate research supervised by Dr. Gordon Cannon, Department of Chemistry& Biochemistry, University of Southern Mississippi, Hattiesburg, MS; Dr. Sabine Heinhorst, Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry,University of Southern Mississippi, Hattiesburg, MS; and  
Dean Bertram, Department of Administration of Justice, University of Southern Mississippi, Hattiesburg, MS

Mike was a joint student between the Heikal and Sheets groups.  He worked on developing new fluorescence spectroscopy approaches to look at molecular interactions.  He is currently working with John Badding in Penn State Chemistry

Christal Lee

Graduate student, Penn State Chemistry

Hometown: Seattle, WA

Undergrad: B.S. in Chemistry, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, Date Graduated: June 2005

Undergraduate research supervised by Dr. Martin Gouterman, Professor Emeritus, Department of Chemistry, University of Washington, Seattle, WA

Christal collaborated with Mary Beth Williams's group in Chemistry to develop new strategies for making monovalent quantum dots.  She is now working on her science education degree.

Courtney Gallen

Undergraduate student, Penn State Biology (Neuroscience option); Penn State WISER program (2006)

Graduating 2009

Hometown: Media, PA

Elizabeth Harvie

Undergraduate student, Penn State Microbiology; Penn State WISER program (2006)

Graduating 2009

Hometown: Melbourne, Australia & Richmond, VA

Maria Movafegh

Undergraduate student, Penn State Biochemistry & Molecular Biology; Penn State WISER program (2002-2003); REU student (Summers 2005 & 2006), Penn State Biomaterials & Bionanotechnology Summer Institute

Hometown: Collegeville, PA

For her BBSI and senior research project, Maria patterned biomimetic membranes.  In Fall 2006, she joined the Purdue University Interdisciplinary Life Science Ph.D. program (PULSe).

Dr. Michael Webb

Postdoctoral Associate (with Steve Benkovic), Penn State Chemistry

Education: Undergrad: University of Cambridge, UK, MSci BA in Natural Sciences (Chemistry), July 2000; Doctoral: University of Cambridge, UK
Major: Chemistry, Award of PhD approved: August 2004, Thesis title: Mechanistic studies on aspartate -decarboxylase, PhD advisor: Chris Abell

Hometown: Billericay, UK

Mike used fluorescence imaging and spectroscopy to investigate protein-protein interactions critical for the human de novo purine biosynthetic pathway.  He is currently working in the University of Cambridge.

Kelly Stewart

Undergraduate student (2003-2004), Penn State Chemistry

Hometown: North Huntingdon, PA

Kelly was awarded the 2003 Phi Beta Kappa Award for a Science Thesis Proposal and graduated from Penn State with Honors in August 2004. She then was a NIH Postbaccalaureate Intramural Research Training Award Fellow at the National Cancer Institute in Frederick, MD.  Kelly joined the Chemistry Department at Boston College in Fall 2005 as a graduate student.

Caroline Monroe

Undergraduate student (2002-2003), Penn State Chemical Engineering (WISER program)

Hannah Lazarus

REU student (Summer 2003 & Summer 2004), Penn State Biomaterials & Bionanotechnology Summer Institute

Bioengineering undergraduate, University of Illinois, Chicago

In Fall 2005, Hannah went to UC Irvine for her graduate studies in Biomedical Engineering.

Ellen Keene

REU student (Summer 2003), Penn State Center for Nanoscale Science

Physics undergraduate, Smith College

After graduating in Spring 2005, Ellen went to the Department of Materials Science & Engineering at Cornell University for graduate school.