Lab News and Accomplishments
2024
March / Our Lab's First Post-Doc: Welcome, Tayebeh!
The Draganova Lab is excited to welcome Dr. Tayebeh Latifi! Tayebeh received her Ph.D. from Tehran University and specializes in virology. Her main career goal is to perform quality research and to be a good scientist!
Welcome, Tayebeh!
2023
December / Happy Holidays from the Draganova Lab!
The Draganova Lab had a blast at the departmental holiday party. We hope everyone has a wonderful holiday season and we cannot wait to see what research 2024 has in store!
Cheers!
December / New Wyatt Equipment!
We are excited to share our lab's newest equipment purchase - a Wyatt DynaPro ZetaSTAR! This dynamic light scattering (DLS) detector is used for standalone cuvette-based measurements and can accommodate low sample volumes.
More information about our light scattering equipment can be found in the Light Scattering section of our website.
October / Welcoming a new rotation student - Luke!
We are so happy to welcome rotation student Luke Shoemaker to the Draganova Lab! Luke comes to us from Indiana and is a member of the BCDB graduate program. He is open to many avenues in the biochemistry field, but his current career goal is drug design in industry.
Welcome Luke!
October / Welcoming a new rotation student - Zachary!
We are excited to welcome Zachary Bressman as one of our newest rotation students! Zachary is originally from Tennessee and is a member of the BCDB graduate program. His current career goals include developing scientific tools, advancing accessibility in science, and encouraging a light-hearted environment in science.
Welcome Zachary!
October / Happy Halloween!
Happy Halloween from the Draganova lab! We used farm animals to dress as our interpretation of various herpesviruses and Cam was our scientist-farmer! We also had a blast carving a lab pumpkin.
October / Happy one-year lab-iversary!
On October 3rd, we celebrated the One Year Anniversary of the Draganova Lab! We took time to celebrate this milestone and many of our other achievements with friends and colleagues. Thanks to Emory Biochemistry for being such a welcoming and supportive place for a new lab to get started. Dragan Slayers for life!
October / Celebrating Lizzy's newest award!
Congratulations to Lizzy on being awarded the prestigious NIH Director’s New Innovator Award (DP2)! These funds will propel our research on HSV-1 capsid assembly and packaging - we are looking forward to many discoveries!
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September / Congratulations Maria and Lizzy!
Congratulations to Maria for her travel award and abstract acceptance to present at ABRCMS 2023! Lizzy also won a judging travel award and both will be representing the Draganova Lab in November!
September / Welcoming our newest rotation student!
We are excited to welcome Abigael (Abby) Frederick as the lab's newest rotation student! Abby is originally from Indiana and joins us from the Biochemistry, Cell and Developmental Biology (BCDB) Graduate Program. Her current career goals are drug design and delivery in industry.
Welcome Abby!
September / Welcoming new and returning undergraduates!
We are happy to welcome two new undergraduate researchers, Jalen and Ayla. Jalen and Ayla are pre-med students and Ayla is a member of the SIRE program at Emory. We are also excited to be welcoming back our previous undergraduate researcher, Amal.
Welcome everyone!
August / Welcome back Maria!
We are so excited that Maria has come back to work in the lab! Maria will be part-time until she completes her degree this semester. After, she will be working full-time as a Research Specialist prior to entering medical school.
June / Welcome Rachel!
This month, the lab welcomed our second Research Specialist, Rachel Hill! Rachel is another Georgia local who recently completed her B.S. in Biochemistry at Kennesaw State University. Rachel sees herself heading to graduate school and obtaining a higher-ed degree in Public Health or Biochemistry. Beyond that, she would like to work at the CDC or do research (perhaps in the private sector).
June / Our lab's first summer student!
We are excited to welcome Maria Muhammad to the lab for the summer! Maria was selected to participate in the first ever Emory Biochemistry Summer Undergraduate Research Program (BSURE). Currently, she is an undergraduate student at Superman College and is interested in pursuing a career in medicine.
March / Our lab's first NOA!
Our lab's first grant is official! We received our first Notice of Award for our R00 work on discovering new nuclear egress inhibitors.
January / Our lab's first undergraduate student!
Happy New Year!! We are excited to welcome Amal to the lab. Amal is a freshman at Emory University and is originally from Memphis, Tennessee. As a future MD (maybe dermatologist), she is hoping to major in Human Health and Economics.
Welcome Amal!
2022
December / Our lab's first big equipment!
Our lab's Wyatt light scattering system was installed and is ready for data collection! We are equipped to perform both SEC-MALS/DLS and FFF-MALS/DLS experiments. If you are interested in learning more or using these technologies, we are always interested in collaborating - reach out to us! Established protocols and detailed instrumentation documents are found in the Light Scattering section of our website.
November / Our lab's first Research Specialist!
Neha Mohanty joins the lab as our first Research Specialist! Neha is a Georgia native but recently completed her B.S. in Microbiology and Immunology with a minor in Psychology from the University of Miami. She is currently deciding between medical and graduate school.
Welcome Neha!
October / The Draganova Lab opens!
Lizzy recently completed her postdoc at Tufts University School of Medicine in the Department of Molecular Microbiology in Dr. Katya Heldwein's lab. At Tufts, Lizzy was an NIH IRACDA fellow and gained substantial training in building inclusive research programs and classrooms. She looks forward to mentoring our next generation of scientists!