Members

Principal Investigator

Thomas R. Cech

Distinguished Professor of Biochemistry • Director, Interdisciplinary Quantitative Biology PhD Program • Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute • Member, Department of Biochemistry and BioFrontiers Institute

Nobel Prize in Chemistry, 1989; National Medal of Science, 1995

thomas.cech@colorado.edu

Administrative Assistant

Laura Konyha

(303) 492-5067

Joined 2011

konyhal@hhmi.org

Staff Scientists

Anne Gooding

Staff Scientist (HHMI Research Specialist) • Lab Member since 1990

Research Interests: Polycomb Repressive Complex 2

anne.gooding@colorado.edu

Karen Goodrich

Staff Scientist (HHMI Lab Manager) • Lab Member since 1996 • B.S.: Medical Technology, University of Scranton, 1986

Research Interests: Nucleic acid-protein interactions

karen.goodrich@colorado.edu

Arthur Zaug

Staff Scientist (HHMI Senior Scientist) • Lab Member since 1978 • B.S.: Biochemistry, State University of New York at Stony Brook, 1975 • Honorary Doctorate in Science, University of Colorado, 1992

Research Interests: Telomerase and telomere replication

arthur.zaug@colorado.edu

Visiting Scholar

Paul Rothman

Paul B. Rothman- Lab member since 2022 • M.D. from Yale in 1984 • B.S. in Biology from MIT 1980

Research interests- Control of chromatin structure by DNA methylation

prothma19999@gmail.com

MD/PhD Student

Dan Youmans

Lab Member 2016-present • B.S. Chemical Biology: University of California, Berkeley 2012 • PhD awarded May 2021; MD expected May 2023

Research Interests: interplay between RNA and protein interactions during PRC2 mediated epigenetic silencing

Daniel.Youmans@colorado.edu

Postdoctoral Fellows

Wayne Hemphill

NIH NIGMS Postdoctoral Fellow • Lab Member since 2021 • B.S.: Biology (Chemistry), University of Louisiana at Monroe, 2017 • PhD: Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Wake Forest School of Medicine, 2021

Research Interests: Dynamics of Polycomb Repressive Complex 2 - nucleic acid interactions

wayne.hemphill@colorado.edu

Linnea Jansson-Fritzberg

HHMI Postdoctoral Associate • Lab Member since 2018 • B.S. in Neuroscience from UC Santa Cruz 2013 • Ph.D. in Molecular, Cell and developmental Biology from UC. Santa Cruz 2018

Research interests: RNA-protein interactions in the regulation of DNA methylation

lija2124@colorado.edu

Kaitlin Johnson

HHMI Postdoctoral Associate • Lab member since 2019 • B.A. Chemistry, Manchester University (2012) • PhD Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Johns Hopkins School of Public Health (2019)

Research interests: Fluorescent tags for live cell imaging

kaitlin.johnson-1@colorado.edu

Jiarui Song

HHMI/Jane Coffin Childs Fellow • Lab Member since 2021 • B.S.: Biotechnology, Shandong University (2015) • PhD: Biochemistry, Texas A&M University (2021)

Research Interests: Cryo-EM of RNA binding to Polycomb Repressive Complex 2

Jiarui.song@colorado.edu

Graduate Students

Liyi Cheng

Lab Member since 2022 • Biochemistry Department • Co-mentored by Roy Parker

B.S: Life Science (with Specialization in Molecular Cell Biology), National University of Singapore (2020) Research interest: RNA G-quadruplexes in RNP assemblies

Liyi.Cheng@colorado.edu

Julia Seidel

Regensburg Exchange Student 2022 • B.Sc. Biochemistry, University of Regensburg, 2021 • currently M.Sc.: Biochemistry, University of Regensburg Research Interests: Telomere replication and its inhibition by G4 compounds

julia.seidel@colorado.edu