Bhardwaj Lab

RESEARCH SCIENTISTS

Gaurav Bhardwaj

Assistant Professor, Department of Medicinal Chemistry and Institute for Protein Design.

Office: Health Sciences Building H172E

Phone: 206-685-3784

Gaurav received his doctoral degree in Integrative Biosciences from the Pennsylvania State University. During graduate school, he developed computational methods for studying evolution of highly divergent protein families. He did his postdoc with Dr. Kit Lam at the University of California, Davis, and Dr. David Baker at the University of Washington, Seattle. His postdoctoral work focused on the computational design of hyperstable constrained peptides and macrocycles with atomic-level accuracy. He is also the scientific co-founder of Vilya, a biotech company focused on peptide drug design and discovery.

VICTOR ADEBOMI

Victor completed his PhD at Emory University in 2022 where he focused on developing new chemical methods for selective modification of peptides and proteins. As postdoc, his research is focused on using rosetta-based and machine-learning methods to design peptide inhibitors for therapeutic targets. He also focuses on synthesizing peptide libraries and using high-throughput screening and mass spectrometry to identify binders to biological targets. In his free time, Victor enjoys watching soccer and playing musical instruments.

GIZEM GӦKÇE

Gizem completed her BS and MSc in Biomedical Engineering in 2019 at the TOBB University of Economics and Technology, Ankara/Turkey. She worked in Bionanodesign Lab with Dr. Emre Oren and focused on forecasting antiviral drug resistance in influenza viruses, analysis of protein-drug interactions via homology modeling, docking and molecular dynamics. During her Bachelor’s, she also worked in Baneyx Lab in Chemical Engineering at the University of Washington as a visiting undergraduate student focusing on selective labeling and decoration of the ends and sidewalls of single-walled carbon nanotubes using mono and bispecific solid binding fluorescent proteins. She is currently a PhD student in Molecular Engineering & Sciences Institute. In her free time, she enjoys spending time with her parrot Mango, trekking, discovering nature, reading, DIY crafts, and Zooming with her family.

STEPHEN RETTIE

Stephen completed his Bachelor's degree in Microbiology in 2015 at the University of Washington. After which, he joined the Institute for Protein Design as a technician and provided support to peptide related projects. Now as a graduate student, his scientific interests lie in structure-based design of therapeutics. In his free time he enjoys homebrewing, taking inspiration from Seattle’s strong craft brewery scene.

JEROME BUTLER

Jerome received his master’s degree in Chemistry in 2020 at Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, Texas. During graduate school, he used computational methods to study the superfamily of drug-metabolizing enzymes, cytochrome P450s. His research interests span all trades in the biomedical sciences: from medicine and human nutrition to enzymology and traditional biochemistry. He is currently a PhD student of Medicinal Chemistry at the University of Washington where he studies peptide design and new therapeutics in the Bhardwaj lab. Outside of the lab, Jerome is an avid reader, a hard science fiction writer, and a practitioner of several martial arts.