231 S. 34th St, Philadelphia, PA 19104-6323
Phone: (215) 573-7539 Fax: (215) 898-6242
Tobias Baumgart
baumgart at sas.upenn.edu
Associate Professor
Physical & Biological Chemistry
Assistant Professor
Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering
Diploma in Chemistry from the University of Clausthal, Germany (1998)
PhD from Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research and Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz (2001)
Postdoctoral associate with Prof. Watt Webb at Cornell University (2001 – 2005)
GRADUATE STUDENTS
Chih-Jung Hsu
chihjung at sas.upenn.edu
Year: 4th
Hometown: Taipei, Taiwan
Graduated From: National Taiwan Normal University
Major: Biochemistry
Joined Lab: May 2007
Research: The dynamics of T-cell signaling microclusters on heterogeneous surfaces
Interests: Besides making LB medium and maintaining his lovely cell lines, CJ enjoys playing softball and basketball, and is a big baseball fan.
Michael Heinrich
heinric at sas.upenn.edu
Year: 4th
Hometown: Scotch Plains, NJ
Graduated From: Bucknell University
Major: Chemistry
Joined Lab: May 2007
Research: Optical trapping applications to membranes vesicles and investigation of line tension sources
Interests: Mike is a fan of backpacking, canoeing, sailing, and otherwise exploring, preferably with a camera in hand. He also loves lasers, which ironically keeps him in windowless rooms.
Ben Capraro
capraro at sas.upenn.edu
Year: 3rd
Hometown: Geneva, NY
Graduated From: University of Chicago
Major: Chemistry and Bio Chem
Joined Lab: May 2008
Research: Mechanical measurement of interactions between membranes and proteins associated with vesicle formation.
Interests: Ben enjoys reading and music.
Wan-Ting Hsieh
hsiehw at sas.upenn.edu
Year: 3rd
Hometown: Tainan, Taiwan
Graduated From: National Taiwan University
Major: Chemistry
Joined Lab: May 2008
Research: Studying physical properties of lipid monolayers. Topographically different phospholipid bilayer as another access to probe the lipid and protein sorting
Interests: Wan-Ting enjoys playing volleyball, table tennis, singing karaoke, and watching Japanese TV series. Wan-Ting is also a big toy claw machine fan...she especially likes claw machine at night markets in Taiwan.
UNDERGRADUATES
Chen Zhu
chenzhu at sas.upenn.edu
Year: 2nd
Hometown: Anhui, China
Graduated From: University of Science and Technology of China
Major: Chemical Physics
Joined Lab: January 2009
Research: Physical investigation with the giant plasma membrane vesicles
Interests: Chen enjoys painting, calligraphy, reading novels and surfing on the internet...
Tingting Wu
tingtwu at sas.upenn.edu
Year:1st
Hometown: Nanjing, China
Graduated From: Nanjing University
Major: Chemistry
Joined Lab: January 2010
Research: Investigation of BAR-domain containing proteins in T-cell function
Interests: Tingting enjoys music, movies, and traveling with her lovely friends.
ALUMNI
Cinzia Esposito
Position in Group: Post Doc
Current Position: Cinzia is currently working in the Biophysical Chemistry Department at Biozentrum, University of Basel in Switzerland. Her current research focuses on the interactions of peptides, proteins and drugs with membranes and membrane receptors by using isothermal titration calorimetry, CD spectroscopy, and microphysiometry.
Aiwei Tian
Position in Group: Graduate Student
Current Position: Aiwei is a Post Doc at University of California, Berkeley in the Department of Chemistry.
Ben Stinson
Position in Group: Undergraduate Student
Current Position: Ben is currently a graduate student in the Department of Biology at MIT. He is interested in the mechanisms by which ATP-dependent proteases catalyze protein denaturation.
Sarah Johnson
Position in Group: Undergraduate Student
Current Position: Sarah will be a physical chemistry graduate student at Princeton University
beginning in fall 2010.
Marcela Carmona
Position in Group: Undergraduate Student
Current Position: Marcela will be an immunology graduate student at Yale beginning in Fall 2010.
Serenity Wang
Position in Group: Graduate Student
Current Position: Serenity is currently a second-year law student at Temple University’s Beasley School of Law.
Michelle Go
Position in Group: Undergraduate Student
Current Position: Michelle will be part of the University of Illinois School of Medicine's class of 2014.
Matt Lopes
Position in Group: Undergraduate Student
Jason Reminick
Position in Group: Undergraduate Student
Current Position: Jason is at University of Rochester’s School of Medicine and the Simon Graduate School of Business pursuing a joint MD/MBA
Corinne Johnson
Position in Group: Undergraduate Student
Current Position: Corrine is an organic chemistry graduate student at Columbia University.
GROUP MEMBERS
THE BOSS
Abraham Waldman
Position in Group: Undergraduate Student
Current Position: Abraham is a Biochemistry major and submatriculating in Chemistry at Penn. He's in Dr. Chenoweth's lab working on riboswitches - metabolite binding RNA structures in the 5'-UTR that act to control the activity of the mRNA.
Ken Chang
changken at seas.upenn.edu
Year: 2013
Hometown: Fresh Meadows, NY
Major: Bioengineering
Joined Lab: May 2010
Research: Biophysics of Endophilin-A1 BAR Domain Membrane Interactions
Interests: Bowling, ping-pong, comic books, The Office, time dilation, and romantic comedies
Wendy Wang
Position in Group: Undergraduate Student
Lisa Pang
lisapang at sas.upenn.edu
Year: 2013
Hometown: Virginia
Major: Biochemistry, English
Joined lab: Sept 2010
Research: Optical trap programming
Interests: sketching, designing, writing poetry, shower singing
Zheng Shi
zhenshi at sas.upenn.edu
Year: 2nd
Hometown: Henan, China
Graduated From: University of Science and Technology of China
Major: Condensed Matter Physics
Joined Lab: January 2011
Research: Investigating the mechanisms of membrane curvature sensing by proteins and domain boundary phenomena on phased separated giant unilamellar vesicles
Interests: Zheng is a big fan of soccer, although he has never played it well. He also loves traveling, reading, playing ping-pong and is starting with tennis
