Members

George P. Lisi (CV)
Thomas J. & Alice M. Tisch Assistant Professor
Department of Molecular Biology, Cell Biology & Biochemistry
George is a New England native, receiving his undergraduate education at Fairfield University (2009) and Ph.D. at Dartmouth (2014) under the direction of Dean E. Wilcox and Ekaterina Pletneva. His graduate studies focused on the thermodynamic and spectroscopic properties of zinc- and iron-containing proteins. George was a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Chemistry at Yale University (2014 - 2018) under the mentorship of Pat Loria, studying the biochemistry and biophysics of enzyme structure, dynamics and allosteric regulation by NMR. He joined the Brown faculty in September 2018, where his group studies the chemistry and structural biology of enzyme complexes.

George teaches introductory and advanced biochemistry courses for undergraduates and graduate students and is a guest lecturer on topics of protein biophysics, allostery, and drug discovery in several other courses at Brown, as well as at outside Universities.

Helen Belato - Postdoc - Helen received a B.S. in molecular & cell biology from the University of Connecticut and received her Ph.D. in molecular pharmacology from Brown as an NSF graduate research fellow investigating the allosteric pathways within thermophilic Cas9 enzymes.

Manish Chaubey - Postdoc - Manish received a B.S. in chemistry from the Indian Institute of Technology and completed a Ph.D. in protein NMR spectroscopy at the Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology in Tubingen, Germany. Prior to joining the lab, Manish conducted NMR studies of membrane proteins as a postdoc at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory (with J. Long) and at Harvard Medical School (with J. Chou).

Jennifer Cui - Graduate Student (Yr 6) - Jenn received a B.S. in biochemistry from Queen's University and M.S. from McMaster University, while also conducting research at the University of Ottawa, the Matrix Biology Institute, and Harvard Medical School. She joined the MCB Ph.D. program in 2019 and is investigating the structure, dynamics, and function of colony-stimulating factors (CSFs). She is a 2023-24 Blavatnik Family Graduate Fellow.

Erin Skeens - Graduate Student (Yr 5) - Erin received a B.S. in biology from Tufts University and prior to joining the lab, she studied immune checkpoint regulators at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School. She joined the MCB graduate program in 2020 and is investigating the latent allostery and biochemical signaling in MIF. She was a recipient of the inaugural ACS Division of Biological Chemistry Young Investigator Award in 2024. She is a 2024-25 Blavatnik Family Graduate Fellow.

Maddie Clark - Graduate Student (Yr 4) - Maddie received a B.S. in cellular, molecular, and physiological biology from Christopher Newport University. She joined the MCB Ph.D. program in 2021 and is studying the structure and mechanism of the HuR RNA binding protein.

Vinnie Widjaja - Graduate Student (Yr 4) - Vinnie received a B.S. in chemistry & biochemistry from San Diego State University and carried out prior research at SDSU and Stanford. Her Ph.D. research investigates the allosteric and inhibitory mechanisms of MIF-2. She has been a MARC Scholar, an NIH IMSD and T32 Fellow, and received the NSF GRFP in 2023.

Alexa Knight - Graduate Student (Yr 3) - Alexa received a B.A. in anthropology from UMass, Boston and a B.S. in biomedical sciences from the University of Washington. She previously studied outer membrane vesicle biogenesis in pathogenic bacteria and currently studies the mechanism and specificity of a thermophilic Cas9, as joint graduate student in the Lisi and Jogl labs.

Camila Molina - Graduate Student (Yr 3) - Camila received a B.S. in forensic science at Bay Path University and prior to joining the lab, conducted X-ray crystallographic research at UMass Amherst. Her Ph.D. project focuses on molecular characterization of allostery in Cas12a.

Iz Varghese - Graduate Student (Yr 2) - Iz received a B.S. in chemistry with a concentration in biochemistry and minor in english from Colby College. Prior to joining Brown, they conducted research in biophysical chemistry at Colby College and the University of Michigan. They are an NIH T32 recipient as a joint graduate student in the Rubenstein and Lisi labs.

Sirena D'Orazio - Undergraduate - Sirena is a junior undergraduate concentrating in biochemistry & molecular biology. Her work in the lab centers around mechanisms of drug binding to trimeric cytokines.

Anna Steffen - Undergraduate - Anna is a senior undergraduate concentrating in biochemistry. Her work in the lab aims to dissect the molecular mechanism of HuR binding to target mRNAs and microRNAs.

Lab Alumni

Postdocs   Years Subsequent Position
Emily Chen 2022 - 2023 Scientist, New England Biolabs
Kyle East 2019 - 2021 Scientist, biomolecular NMR spectroscopy, Eli Lilly & Co.

Graduate Students Years Subsequent Position
Helen Belato Ph.D. 2023 Postdoctoral Fellow, Brown University (G. Lisi)
Emily Chen Ph.D. 2022     Postdoctoral Fellow, Brown University (G. Lisi)

Undergraduates Years Subsequent Position
Salman Aji   2024
Mariana Floody 2023 - 2024 Research Associate, Yale University
Jeet Patel   2022 - 2023 Research Associate, University of Florida College of Medicine
Yannie Lam 2022 - 2023 PhD program, biochemistry, Stanford University
Adela Herce 2021 - 2022 Research Associate, Brigham & Women's Hospital
Aditya Rao 2021 - 2022 Research Associate, Texas Heart Institute
Jon Scalabrini 2021 - 2022 MD-PhD program, Columbia University
J.P. Moise 2020 - 2021 West Virginia University School of Medicine
Nadia Goldberg 2019 - 2021 Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons
Samuel Croes 2019 - 2021 Life Sciences Consultant, Acsel Health
Allison Gallagher 2019 Virginia Commonwealth University School of Pharmacy
Ji Yun (Estelle) Han 2019 The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University