Investigators

Stefano Menegatti
Assistant Professor
1054 EB1
Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering
Biomanufacturing Training and Education Center
911 Partners Way
Raleigh, NC 27695
email: smenega@ncsu.edu
https://www.linkedin.com/in/stefano-menegatti-10009a13?trk=hp-identity-name

Ruben Carbonell
Frank Hawkins Kenan Distinguished Professor of Chemical Engineering
Hunt Library, Suite 5100
Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering
Biomanufacturing Training and Education Center
email: ruben@ncsu.edu

Postdoctoral scholars

Rudra Mukherjee
Postdoctoral research scholar
2098 Engineering Building 1
Dept. of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering
911 Partners Way
Raleigh, NC 27695
Email: rmukher2@ncsu.edu
Research topics: Molecular docking, Bioseparations, Affinity peptide, biotechnology

Rudra is a Postdoctoral Research Scholar mentored by Dr. Ruben Carbonell at the Golden LEAF Biomanufacturing Training and Education Center. His research is geared towards using molecular docking and visualization software to develop new screening methods for identification of peptide ligands having applications in protein purification, diagnostics, drug delivery and therapeutics. His PhD work at the University of Arkansas focused on the development of a recombinant peptide production platform. He has extensive experience in molecular biology, bench scale fed-batch fermentation using bioreactors, and protein purification. In addition to his research activities, Rudra is also an amateur photographer who loves to travel and sing.

Solomon Lemma
Postdoctoral research scholar
2098 Engineering Building 1
Dept. of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering
911 Partners Way
Raleigh, NC 27695
Email: smlemma@ncsu.edu
Research topics: polymer membrane, grafting, polymerization, protein separation, filtration

I am currently a Postdoctoral Research Scholar at the Golden LEAF Biomanufacturing Training and Education Center in NCSU under Prof. Ruben G. Carbonell. My research work focuses on the development of UV and Heat Induced grafted functional nonwoven polymers membranes, and investigating the performance of these membranes for bioseparation and purification. I did a PhD in The Free University of Bozen-Bolzano, Italy and Swinburne University of Technology, Australia.  As my favorite hobbies, I would enjoy spending time with my family, going swimming and taking long walks.

Keshav Raghuvanshi
Postdoctoral research scholar
2098 Engineering Building 1
Dept. of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering
911 Partners Way
Raleigh, NC 27695
Email: raghuvanshikeshav@gmail.com
Research topics: coming soon

I grew up in Varanasi (Banaras/Kashi) India where my high school classes and then interest in Chemistry started. From there I went on to get my Bachelor’s Degree in Chemistry at Loyola College Vijayawada with the class of 2010 and Master’s in Organic Chemistry from Banaras Hindu University (B.H.U) Varanasi in 2012 respectively. I obtained a Ph.D. degree (2017) from the Institut für Organische und Biomolekulare Chemie, Georg-August- Universität Göttingen (Stadt, die Wissen schafft), Germany under supervision of Prof. Lutz Ackermann. During my doctoral studies, I designed and studied several synthetic methods for Transition-Metal Catalysis. Among which the metal of my choice seemed to be less-expensive “Ruthenium”. My dissertation focused on developing novel synthetic methods using “Ruthenium(II)-Catalyzed C-N, C-O and C-C Formations via C-H Activation”

I am now working as a postdoctoral research associate in the Abolhasani Lab to develop and construct a Microfluidic Synthesis Platform available for industrial chemists using screening and optimization of different ligands in TM-Catalysis for Chemical Reactions.

Graduate Students

Kaitlyn Bacon
NSF Graduate Research Fellow
Advisor: Stefano Menegatti and Balaji Rao
Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
911 Partners Way
Raleigh, NC 27695
email: kbbacon@ncsu.edu
Research topics: Bioseparations, affinity peptides, light-responsive systems, biologics separation, biotechnology

John Bowen
Graduate Research Assistant
Advisor: Stefano Menegatti and Balaji Rao
Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
911 Partners Way
Raleigh, NC 27695
email: jdbowen3@ncsu.edu
Research topics: biotechnology, protein engineering, protein purification, stem cell culture, bioprocessing

I am a graduate student in the Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Department at NC State co-advised by Dr. Menegatti and Dr. Rao. My research focuses on using light sensitive cyclic peptides as a means of stem cell differentiation and purification.  I graduated with a BS in Chemical Engineering from Penn State University in 2009 and I have worked in the biopharmaceutical industry for 6 years. I have experience in both laboratory and production scale bioprocessing using mammalian and bacterial platforms. I received his MS at NC State in 2015 while working full time. In my free time, he enjoys exercising, going to concerts, and spending time with my wife and dog.

Camden Cutright
NSF Graduate Fellow
Advisor: Dr. Stefano Menegatti
Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
911 Partners Way
Raleigh, NC 27695
Email: cccutri2@ncsu.edu
Research Topics: hydrogel, stimuli responsive, nonwoven, selective permeability

I study stimuli responsive hydrogels for the enhancement of nonwoven fabric. The hydrogels are designed with specific physio-chemical interactions causing the fabric to express reversible selective permeability based on local environmental conditions such as pH, light, and temperature.

Ryan Smith
Chemisty PhD Student
Advisor: Dr. Stefano Menegatti (Chemical Engineering) and Dr. Gorman (Chemistry)
911 Partners Way
Raleigh, NC 27695
Email: rjsmith7@ncsu.edu
Research Topics: Coming Soon!

Coming Soon!

Kevin Day
Chemical Engineering PhD Student
Advisor: Dr. Stefano Menegatti
911 Partners Way
Raleigh, NC 27695
Email: knday@ncsu.edu 
Research Topics: Coming Soon!

Srivatsan Ramesh
Advisor: Dr. Stefano Menegatti, Dr. Jan Genzer, Dr. Saad Khan
Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
911 Partners Way
Raleigh, NC 27695
Email: sramesh4@ncsu.edu
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/srivatsanramesh/
Research Topics: hydrogels, stimuli responsive materials, nonwoven

I am a graduate student in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. I am working on engineering self-healing fabrics comprising of nonwoven support filled with stimuli-responsive hydrogels that can be used to migrate towards a tear and restore the mechanical integrity of the original nonwoven. I completed my undergraduate study in Chemical Engineering at BITS Pilani, Hyderabad, India in 2015. Before pursuing my Ph.D., I worked with Royal Dutch Shell for two years as a process engineer supporting chemical manufacturing plants in Canada, Amsterdam, Singapore and China. Away from research, I enjoy playing soccer, hiking, following the financial markets and reading non-fiction books.

Raphael Prodromou
Advisor: Dr. Stefano Menegatti
Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
911 Partners Way
Raleigh, NC 27695
Email: rprodro@ncsu.edu
Research Topics: Light controlled peptide binding

I am a graduate student in the Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering Department, with Dr.Stefano Menegatti as my advisor. I graduated with a BE in Chemical Engineering from Stony Brook University. My undergraduate research experience ranges from Particle Physics to Chemical Vapor Deposition processes to optimization of drug delivery systems. My hobbies include playing volleyball, hiking, and binge watching TV series on Netflix.

Eduardo Barbieri
Chemical Engineering PhD Student
Advisor: Dr. Stefano Menegatti, Dr. Jan Genzer, and Dr. Saad Khan
911 Partners Way
Raleigh, NC 27695
Email: ebarbie@ncsu.edu
Research Topics: antimicrobial peptides and nonwoven materials

I am a graduate student in the Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, advised by Dr. Stefano Menegatti, Dr. Jan Genzer and Dr. Saad Khan. My research focuses on the integration of antimicrobial and antifungal peptides with nonwoven substrates. I graduated with a BS degree in Chemical Engineering from Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. In my junior, I took classes at NCSU and worked as a lab assistant for Ashton Lavoie and Dr. Stefano Menegatti. Outside the lab, I like cooking, watching movie theaters, and meeting my friends.

Ka Carl Zhang
Chemical Engineering PhD Student
Advisor: Dr. Stefano Menegatti
911 Partners Way
Raleigh, NC 27695
email: kzhang10@ncsu.edu
Research topic: Peptoid surfactants for cell culture

I am a graduate student in the Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Department, advised by Dr. Stefano Menegatti. My research involves the synthesis of novel peptoid surfactants to replace

traditional peptide surfactants such as poloxamer for use in cell culture in industrial bioprocessing applications. I was born in Chengdu, China, and grew up in both the United States and Canada. My BS was completed at Duke University in Biomedical Engineering, and my MS degree was completed at NC State in Biomanufacturing. I have been working at KBI Biopharma, a contract development and manufacturing organization, in upstream cell culture process development for 3 years. Outside of work I enjoy soccer and basketball, and spend a lot of time with my girlfriend and my corgi.

Katie Kilgour
Chemical Engineering PhD Student
Advisor: Dr. Stefano Menegatti & Dr. Michael Daniele
911 Partners Way
Raleigh, NC 27695
Email: kmkilgou@ncsu.edu
Research Topics: Functional Tissue Engineering, Bioscaffolds, Microfluidics

I am a graduate student is the Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering Department, advised by Dr. Stefano Menegatti and Dr. Michael Daniele. My research focuses of integrating biomimetic microvessels into a 3-dimensional tissue scaffolds. I am currently researching different synthetic scaffolds that will best house the stem cells, and easily be made on a large scale. I graduated with a BS from the University of North Carolina Wilmington in Chemistry. I completed 2 years of research in a Biochemistry lab doing computational simulations. Beyond the lab, I enjoy doing sports. My favorite sports include snowboarding, wakeboarding, and gymnastics. Along with this I enjoy spending time with friends and family and going on vacation.

Brendan Turner
Advisor: Dr. Michael Daniele and Dr. Stefano Menegatti
Biomedical Engineering
Engineering Building III, 4130, Raleigh, NC 27695
Email: blturne5@ncsu.edu
Research Topics: Tissue engineering – microvasculature and cardiac mimetic environments, peptide synthesis, and bio-sensing

I am a graduate student in the BME department. I completed my undergraduate

degree in Chemical Engineering at NC State and decided to stay on for my doctorate. My research focuses on developing a cardiac-like tissue construct for healing ischemic cardiac tissue and for modeling the heart in vitro. I was born in Miami, Florida, but spent most of my life in the mountains of western North Carolina. My hobbies include board games, literature, and Cuban food.

Thomas Fabiani
Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering PhD Student
Advisor: Dr. Stefano Menegatti
911 Partners Way
Raleigh, NC 27695
Email: tfabian@ncsu.edu

I got a BSc and a MSc in Chemical Engineering at Alma Mater Studiorum – Università di Bologna (Italy) and I’m currently a graduate student at Chemical and biomolecular engineering, advised by Dr. Menegatti. My research interests regard biosensors for the detection of biological analytes, based on the functionalization of quartz crystal microbalances, and computational techniques for molecular modeling of dendrimers.

Ethan Purnell 
Advisor: Dr. Stefano Menegatti
Chemical and Biomedical Engineering
Engineering Building III, 4130, Raleigh, NC 27695
Email: efpurne2@ncsu.edu
Research Topics: peptides, drug delivery, cellular engineering, synthetic biology

I am a graduate student in the Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering department at NC State, co-advised by Dr. Nathan Crook and Dr. Stefano Menegatti. My research is focused on discovering peptide sequences with therapeutic activity against toxins produced by Clostridium difficile bacteria, and engineering a probiotic yeast to secrete these peptides in the gut environment, thereby rendering the bacteria harmless. I graduated with a B.S. in chemical engineering from the University of Virginia, where I worked under Dr. Kyle Lampe to develop a 3-dimensional, hydrogel-based cell culture platform to study the process of myelination in vitro. Outside of research, I enjoy playing guitar (and all things music, really), hiking, travelling, cooking, and brewing kombucha and all varieties of alcoholic beverages.

Ryan Kilgore
Advisor:  Dr. Stefano Menegatti
Chemical and Biomedical Engineering
Engineering Building III, 4130, Raleigh, NC 27695
Email: rekilgor@ncsu.edu
Research Topics: undecided

I was born in Portland, Oregon, but grew up in Raleigh, NC. I completed my undergrad at NC State and graduated in May 2017 with a BS in Chemical Engineering. Between undergrad and grad school, I worked at Procter & Gamble as a process engineer and line leader managing the team that produced liquid NyQuil, DayQuil, and ZzzQuil (helping out with Pepto Bismol production as needed). I enjoy cooking, exercising, outdoor activities like boating and snow skiing, and attending events like the Durham Bulls and live music with family and friends.

Brandyn Moore
Advisor:  Dr. Stefano Menegatti & Dr. Michael Daniele
Chemical and Biomedical Engineering
Engineering Building III, 4130, Raleigh, NC 27695
Email: bdmoore2@ncsu.edu
Research Topics: Bioseparations, Peptide synthesis, Light-activated peptide binding, Microfluidics

I am a graduate student in the Chemical & Biological Engineering department, co-advised by Dr. Stefano Menegatti and Dr. Michael Daniele. I was born and raised on small, family-owned dairy farm in central Pennsylvania, where I received my undergraduate degree in Chemical Engineering from Bucknell University. My research here is focused on the separation of sensitive biological compounds and cells. Through the use of light-sensitive linkers, cyclic peptides can be produced that isomerize via specific irradiation, resulting in a conformational change that causes biological compound binding, then unbinding. These peptides have the potential for cheaply separating biological compounds of interest without damaging them during the elution process like in most adsorption columns that induce unbinding through the use of pH shifts. In my free time, I maintain a wide variety of hobbies, including volleyball, fishing, guitar, and brewing.

Undergraduate students

Rachel Finkelstein
Undergraduate Research Assistant
Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
911 Partners Way
Raleigh, NC 27695
email: rbfinkel@ncsu.edu
Research topics: hydrogel, stimuli responsive, nonwoven, selective permeability

Jack Davis

Undergraduate Research Assistant
Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
911 Partners Way
Raleigh, NC 27695
email: jedavis8@ncsu.edu

I am an undergraduate research assistant in Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering. I work closely with Srivatsan Ramesh, a graduate student in the BioPep lab, with a focus on developing hydrogels that have various applications in nonwovens or novel drug delivery methods. When I am not in lab, I enjoy hiking, traveling, working out, and watching soccer.

Alumni

Pandiyarajan Chinnayan Kannan
Postdoctoral Scholar
Email: pchinna@ncsu.edu
Research topics: Hydrogels, Surface-attached networks, Swelling, Anti-fouling, Protein adsorption, Platelets and Cellular adhesion.
I am a postdoctoral researcher working in Prof. Menegatti’s group at NC State University. My research goals focus on surface-attached orthogonal gradient hydrogels and investigate their network characteristics in a systematic manner. I studied chemistry (Bachelors and Masters) at the University of Madras (Loyola College), Chennai, India. I’ve gained a doctoral degree (PhD) in polymer science at the University of Freiburg (IMTEK-CPI), Freiburg, Germany and immediately joined as a postdoc at NC State University.

Tuhidul Islam
Postdoctoral research scholar
2098 Engineering Building 1
Dept. of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering
Email: tislam@ncsu.edu
Research topics: Downstream processing; Phage display; Peptide and protein chemistry; bioconjugations; Membrane grafting and functionalization

I was a postdoctoral researcher working in Prof. Ruben Carbonell’s group at NC State University. I have attended the Jacobs University Bremen, Germany, for my PhD in Biochemical Engineering. My research interests are downstream processing of biotherapeutics, antibiotics that bypass bacterial resistance, and polymeric biomaterials for biomedical applications. At NC State University, I am working on the fabrication and characterization of agarose, silica, and membrane based adsorbents for affinity and ion-exchange chromatography. Further, I am working on the identification of phage-derived peptides that bind specifically to target protein, antibody and antibody fragments. In my leisure time I enjoy gardening, playing soccer and cricket, watching movie, travelling, cooking and spending time with my wife.

Matthew Roach
Undergraduate Research Assistant
Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
email: mkroach@ncsu.edu
Research topics: cyclic peptides, protein purification, peptide synthesis, ligand characterization, affinity ligands

William Kish
Graduate Research Assistant
Advisor: Ruben Carbonell
Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
email: williamstanleykish@gmail.com
Research topics: downstream processing, chromatography, cyclic peptides, affinity ligands, biotechnology

I was advised by Dr. Ruben Carbonell and mentored by Dr. Stefano Menegatti. My current research involves the design, discovery and development of cyclic peptide affinity ligands for recombinant human erythropoietin. In my prior research project, I studied peptide-based affinity adsorbents with high binding capacity for monoclonal antibodies. Before joining CBE, I earned a BS in Chemistry from the University of North Carolina Wilmington and conducted an honors thesis under Dr. Christopher Halkides entitled “Synthesis and characterization of various enzyme inhibitors”.  In my free time, I enjoy spending time with my beautiful wife Amy, cooking, running, playing ice hockey and chess and serving at Vintage church.

Last known whereabouts:
Senior Scientist, Gene Therapy Process Development
Bamboo Therapeutics, a wholly owned subsidiary of Pfizer Inc.

Research topics: Azobenzenes, peptide aggregation, molecular dynamics simulations, wavelengths of light

Rosalyn Hatlen
Undergraduate Research Assistant
Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
911 Partners Way
Raleigh, NC 27695
email: rrhatlen@ncsu.edu
Research topics: polymer membrane, grafting, polymerization, protein separation, filtration

Qian Li
Postdoctoral Scholar
Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
911 Partners Way
Raleigh, NC 27695
Email: qli21@ncsu.edu
Research topics: polymer membrane, grafting, polymerization, protein separation, filtration

I am a postdoctoral scholar in the Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, working under Dr. Ruben Carbonell. My research involves the modification of nonwoven membrane via UV and heat method, preparation of the functional exchange nonwoven membrane, and application of the anion and cation exchange nonwoven membrane on protein separation. I got my PhD degree in Chemical Engineering from Tsinghua University, China. Outside of the lab, I enjoy dancing, cooking, travelling, and spending time with my husband.