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About the PI: Andy I. Nguyen

Andy is a native of Orange County, CA and obtained his B.S. in chemistry from UC Irvine in 2010 and Ph.D. in inorganic chemistry from UC Berkeley in 2016. While at UCI, he explored redox-active organometallic complexes of early transition metals in Alan Heyduk’s group. At UC Berkeley, with T. Don Tilley, he worked on the chemistry of artificial photosynthesis, where he developed cobalt metalloclusters and studied their mechanism of catalytic oxygen-evolution. In a postdoctoral fellowship at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory with Ron Zuckermann, he gained expertise in peptide and peptidomimetic chemistry. Since 2020, his research group at the University of Illinois Chicago integrates peptide design with inorganic chemistry to tackle challenges involving metalloenzyme mimicry, energy-conversion catalysis, and materials design.

Team

Alumni

​Graduate Researchers

  • Selina Hess - Ph.D 2025 - Currently, safety officer at Northwestern University

  • Sherrie Vicker (Heinz-Kunert) - Ph.D 2024 - Currently, Analytical Scientist St. Croix Sensory

  • Juan Perez (Masters 2022)

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Undergraduates Researchers

  • Daniel F. Wang (Undergraduate researcher, 2022-2024) - Currently at UIC College of Medicine

  • Ashma Pandya (Undergraduate Researcher; 2020-2021)- Currently a graduate student at Caltech

  • Phuong Nguyen Tran (Undergraduate Researcher 2020-2023) - Currently a graduate student at UW Madison

  • Aryan Engineer (Undergraduate Researcher/Post-bac 2022-2023)

  • Kishan Bharwad (Summer Undergraduate Researcher 2023)

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Post-doctoral Researchers

  • Sabari Ghosh (Postdoctoral Researcher; 2020-2022)- Currently, Scientist II at Vilya (https://vilyatx.com/)

Join us!

  • Post-docs: (3/10/25) We are currently accepting post-doc applications for metallopeptide design. Interested applicants should send a Cover Letter, CV, and names of 3 references.

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  • Graduate Students: The Nguyen lab seeks graduate students interested in using bio-inspired synthesis and design to solve both fundamental and practical problems in peptide chemistry, biomaterials, and sustainability.

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  • Undergraduates: Our lab is dedicated to training undergrads with a strong interest in chemistry or biochemistry.  Applicant requirements:

    • Able to commit at least 3 days a week during the school year, 4-5 hours a day. Send a course schedule.

    • Completed freshman year but not past junior year.

    • Knowledge of organic chemistry (self taught or taken courses).

    • Ideally have a GPA of 3.5 or higher in science/math courses, though exceptional cases will be considered. Send a transcript.

    • A 3/4 to 1 page, single-spaced description what interests you about our lab.

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