PEOPLE

Anna M. Kietrys received her Ph.D. in chemistry, in the field of biochemistry from the Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry Polish Academy of Sciences where she studied epigenetic mechanisms of herbicide response. She continued her training there as a postdoctoral fellow under the direction of Marcin T. Chmielewski, working on spectrometric detection of modified nucleosides. In 2015 she moved to Stanford University as a postdoctoral fellow with Eric T. Kool, where she developed a novel ultra-deep RNA-seq approach for epitranscriptome analysis and examined spatiotemporal control of transcriptome. Now, she continues her adventure with RNA world, together with Graduate and Undergraduate Students, at the Carnegie Mellon University! In her free time she loves traveling with friends, swimming and biking.

amkietrys@cmu.edu

Megan grew up in New Concord, Ohio and graduated from Denison University (Granville, Ohio) in 2017 with a B.S. in Chemistry and a B.A. in Creative Writing. She came to Carnegie Mellon in the fall of 2017 and joined the Kietrys Group in 2019.

mvanhorn@andrew.cmu.edu

Blair grew up in Beijing, China. She came to Carnegie Mellon University in 2019 for her undergraduate study in biological chemistry. She joined the Kietrys Group in 2020.

zihand@andrew.cmu.edu

Erika is a rising junior at CMU majoring in Chemistry on the Biological Chemistry track. She is from sunny Southern California but enjoys the cold weather and snow in Pittsburgh. In her free time, Erika likes to read books and crochet. She joined the Kietrys Group in 2020.

erikak@andrew.cmu.edu

Mason is a rising sophomore at Carnegie Mellon University and grew up in Morgantown, West Virginia. He is currently pursuing a B.S. in Chemistry. He is on the CMU men’s soccer team, and in his free time, enjoys spending time with friends and family. He joined the Kietrys Group in 2020.

jshockle@andrew.cmu.edu

Marta Rachwalak graduated from Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, Poland in 2014, and in the same year started her doctoral studies at the Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry Polish Academy of Sciences, Poznań. She received her Ph.D. in 2020. Her dissertation considered synthetic and biological potential of nucleoside diphosphates, designed as new possible anti-HIV drugs. Her research interests include biological chemistry, especially new nucleotide analogs of biological importance. She came to Carnegie Mellon in the fall of 2020 and joined the Kietrys Group as a postdoctoral fellow.

mrachwal@andrew.cmu.edu

I completed my Bachelors in Chemistry from University of Delhi, India in 2018. Following this, I went on to pursue a Masters in Chemistry from Indian Institute of Technology Jodhpur, India. My research interests lie in chemical biology and molecular biology.

avleenc@andrew.cmu.edu

Clara grew up in Shanghai, China. She is a rising junior studying Chemical Engineering and Biomedical Engineering at CMU. In her free time, she enjoys exploring good dining places in Pittsburgh. She joined the Kietrys Group in 2021.

jianshi@andrew.cmu.edu

Kaizheng was born and raised in Hangzhou, China. He got his B.S. in Chemistry at China Agricultural University. He is a soccer fan, and also loves the gym and movies. He came to CMU and joined Kietrys Lab in Aug 2021.

kaizhenl@andrew.cmu.edu

Dhruv Sharma - rotating Ph. D. student, Chemistry Department at CMU, spring 2021

Allison Mi - senior at State College Area High School, August 2021