Group Members

Dr. Peng Xiao joined our group as a postdoc associate in Jan 2024. Peng Xiao has expertise in biomolecular solid-state NMR and is responsible for pushing the progress of plant cell wall analysis in our group. Before joining MSU, Peng has received PhD in biophysics from University of Guelph, Canada, under the supervision of Dr. Vlad Ladizhansky. 
Dr. Cameron Vojvodin joined our group as a postdoc associate in Jan 2024. Cameron brings in valuable expertise in material research and quadrupolar nuclei, which has enabled a new streamline of projects in our group. Before joining MSU, Cameron received his PhD training from Dr. Rob Schukro at Florida State University and National High Magnetic Field Laboratory. 
Dr. Jayasubba Reddy Yarava (Subba) joined our group as a postdoc associate in Jan 2023. Subba brings in valuable expertise in protein dynamics and proton detection methods. Before joining MSU, Subba has received NMR training from FMP Berlin, EPFL Lausanne, RIKEN, and IISc. 
Dr. Mustapha El Hariri Nokob joined our group as a postdoc associate in Jan 2024. Mustapha was trained in solid-state NMR spectroscopy of carbohydrate systems such as alginate and hydrogel. Before joining MSU, Mustapha has received his PhD degree from University of Groningen, Netherlands, under the supervision of Dr. Patrick van der Wel.
Isha Gautam is a graduate student in our group since Dec 2021. She is comparing the cell wall structure in different Aspergillus strains to decode the structural contributors to virulence. Isha obtained her B.S. (2020) and M.S. (2021) in Chemistry from Prairie View A&M University, Texas. 
Debkumar Debnath is a graduate student who joined our group in Dec 2022. Deb obtained his M.S. from IIT Kharagpur. He is working on the plant cell wall and lignin projects.
Ankur Ankur is a graduate student who joined our group in Dec 2022. Ankur completed B.Sc.(Hons.) Chemistry from the University of Delhi and M.Sc. from Indian Institute of technology Indore, India. He is leading the project on Cryptococcus cell wall characterization.
Kalpana Singh is a graduate student in our group since Dec 2022. She completed B.S. (Hons) and M.S. in chemistry from University of Delhi, India. She has one publication so far. She is exploring the cell wall structural features of Candida mutant strains.
Anand Jacob is a graduate student in our group since Dec 2022. Anand obtained B.S. in Chemistry from University of Delhi and M.S. from National Institute of Technology, India. Anand has a publication so far. His research is focused on the structural elucidation of Candida cell walls.
Priya Sahu is a graduate student in our group since Dec 2023. She completed integrated M.S. and B.S. in chemistry from National Institute of Science Education and Research (NISER), India. She is working on the structural characterization of plant materials.
Yohara Ranasinghe is a graduate student since Dec 2024. Before that she earned BSc. (Hons) In Chemical Sciences from the Institute of Chemistry Ceylon, Sri Lanka. Her projects include characterizing the conidial cell wall of Aspergillus fumigatus and its various mutants.
Yifan Xu is a graduate student. He started working in our group as a visiting scholar in 2024-2025, and then became a graduate student in our PhD program. Before that, Yifan obtained his M.S. degree from University of Buffalo. Yifan is characterizing the structure of conidia cell walls in a variety of mutants. 
Mahsa Doosti is a graduate student in our group since 2025. She earned her B.Sc. in Chemistry and M.Sc. in Analytical Chemistry from Sharif University of Technology in Tehran, Iran. She has two publications so far. 
Abdul Alsanad: Abdul is a master student. He was an undergraduate researcher in our group in 2024-2025 and was a coauthor on a publication on PNAS regarding S. pombe cell division. After that, he has joined our group as a master student since Summer 2025. He is currently working on a project focused on Candida cell wall structure. 
Undergraduate Researchers: We have the tradition of working with a vibrant group of undergraduate researchers from different departments of biology, chemistry, match and engineering. They are contributing to various research projects in the lab, from fungal culture to spectroscopic analysis and plant-based biomaterials. The current undergraduate researcher is Aswath Karai (2023-present) and we are actively looking for new members to join the team. 

 

Alumni

Dr. Xue Kang was our first postdoc coworker. We are fortunate to have the opportunity to work with her at the most difficult time when our new research group is being built; her expertise has ensured the success of almost every project. Xue obtained her B.S. degree from Zhejiang University and Ph.D. from Peking University. She conducted postdoctoral research at Yale and then joined our group as a postdoc associate in 2017-2020. She is now a PI in the Institute of Drug Discovery Technology at Ningbo University, China.
Dr. Alex Kirui was our first graduate student, and the first pillar of our plant cell wall project. He joined our group in August 2017, and received his Ph.D. degree in Spring 2022, with 13 high-profile publications and more than 600 citations before graduation. He is currently a Research and Development Engineer at Intel.
Dr. Malitha Dickwella Widanage was our first graduate student on the fungal project. He joined the group on April 19, 2018 and graduated in Fall 2022. Before joining us, Malitha obtained his B.S. from University of Colombo, Sri Lanka. Malitha has mentored junior students to ensure the success of the fungal projects. He is currently a postdoc associate in Dr. Ramamoorthy’s Group at University of Michigan.
Dr. Liyanage Fernando (Dev) was a graduate student on the fungal project from Dec 2018 to July 2023. Before joining us, Dev obtained her B.S. from University of Colombo, Sri Lanka. She has 8 publications, delivered multiple talks at major conferences (e.g. ENC and ASMBB) and received 4 awards. She is currently a postdoc associate at the Complex Carbohydrate Research Center (CCRC).
Dr. Wancheng Zhao was a graduate student developing database and DNP methods for characterizing plants and soil from 2019 to 2023. He obtained his B.S. from Jilin University and M.S. from Renmin University . Wancheng is highly productive, with lots of publications. He gave great talks at ENC, ACS, and Rocky Mountain conferences. Wancheng received multiple awards, including travel awards from both 48th and 50th SEMRC (2019 & 2022) and the Dumas Fellowship from LSU (2019-2022) and the Dissertation Fellowship from MSU (2023). He is currently a postdoc associate at NIH.
Dr. Fabien Deligey worked with us as a postdoc associate in 2020-2022, focused on the plant cell wall projects. He obtained his PhD degree from Université de Lorraine, France. He is currently a Client Support & NMR Training Engineer at Bruker, France.
Dr. Nader Ghassemi has worked with us as a postdoc associate in 2020-2021. Nader obtained his PhD degree from the Department of Physics at Texas A&M University. He is currently a research scientist in the radiology department at Kamel Kidney Cancer Research Center.
Dr. Qinghui Cheng worked with us as a postdoc associate in 2022-2024, during which he pioneered the use of solid-state NMR to understand the cell walls in the “black fungi”, Mucor and Rhizopus species.  Before coming to MSU, Qinghui received his PhD training from Dr. Wei Qiang’s group at Binghamton University. After departure from MSU, he become an Associate Investigator/Associate Professor in Guangxi Academy of Science, China. 
Dr. Krishna Bankala worked with us as a postdoc associate in 2023-2024, during which he has brought in valuable expertise in molecular biology. Before joining MSU, Krishna obtained his PhD from Monash University, Australia and finished his first postdoc training at University of Michigan. After departure from our group, Krishna became a senior Resident in the All India Institute of Medical Science. 
Dr. S. Chandra Shekar was the senior scientist of our group in 2020-2022. We benefited from his in-depth and broad expertise in solid- and solution-state NMR as well as MRI. Before joining our team Chandra already has more than 30 publications. He implemented a new 3D correaltion pulse sequence for carbohydrate analysis and is joining DOE Ames National Lab in 2022.
Arnab Chakraborty was a graduate student in our group from 2018 to 2021, during which he has been characterizing fungal mutants, with a first-authored publication on Nat. Commun. He graduated with M.S. degree and joined Pharmaceutical Product Development (PPD). Inc as an Associate Scientist.
Dr. Alexandre Poulhazan is a visiting scholar who has stayed in our group for six months. He brought in the expertise for characterizing algal cell walls, which has led to the publication of a front cover paper on JACS and a followup study on Nat Commun. He is from Université du Québec à Montréal, under the supervision of Dr. Isabelle Marcotte. The exchange was supported by Nature et technologies & Université du Québec à Montréal. He is now a postdoc scholar at Stanford.
Jianyu Guan is a visiting scholar from the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. He brings in expertise in lignin valorization and biomass pretreatment. He will explore the application of solid-state NMR to understand these industrially important processes.
Dr. Liliana Martínez is a visiting scholar who has worked with us for six months to characterize the salt-effect on fungal cell wall structure. She is from Universidad Autónoma del Estado de Morelos, supervised by Dr. Ramon Batista. 
Irina Gomez is a visiting scholar in our lab for 8 months in 2022, characterization of fungal cell wall’s response to hypersaline conditions. She is from Universidad Autónoma del Estado de Morelos, supervised by Dr. Ramon Batista. She is now a postdoc at UT Health Houston. 
Undergraduate Researchers: We have been benefiting from the contributions of active and brilliant undergraduates who major in Chemistry, Biology, and Computer Sciences. We are grateful to the hard work by Adrian Chen (2017-2020), Jenny Quach (2019-2021), Kayla N Bougere (2019), Uluc Ozdenvar (2018), Joshua Toche (Spring 2020), Sean Wood (2019-2021), Cassie Louque (2021), Matthew Burton (2021),  Kieran Doran (2023), Tatum Beckemeyer (2023-2024), and Anna Nguyen (2024), Abdul Alsanad (2024-2025), and Roy Dibakar (2024-2025). Adrian co-authored two papers published on Nat Commun and Commun Biol on fungal cell wall structure and human defensin dynamics. Uluc helped with the development of an NMR database, with a publication on J Biol NMR. Jenny was a member of the fungal research team with a publication on Biochem Soc Trans. Abdul Alsanad coauthored a paper on PNAS. Roy Dibakar coauthored a paper on Angew Chem Int Ed. 
High-school researcher: The lab’s first undergraduate researcher Reina Li has continued as an undergraduate at GalTech. Reina joined Wang lab in Summer 2024 through the High School Honors Science, Math, and Engineering Program (HSHSP). After the program, she continued working in Wang Lab as a volunteer. Her hard work has rewarded her as a coauthor on an article published on Carbohydrate Polymers in 2025.

 

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