People

Principal Investigator

Rachel A. Letteri

Assistant Professor

Department of Chemical Engineering

University of Virginia

rl2qm@virginia.edu

201C Wilsdorf Hall

Faculty website Google scholar @rachel_letteri

RAL Bio

Rachel A. Letteri is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of Virginia.  She obtained a B.S. in Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering from the University of Notre Dame in 2010 and a Ph.D. in Polymer Science & Engineering from the University of Massachusetts Amherst under the direction of Professors Todd Emrick and Ryan Hayward, prior to postdoctoral research in the laboratory of Professor Karen Wooley in the Department of Chemistry at Texas A&M University.  Her research interests include polymer- and peptide-based materials with applications in medicine and engineering, and she is thrilled to be building a new lab with an outstanding group of researchers.  Rachel thoroughly enjoys introducing second year undergraduates to chemical engineering through her Material & Energy Balances course.  She also teaches Biochemical Engineering and a graduate course on Chemistry for Engineering Functional Soft Materials.  In her free time, she enjoys cooking, running, and Notre Dame football.

Graduate Students

Mobina Alimadad

jhk2yh@virginia.edu

Mobina is working on developing comb-shaped polymer-peptide conjugates with antimicrobial activities. Her research focuses on how the conjugates' peptide density and molecular weight affect their performance and stability. Outside of the lab, Mobina enjoys cooking, watching movies, and discovering new places in the city.

Kelly M. Bukovic

kmb5pu@virginia.edu

Kelly is interested in developing novel cell culture systems for the advancement of tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. Specifically, she studies cellular responses to thermoresponsive polymeric culture substrates for biomanufacturing engineered skeletal muscle tissue. When not in lab, Kelly enjoys gardening, visiting wineries and art museums, crocheting, and barre.

Aditi Gourishankar

jkd4kk@virginia.edu

Aditi is working on reversibly modifying therapeutics to tailor them for storage and delivery. Using multi-site esterification to temporarily modify therapeutic charge and hydrophobicity, she is currently focused on developing a polymeric encapsulant to form complexes with these modified therapeutics. Outside work, she loves to cook, hike, and spend way too much time on FT/teleparty w her family. 

Jerwin C. Lawrence Go

ruy6bd@virginia.edu

Jerwin is working with degradable polymers for protecting therapeutic peptides. He is exploring tunable properties such as polymer length and hydrophobicity to control complexation and degradation for this dynamic pH-responsive system. He enjoys trying new food and playing old video games.

Darren Miller

htr7ww@virginia.edu

Darren's research focuses on designing hydrogels with controllable mechanical properties and proteolytic degradability. Specifically, he is investigating peptide stereochemical-directed interactions to help establish design rules for using these molecules as dynamic cross-linkers in polymeric hydrogels. Outside of lab, Darren enjoys cooking, golf, and hiking.

Hadley Mosby

fwh9gq@virginia.edu

Hadley is working on designing stereocomplexed coiled coils for therapeutic separation applications. More specifically, she is investigating the stereochemistry-driven interactions that occur between D- and L- peptides, and how they can be applied to chromatography. Outside of lab, Hadley enjoys reading, cooking, going for walks, and trying new coffee shops. 


Undergraduate Students

Joshua Alexander

yax8zn@virginia.edu

Elli Brna

jtv5cs@virginia.edu

Mackenzie Klepsig

gjm8rk@virginia.edu

Laura Pfitzer

vqd5ax@virginia.edu

Keelin Reilly

ptk8gg@virginia.edu

Alumni

Postdocs

PhDs

Undergraduates