Principal investigator

Professor A. James Link

ajlink@princeton.edu

207 Hoyt Laboratory
609.258.7191

Jamie Professor Link grew up in Newburyport, MA and obtained his B.S.E. in Chemical Engineering from Princeton University in 2000. Following undergraduate studies, he moved to southern California to pursue a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering at Caltech under the direction of David Tirrell. After receiving his Ph.D. in 2005, Prof. Link was an NIH Kirschstein Fellow at the University of Texas, Austin, in the lab of George Georgiou. He began his appointment as assistant professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering at Princeton in July 2007 and was promoted to associate professor in 2013 and professor in 2018.





Current graduate students

Dean Miller

dm0664@princeton.edu

Dean Dean is a second-year graduate student in the CBE department who graduated from Penn State with a major in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. At Penn State, he worked with Dr. Jordan Bisanz to develop engineered Lactobacillus probiotics as therapeutics. He then spent over a year working at Merck on an in vitro pharmacology team and a preclinical/clinical bioanalytical automation team before joining the CBE department at Princeton. Outside of lab, he enjoys traveling and hiking.











Sophia Lee

sl7495@princeton.edu

Sophia Sophia is a first-year graduate student in the CBE department. She grew up in Michigan and graduated from the University of Michigan with a BSE in Chemical Engineering. Her previous research in Prof. Joerg Lahann's group at UofM involved engineering protein nanoparticles for brain cancer therapy. Outside of lab, Sophia enjoys going to concerts, reading, and exploring new museums and cafes.











Current undergraduate students

Helen Barkley '27

helen.barkley@Princeton.EDU

Helen Helen is a senior in the CBE department from Menlo Park, CA. She joined the lab in 2026 to study lasso peptides for her senior thesis. In her free time, she enjoys playing soccer, giving campus tours, traveling, and doing jigsaw puzzles.







Najatene Saunders '27

ns2842@Princeton.EDU

Naja Najatene is a senior in the Chemical and Biological Engineering (CBE) department, pursuing a minor in Quantitative and Computational Biology. Originally from Sicklerville, NJ, she joined the lab in 2025 to advance the development of more efficient thermostable PETases. When not in the lab, she enjoys crocheting, solving Sudoku puzzles, and baking delicious pies and cakes!







Jessica Wang '27

jw3356@princeton.edu

Jessica Jessica is a senior in the CBE department from Montréal, Canada. She joined the lab during the summer of 2024 to study the development of thermostable PETases. Beyond working in the lab, she enjoys painting, crocheting, playing video games, and swimming.











Joseph Sherrod '28

js6240@princeton.edu

Joe Joe is a junior in the Chemistry department from Mobile, AL. He joined the lab to contribute to a project focused on engineered lasso peptides. Outside of the lab, Joe enjoys listening to live music, playing volleyball, and playing the drums.











Yvonne Shih '29

ys9215@princeton.edu

Yvonne Yvonne is a sophomore in the CBE department from Winston-Salem, NC. She joined the lab in 2026 through the CBE Sophomore Research Experience sequence and plans to engage in research involving RiPP engineering. Outside of the lab, she enjoys trying new crafts, golfing, and playing the piano.











Alumni

Visitors

  • Prof. Danielle Guarracino, 2021-2022, TCNJ
  • Prof. Jin Montclare, 2015-2016, NYU

Postdocs

  • affiliation after Princeton/current affiliation
    • Toby Johnson, PhD 2024-2026, Cambridge University
    • Truc Do, PhD 2020-2023, Merck
    • Hader Elashal, PhD 2018-2022, NJ Bio/Bristol Myers Squibb
    • Hendrik Schröder, PhD 2019-2021, Universität Ulm/Robert Bosch
    • Yi Zhang, PhD 2019-2020, AbSci/Cataya Bio

    Graduate Students

  • affiliation after Princeton/current affiliation
    • Angela Zhu, PhD *26, University of Michigan
    • Drew Carson, PhD *25, K & L Gates
    • Brian Choi, PhD *24, Genentech
    • Alina Thokkadam, PhD *24, Oddity Labs
    • Li Cao, PhD *23, Bain
    • Wai Ling Cheung-Lee, PhD *19, Merck
    • Joseph Koos, PhD *19, enEvolv/ArkeaBio
    • Frank Piscotta, PhD *18, Rockefeller University/Lieber Institute for Brain Development
    • Chuhan Zong, PhD *18, Merck/Qatar Investment Authority
    • Caitlin Allen, PhD *16, enEvolv/ArkeaBio
    • Alan Futran, PhD *16, BMS/Schrodinger
    • Mikhail Maksimov, PhD *15, Illumina/Aether
    • Diya Abdeljabbar, PhD *12, Merck/Eli Lilly
    • Siyan Zhang, PhD *12, Merck
    • Jessica Pan, PhD *12, Sloan-Kettering/Merck
    • Tiziana Svenningsen (2025), visiting PhD student from Aarhus University
    • Moises Alejo Hernandez (2024), visiting MS student from UNAM
    • Larry So, MA *19
    • Jack Lu, MA *14, Johnson and Johnson
    • Jingjing Sun, MA *09

    Undergraduates

  • affiliation after Princeton/current affiliation
    • Alex Tao '29
    • Vigneshwari Sivakumar '29
    • Dawood Virk '25, Merck
    • Eoin Gaffney '24, Trinity Life Sciences
    • Aavi Gupta '24
    • Seyi Jung '24
    • Arthur Acuña '23, Aquinas Institute
    • Kelly Gallagher '23, research tech at Penn
    • Monica Patiño '22, Stemloop
    • Nathan Alam '21, SpaceX/Scale AI
    • Jane Brown '21, Princeton M.Eng. program/MD program UNC
    • Basira Daqiq '21 (Smith College exchange student, spring 2020)
    • Maggie Orlova '20, research tech at Harvard/Vanderbilt PhD program
    • Devorah Saffern '20, Marwood Group/Progyny
    • Megan Whitley '20, Anheuser-Busch/University of Cincinnati College of Medicine
    • Angelo Kayser-Browne '22 (summer research, summer 2019)/MD program at Harvard
    • Moshe Beiser '19, MD program at Albert Einstein College of Medicine/NYU Langone Health
    • Annie Wang '19, Research tech at Rutgers/MS program at Rutgers Med
    • Isabel Hsu '19, McKinsey
    • Heather White (Mississippi St, REU student, summer 2018), PhD program at Northwestern
    • Theo Yang (Caltech, SURF student, summer 2018)
    • Madison Parry '18, Merck/DPS Group Global
    • Michelle Richardson '18, MD program at Rochester/NYU Langone Health
    • Danielle Taylor '18, MS program, Duke/ZS Associates
    • Shubham Chatterjee '17, Boston Consulting Group/masters program at Penn
    • Aastha Chokshi '17, MD program, New Jersey Medical School, Newark/Resident, Brown University
    • Garrett Skrbich '17, Pfizer/Abbott
    • Aded Yako '17, DDS program, Columbia/Resident, OHSU School of Dentistry
    • Rebecca Philpott (REU student, summer 2016, Lyon College)
    • Kenneth Hubbell '16, MD program at Columbia/Resident, UCSF
    • Caroline Kim '16, USDA
    • Jason Qin '16, Kallyope/PhD program at Stanford
    • Chad Wangsanuwat '16, PhD program, UCSB/Moderna
    • Lawrence Yu '16, Beyond Meat/United Dwelling
    • Cat Nguyen '17 (summer research, summer 2015)
    • Steven Tsai '17 (independent work, spring 2015), MD Program at UPenn
    • Ariel Kunkel '15, Seilevel/dv01
    • Dan Thanh (Nini) Le '15, Medtronic/Pramand LLC
    • Caitlin Wood '15, PhD program, University of Delaware/Merck
    • Cathy Chen '14, MD program, University of Mississippi/Assistant Professor, University of Alabama, Birmingham
    • Maria Chen '14, MD-PhD program, Baylor/resident at Mass General Hospital
    • Bozhena Lisko Murphy '14, Goldman Sachs/Tiger Global Management
    • Allyse Terrell '14, Capital One/NuBank
    • Michelle Wu '14, PhD program, Stanford/Verily Life Sciences
    • Michael Foglio (REU student summer 2013, Richard Stockton College), Atlanticare
    • Yan Wu '14, PhD program, UCSD/Altos Labs
    • Edwin Jeng '13, PhD Program, Stanford/Abbvie
    • Hannah Kaplan '13, Dana Farber Cancer Institute/Duolingo
    • Santiago Martinez Legaspi '13, PhD program, Rice/American School Foundation
    • Jen Siegel '13, Integra Life Sciences/Verily
    • Eugenia Zah '13, PhD Program, UCLA/Amgen
    • Norah Ashoura (REU student summer 2012, Florida Inst. of Tech.), PhD program, UT Austin/Elevate Bio
    • Angel Placeres Beltran (REU student summer 2012, University of Puerto Rico), PhD program CWRU
    • John Tian '12, Epic Systems Corporation/ECS
    • Mehek Punatar '12, Masters Program, Columbia University/Adobe
    • Michelle Luo Petkov '12, PhD Program, NC State/BMS
    • Moises Montalvo (REU student summer 2011, University of Puerto Rico), Merck/Michelin
    • Hank Song '11, Princeton in Latin America/Associacao Saude Crianca
    • Angel (Long) Hatef '11, MD Program, Duke University/Radiologist at Ohio State University
    • KL Huang '11, Epic
    • Jakub Rajniak '11, PhD Program, Stanford University/Postdoctoral Fellow, Stanford
    • Molly Herring '10, DO Program, Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine/Internal Medicine Resident, Geisinger Medical Center
    • Jayne Choi '10, CNT Energy/Architecture Research Office
    • Wai Ling Cheung-Lee '10, Exelus/Merck
    • TJ Klein '09, MD-PhD Program, Wright State/Resident Physician Corewell Health
    • Jay Kwak '09, MD Program, Yonsei University
    • Igor Dikiy '09, PhD Program, Weill Cornell Medical School/Regeneron
    • Nicole Clarke '09, PhD Program, Stanford University/BioNTech
    • Lucy (Xu) Chang '08, Nomura/Investment Officer, University of California
    • Dave Uppal '08, Chevron/Moveworks
    • Ishani Sud '08, Federal Government
    • Rochelle (Murray) Robertson '08, General Mills/Meta
    • Karen Aherne Hayes '08, University College Dublin/Medtronic

    High School Students

  • affiliation after Princeton/current affiliation
    • Victoria Li, Garnet Valley HS, summer 2025
    • Melody Tang, Harvard-Westlake School, summer 2021 (virtual), now at U Chicago
    • Katherine Li, Garnet Valley HS, summer 2020 (virtual), now at MIT
    • Aneesh Karuppur, Pingry School, summer 2019, now at Penn
    • Caren Ju, Princeton HS, summer 2016, attended Princeton/BCG
    • Akhil Dondapati, West Windsor Plainsboro HS, summer 2014, attended NJIT and Rutgers Med
    • Karen Zhang, Lawrenceville School, summer 2014, attended Princeton/Meta
    • Angelo Villaneuva, Union City HS, summer 2013, attended Rutgers/Rahway Public Schools
    • Kimberly Perez, Union City HS, summer 2012, attended Princeton/HTNB
    • Christian Ugaz, Union City HS, summer 2011, attended St. Peter's College/ resident at Mt. Sinai
    • Shruti Patel, Union City HS, summer 2011, attended Rutgers/Johnson and Johnson
    • Paola Severino, Union City HS, summer 2010, attended Yale/L'Oreal
    • Emma Russo, Union City HS, summer 2010, attended Brown/The Groden Network
    • Yan Wu, Montgomery HS, summer 2009, attended Princeton/Altos Labs
    • Ana Kakkar, Lawrenceville School, summer 2008, attended Claremont McKenna College/Athelas