Sui Laboratory Personnel

Haixin Sui, Ph.D., Principal Investigator

Dr. Haixin Sui received his undergraduate training in Engineering. He conducted his postgraduate research in electron microscopy (EM) of nanocrystals and quasicrystals under Prof. Kehsin Kuo, who founded and was then directing the internationally renowned Beijing Laboratory of Electron Microscopy (BLEM), Chinese Academy of Sciences. After obtaining his Ph.D, Haixin switched to structural biology and worked as a postdoc in Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, where he purified and crystallized the aquaporin-1 water channel and determined its structure by x-ray crystallography in 2001. Right after the success in membrane proteins, he decided to switch back to cryo-EM and joined Dr. Ken Downing’s group at the Berkeley Lab where he studied bacteria and rhabdoviruses as well as motile-cilium microtubule doublets using cryo-electron tomography and a self-developed algorithm of sub-tomogram averaging. In 2008 Haixin moved from Albany, CA to Albany, NY to start this own lab at Wadsworth Center. Like many biophysicists, Haixin is interested in utilizing cutting-edge structural imaging methods to tackle a broad range of difficult biomedical problems that are disease relevant. 

Matthew Phanchana, Ph.D.

Dr. Matthew Phanchana is a visiting scientist from Mahidol University in Thailand. His primary research interest is drug target identification, mechanism of action and resistance. During his PhD training in Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine in the UK, he used a chemical biology approach to identify molecular targets of antimalarial artemisinin. At Mahidol University, he led a research group working on drug discovery and mechanistic study in the anaerobic pathogen Clostridioides difficile. He utilizes various techniques, including biochemical, biophysical, computational, and omics. He believes structural biology is the pinnacle of molecular understanding of drug action and resistance as it shows the most detailed view of the interaction, which led him to join the Sui Laboratory in March 2023. 

Jiraporn Panmanee

Dr. Jiraporn Panmanee is a visiting Scholar from Mahidol University in Thailand. During her PhD training at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine in the UK, she carried out structural and functional studies of human methionine adenosyl transferase using x-ray crystallography and cryo-EM, in addition to chemical biology approach to identify molecular targets of antimalarial artemisinin. In Sui lab, she studies the structure and function of a dual function transcription factor, AbmR of Mtb. She also involved in the study of kinesin-2 motor of primary cilia.

Adam Koplas

Adam Koplas is currently working as a Research Technician doing Cryo-EM in the Sui Laboratory. He received a bachelor’s degree in Nanoscale Science from SUNY Polytechnic CNSE, where he worked with Dr Yubing Xie and Susan Sharfstein on fabrication of biomimetic Extracellular Matrix (ECM) substitutes for stem cell tissue reconstruction. He is actively involved in the structural imaging projects in the lab. 

Evan Barr

Evan Barr is a research technician in the Sui lab. He holds a bachelor’s degree in bioinformatics and molecular biology from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. After gaining some years of experience in industry, he returned to lab research to explore the subcellular world. In the Sui lab, he works on structural investigation of cell structures, such as primary cilia, principally through light and cryo-electron microscopy. He is fascinated by the structural detail produced by cryo-EM and thoroughly enjoys the technique. In his leisure time, he enjoys hiking, bird watching, photography, reading, cooking, and playing with his cat.

Pattanai Konpetch

Pattanai Konpetch is a first-year PhD student in the Department of Biomedical Science at UAlbany. He completed his bachelor’s degree in biology and master’s degree in biochemistry at Mahidol University, Thailand. At Mahidol University, he studied the characterization of phage-encoded biofilm depolymerase to tackle Clostridioides difficile in the biofilm stage. His current research focuses on the structural basis and functional mechanisms of primary cilia in mammalian cells through molecular cloning, cell engineering, cryo-electron microscopy, and correlated light and electron microscopy.

Kathryn Fisher

Katie is an APHL-CDC Fellow. She graduated with a bachelor’s degree in biotechnology at the University of California Davis, where she enjoyed a research lab experience studying the growth and identification of amoebae and other protists. At the Sui lab, she is studying the structure and function of AmbR, a transcription factor in Mycobacterium tuberculosis. She has also been interested in bacteria and mammalian cell interaction.

Delia O'Brien

Katie is an APHL-CDC Fellow.  She received her BS in neuroscience from Tulane University, where she worked in a behavioral neuroscience lab, contributing to elucidating a fear pathway from the dorsal peduncular prefrontal cortex to the CeA. In Sui lab, she is learning protein biochemistry and mammalian cell biology. She is interested in  mammalian cell-bacteria interactions. 

Group photo from May 3, 2024

Group photo from September 5th, 2024

Former Lab Members

• Biqing Liang, Undergraduate volunteer / BMS student (May 2021 – March 2024). 
  Current: PhD student in the Department of Biomedical Sciences, UAlbany. 

• Yingchao Fan, BMS rotation student (Oct 2023 – Nov 2023). 
  Current: PhD student in the Department of Biomedical Sciences, UAlbany. 

• Easton Reagan, MPH Spring Intern (Jan 2023 – May 2023). APHL fellow at Wadsworth Center 

• Yuexiao Tang, BMS rotation student (Oct 2022 – Nov 2022). 
  Current: PhD candidate in the Department of Biomedical Sciences, UAlbany. 

• Shufeng Sun, Visiting scholar/Ph.D. student (Jan 2014 – Dec 2022). 
  Current: Postdoc at NIH 

• Saiyang Hu, Senior Lab Technician (Oct 2021 – Aug 2022). 
  Current: Lab scientist in Boston. 

• Jennifer Pangburn, MPH summer intern (June – Aug 2022), 
  Current: Assistant Research Scientist at Wadsworth Center 

• Andrea Aguanno, UAlbany Summer undergraduate volunteer (June – Aug 2022). 
  Current: UAlbany undergraduate. 

• Hangyeol Park, Undergraduate Volunteer from Computer Sci Dept at UAlbany (Feb - May 2022), 
  Current:  working for Amazon in Seattle

• Ke Chen, Lab technician/scientist (Sept 2016 – Oct 2020). 
  Current: PhD candidate in the University of Arizona 

• Xiaohong Qin, Visiting scientist (Aug 2019 – Oct 2020). 
  Current: Associate Professor, Tianjin University.

• Boonthaworn Kanpong, Mahidol University Fulbright visiting student (Jan – June 2020) 
  Current: Mahidol University junior faculty.

• Rebecca Fisher, Senior Lab Technician (Sept 2009 – March 2020) 
  Current: Senior Lab technician, Viral antibody testing lab, Wadsworth Center 

• Jie He, Postdoc (Sept 2012 - Sept 2016), 
  Current: TEM specialist in an EM testing company in the San Francisco Bay Area. 

• Yanxia Jia, Visiting scientist (Aug 2019 – Feb 2020). 
  Current: Assistant Director, Center for Biological Imaging, Biophysics Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences

• Benitha Muyjzere, UAlbany Summer intern (June – Aug 2018), 
  Current: UAlbany graduated. 

• Yongping Wu, Visiting Scientist (Feb 2016 – Jan 2017)
   Current: Associate Professor, Zhejiang A&F University

• Thomas Stephens, NSF REU summer program (modified) from Union College (June – Aug 2017), Worked as a Lab technician at Cornell Medical School in NYC 
  Current: MBA Candidate at The Ohio State University Fisher College of Business.

• Matthew Reynolds, NSF REU summer program and summer intern from the University of Scranton (June 2015 – May 2017), Received PhD from Rockefeller University and is currently a Postdoc at Washington University St. Luis. 

• Tanaporn Phetruen, Visiting student from Mahidol University (Sept-Dec 2015), 
  Current: PhD graduated in Mahidol University

• Mark Velasquez, a Volunteer from UAlbany (Aug 2012 – July 2013), Graduated from the Master's program at NYU Polytechnic Institute. 
  Current: Lab technician at Cal State Univ. San Francisco

• Jared Spaulding, NSF REU summer program from UAlbany (June - Aug 2012), Obtained PhD in physics at UAlbany

• Caira Cartwright, NSF REU summer program from St. Mary's College (June - Aug 2012), Graduated from St. Mary's College with a Bachelor's degree. 
  Current: Piano Teacher

• James Kennedy, NY State Undergraduate “Public Health Works!” summer program from Clarkson University (June – Aug 2010), Received a Ph.D. at McGill University. 
  Current: Director of Digital Products at O2X Human Performance.

• Samshad Sial, a Volunteer from UAlbany (Oct 2009 – March 2010), Entered a Medical Assistant program