Members
The people in our lab
Professor David A. Spiegel, Ph.D., M.D., was born in New York City, and grew up in Teaneck, New Jersey. From a very young age, he was fascinated by the chemistry and biology of small molecules, and at 16 began doing research in a neuroanesthesiology laboratory at the University of Iowa. He went on to attend Harvard University where he conducted research under the guidance of Professor Yoshito Kishi. After graduating from Harvard, David began in Yale University’s M.D./Ph.D. program. There he conducted graduate research in Professor John Wood’s laboratory focusing on developing synthetic approaches toward the phomoidrides. During the course of these studies, he discovered that trialkylborane-water complexes could function as H-atom donors in free radical reactions. Following graduation from Yale, Professor Spiegel moved back to Harvard for postdoctoral studies under the guidance of Professor Stuart L. Schreiber. There he focused on developing an oligomer-based method for small-molecule synthesis to enable the rapid assembly of skeletally diverse small molecules starting from simple monomers.
David began as an Assistant Professor at Yale in June of 2007. Since that time he has been fortunate to be named recipient of the NIH New Innovator Award, the Ellison Medical Foundation New Scholar Award, the Camille and Henry Dreyfus New Faculty Award, and an Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship.
Download David Spiegel's CV 
Eugene Douglass
Graduate Student, Chemistry Department
Eugene was born in Decatur, IL and over the years lived in Florida, Micronesia, Hawaii and
New Hampshire. He obtained his B.S. from Worcester Polytechnic Institute where he worked in the lab of Dr. W. Grant McGimpsey and Dr. Christopher
Lambert. He studied the electrochemistry Self-Assembled Monolayers (SAMs) and developed a platform for the use of SAMs in Microfluidic Sensors. He joined the Spiegel Lab in 2008 and is currently developing models and analytical methods to
quantitatively characterize antibody recruiting targets. Contact Eugene
Cristian Draghici, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Associate
Cristian was born in the Moldovian hills of northeast Romania. He graduated from Western Connecticut State University with a B.A. in chemistry/ biochemistry, and then began his doctoral studies at the University of Vermont, working his first two years on radical additions to hydrazones in Gregory Friestad's lab and the latter three under the supervision of Matthias Brewer, developing synthetic methodology for the fragmentation of cyclic C-C bonds. Cristian began his postdoctoral studies in Jon T. Njardarson's labs at both Cornell University and The University of Arizona, working on the total synthesis of vinigrol. Currently in the Spiegel group, his efforts are directed towards the synthesis and evaluation of advanced glycation endproduct glucosepane. Contact Cristian
Samir Gautam
MD/PhD program, Cellular Biology Department
Samir was born and raised in Connecticut. After 4 years at Boston College where he earned degrees in Music and Biology, he returned to CT to pursue biomedical research in the Liver Center at Yale. He matriculated at the Yale School of Medicine in 2008 as an MD/PhD candidate and joined the Spiegel Lab in 2011. He is currently studying the structure and dynamics of the bacterial cell wall using small molecule probes which are incorporated into the cell wall via sortase. Contact Samir
Mia Huang, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Associate
Mia was born in the tropical city of Manila, Philippines. She obtained her undergraduate degree in Chemistry from CUNY Queens College. She subsequently joined the lab of Kent Kirshenbaum at New York University where she completed her Ph.D. on the functionalization of peptoid oligomers for biological and materials applications. After seven years in the Big Apple, Mia joined the Spiegel Lab, and is currently pursuing the development of antibody-recruiting molecules for therapeutic applications. Contact Mia
Taehan Kim
Graduate Student, Chemistry Department
Phil was born in South Korea in 1985. He spent all of his youth playing
computer games with his friends and playing the violin for church. Upon realizing there was no future in playing computer games, and since he wasn’t very
good with the violin, he decided to further his education. In 2008 he earned a BS with Honors in Forensic Chemistry from University of Toronto in the lab of
Prof. Michael K. Georges. His current research in the Spiegel Group is directed at synthetic
methodology development and application in total synthesis. Recently, Phil
rediscovered the song “What Is Love” by Haddaway, and has been listening to
it on repeat ever since. Contact Phil
Patrick J. McEnaney
Graduate Student, Chemistry Department
Pat
was born in the wilderness of Massachusetts in 1984. After obtaining his B.S. in chemistry from UMASS Lowell in 2006, he worked for Konarka Technologies as a synthetic organic chemist focusing on conjugated polymers and dye molecules for organic solar cells. In June 2007, he joined the laboratory of Professor David A. Spiegel at Yale University. He is currently pursuing a Ph.D. with research focused on the development of new methods for the chemical synthesis of proteins. Contact Pat
Thihan Padukkavidana, Ph.D.
Associate Research Scientist
Thihan was born in Colombo, Sri Lanka. He completed his undergraduate studies in molecular, cellular, and developmental biology at California State University Fresno, with a research focus on plant biotechnology. He then joined the lab of Stephen Strittmatter at Yale, where he studied the molecular basis of neurodegenerative diseases such as fronto-temporal dementia, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, and Alzheimer’s disease, with the goal of identifying potential therapeutics. His keen interest in developing novel therapeutics in biomedicine drew him to the Spiegel lab, where he is now involved in advancing and translating therapeutic discoveries in lab into the clinic.
Contact Thihan
R. Nancy Tao
Graduate Student, Chemistry Department
Nancy
was born in Xiamen, China, moved to the US when she was 5, and spent a joyous childhood frolicking in the Colorado mountains. She attended Colorado State University, where she conducted undergrad research with Dr. John Wood in natural product synthesis, rather than hiking, climbing, and snowboarding. Also an accomplished musician, Nancy graduated cum laude with a B.S. in Chemistry and a B.A. in Music in 2010. In the the Spiegel Lab she is pursuing strategies for improving the diversity and therapeutic activity of antibody-recruiting small molecules.
Contact Nancy
Julian Vastl
Graduate Student, Chemistry Department
Julian
grew up in the suburbs of Boston, MA, where he enjoyed playing tennis and hiking in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. He received his B.S. in chemistry from Boston College where he worked in the lab of Dr. Jianmin Gao. Julian joined the Spiegel lab in 2011 and is currently working on the synthesis of polyamidines.
Contact Julian
Tina Wang
Graduate Student, Chemistry Department
Tina
was born in New York City and grew up in Rochester, New York. After high school, she moved to Pasadena, where she obtained a B. S. in chemistry from Caltech. She joined the Spiegel lab in 2010, where her research is focused on the area of advanced glycation endproducts. In her spare time she cooks, plays guitar, and babysits Phil Kim. Contact Tina
