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I am currently Acting Director of the Structural Biology Core at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, where I manage both cryoEM and X-ray facilities. A electron microscopist at heart, I learned crystallography with Dr. Tamir Gonen a decade ago when he rediscovered 3D electron diffraction for macromolecular structure determination, and developed it into MicroED. Since then, I have been working closely with colleagues at the New York Structural Biology Center to enable MicroED on their screening microscopes, and am involved in their annual NCCAT MicroED workshop. I am excited to promote the latest advances in the MicroED field to the crystallography and structural science community, particularly ways to simplify the procedures from crystal diffraction to calculated structure. I also aim to encourage collaboration and participation with cryoEM microscopists, small molecule chemists, structural biologists, and other crystallographers to help improve 3D ED/MicroED.
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My scientific journey began in middle school, growing crystals of copper salts and becoming captivated by their vivid color and geometric perfection. During my undergraduate studies at Lomonosov Moscow State University, I worked in the Laboratory of Crystallography, developing a machine-learning method to predict melting points of crystalline organic molecules. For graduate school, I pivoted toward mechanistic and synthetic chemistry, earning a dual Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry and Catalysis at the Zelinsky Institute of Organic Chemistry under Prof. Valentine Ananikov.After moving to the United States as an Agilent Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Southern California, I focused on reaction discovery in microdroplets with Prof. Valery Fokin. Yet crystallography seemed to follow me everywhere. As a student, I was fascinated by the first reports of MicroED, and during my postdoctoral work, I needed to solve a structure using the method. That moment marked a full-circle return to my roots as a structural chemist.Today, as a Staff Scientist at Caltech with Prof. Hosea Nelson and a Visiting Scholar at UCLA hosted by Prof. Jose Rodriguez, I lead efforts to develop autonomous, machine-learning-enabled MicroED platforms that accelerate molecular structure elucidation. This work has resulted in the development of an autonomous, diffraction-quality–guided MicroED pipeline that enables structure determination of minerals, small organic molecules, and proteins using the same platform. MicroED has immense potential, and I am excited to contribute to its continued growth.Having previously served as Treasurer and now Chair of the Los Angeles Metropolitan Mass Spectrometry Discussion Group, I have gained valuable experience in fundraising, budgeting, community engagement, and supporting the growth of a scientific society. I will bring these skills to the MicroED SIG. As Treasurer, I aim to strengthen the organizational and financial foundation while fostering a supportive environment for students and early-career scientists. With shared effort and strategic investment, we can amplify the impact of MicroED across structural biology, structural chemistry, materials science, and drug discovery.
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