Amgen Mentors
Amgen Mentors
The following faculty members have agreed to support UNC-Chapel Hill Amgen Scholars Programs. Applicants can use the links below to identify potential faculty mentors for their application. Faculty who are interested in becoming Amgen mentors should contact Dr. Jeremy Purvis or submit an application here.

Wubin Bai
Department: Applied Physical SciencesResearch Keywords: bioelectronics, biosensors, wearables, drug delivery devices, biotechnology

Aysenil Belger
Department: Psychiatry and Psychology and NeuroscienceResearch Keywords: neuroimaging, cognition, adolescence, EEG, psychosis, anxiety, stress, risk for substance use.

Rebecca Berlow
Department: Biochemistry and BiophysicsResearch Keywords: intrinsically disordered proteins, protein dynamics, transcriptional regulation

Joyce Besheer
Department: Psychiatry; Bowles Center for Alcohol StudiesResearch Keywords: behavioral neuroscience; behavioral pharmacology; neurobiology; stress; rat models of alcohol drinking; alcohol; addiction; brain circuitry

Albert Bowers
Department: School of Pharmacy - Chemical Biology and Medicinal ChemistryResearch Keywords: chemical biology, drug discovery

Russell Broaddus
Department: Pathology and Laboratory MedicineResearch Keywords: endometrial cancer molecular mechanisms of invasiveness, DNA mismatch repair, wnt/b-catenin signaling in cancer

Christina Burch
Department: BiologyResearch Keywords: viral evolution, computational biology

Sharon Campbell
Department: Biophysics and BiochemistryResearch Keywords: RAS inhibitors, tumorigenesis, RAS signaling, cell adhesion, cardiomyopathies, hybrid structural biology, biochemistry, signal transduction

Kathleen Caron
Department: Cell Biology and PhysiologyResearch Keywords: cardiovascular physiology, G protein-coupled receptors, orphan receptors, migraine, lymphatics, mouse models of human disease

Daniel Christoffel
Department: Psychology and NeuroscienceResearch Keywords: neural circuits, reward processing, feeding, synaptic plasticity, obesity, habits

Jessica Cohen
Department: Psychology and NeuroscienceResearch Keywords: executive functioning, longitudinal development, ADHD, fMRI, network neuroscience

Jean Cook
Department: Biochemistry and BiophysicsResearch Keywords: cell proliferation and DNA replication control

Brian Diekman
Department: Biomedical EngineeringResearch Keywords:

Ming Ding
Department: Department of Emergency Medicine, School of MedicineResearch Keywords: Data science, multi-omics (genetics, lipidomics, and proteomics), population studies, cardiovascular disease

Bob Duronio
Department: Biology, Genetics, iBGSResearch Keywords: Epigenetics, genomics, cell biology, developmental biology

Michael Emanuele
Department: PharmacologyResearch Keywords: cancer proliferation, cell cycle, signaling, proteomics, ubiquitin

Owen Fenton
Department: PharmacyResearch Keywords: mRNA therapeutics, lipid nanoparticles, drug delivery, former amgen scholar (UC Berkeley 2009)

Sylvia Fitting
Department: Psychology and NeuroscienceResearch Keywords: neuroHIV, drugs, cannabinoids, THC, CBD, inflammation, behavior

Kevin Frankowski
Department: Chemical Biology and Medicinal ChemistryResearch Keywords: early stage drug discovery, small molecule optimization, synthetic organic chemistry, therapeutic areas: metastatic cancer, substance use disorder, opioid-free treatment of chronic pain, traumatic brain injury

Jimena Giudice
Department: Cell Biology and PhysiologyResearch Keywords: RNA processing, alternative splicing, heart, muscle, epigenetics

Misty Good
Department: Pediatrics, Microbiology & ImmunologyResearch Keywords: intestinal development, epithelial cell biology, mucosal immunology, pathogenesis of necrotizing enterocolitis

Lee Graves
Department: PharmacologyResearch Keywords: anticancer drugs, cancer metabolism, epigenetics, mitochondria

Carlos Guardia
Department: Reproductive and Developmental Biology Laboratory, NIEHS (NIH)Research Keywords: autophagy, intracellular traffic, extracellular vesicles, hormone secretion, placenta development

James Hagood
Department: PediatricsResearch Keywords: pulmonary fibrosis, lung biology, rare lung disease, antifibrotic drug development

Melissa Herman
Department: PharmacologyResearch Keywords: neuroscience, addiction, alcohol, nicotine, psychedelics, physiology, behavior

Indriati Hood Pishchany
Department: Pediatrics, Infectious DiseasesResearch Keywords: microbiome, women's health, preclinical models, live biotherapeutics

Lindsey James
Department: Chemical Biology & Medicinal ChemistryResearch Keywords: epigenetics, chemical probe development, chromatin regulation, protein degradation

Ilona Jaspers
Department: Pediatrics/Curriculum in Toxicology and Environmental MedicineResearch Keywords: health effects, inhaled chemicals, aerosolized chemicals, respiratory mucosa, lung biology

Jeffrey Johnson
Department: ChemistryResearch Keywords: synthesis, catalysis, medicinal chemistry

Mehmet Kesimer
Department: Pathology and Laboratory MedicineResearch Keywords: respiratory mucin/mucus biochemistry, biophysics, proteomics, lung and hypersecretory diseases, cystic fibrosis, chronic bronchitis, asthma, mucin glycoconjugates, tobacco and nicotine mechanistic/regulatory research, e-cigarettes

Helen Lazear
Department: Microbiology & ImmunologyResearch Keywords: virology, viral pathogenesis, vector-borne diseases, congenital infections, skin infections

Karin Leiderman
Department: Mathematics, Biochemistry & Biophysics, Computational Medicine Program, Blood Research CenterResearch Keywords: computational model, mathematical model, biochemical reactions, blood coagulation

Pei Lim
Department: Diagnostic Sciences, Adams School of DentistryResearch Keywords: orofacial pain, temporomandibular disorders, trigeminal neuropathic pain, headaches

Pengda Liu
Department: Biochemistry and BiophysicsResearch Keywords: cancer therapy, E3 ubiquitin ligase, kinase, cell signaling

Thomas McCown
Department: Psychiatry/Gene Therapy CenterResearch Keywords: adeno-associated virus vectors; epilepsy; capsid engineering; central nervous system; gene therapy

Daniel McKay
Department: Department of Biology, Department of GeneticsResearch Keywords: epigenetic gene regulation, developmental biology, genomics

Yinglong Miao
Department: Pharmacology and Computational Medicine ProgramResearch Keywords: Biomolecular Modeling, Cellular Signaling, AI-Driven Drug Discovery

Adam Palmer
Department: Pharmacology, Computational Medicine ProgramResearch Keywords: drug combinations, cancer, systems biology, precision medicine

Samantha Pattenden
Department: Chemical Biology and Medicinal ChemistryResearch Keywords: drug discovery, technology development, chromatin, transcription

William Polacheck
Department: Biomedical Engineering; Cell Biology and PhysiologyResearch Keywords: microphysiological systems, organs-on-chip, vascular biology, cancer, computational modeling, mechanotransduction

Jeremy Purvis
Department: Genetics; Computational MedicineResearch Keywords: systems biology, cell cycle, single-cell analysis, breast cancer

Daniel Schrider
Department: Department of GeneticsResearch Keywords: evolution, population genetics, bioinformatics, computational biology, machine learning

Jeff Sekelsky
Department: Biology, GeneticsResearch Keywords: genome stability, recombination, genomics

Zhenwei Song
Department: Gene Therapy Center, ESOPResearch Keywords: developing safer AAV gene therapy, evaluating AAV toxicity, spheroid culture, induced pluriportent stem cells

Chrystal Starbird
Department: Biochemistry and BiophysicsResearch Keywords: structural biology, kinase inhibitor design, cellular signaling, receptor tyrosine kinases, cancer biology

Brian Strahl
Department: Biochemistry and BiophysicsResearch Keywords: epigenetics, chromatin, histones, gene transcription

Ageliki Tsagaratou
Department: Genetics, Microbiology & ImmunologyResearch Keywords: molecular immunology, T cell biology, epigenetics, cancer, genomics, proteomics, single-cell approaches

Matthew Vogt
Department: Pediatric Infectious Diseases; Microbiology & ImmunologyResearch Keywords: human monoclonal antibodies, biologics, antivirals, enterovirus, picornavirus

Jason Whitmire
Department: Genetics; Microbiology & ImmunologyResearch Keywords: immunology, T cell biology, host genetics, viral pathogenesis

Gang Xi
Department: Medicine/UNC Kidney CenterResearch Keywords: protein post-translation modifications, cell signal transduction, autoimmune diseases

Melinda Yates
Department: Pathology and Laboratory MedicineResearch Keywords: uterine cancer, genetics, pharmacology, hormones

Senay Yitbarek
Department: BiologyResearch Keywords: Microbiome, Disease Ecology and Evolution, Modeling, Experimental Evolution

Wei You
Department: ChemistryResearch Keywords: polymer-protein conjugate drug development

Samuel Young
Department: Pediatrics, PharmacologyResearch Keywords: neuroscience, gene therapy, calcium channels, synaptic transmission, genetics, molecular biology, viral vectors, biophysics

Qisheng Zhang
Department: Chemical Biology and Medicinal Chemistry, PharmacologyResearch Keywords: drug discovery, chemical biology, lipid signaling