Graduate students Andrew Goring (Clubb lab), Eric Pang (S. Clarke and Rodriguez labs), and Miranda Villanueva (Backus lab) have been selected as 2024-2025 Fowler Fellows.

About the 2024-25 Audree Fowler Fellows in Protein Science

Andrew Goring is a sixth-year graduate student in the Biochemistry, Molecular, and Structural Biology department mentored by Professors Robert Clubb and Joseph Loo. Andrew received his B.Sc. in Biochemistry from the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he researched the biophysics and structural kinetics of protein fibrillization as it relates to neurodegenerative disease with Professor Songi Han.

At UCLA, Andrew’s research focuses on using novel approaches in proteomics to characterize the molecular mechanisms that allow Gram positive bacterial pathogens to mount and sustain an infection. Specifically, he has been able to spatially localize heme-acquisition proteins utilized by diphtheria-causing Corynebacterium diphtheriae and characterize their role in virulence using novel in-situ native top-down proteomics technology. These approaches to spatial and functional bacterial proteomics shed light on a novel hemophore-mediated virulence mechanism utilized by Gram positive pathogens. Furthermore, this methodology can be applied to a broad range of omics-level protein-protein and protein-ligand biophysics, showing tremendous potential to further our understanding of host-pathogen interactions.

Eric Pang is a fifth-year Biochemistry, Molecular and Structural Biology (BMSB) graduate student in the labs of Professors Steven G. Clarke and Jose Rodriguez. He earned his B.S. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from UC Santa Barbara, where he developed protein-based biosensors under Professor Kevin Plaxco and investigated protein complexes involved in peroxisome biogenesis with Professor Brooke Gardner.

For his graduate work, Eric is interfacing contemporary methods in structural biology and biochemistry to investigate a novel mechanism that mitigates spontaneous age-related protein damages. His work employs single-particle cryoEM and native top-down mass spectrometry to define the structure-function relationship of PCMTD1, a potential E3 ubiquitin ligase that targets damaged proteins for degradation. This research marks the first effort to characterize a new class of enzymes responsible for preserving proteomic stability against age-related protein damages.

Miranda Villanueva is a fifth-year Biochemistry, Biophysics, and Structural Biology (BBSB) graduate student in Professor Keriann Backus’ group. Prior to UCLA, Miranda earned her B.A from Williams College where she worked in the lab of Professor Kaie Hart applying biophysical approaches to understand the sequence determinants of stability in beta-lactamase homologs. Afterwards, Miranda worked to decipher long-term metabolic and behavioral outcomes of early life stress as a research assistant at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles.

At UCLA, Miranda’s research is focused on using chemoproteomic methods to characterize the cholesterol interactome. She is using existing diazirine photoaffinity labeling approaches and has also developed and deployed a novel photolabeling workflow that can quantify solvent accessibility changes of proteins. Miranda is working to extend this platform to identify previously uncharacterized cholesterol interactors with a goal of improving our understanding of cholesterol transport.

Dr. Audree Fowler

A strong supporter of the basic sciences and medicine at UCLA, alumna Dr. Audree Fowler (B.S. ’56 chemistry, Ph.D. ’63 biochemistry) established the Audree V. Fowler Fellows in Protein Science in 2008. Fowler was Director UCLA Protein Microsequencing Facility from 1984-1999 and is a Researcher Emeritus of the UCLA Department of Biological Chemistry. She is one of the first four women to receive a Ph.D. from the UCLA Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry. In 2018, the women were awarded the department’s 2018 Alumni Legacy Awards in recognition of their achievements in life, and generous support and service to UCLA. “The sciences gave me a great life. Now I want to help others have access to the same opportunities I enjoyed,” Fowler explained when she established the Fowler Fellowships endowment.

Applications for the fellowships are solicited from graduate students in the Molecular Biology Interdepartmental (MBI) Ph.D. Program, Biological Chemistry, and Chemistry & Biochemistry Departments. In addition to presenting their research at a special seminar, the recipients each receive a $5,000 award. 

Previous Fowler Fellows from the UCLA Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry

2023-24 – Alexandra Turmon (Backus lab), Cindy Wang (S. Clarke and C. Clarke labs)
2022-23 – Cody Gillman (Gonen lab), Declan Evans (Houk lab), Troy Lowe (S. Clarke lab), Ashley Julio (Backus lab), and Alex Stevens (Hong Zhou lab)
2021-22 – Weixian Deng (Wohlschlegel/Plath labs), Yi Xiao “Sean” Jiang (Eisenberg lab), Maria Flores (Rodriguez lab), Carter Lantz (Loo lab), and Logan Richards (Rodriguez lab).
2020-21 – Janine Fu (Loo lab), Calina Glynn (Rodriguez lab), and Jiahui Lu (Eisenberg lab)
2019-20 – David Boyer (Eisenberg lab), Orlando Martinez (Clubb lab) and John Muroski (Loo lab)
2018-19 – Scott McConnell (Clubb lab), Kevin Murray (Eisenberg lab), Rebeccah Warmack (S. Clarke lab)
2017-18 – Michael Hughes (Eisenberg lab), Yuxi Liu (Yeates lab), Kanishk Jain (S. Clarke lab)
2016-17 – Brendan Amer (Clubb Lab) and Jeff Vinokur (Bowie Lab)
2015-16 – Henry Chan (Feigon lab), Smriti Sangwan (Eisenberg lab), Nicholas Woodall (Bowie lab)
2014-15 – Dan McNamara (Yeates lab)
2013-14 – Alex Jacobitz (Clubb lab), Alexander Patananan (S. Clarke lab), Carly Ferguson (Loo lab)
2012-13 – Letian Xie (C. Clarke lab), Anni Zhao (Eisenberg lab)
2011-12 – Timothy Anderson (Clubb lab), Soohong Kim (Weiss lab)
2010-11 – Zeynep Durer (Reiser lab), Cecilia Zurita-Lopez (S. Clarke lab)
2009-10 – Luki Goldschmidt (Eisenberg lab), Kristofer Webb (S. Clarke lab), Sheng Yin (Loo lab)
2008-09 – Nathan Joh (Bowie lab), Neil King (Yeates lab)