People – The Conticello Lab

The Team

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Principal Investigator
Vincent Conticello

Principal Investigator

Vincent Conticello

Vince Conticello leads the Conticello Lab at Emory University. He is also the Director of Undergraduate Research in the Department of Chemistry. Vince received his B.S. degree from the University of Delaware (1985) and his Ph.D. from Northwestern University (1990), where he was a SOHIO Predoctoral Fellow. He completed postdoctoral work at the California Institute of Technology and the University of Massachusetts as an NSF Predoctoral Fellow. Vince’s work at Emory has been recognized with the NSF CAREER Award and a Herman Frasch Foundation Fellowship, among others.

Email:vcontic@emory.edu

Office:Emerson E203

Undergraduate

George Cheng

George is an undergraduate student at Emory in the class of 2022. His research focuses on understanding how the sequences of helical peptides affect the way they self-assemble. His interests outside of the lab include long, socially distant walks on the beach and eating large pizzas in the middle of the night in the dark. He is the president of the Emory Table Tennis Club and a volunteer at the Children’s Hospital of Atlanta. He is originally from San Diego but does not surf. His favorite movie is Ratatouille, feel free to talk to him about it anytime, anywhere.

Email:george.cheng@emory.edu

Graduate Scholar

Ordy Gnewou

Ordy was born and raised in Cameroon. She earned a bachelor’s in chemistry from Lehman College (CUNY) before moving to Emory University for her PhD. In the lab, Ordy works on the design and Cryo-EM characterization of alpha helical nanotubes. At Emory, she is involved in a number of organizations such as the National Organization for the Professional Advancement of Black Chemists and Chemical Engineers (NOBCChE) and the Association for Women in Science (AWIS). Outside of school, she practices yoga and loves to eat!

Email:ordy.manuela.gnewou@emory.edu

Graduate Scholar

Ayda Gonzalez

Ayda Gonzalez is a third year graduate scholar. Her previous research involved using protein engineering methods to understand the self-assembly of encapsulins. Recently, she started a new project synthesizing peptides and analyzing their self-assembly into nanotubes and other structures.

Email:angonz5@emory.edu

Graduate Scholar

Duong Nguyen

Duong is originally from Vietnam and first came to America for college in 2014. Before coming Emory, she graduated from Mount Holyoke College with a bachelor’s in Chemistry and a minor in Chinese. Her current work at the Conticello lab involves the self-assembly of collagen-mimetic peptides. Besides science, she like to spend time in the world of film photography.

Email:duong.thuy.nguyen@emory.edu

Graduate Scholar

Jessalyn Rogers

Jess earned her BS in Biochemistry from Western Washington University in 2016. Then she returned to her native Bay Area to work in the biotech industry for two years. In 2018, she joined Emory and Vince Conticello’s lab. She works on functionalized, naturally derived helical protein filaments. Jess loves social dancing and music and running with her hound dog, Radish.

Email:jessalyn.grace.rogers@emory.edu

The Alumni

Graduate Alum

Rebecca Bartlett

Rebecca Bartlett is an alum of the Conticello Group. She received her M.S. in chemistry from Emory in 2016 and graduated with her Ph.D. in 2018. Rebecca completed her undergraduate degree at the University of North Georgia in 2011. Her dissertation, Engineering Advanced Self-Assembling Protein Biomaterials through the Extrapolation and Functionalization of Peptide-Based Systems, is available open access from Emory’s Electronic Theses and Dissertations Depository.

Graduate Alum

Spencer Hughes

Spencer Hughes is an alum of the Conticello Group. He graduated with his Ph.D. in 2019 after presenting his dissertation, “Rational and Computational Design of Superhelical Protein Nanotubes.” Spencer completed his undergraduate degree at the University of Georgia in 2014. Currently, Spencer is a Medical Writer with ClinicalThinking.

Graduate Alum

Tao Jiang

Tao Jiang is an alum of the Conticello Group. Tao received his B.S. degree from Nanjing University and his M.S. degree from Xiamen University. He graduated from Emory with his Ph.D. in 2015. His dissertation, Two-Dimensional Self-Assembly of Collagen-Mimetic Peptides, is available open access from Emory’s Electronic Theses and Dissertations Depository. After leaving Emory, Tao was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of California, Berkeley. Currently, is is a professor of chemistry at Xiamen University.

Graduate Alum

Elizabeth Magnotti

Elizabeth Magnotti is an alum of the Conticello Group. She received her B.S. from the University of Virginia in 2011 and graduated with her Ph.D. from Emory in 2016. Elizabeth’s dissertation, Self-assembly of porousa-helical nanosheets, is available open access via Emory’s Theses and Dissertations Depository. Immediately after leaving Emory, she completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, MA in the laboratory of Dr. Wayne Marasco. Currently, Elizabeth is a Patent Agent with Cooley, specializing in the preparation and prosecution of patents in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology realm.

Postdoctoral Alum

Andrea Merg

Andrea Merg started work in the Conticello Group in 2017 after completing his Ph.D. at The University of Pittsburgh with Nathanial Rosi. Currently, Andrea is an Assistant Professor at the University of California, Merced. You can view his lab website here.

Graduate Alum

Charles Modlin

Charles is an alum of the Conticello Group. He graduated from Emory with his Ph.D. in 2018. His dissertation, Engineering Self-Assembling Peptide Systems, is available as open access via the Emory Theses and Dissertations Depository. He received his B.S. from the University of Virginia in 2012. Currently, Charles is an account manager at Lhasa Limited.

Graduate Alum

Chunfu Xu

Chunfu “Chris” Xu is an alum of the Conticello Group. He received his B.S. degree from Fudan University. He graduated with his Ph.D. from Emory in 2013. His dissertation, Programmed Self-assembly of Coiled-coil Peptides, is available open access in Emory’s Electronic Theses and Dissertations Depository. Currently, Chunfu is a postdoctoral scholar in the Baker Lab at the University of Washington.

Graduate Alum

I-Lin Wu

I-Lin Wu is an alum of the Conticello Group. I-Lin received her B.S. degree and her M.S. degree from National Taiwan University. She graduated from Emory with her Ph.D. in 2013. Her dissertation, Muti-site specific incorporation of non-canonical amino acids for biomaterials design, is available open access from Emory’s Electronic Theses and Dissertations Depository. After leaving Emory, I-Lin was a postdoctoral fellow at the NIH and a Commisioner’s Fellow with the FDA.. Currently, she is Staff Scientist Mass Spectrometry Instrument Validation at ThermoFisher Scientific.