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KARATAS LAB
Team Members
Hacer Karatas Bristow
Assistant Professor
Ph.D. Medicinal Chemistry, University of Michigan, USA
M.Sc. Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Ankara University, Turkey
B.Sc. Faculty of Pharmacy, Ankara University, Turkey
Dr. Karatas Bristow received her PhD in Medicinal Chemistry at the University of Michigan under the direction of Prof. Shaomeng Wang. After graduation, she was a postdoctoral fellow at EPFL (Switzerland), and then at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Physiology (Germany) with Prof. Herbert Waldmann. She worked as an Assistant Professor in Istanbul Medipol University (Turkiye) before joining WVU in 2022.
Vahid Lotfikalajahi
Graduate Student
Vahid Lofikalajahi received his bachelor's degree in chemistry from the University of Tabriz, Iran. He graduated from the University of Tehran with a master's degree in Organic Chemistry in 2015. He worked as a senior research assistant in the Endocrinology and Metabolism Research Institute at Tehran University of Medical Sciences, before joining WVU in 2023 as a Ph.D. student in Organic Chemistry.
Pegah Norouzi
Graduate Student
Pegah Norouzi received her bachelor's degree in chemistry and master's in polymer chemistry from the University of Tehran in 2021. She worked as a research assistant in the Endocrinology and Metabolism Research Institute at Tehran University of Medical Sciences, before joining WVU in 2023 as a Ph.D. student in Organic Chemistry.
Olaosebikan Ibukunoluwa (Abigail)
Graduate Student
Abigail I graduated in 2018 from the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta in Nigeria where she studied Biochemistry. Her undergraduate research was based on Bioinformatics/Plant biochemistry/Pharmacology. She worked on Bioinformatics and Pharmacological Biochemistry. Her undergraduate research was published as an article titled "Flavanones from Sorghum bicolor selectively inhibit COX-2: In-silico and In-vivo validation". Abigail loves reading and researching. She hopes to become a research scientist and professor.
Abra Dadum
Graduate Student
Abra earned her Bachelor of Science in Chemistry from Indiana University of Pennsylvania, under the mentorship of Dr. Justin Fair. During her undergraduate years, her research predominantly centered on organic synthesis, which culminated in her first publication in 2022. Her achievements in research were recognized with the Undergraduate Award in Organic Chemistry from the American Chemical Society upon her graduation. Subsequently, Abra embarked on her doctoral journey at WVU, initially working under the esteemed guidance of Dr. Greg Dudley during her first year of graduate studies. As her academic and research interests evolved, Abra found herself captivated by the realm of medicinal chemistry. In pursuit of this newfound passion, she eagerly joined Dr. Hacer Karatas-Bristow’s lab in 2023, marking the beginning of an exciting new chapter in her academic and scientific career.
Kennedy Goodwin
Undergraduate Student
Kennedy Goodwin is a senior chemistry major with the ultimate goal of working in the pharmaceutical industry. On campus, she is a member of Alpha Xi Delta and on the committee board of MountaineerTHON. She is also a chemistry and statistics tutor through WVU and will be inducted into the Phi Lambda Upsilon Honorary Chemical Society in November.
Sarah Warder
Undergraduate Student
Caitlyn Staiger
Undergraduate RAP Student
Grace (Rebekah) Farmer
Undergraduate Student
Former Members:
Haley Edwards
Paige Tyra
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