Our Team

Andrew L. Lee, Ph.D.

Principal Investigator (drewlee at unc.edu)

Andrew Lee studies the role of conformational dynamics in protein function, conformational changes, enzyme catalysis, drug binding, and allostery. His laboratory uses a variety of biophysical and biochemical tools, especially NMR spectroscopy. NMR spectroscopy is a powerful approach that yields atomic-resolution molecular information and is uniquely sensitive to molecular fluctuations over a broad range of timescales.

He received his BA in chemistry at Pomona College in 1989. For his PhD work at UC Berkeley, he studied NMR spectroscopy as a method for structure determination of RNA-binding proteins. For his postdoctoral work at the University of Pennsylvania, he studied the use of NMR relaxation methods for probing the role of motional dynamics in protein stability and molecular recognition.

Paul J. Sapienza, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor (sapienza at email.unc.edu)

Paul Sapienza is a research assistant professor in the Division of Chemical Biology and Medicinal Chemistry at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy. His research aims to further understand the role of dynamics in biomolecular recognition, enzymatic catalysis, and allostery. He uses nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy to study protein dynamics on multiple timescales, while other tools such as calorimetry, crystallography, kinetics, and molecular dynamics serve to link dynamics with function. Currently he is adapting click chemistry and single subunit isotopic labeling to generate “Mixed Labeled Dimers” to provide a unique view of allosteric intermediates.

Sapienza received his PhD from the University of Pittsburgh in 2005 and completed postdoctoral fellowships at Pitt and at UNC-Chapel Hill before joining the School’s faculty in 2011.

Darex J. Vera-Rodríguez

Graduate Student (darex at email.unc.edu)

Darex is a graduate student in the Biochemistry and Biophysics Program at the UNC School of Medicine. He studies chorismate mutase (CM) as a protein model to understand how conformational dynamics influence allosteric communication. He uses nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy and fluorescence assays to investigate CM’s allosteric role in its functional regulation.

Darex received his bachelor’s degree in industrial biotechnology with a minor in project management from the University of Puerto Rico, Mayagüez. He completed post-baccalaureate training at the University of Maryland, Baltimore under the direction of Dr. David J. Weber. He joined UNC in 2020 to start his Ph.D. training.

Meghan Ricciardi

Graduate Student (mricciardi at unc.edu)

Meghan is a graduate student in the Division of Chemical Biology and Medicinal Chemistry in the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy. She studies human thymidylate synthase (hTS), which has a highly flexible N-terminus that influences its function. She is using nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy and biochemical linkage strategies to investigate how hTS’s flexible terminus imparts functional properties to this allosteric enzyme.

Meghan received her bachelor’s degree in Biochemistry from Ithaca College. She joined the Lee lab at UNC in 2023.