Who We Are

Prof. Huong T. Kratochvil

Principal Investigator | Assistant Professor at UNC-CH

Affiliations: Department of Chemistry at UNC-CH, Molecular and Cellular Biophysics Program

I am a biophysical chemist who has always been interested in protein structure and function. I combine protein design and biophysical approaches to address questions of protein function and to develop new, functional proteins for materials and therapeutic applications.

Likes: Pokemon, boba, travel

Dislikes: scary movies, spiders

Postdoctoral Scholars

We're looking for talented postdocs who want to join the team!

Graduate Students

Vincent (Vinnie) Silverman

Started: Jan 2023

Email: vsilverm@unc.edu

Vinnie grew up near New Haven, Connecticut before moving to Pittsburgh, PA to attend Carnegie Mellon University. As an undergraduate, he worked with Dr. Ryan Sullivan on projects using LC-MS to identify and degrade pollutants in various environmental samples. After graduating in 2020, Vinnie moved back to Connecticut to work at Sanofi in Meriden. At Sanofi, Vinnie got his first exposure to biological chemistry working on process development for COVID-19 and seasonal flu vaccines. After two years, Vinnie moved to North Carolina to work on understanding the protein-protein interactions responsible for food allergies. When he's not in the lab, Vinnie spends most of his time playing board and trading card games.

Start your PhD with us! Positions for graduate students available!


Undergraduate Students

Arora Rohrbach

Major: Chemistry

Email: arohrbach@unc.edu

Arora is currently a sophomore from Durham, NC studying biochemistry with minors in neuroscience and creative writing. She hopes to go to graduate school to further study protein function with pharmaceutical applications. Outside the lab, she likes to travel, knit, and go ice skating!

Gautham Ravindran

Major: Biology

Email: gauthamr@ad.unc.edu

Gautham is currently a sophomore from Cary, NC majoring in biology and minoring in neuroscience and EXSS. He hopes to go on to medically school in the future and pride a career in orthopedics and potentially orthopedic surgery. Outside the lab, he loves playing and watching all sports!

Joshua Lopez

Major: Biochemistry

Email: joslopez@unc.edu

Josh is a biochemistry major, who is also interested in studying music, statistics, and sustainable urbanization. He likes to flip around (literally), go down YouTube and Wikipedia rabbit holes, and play video games. There's not much he dislikes except the phylum Arthropoda.

We have opportunities available for undergraduate students to gain hands-on experience in the lab! Please inquire!