PEOPLE

Graduate Students

Jakal received his B.S. in Chemistry and MSPH in Environmental Science and Engineering from UNC-CH. Currently, Jakal is working as a Sr. Principal Scientist at Charles River Laboratories-Worcester in the Discovery Bioanalytical group. Over the past 20 years, as a bioanalytical scientist, Jakal has been fortunate to have opportunities to gain extensive knowledge in DMPK science: in vitro ADME, pre-clinical and clinical disciplines related to drug Discovery, and development of small molecules by working at CRO [Charles River], Pharmaceutical [Novartis], and Biotech [Agios Pharmaceutical] companies. After rejoining CRL-Worcester in 2017, Jakal enabled a set-up of HT-ADME platform within the in vitro ADME group. Currently, Jakal Amin is involved in establishing large molecules (biologics) assays utilizing high resolution mass spectrometer to support early discovery projects for bio-pharmaceutical clients. As an Industrial Ph.D. student under the guidance of Dr. Agar, Jakal is planning to go deep into the understanding of disease pathology related to ALS by applying the latest generation of triple-quadrupole and high-resolution MS for proteomics and/or metabolomics analysis.

Jakal Amin
Graduate Student
Md Amin Hossain received his Bachelor of Pharmacy from North South University and Master’s in pharmacology and Pharmacokinetics from Tufts University. Prior starting his PhD at NEU, Amin worked at Sanofi Genzyme in drug metabolism and pharmacokinetics department focusing on small molecules. Currently, Amin is working on developing the novel in vivo crosslinkers as pharmacological chaperons, general biological cross-linkers and polymer building blocks to treat neurodegenerative disease including Amyloid Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). He mostly works with triple quad, orbitrap, and FT-ICR mass spectrometry. My research interest focuses on to better understand peptide map fingerprinting and intact protein analysis. His hobbies are cooking and visiting new places.

Md Amin Hossain
Graduate Student
Nicholas Daniel Schmitt received Bachelor of Science in Structural Biology and Biophysics in 2010, University of Connecticut. Nick is experienced in High Resolution Mass Spectrometry, Top-Down Protein Fragmentation MS, Mass Spectrometry Imaging, Protein Chemistry, Biogeochemistry. His hobbies is as follows, Quantum Mechanics, Astrophysics, Biotechnology, Anthropology, Evolutionary Biology, Evolutionary Psychology, Hiking, Trail Running, Music Composition.

Nicholas Daniel Schmitt
Graduate Student
Richa Sarin received her Bachelors in Mathematics and Computer Science, Fairleigh Dickinson University and Masters in Chemistry from Northeastern University. Currently she is working as a Scientist, within the Analytical Development department at Biogen. Richa has been at Biogen for over 10 years, and have held various roles over her career supporting drug development activities across Biogen’s portfolio. Characterization of therapeutic proteins and protein complexes for neurodegenerative diseases utilizing mass spectrometry techniques such as top-down and hydrogen-deuterium exchange. Some of these proteins include SOD1 and its mutants implicated in fALS, and monoclonal antibodies, widely being developed as therapeutic strategies for a multitude of diseases.

Richa Sarin
Graduate Student
Rutali Ravindra Brahme received her Bachelor of Pharmacy from University of Mumbai and Masters in Pharmacology from Northeastern University. She’s currently working in Discovery bioanalytics group in PK Sciences department at Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research. She focuses on developing LC-MS/MS methods for small molecules, peptides, nanoparticle drug conjugates and fatty acid drug conjugates to enable PK and PK/PD analysis for various drug discovery projects. In the Agar lab, she is currently working on characterizing physio-chemical properties of cyclic thiosulfinates, designing in vivo PK experiments and development of LC-MS/MS methods to analyze cyclic thiosulfinates in biological matrices. She is interested in understanding the metabolic pathways, PK/PD and efficacy relationship, toxicity profile and developing in vitro in vivo correlation for this scaffold of covalent drugs. She likes reading books and painting.

Rutali Ravindra Brahme
Graduate Student
Krishna Chaitanya Aluri received his Bachelor of Pharmacy from Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences and Master of Science in Biopharmaceutical Regulatory Science from Northeastern University. During his master’s he worked as a graduate assistant at Agar Lab focusing on developing proteomic workflow employing reverse-phase chromatography and MS/MS to annotate intact proteins visualized in MALDI imaging experiments. Krishna then joined Alnylam Pharmaceuticals as a Senior Associate Scientist in DMPK, where he develops LC-MS methods for quantitation of siRNA, lipids and small molecule biomarkers and identifying their metabolites. He also works on identifying novel in vitro tools to evaluate in vitro in vivo correlation of siRNA ADME properties. Now at the Agar Lab, Krishna’s research focuses on correlating physicochemical properties of Angiogenin ALS-variants with ALS Etiology. Krishna also works on synthesizing novel biodegradable polymers using cyclic thiosulfinates as novel cross-linkers with aim of delivering bio-molecules such as proteins and cells.

Krishna Chaitanya Aluri
Graduate Student
Haley Oller received her Bachelor of Science majoring in Biochemistry from Northeastern University.Haley is currently working as a research associate at Brugge Lab, Harvard Medical School and Industrial Ph.D. student at Northeastern University. Her research projects at Agar lab include (1) Investigation of cyclic thiosulfanate cross-linker induction of ferroptosis in an oncological context. (2) Single cell proteomics for the understanding of treatment resistance in gynecological cancers. (3) Investing clinical pre-malignancy of breast cancer tissues and biomarker discovery.

Haley Oller
Graduate Student
Michael Squire is as an Investigator for GSK Pharmaceuticals. He received his Bachelors (’03) and a Masters (’05) in Chemistry from Illinois State University. Where, he explored the synthesis of and application of oxadiazinone chiral auxiliaries based on D-camphor, under the direction of Dr. Shawn Hitchcock. Upon graduation, he moved to Fremont, CA, for a position with Vicuron Pharmaceuticals as a medicinal chemist exploring the SAR around oxazolidinone antibacterials. Following Pfizer’s acquisition of Vicuron in 2005, he took an opportunity with GSK in the High Throughput Chemistry Department working on multiple projects over the first few years. A subsequent shift to the Oncology discovery organization offered continued opportunities to grow and develop his synthetic expertise. Driven by an interest in continued career growth, the recent decision to pursue a PhD with the NortheasternUniversity/GSK Collaborative program necessitated a shift to the Discovery High Throughput Chemistry group within Medicinal Chemistry. where, he am developing electrochemical nickel-catalyzed carbon-carbon cross-coupling methods. In his spare time, he enjoys spending time with family, golfing, and gaming.

Michael Squire
Graduate Student
Madison obtained her B.S. in Chemistry from Southern Illinois University Carbondale in 2019. During her undergraduate, Madison conducted research studying the thermal properties of gas-phase equilibria in MALDI-MS. In Summer 2018, she conducted a research project under Dr. Nathalie Agar, where she developed a MALDI-MSI method using a metal oxide instead of a traditional MALDI matrix, deemed Metal Oxide Laser Ionization - Mass Spectrometry Imaging (MOLI-MSI). As a first-year graduate student in the Agar lab, Madison is interested in using Mass Spectrometry Imaging to study neurodegenerative diseases.

Madison H. McMinn
Graduate Student

Masters Students and Undergraduates

• Adriana Cespedes
• Aparna Ponmudiyan
• Durgalakshmi Sivasankar
• Hetvi Desai
• Joshua Berger
• Jeremy Conway
• Ji Choi
• Millie Ness
• Nolan Kelly
• Shama Pilankar
• Tanvi Krishnakumar
• William Peterson

ALUMNI

Daniel P. Donnelly


Catherine M. Rawlins


Jeniffer Quijada


Joseph P. Salibury


Qi Wang


Jared Auclair


Ala Nassar