Members

Juan Pablo Giraldo

Principal Investigator

 

juanpablo.giraldo@ucr.edu

 

University of California, Riverside

Associate Professor

Department of Botany and Plant Sciences

 

Faculty Member Affiliations

Material Science and Engineering | Cell Molecular and Developmental Biology | Institute for Integrative Genome Biology | Center for Plant Biology | Microbiology


Co-Investigator, NSF Center for Sustainable Nanotechnology


Ph.D. Plant Biology - Holbrook Lab, Harvard University


NSF Postdoctoral Fellow in Nanobiotechnology - Strano Research Group, Massachusetts Institute of Technology


CV

Postdoctoral Researchers 

Su-Ji Jeon

Postdoctoral researcher

 

jsuji@ucr.edu

 

Su-Ji earned her Ph.D. in the Department of Chemical Engineering at Hanyang University, Republic of Korea. Her research focuses on the synthesis of carbon-based nanomaterials and organic/inorganic hybrids for optical sensor for the detection of biomarkers and the investigation of their physical and chemical properties using various spectroscopic methods. For her doctoral work, she investigated functional nanomaterials for optical sensing and photocatalysis applications. Su-Ji's research current research focuses on targeted delivery of nanocarriers in plants and nanosensors for plant signaling molecules.

Sandeep Sharma

Postdoctoral researcher

ssharma@ucr.edu


Sandeep's research interest lies in developping carbon based nanocarriers for targeted delivery of pesticide active ingredients. Before joining the Giraldo lab, he worked as a postdoc on “Fabrication of halloysite nanotubes based nanocarrier for plant disease management” at Technion-IIT, Israel. He received his Ph.D. degree (2015-2020) from Institute of Nano Science and Technology, Mohali-India. His Ph.D. research focused on the “Fabrication of Graphene-oxide based nanocarriers for agrochemicals delivery and to augment plant functions through nanobionics approach”. 

Graduate Students

Supreetha Sivaraj

Ph.D. Student

NSF Center of Sustainable Nanotechnology


ssiva008@ucr.edu

Supreetha received her B.S. in Technology-Biotechnology from St. Joseph's college of Enineering in India. Her current research focuses on studying nanomaterials for enhancing algae bioreactor photosythesis and CO2 utilization.

Christopher Castillo

Ph.D Student

NSF Center of Sustainable Nanotechnology

 

ccast149@ucr.edu

 

Christopher received his B.S. in Biochemistry from California State University, Los Angeles where he researched lipid transfer proteins putatively involved in Arabidopsis programmed senescence mechanism. His Ph.D. research is focused on fundamental understanding of plant biomolecule interactions with nanoparticles such as the formation of nanoparticle coronas in Arabidopsis plants.

Marina Anderson-Youngblood

Ph.D. Student

NSF Plants 3D Fellow '23-24

NSF Center of Sustainable Nanotechnology


marina.youngblood@email.ucr.edu

Marina is a Plant Biology PhD student studying nanofertilizers and nanoparticle-mediated gene delivery in plants. She attained her BS in Cellular and Molecular Biology from the University of La Verne and spent five years in industry at Cibus and Scripps Research. Marina is a San Diego native and loves to rock climb, garden, and spend time with her family and cats. 

Undergraduate Students

Connor Murphy

Undergraduate Researcher

 


connor.murphy@ucr.edu

Conor Murphy is a junior student at the University of California Riverside and is pursuing a degree in Biology. At the Giraldo Lab, Conor is researching how cerium oxide nanoparticles reduce reactive oxygen species and enhance photosynthesis in algae. He is interested in cancer research but keeps his mind open to other opportunities. His main goal is to get a PhD and eventually become a faculty at a University

Alumni

Visiting scientists

Liza Rogers - Assistant Professor, Arizona State University

Postdocs

Honhong Wu - Professor, Huazhong Agricultural University - 1000 Young Talents of China

Jinming Li - Professor, South China Normal University

Peiguang Hu - Senior Scientist, Westwood Biosciences

Bhaskar Sharma - Postdoctoral Researcher, University of California-Riverside

Md Reyazul Islam - 

Hye-In Kim - 


Ph.D. students

Leticia Meza - NSF SBIR Innovative Postdoctoral Entrepreneurial Research Fellow

Jing An - Postdoctoral Researcher, South China Agricultural University

Israel Santana - Postdoctoral Researcher, Genentech

Gregory Newkirk - Scientist III, BASF


Undergraduate students

Colleen Ahern - PhD student at UC Santa Barbara

Eugene Young Kwon - PhD student at UCLA

Alejandro Rivera-Madera - PhD student at University of Chicago

Nicholas Tito - Graduate student at William Carey School of Medicine

Victoria Morris - Master's student at Brandeis University

Maquela Faulkner - Graduate student at Keck Graduate Institute

Cristina Moreno-Borja - Graduate student at UC Riverside

Joshua Dansie  - Lab Operator at Bio Reliance

Gail Garcia -  Senior R&D Laboratory Support Technologist at Sandia National Laboratories

Mackenzie Fahlgren - Engineer at First Light Energy

Claire Alford - Undergrad student at Santa Clara University

Marena C Rivera-Dopazo - Undergrad student at University of Puerto Rico, Cayey 

Qibo Xiang- Undergrad student at University of California- Riverside