
Villanova undergraduate students

Who’s Who in the Lab?
Cecilia Spesia ’21
In her spare time from acting as Captain of the Women’s Varsity Crew Team and part-time barrista, Cecilia is studying the contribution of specific amino acids to the action of a 10S-dioxygenase from Nostoc punctiforme.
Ardith Held ’21
When not riding with the Villanova Equestrian team, Ardith is conducting kinetic analyses of a lipid peroxidase expressed from the genome of Nitrosomas europaea
Dahyun (Katie) Park ’22
Katie is beginning her work expressing and purifying a putative cyclooxygenase from Nitrosospira multiformis. Outside of lab, Katie is very active in the Villanova Korean Students Association
Eleanor Dalsass ’23
Eleanor is our Freshman match student for Spring 2020. She is examining the effect of specific mutations on the function of the lipid peroxidase from Nitrosomonas.
Marianna Zehas ’23

Marianna is also working with Nitrosospira, looking at a different putative cyclooxygenase protein. With Katie, she is also working on making some lipid hydroperoxides to be used as substrates for kinetic analyses.
Anna Darling ’23
Our newest lab member will be doing site directed mutagenesis on a prostaglandin synthase found in the genome of the red algae Gracilaria.