If you are interested in joining the lab, please check out the Opportunities.
Postdocs
Graduate Students
Zhiyuan Jin(Cooper)
Zhiyuan(Cooper) is a PhD student from the Department of Chemical Engineering, who joined the Zhao Lab in September 2025. He got his Bachelor degree from China Pharmaceutical University. He’s currently in his first year of his PhD study, and his future projects may focus on the combination of virus-like-nano particles and immunotherapy that used to cure cancer. Besides lab work, Cooper is fascinated about working out, photographing and traveling.
Emery Grove
Emery Grove is a master's student in the Department of Chemical Engineering, who joined the Zhao Lab in September 2025. Emery received their B.S. in Biochemistry from CSU Fresno. Their research interests include drug development and gene therapy. Emery’s previous research experience is in mitochondrial inheritance and genomics-assisted crop breeding. In their free time, Emery enjoys drawing and collecting dolls.
Undergraduate Students
Nico Singh
Nico is a Biomedical Engineering undergraduate student specializing in Systems and Synthetic Biology. He joined the Zhao Lab in September 2025. He’s interested in engineering virus-like nanoparticles as medical interventions to improve anti-tumor immune responses. In his free time, Nico likes reading, writing, playing volleyball, and spending time with his dog.
Pranavi Dasari
Pranavi is a Biomedical Engineering undergraduate student pursuing a minor in Computer Science. She joined the Zhao lab in September 2025. Pranavi is interested in bioinformatics and using software to analyze laboratory findings. Outside of the lab, she enjoys hiking, going to concerts, and baking.
Amanda Standridge
Amanda is an undergraduate student from the Department of Chemical engineering. She joined the Zhao Lab in October 2025. She's interested in how virus-like nanoparticles can be engineered and applied in gene therapy. In her free-time Amanda enjoys working out, studying and spending time with her friends.
Roanna Pham
Roanna Pham is a third-year Chemical Engineering student at UC Davis with a focus in biochemical cell research. Her prior research experience includes developing actin-coated PEG/DEX vesicle systems to model cellular interfaces, where she optimized fluorescent imaging protocols and analyzed partitioning behavior using Python-based analysis. Building on this background, Roanna now joins the Zhao Lab to explore virus-based nanocarriers for targeted vaccine therapy.