Post-doctoral Fellow
Bhanu Nirosha Yalamandala, Ph.D.
Bhanu Nirosha is a Postdoctoral Researcher in the Department of Chemical Engineering, who joined Professor Zhao’s Lab in March 2026. She earned her Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering in Taiwan, focusing on nanomedicine and cancer immunotherapy, with research on engineering multifunctional nanoparticles to enhance anti-tumor immune responses. In the Zhao Lab, her current projects focus on developing viral nanoparticle-based therapeutics through protein engineering and structure-function design. Beyond the lab, Bhanu enjoys music and traveling.
Graduate Students
Dylan Cleveland
Dylan is a graduate student from the Department of Chemical Engineering who joined the Zhao Lab in December 2025. He earned his Bachelor's degree in Biochemistry from Bemidji State University while studying molecular genetics and immunology. His current goal is to combine his lab experiences to focus on virus-like nanoparticles in immunotherapy. In his free time he enjoys skiing, reading, and traveling with his friends.
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.
Julienne Michal Gozun
Julienne is an undergraduate majoring in Nutrition Science: Nutritional Biology. She joined the lab in March 2026 and is interested in exploring how virus-like nanoparticles can be engineered to target immune responses and how nutrition may influence those immune responses. Outside of the lab, Julienne likes to go to the gym, sew, and spend time with her friends.