People

Dr. David R. Jacobson
Assistant professor
Department of Chemistry, Clemson University

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David received his B.A. in physics and biochemistry from the University of Pennsylvania and completed his Ph.D. in physics at the University of California, Santa Barbara, under Prof. Omar Saleh. As a postdoc, he developed single-molecule methods for measuring membrane-protein energetics under Prof. Tom Perkins at JILA. At Clemson, he is excited to build a lab focused on applying those single-molecule methods to studies of membrane proteins of biological and biomedical interest.

Abideen Ayangbemi
Chemistry Ph.D. student

Abideen studied biochemistry and molecular biology at Obafemi Awolowo University in Nigeria. Now in grad school, he chose to study chemistry to address questions he felt biochemistry would not be able to answer. As a Ph.D. student, he hopes to expand his horizon and build a career.

His project focuses on developing general techniques for performing single-molecule force spectroscopy of membrane proteins in native lipid bilayer environments.   

Christopher Hatchell
Chemistry Ph.D. student

Chris attended Wofford College in Spartanburg, S.C., where he earned bachelors degrees in both chemistry and biology. He is interested in the intersection of chemistry, biology, and physics.

He is working on two projects:

• Measuring the folding energetics of vasopressin receptor 2, a human G-protein coupled receptor.
• Developing widely applicable methods for tuning the mechanical properties of AFM cantilevers.

Tommy Courtney
Chemistry Ph.D. student

Tommy earned his bachelors degree in Chemistry with a concentration in Pure Chemistry at the University of California Riverside. There he developed a passion for not only the physical sciences, but biochemistry as well. Now at Clemson, he hopes to further his passions and make meaningful contributions to the Chemistry department and the field as a whole.

David Cho
Biochemistry B.S. student

David is continuing a project to use single-molecule force spectroscopy to study the sugar pucker of single-stranded RNA.