Divya Pathak, PhD Postdoctoral Scholar in Biochemistry pdivya@stanford.edu

Neha Nandwani, PhD Postdoctoral Scholar in Biochemistry nnandwan@stanford.edu

Neha received her PhD from National Centre for Biological Sciences, India. While in Jayant Udgaonkar’s lab at NCBS, she investigated sequence and structural constraints driving domain swapping in proteins collaboratively with the lab of Shachi Gosavi, leading to the design of a generalizable mutational strategy to induce domain swapping in diverse beta-hairpin proteins. In the Spudich lab, she uses her expertise in protein kinetics and structure-function relationship to study the molecular effects of disease-causing variants in cardiac and skeletal myosin that result in several different myopathies.  

Apart from work, she enjoys reading fiction, baking, and exploring ocean views and different food and wine options that Bay Area has to offer! 

Current Projects: Using recombinantly expressed and purified human isoforms, Neha is exploring the effects of several HCM and DCM mutations on the structure and function of beta cardiac myosin. Major current projects : (1) allosteric effects of HCM mutations on the stability of the folded-back state of myosin, and (2) effects of HCM mutations on the inhibitory effects of myosin modulators. 

Rama Reddy Goluguri, PhD Postdoctoral Scholar in Biochemistry goluguri@stanford.edu

Rama did his Ph.D in protein biophysics from National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS), India, under the supervision of Prof. Jayant Udgaonkar working on sub-millisecond events during protein folding reaction. He built a microsecond mixing device to study chemical reactions happening in sub-millisecond time scale and also developed fluorescence correlation spectroscopy (FCS) based method to study protein dynamics in solution. He did his first postdoc at UC Merced with Prof. Victor Munoz on mechanism of DNA scanning by eukaryotic transcription factors. In the Spudich lab he is using his expertise in site specific labeling of proteins and fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) to design a sensor for folded back state of cardiac myosin.

In his free time Rama enjoys cooking and eating south Indian food.

Current projects: Designing FRET sensor to quantify folded back state of cardiac myosin (in collaboration with Prof. Dave Thomas's lab at University of Minnesota). 

Asmita Pawar, PhD Postdoctoral Scholar in Biochemistry asmitamd@stanford.edu

Asmita received her PhD from Centre for Cellular & Molecular Biology (CCMB), Hyderabad, India. In the lab of Yogendra Sharma at CCMB, she investigated the calcium-binding properties of many novel proteins that belonged to diverse domain superfamilies like- bg-crystallin, bacterial immunoglobulin-like (Big), and EF-hand domains (Centrin-1 and Secretagogin). Before her PhD, she was engaged actively as a lecturer of biology teaching undergraduate students in various colleges affiliated to University of Pune, India. 

Apart from work, she enjoys exploring food, nature, and photography.

Current Projects: She joined as a postdoc trainee with Prof. James Spudich in 2023 and is working with Dr. Masataka Kawana (Taka). Taka and she are currently studying the molecular effects of various atrial fibrillation-associated mutations of alpha-cardiac myosins using recombinantly expressed and purified atrial-specific proteins. 

Aminah Dawood, MBT Life Science Research Professional aminahd@stanford.edu

Seiji Yokota Life Science Technician scyokota@stanford.edu

Seiji is a Silicon Valley native and graduated with a B.S. in Entomology from UC Davis. Under the the supervision of Arathi Seshadri of the USDA Agricultural Research Service (Davis, CA), he discovered that the dietary phytochemical p-coumaric acid supports hypopharyngeal gland growth in Western honeybees (Apis mellifera). This experience inspired his ongoing interest in understanding the molecular mechanisms underlying diverse biological traits and processes, and eventually led him to join the Spudich lab in 2022. In addition to learning the biochemical basis of muscle contractility, Seiji is excited to start on a project examining the binding affinity of myosin binding protein C (MyBP-C) with its sarcomeric partners. For next steps, he plans on applying to graduate programs in cell, molecular, and organismal biology in the upcoming cycle.

Outside of lab, he regularly practices kendō (Japanese fencing) in San Jose, CA, and plays the piano.

Current Projects: Quantifying MyBP-C central domain binding to cardiac myosin in the context of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (under the mentorship of Asmita Pawar, PhD, and in collaboration with Prof. Masataka Kawana, Cardiovascular Medicine, Stanford).

Current Collaborators

Masataka Kawana, MD Assistant Professor of Medicine Cardiovascular Medicine Stanford School of Medicine

Masataka (Taka) Kawana is a native of Tokyo, Japan. He graduated from the University of Tokyo and moved to Philadelphia for premedical work, including a research year in the physiology lab at the University of Pennsylvania under Dr. Lee Sweeney. He graduated from the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, and he also took 1 year of research fellowship from the Sarnoff Cardiovascular Research Foundation, working in the genetics lab of Drs. Jon and Christine Seidman. He then completed his internal medicine, cardiovascular medicine, and advanced heart failure training at Stanford. During his cardiology fellowship, he worked with Dr. Jim Spudich and began his career studying the effects of mutations on cardiac myosin that cause cardiomyopathy. He is currently an assistant professor at Stanford University, and his research interests are in the fundamental mechanism of inherited cardiomyopathies.

Current Projects and Clinical Work: Taka is working on the mechanism of atrial cardiomyopathy that leads to atrial arrhythmia as a principal investigator and is closely collaborating with the Spudich lab. Taka takes care of patients with heart failure and inherited cardiomyopathies in his clinic and in the hospital, and he is also involved in multiple clinical trials for pharmacotherapy in hypertrophic and dilated cardiomyopathies.