Yanyu Zhao, B.S. Chemistry, Haverford College

Yanyu grew up in Dalian, China, and came to the U.S to pursue undergraduate studies. In 2021, she graduated from Haverford College with a B.S. in chemistry with a concentration in biochemistry. Yanyu conducted her undergraduate research under the mentorship of Dr. Casey Londergan, and her projects involved characterizing membrane depth-dependent behaviors of three small molecule vibrational probes, using both vibrational spectroscopy and MD simulation. She also used vibrational spectroscopy to study the membrane-bound structure dynamics of a-Synuclein, a protein implicated in the progression of Parkinson’s disease. In the Crawford lab, Yanyu focuses on characterizing unknown metabolites produced by an intriguing mitochondrial enzyme .