Lu “Lucy” Bai

Principal Investigator  [My Google Scholar Page]

Dr. Bai is a professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and Department of Physics at Penn State University. She received her PhD in biophysics from Cornell University (PI: Dr. Michelle Wang), and postdoctoral training at Rockefeller University (PI: Dr. Fred Cross and Dr. Eric Siggia). Dr. Bai moved to the Penn State University as an assistant professor in 2012, was promoted to associate professor in 2018, and to full professor in 2023. She was named Verne M. Willaman Professor of Molecular Biology in 2024. Besides her dual appointment at BMB and Physics, her group is also part of the Penn State Center for Eukaryotic Gene Regulation, which provides a highly interactive environment for the study of chromatin and gene regulation.

Christoph WA Fischer

Graduate student

Joseph Gale

Graduate student

Mitchell Godin

Graduate student

Mitchell Godin is a PhD student in the Biochemistry, Microbiology, and Molecular Biology (BMMB) program at Penn State. He received his undergraduate degree in molecular/cellular biology at the University of Connecticut. In his undergraduate studies, he investigated the binding of immune response proteins to viral RNAs in vitro to determine how RNA structure impacts binding affinity (Supervisor: Dr. James Cole) . He joined the Bai lab in December 2023 and is interested in how chromatin dynamics impact gene regulation.

Holly Kleinschmidt

Graduate Student

Holly Kleinschmidt is a PhD student in the Biochemistry, Microbiology, and Molecular Biology (BMMB) program at Penn State. She received her B.S. degrees in Biochemistry and Environmental Science from Saint Louis University in St. Louis, MO. In her undergraduate thesis lab, she studied the origin of life from an organic chemistry perspective (Supervisor: Dr. Paul Bracher). She joined the Bai lab in January 2020 and is studying how epigenetic factors influence pioneer factor binding in mammalian cells.

Neha Patwardhan

Graduate Student

Neha Patwardhan is a PhD student at Penn State in the MCIBS program. She got her Bachelor’s in Life Sciences in affiliation with the University of Mumbai. She received her MS in molecular and cell biology at the University of Cologne and the Max Planck Institute for Biology of Ageing. She is currently working on understanding constitutively open regions in the genome and the factors involved in maintaining this state.

Niral Shah

Graduate Student

Niral Shah is a PhD student in the Biochemistry, Microbiology, and Molecular Biology (BMMB) program at Penn State. She received here bachelors degree in Molecular and Cellular Biology from the University of Central Florida. In her undergraduate thesis lab (supervisor: Dr. Ken Teter), she studied the interaction between protein disulfide isomerase and cholera toxin. She joined the Bai lab in January 2024 and is interested in studying the interactions between non-pioneer transcription factors and chromatin remodelers in Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

Leman Simpson

Graduate student

Leman Simpson is a PhD student from the Chemistry program at Penn State University. He received his bachelors degree in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from the College of Wooster in Wooster, OH where he carried out research into structure-guided inhibitor design (supervisor: Dr. Sara ES Martin). He participated in Penn State Chemistry’s NSF REU in 2019 (supervisor: Dr. Xin Zhang). He joined the Bai lab in 2021 and is interested in studying transcriptional hot spots.

Courtney Smith

Graduate student

Courtney Smith is a PhD student from Biochemistry, Microbiology, and Molecular Biology (BMMB) program at Penn State. She received her Bachelor degrees in Biochemistry and English from Messiah University in Mechanicsburg, PA. During her undergraduate career, she studied protein engineering in the lab of Dr. Jesse Kleingardner. She joined the Bai lab in January 2023 and is interested in studying histone turnover and nucleosome depletion in Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

Shane D. Stoeber

Graduate Student

Shane Stoeber is a PhD student in the Biochemistry, Microbiology, and Molecular Biology (BMMB) program at Penn State University. He received his B.S. degree in Biotechnology from Florida Gulf Coast University in Ft. Myers, Fl. He joined the Bai lab in January 2021 and is interested in studying Pioneer factors and their mechanisms in Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

Taia DiPrinzio

Undergraduate student

Taia DiPrinzio is studying Biochemistry and Molecular Biology with a minor in Bioethics and Medical Humanities. At Penn State, Taia is in the Schreyer Honors College, Schreyer for Women, and a Communications THON committee. She joined the Bai Lab in Spring 2024 and is working with Holly to identify pioneer factor binding factors.

Sarah Vinson

Undergraduate student

Sarah Vinson is studying Biochemistry and Molecular Biology with a minor in Microbiology. At Penn State, Sarah is involved with Club Pickleball and Alpha Epsilon Delta, a pre-health honors society. She also works part-time at the Berkey Creamery. Sarah joined the Bai Lab in Summer 2024 and is working with Shane to investigate passive nucleosome invasion with LexA and TetR transcription factors.