Dr. Flyak, an assistant professor in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology, began his research career in Ukraine. He earned a BS degree from the Taras Shevchenko University of Kyiv. He then moved to Nashville, Tennessee, and joined the PhD program in Microbiology and Immunology at Vanderbilt University. While at Vanderbilt, he determined how Marburg and Ebola viruses are neutralized by antibodies isolated from survivors of these deadly infections. During his postdoctoral studies at the California Institute of Technology, he used human antibodies to overcome a long-standing hurdle in Hepatitis C virus vaccine design – the crystallization of an intact form of the Hepatitis C virus envelope glycoprotein.

contact: andrew.flyak [at] cornell.edu

Marty earned her PhD in chemistry in the lab of Rebecca Page at UArizona. She then completed a postdoc with Deepta Bhattacharya at UArizona studying the immune response to SARS-CoV-2 while also teaching chemistry at Pima Community College. She is very excited to join the Flyak lab and is looking forward to combining her interests in structural biology and immunology.

Xander was born and raised in the Ithaca, NY area and completed his bachelors at Hobart and William Smith Colleges. He went on to earn his PhD in chemistry and chemical biology in the labs of Dr. Andrew Fisher and Dr. Peter Beal at the University of California, Davis where he used structural biology to develop site-directed RNA editing therapeutics. In the Flyak lab, he is interested in structurally characterizing broadly neutralizing antibodies to aide in the development of a vaccine for Hepatitis C.

Outside of the lab, Xander enjoys traveling to National Parks, hiking, weightlifting, gardening, and homebrewing craft beer.

Sekyere Boateng is from Ghana, West Africa, and graduated from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) in Kumasi with a Bachelor of Science degree in biochemistry and biotechnology. He earned a master's degree in chemistry from Tennessee Technological University, where he worked in Dr. Zhan's lab, identifying novel protein-protein interactions in the Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinase (MAPK) pathways. He is thrilled to be a part of the Flyak Lab and is looking forward to furthering his interests in structural biology and immunology.

Benedito was born and raised in Hopkinton, Massachusetts. He attended the University of Massachusetts Boston where he studied Biology from the College of Science and Mathematics. As an undergraduate, he studied animal operant conditioning. After graduating he was a research assistant with Homology Medicines inc. studying the rare gene therapeutics treatments with the use of gene editing technology. In the Flyak lab, his research interests include the mechanisms behind rapid response from human antibodies to neutralizing mutating viruses,

In his free time, Benedito enjoys running, cooking, gardening, and spending time with his pets.

Katherine was born and raised in Corning, NY. She received her Bachelor’s in Liberal Arts from Sarah Lawrence College, concentrating in chemistry and neurobiology. Prior to joining the Flyak Lab, Katherine investigated the impacts of progesterone on the swimming behavior of zebrafish.

In Katherine’s free time, she enjoys swimming, coaching, hiking and watching movies.

Ryhl is currently a junior undergraduate student studying biology with aims of attending medical school for either infectious disease or emergency care. Prior to joining the Flyak lab he has done work on structural determination and molecular interactions... specifically, surrounding target bacterial membrane proteins for vaccines for Haemophilus influenzae, as well as integral proteins involved in transient bacterial dormancy of mycobacterium tuberculosis.

In his free time, Ryhl enjoys drawing, hiking, fishing and spending time with his friends.

Jimin is currently a sophomore undergraduate student studying Human Biology, Health, and Society. Her research interests are in molecular pharmacology, drug delivery, and nanomedicine, and she plans to pursue this in pharmacy school. Prior to joining the Flyak Lab, Jimin studied how self-assembled nanoparticles have an effect on drug delivery efficiency, specifically the VEGF release through beta-sheet mediated self-assembled hydrogels.