Emily Branham

Emily Branham earned a BS in Chemistry, a Biology minor, and a Creative Writing minor from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she graduated in 2017 with Highest Distinction overall and Honors in Chemistry. At Yale University, Emily is a Chemistry/Biology Interface (CBI) Training Program Scholar with support provided by the National Institute of Health. She received an Honorable Mention from the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program in 2019.

During her first few years at Yale, Emily was a graduate student in the Spiegel Lab, where she focused on synthetically engineering monoclonal antibodies with the goal of improved removal of circulating proteins and enriched therapeutic applications. Emily earned her MS in Chemistry and advanced to candidacy before joining the DiMaio lab in 2020, where she continues to pursue her PhD in Chemistry. Her current research focuses on engineering genetically expressible, small transmembrane proteins (traptamers) to facilitate the proteasomal degradation of disease-relevant, endogenous transmembrane proteins. She intends to extend this PROTAC-like technology to the study of HPV as a way to identify new candidate proteins involved in viral infection.

Emily’s varied research experiences, which span biology, biochemistry, chemical biology, and synthetic chemistry, helped her discover and tailor her interest in applying chemistry to the study of biologically and medically relevant problems. In her free time, Emily enjoys relaxing at home with her husband, teaching her three Australian Shepherds new tricks, watching tv with her cats, writing, cooking (and eating), and playing violin in the Hamden Symphony Orchestra.