Daniel Keedy started at CUNY as an Assistant Professor in January 2018 and was promoted to Associate Professor in September 2025. His primary affiliations are with the Structural Biology Initiative at the CUNY Advanced Science Research Center (ASRC) and with the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at The City College of New York. He is also affiliated with the PhD Programs in Biochemistry; Chemistry; and Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology (MCD) at the CUNY Graduate Center.

Prior to his appointment at CUNY, Daniel was an AP Giannini Postdoctoral Fellow in Bioengineering and Therapeutic Sciences at the University of California, San Francisco working with James Fraser. He earned his PhD in Biochemistry and Structural Biology & Biophysics from Duke University with Jane and David Richardson, after receiving his BA in Biochemistry & Molecular Biology from Rhodes College.

As principal investigator of the Keedy lab, Daniel develops experimental and computational methods to control proteins by biasing toward specific conformations that underlie functions such as allostery, ligand binding, and catalysis. His work reveals new opportunities to modulate the activities of therapeutic targets such as protein tyrosine phosphatases with small molecules and protein engineering, and also offers insights into more general evolutionary processes that led to functional diversity in the human proteome. Daniel also seeks to integrate prospective, collaborative research projects into a classroom setting to catalyze student learning about biochemistry and structural biology.

The Keedy lab is grateful for federal funding to support our research from the National Institutes of Health, including the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) and the National Institute on Aging (NIA), and from the Department of Energy (DOE). Daniel has also received a Cottrell Scholar Award and a CCNY CCAPP STEM Teacher of the Year Award.

Shakhriyor “Shah” Djuraev is a senior biochemistry student at The City College of New York with a passion for hands-on laboratory work sparked through his undergraduate biology and chemistry lab courses. Shah built further on his laboratory skills in the CIPASS Biotechnology/Biology Lab Skills Program, where he gained exposure to techniques such as DNA extraction, PCR, western blotting, ELISA, and cell culture, along with protein purification and gel electrophoresis. His academic curiosity deepened in CHEM 32002 (Biochemistry I) with Dr. Keedy, where a group project on engineering mutations in the protein phosphatase PTP1B sparked his interest in protein research. This led Shah to join the Keedy lab in Fall 2024 for Honors research, where he is eager to expand his knowledge of protein phosphatases, refine his wet-lab skills, and explore his future career options. In addition to his academic endeavors, Shah balances his time as a part-time EMT with Assist Ambulance and as a counter person at a bustling Italian American pizzeria in Brooklyn, where he pursues his love for crafting Neapolitan-style pizza.

Eric is a senior computer science student at Hunter College. Initially, he did research in the Human Robot Interaction (HRI) field working on social robot navigation, but was inspired to try out computational biology after attending the January 2025 Quantitative Methods Workshop (QMW) at MIT. He spent the following summer at MIT in the Ovchinnikov lab under the 2025 MSRP-Bio program, where he worked on high-throughput protein purification with a liquid handling robot. To continue gaining experience in computational biology, Eric joined the Keedy lab in Fall 2025, where he hopes to apply his computational skills to tackle interesting problems in structural biology.

Originally from Colombia, Liliana graduated with BS in Biological Engineering from National University of Colombia. Liliana moved to New York in 2016 to pursue a career in Biochemistry. In 2021, Liliana graduated with a Masters in Biochemistry from Hunter College, before joining the CUNY Biochemistry PhD Program. In 2022, she joined the Keedy lab, where she hopes to focus her research on the study of allosteric networks of phosphatases with the use of computational tools.

Alexis “Lexi” Lemberikman graduated from Baruch College in 2023 with a BA degree in biological sciences and a minor in psychology. During her undergraduate years, she immersed herself in fruit fly husbandry and bioinformatics, specializing in genomics-focused projects involving gene annotation in Drosophila species, under the guidance of faculty mentor Dr. Krista Dobi. Upon admission to the NSF RaMP post-baccalaureate program, Lexi joined the Keedy lab in August 2023, allowing her the opportunity to explore her interests in computational biology and develop a love for the collaborative, hands-on nature of benchwork. In addition to being involved in various fragment-screening projects in the lab, her current project utilizes time-resolved X-ray crystallography in the pursuit of revealing alternate conformations of proteins. In deepening her knowledge of structural biology, Lexi aspires to ultimately merge her love for the sciences with her passion for medicine.

Tamar graduated summa cum laude from Chatham University in Pittsburgh in 2016, where she received her Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry. After graduating, she worked with Dr. David Koes at the University of Pittsburgh on computational drug design for various therapeutic targets. Tamar is now pursuing her PhD in Biochemistry at CUNY. In 2018, she joined the Keedy lab, where she is developing computational strategies to leverage multistate models of protein structures with large numbers of protein:ligand structures to design novel allosteric inhibitors for phosphatases.

Julia graduated summa cum laude from Hunter College in 2024 with a Bachelor of Arts in Chemistry. During her undergraduate studies, she worked as a medical assistant at a primary care physician office, performing initial assessments and assisting physicians with in-house exams like EKGs and urinary analysis. After graduating, the pandemic inspired her to volunteer in Infection Control at The Brooklyn Hospital Center where she conducted regular IC rounds of facility cleanliness and adherence to infection control guidelines. As part of the CCNY B3 RaMP postbaccalaureate program, Julia joined the Keedy lab in August 2024, where she hopes to work collaboratively to develop her wet lab skills in addition to learning about computational methods. She aims to expand her knowledge about the structural biology of protein tyrosine phosphatases and their biological roles in illnesses.