Our Team
Rae Cho (CV) – Principal Investigator / ucho@email.unc.edu
Postdoctoral training in Molecular and Cell Biology at the Salk Institute
PhD in Chemical and Systems Biology at Stanford University
Rae was born and mostly raised in Seoul, Korea. During elementary school years, he lived in Tokyo, Japan. In college and graduate school, he was trained as a chemical biologist. He developed multiple technologies including lanthanide-based time-resolved imaging, protein degrons for worms and flies, and Seoul-fluor-based pH sensors. He worked with Profs. James Chen, Pehr Harbury, and Thomas Wandless at Stanford. He also studied advanced microscopy at the Marine Biological Laboratory during his PhD. He then wanted to pursue question-driven research in the field of cell biology, and joined the laboratory of Prof. Martin Hetzer at the Salk Institute for his postdoctoral training. There, he investigated how caspases proteolytically modulate the nuclear pore complex during myoblast-to-myotube transition. Rae's training was supported by Samsung, Glenn Foundation, and NIH/NIAMS (K01; co-mentored by Prof. Lorenzo Puri at Sanford-Burnham-Prebys). In Jan 2024, he moved to UNC Chapel Hill to start his own lab.
Esther Beaudoin – Research Technician / esther_beaudoin@med.unc.edu
Esther was born, raised, and educated in Lowell, MA. She earned her bachelor’s degree from University of Massachusetts, and did graduate studies at the University of Vermont and UMass Lowell. She started out as a high school biology teacher, then became interested in cancer and cellular immunotherapy. She worked on CAR-T-related projects at BIDMC (Boston, MA) and RWMC (Providence, RI) with Dr. Richard Junghans for seven years. At Yale University, she trained researchers using the Flow Cytometry Core Facility, and at Duke University, she produced antibodies and Fabs against SARS, MERS, and HIV for the Structural Biology Lab and their collaborators. She is very excited to learn new science and techniques in the Cho Lab at UNC Chapel Hill. She enjoys walking, yoga, reading, and dining out with friends.
Brady Cline – Research Technician / btcline@email.unc.edu
Brady was born in Connecticut and grew up in Georgia. He attended the University of North Georgia where he earned a B.S. in Biology with a minor in Chemistry. While at UNG, he studied sea urchin skeletal development with Dr. Meg Smith and Dr. Shane Webb. Continuing with the developmental biology theme, Brady moved to Cincinnati, Ohio after graduating to study vertebrate segmentation and somitogenesis in Zebrafish models with Dr. Ertugrul Ozbudak at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital. There, he participated in projects studying protein-protein interactions in vivo. Outside of lab he enjoys reading, watching movies, and cooking.
Betty Fan – Undergraduate Researcher / wfan9@unc.edu
Betty is a Junior at UNC Chapel Hill studying biology with a minor in chemistry. She plans on applying to medical school and hopes to become a physician in the future. In her free time, she enjoys reading, eating, and playing board games with friends.
Oli – Visiting Scientist / digital detoxing
Oli (born May 17th, 2021) is a furry biochemist who grew up in San Diego. He is our one-and-oli canine lab member. He mostly works from home. He studies (1) proteins in egg white, chicken breast, and greek yogurt and (2) carbohydrates in steamed sweet potato. He secretly likes his dad more than his mom. His long-term career goal is to become a jedi.