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Dr. Odessa Goudy successfully defended her thesis, titled “Computational design of autoinhibitory domains for a protease-activated PD-L1 inhibitor” on Friday, February 17th. As a graduate student, Odessa was an active member of Brian Kuhlman’s lab and a student leader within the Biochemistry and Biophysics department. 


Odessa Goudy standing by presentation stage at PhD Defense in February 2023

Dr. Odessa Goudy successfully defended her thesis, titled “Computational design of autoinhibitory domains for a protease-activated PD-L1 inhibitor” on Friday, February 17th. As a graduate student, Odessa was an active member of Brian Kuhlman’s lab and a student leader within the Biochemistry and Biophysics department. 

Research & Outreach 

For her thesis project Odessa optimized natural proteins and engineered novel domains to serve as autoinhibitory domains using Rosetta and other methods. Outside of research, Odessa helped to revamp the department student-led student seminar, received numerous poster and presentation and science illustration awards, actively recruited students during the BBSP interview weekends, and represented the biophysics student in the department Graduate Education Committee. In addition, Odessa devoted her efforts toward science outreach by serving as a WinSPIRE Research Mentor and Hands on Experience Leader, representing the department at SACNAS, and co-founding Shadow A Scientist. Additionally. Odessa was recognized as a peer-nominated Graduate Student Mentor by the Office of Graduate Education.

Fellowships

Recently, Odessa was the recipient of The Carol and Edward Smithwick Dissertation Fellowship within the Royster Society of Fellows. Membership within the Royster Society of Fellows is the highest honor awarded by The Graduate School to graduate students at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Prior to receiving the Dissertation Completion Fellowship, Odessa was awarded the prestigious National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship in 2019. Additionally, Odessa was also supported by the NIH Molecular and Cellular Biophysics T32 Training Grant in 2018 during her second-year.

Odessa accepted a position as a Scientist on the Discovery Team at AI Proteins in Boston. AI Proteins is a newly founded biotechnology company focused on the design and engineering of synthetic miniprotein therapeutics. We wish her all the best!

Odessa Goudy with Kuhlman lab 2-17-2023 after defense
Odessa Goudy with Brian Kuhlman and lab after defending her thesis on February 17, 2023.

Publications

Goudy OJ, Peng A, Tripathy A, Kuhlman B. Design of a protease-activated PD-L1 inhibitor. Protein Sci. 2023 Mar;32(3):e4578. doi: 10.1002/pro.4578. PMID: 36705186; PMCID: PMC9926466.

Lerner AM, Yumerefendi H, Goudy OJ, Strahl BD, Kuhlman B. Engineering Improved Photoswitches for the Control of Nucleocytoplasmic Distribution. ACS Synth Biol. 2018 Dec 21;7(12):2898-2907. doi: 10.1021/acssynbio.8b00368. Epub 2018 Nov 29. PMID: 30441907; PMCID: PMC6497050.

Awards

2021-2022 Science Mentoring Awards

Odessa Goudy has been selected to receive a 2019 NSF Graduate Research Fellowship

Congratulations 2021 Retreat Presentation Winners

Extracurricular Activities/Positions

Reaching Out for the Win: Encouraging STEM in the local community

Shadow A Scientist reaches 400 students!

BCBP at the Diversity in STEM SACNAS conference in Puerto Rico!

Highlights

BCBP department student seminar is a student-created initiative

Kuhlman lab members present at Winter RosettaCON

Odessa Goudy presented at 3MT finals