My name is Sam and I am a graduate student in the Subramaniam Lab. I am interested in using giant unilamellar vesicles (GUVs) as simplified cell-like platforms to understand how membrane composition and membrane-protein interactions govern material behavior. In particular, I investigate hybrid lipid–polymer membranes to establish quantitative relationships between material properties, assembly mechanisms, and vesicle yield, and explore how dynamic biochemical systems, such as circadian clock proteins, can regulate mesoscale organization like vesicle aggregation. Overall, my work aims to link molecular-scale interactions to emergent material behavior, contributing to the design of responsive biomaterials and collective systems. In my free time, I like to go for a run and collect stickers in my scrapbook!
