MEET THE TEAM
We are experts and innovators in the field of structural biology. Our team’s scientific expertise, professionalism, and excellent track record of confidentiality make us a trustworthy partner for your structure-based research projects.
Edward Snell
Chief Scientific Officer
Edward Snell
Chief Scientific Officer
Dr. Snell, a Fellow of the American Crystallographic Association, is a biophysicist. He has a first-class honors degree in Applied Physics, a Ph.D. from the Chemistry Department at the University of Manchester in the UK, and was awarded a National Research Council fellowship for his post-doctoral research at the NASA laboratory for Structural Biology in Huntsville, Alabama. Dr. Snell worked as a project scientist at NASA after his post-doctoral period and helped support extra-mural scientific efforts of several researchers. In 2005 he moved to a research scientist position at HWI and was given his current role in 2014. Dr. Snell directs the National Science Foundation BioXFE Science and Technology Center, is a professor at the University at Buffalo, and is an adjunct professor at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center. Dr. Snell has had experience in industry, academia, and in his previous career, working for the UK government. He is an accomplished martial artist, enjoys riding horses when he can, and swims regularly. He can be found with a good book and a glass of wine. He has two cats at home and refuses to admit that he likes them.
Lisa Keefe
Executive Director, IMCA-CAT & VP for Advancing Therapeutics
Lisa Keefe
Executive Director, IMCA-CAT & VP for Advancing Therapeutics
Dr. Keefe is a biophysicist focused on accelerating pharmaceutical drug discovery through synchrotron-based structural biology.
Sarah Bowman
Director, National High-Throughput Crystallization Center
Sarah Bowman
Director, National High-Throughput Crystallization Center
Dr. Bowman has been working in structural biology for over 15 years. She completed her PhD research at University of Rochester in the Bren Lab. She then moved to Massachusetts Institute of Technology for postdoctoral research in theDrennan and Stultz Groups (supported by an NIH Ruth L. Kirschstein NRSA fellowship), followed by a second postdoctoral appointment at Los Alamos National Laboratory. Dr. Bowman joined the Crystallization Center as the Director in July 2017. She is the PI of the NIGMS National Resource grant funding the HTX Center. Her research groupis working to develop new methods that combine crystallographic and spectroscopic approaches to answer fundamental questions about protein biochemistry, especially in metalloproteins.
Devrim Acehan
Director, HWI Cryo-EM Center
Devrim Acehan
Director, HWI Cryo-EM Center
Dr. Acehan is the director of the Cryo-EM Center at the HWI. He has 25+ years of experience in the electron microscopy field. He obtained the first 3-D models of apoptosomes, using cryo single particle electron microscopy and studied several cellular structures such as desmosomes and mitochondria, using cryo electron tomography. Over the last 10+ years in electron microscopy core facilities, Devrim has been working on a variety of projects with scientists across the globe.
Anne Kent
CFO HWI
Anne Kent
CFO HWI
Anne Kent is the Chief Financial Officer of HWI. She oversees the financial management, business strategy, federal proposal writing, funding, and investments of the operations. Anne's experience combines leadership and strategic thinking in multiple settings, capital strategy, and advancement of partnerships with industry and government. Before joining HWI she was the controller of a motorcycle racing company based in Nevada. Upon moving back to her hometown Buffalo, NY, she started as a staff accountant at the Institute and worked her way up. In 2016, the Board of Directors unanimously voted her to the position of CFO based on the recommendation from the CEO and years of working hard, proving she would succeed in this role. Her qualifications and professional accreditations include a Bachelor of Science in Finance and Economics from Buffalo State College and 21 years of service to the Institute.
Gabrielle Budziszewski
Operations Manager, National High-Throughput Crystallization Center
Gabrielle Budziszewski
Operations Manager, National High-Throughput Crystallization Center
Dr. Budziszewski is a native Buffalonian who completed her bachelor’s in biochemistry at Canisius College prior to moving to the University of North Carolina to complete her PhD in Biochemistry & Biophysics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill working in the McGinty lab. She has expertise in macromolecular crystallography, recombinant protein expression and purification, enzymology, and biochemical assay development. She joined the HTX Center in Fall 2022. Dr. Budziszewski is passionate about working with users to develop strategies to produce diffraction-quality crystal hits and promoting an inclusive scientific work environment.
Katherine Spoth
Cryo-electron microscopist, HWI Cryo-EM Center
Katherine Spoth
Cryo-electron microscopist, HWI Cryo-EM Center
Dr. Spoth is the cryo-EM operator at HWI. She has ten years of EM experience, with over four years as facility staff helping scientists get the most out of their samples using single-particle and tomography. She received her PhD from Cornell University, where she researched cryo-STEM techniques leveraging state-of-the-art detectors. Katie is a Buffalo native - when she's not at the microscope, you might find her spending time with extended family or hiking with her husband and dog.
Elizabeth Snell
Research Associate
Elizabeth Snell
Research Associate
Elizabeth Snell has more than 15 years of experience in protein crystallization. Several of the proteins that she has worked on have flown on the International Space Station, and she is currently working on developing a pipeline to provide optimization of crystallization results to HTX Center users. She received her B.S. in Chemistry from the University of Alabama in Huntsville.
Tiffany Wright
Research Associate
Tiffany Wright
Research Associate
Tiffany Wright joined the Crystallization Center at HWI in November 2022. New to the area of structural biology, she brings her experience to the lab from her background as a B.S. in Forensic Chemistry from Buffalo State College. Her work focuses on high-throughput protein crystallization, and she maintains daily operations and service output in the HTX Center.
Miranda Lynch
Assistant Investigator
Miranda Lynch
Assistant Investigator
Dr. Lynch is a quantitative and computational scientist focused on applications in structural biology and image analysis. Her work focuses on how we can use imaging methods to better detect and characterize samples for structural biology techniques. She received her PhD from University of Rochester on Bayesian methodology, and continued to a postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health on modeling methods for HIV disease progression. Besides developing quantitative methods to make better use of imaging for crystal growth and detection in the HTX Center, she also pursues computational approaches for understanding protein motion from structural data.