University of North Texas 
Mauricio Antunes - Assistant Professor
Mauricio Antunes, Ph.D. received his B.S. degree in Agronomy and M.S. degree in Crop
Sciences from the Universidade Federal de Viçosa in Brazil. He then moved to West
Lafayette, Indiana, where he earned a Ph.D. degree in Plant Molecular Biology at Purdue
University, under the supervision of Nick Carpita and Tom Hodges. After completing
his doctoral degree, Antunes joined June Medford's group at Colorado State University
as a postdoctoral fellow, where he was involved in pioneering work in plant synthetic
biology to rationally engineer plants to function as sensitive and specific sensors
of substances of interest to humans. After spending one year working in Maureen McCann's
lab at the Center for Direct Catalytic Conversion of Biomass to Biofuels (C3Bio) at
Purdue University, Antunes returned to Colorado State University in 2010 as a Research
Assistant Professor in the Biology Department. In 2018, Dr. Antunes joined the Department
of Biological Sciences and the BioDiscovery Institute at UNT.
E-mail: Mauricio[dot]Antunes[at]unt[dot]edu
Savio De Siqueira Ferreira - Post-Doctoral Researcher
Savio de Siqueira Ferreira started his academic career working with plant viruses (Geminivirideae family) at Universidade Federal de Viçosa - UFV (Brazil), where he received his Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Biochemistry (2006 and 2008). In 2009, he changed field of study to work with sugarcane transcriptome, during his PhD in Biochemistry at Universidade de São Paulo (Brazil), with special interest in genes related to secondary cell wall metabolism and transcription factors regulatory networks. After receiving his Doctoral degree (2013) he started a post-doctoral fellow at the same lab (2014-2015), studying transcription factors, promoter characterization and helping in the sugarcane genome effort, with a brief period (5 months) as a visiting post-doc at The Ohio State University. After a short time back to UFV (2016) studying the transcriptome (RNA-seq) of coffee-rust fungus, he started to work as a post-doctoral fellow (2017-2019) at the LigninLab (Universidade de São Paulo) to work with phenylpropanoid metabolism and lignification in grasses. In January 2020 he joined Antunes Lab to develop studies in synthetic biology, aiming to design genetic circuits to modulate phenylpropanoid metabolism in plants.
E-mail: Savio[dot]Desiqueiraferreira[at]unt[dot]edu
Jordan LaChance - Graduate student
Jordan LaChance received her B.S. in Biology from the University of North Texas in May 2021. Here, she worked on and presented research highlighting the biochemical networks of fatty acid biosynthesis in developing embryos of Physaria fendleri, a promising alternative oilseed crop. She then was accepted into UNT's PhD program for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology in August 2021. Currently, Jordan is conducting research to expand understanding of Physaria fendleri metabolism and validate molecular tools to engineer genetic improvements in the species for industrial applications.
E-mail: JordanLachance[at]my[dot]unt[dot]edu
Md Shoyeb - Graduate student
Md Shoyeb completed his BSc and MS degree in Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology from Jashore University of Science and Technology, Bangladesh. He received the Vice Chancellor award for his outstanding result and joined as a faculty member in the same department in 2018. He started as a PhD student in UNT's Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Graduate Program from Fall'22. Now, Shoyeb is working to determine whether the long-distance mobility of miRNA via the plant phloem is determined by the location of expression or not. He loves to travel and read historical fiction.
E-mail: MdShoyeb[at]my[dot]unt[dot]edu
Jesseca Hemminger - Graduate student
Jesseca received her Bachelor of Science in Molecular Biology from Texas Lutheran University in May of 2022. In her time there, she worked on an individual research project that focused on the role of secondary metabolites inhibiting DNA extraction and sequencing samples of Coffea arabica and Coffea canephora. She began UNT's Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Graduate program in January 2023 and is working towards her PhD. Her hobbies include crafting and listening to Taylor Swift.
E-mail: JessecaHemminger[at]my[dot]unt[dot]edu
Undergraduate students
Ruhbani Jarral
Ruhbani Jarral is a second-year student majoring in Biochemistry, B.S. Ruhbani is passionate about learning and exploring the different aspects of genetics and biotechnology. Apart from that, she also likes being involved on campus and meeting new people. In her free time, Ruhbani enjoys baking, dancing, and hiking. A fun fact about her is that she has gone Skydiving! In the future, she hopes to work in Pharmaceutical companies as an Industrial Pharmacist.
Alyssa Stiles
Alyssa is a third-year BS Biochemistry major with minors in Biology and English. She works with Kiran to conduct research that is an extension of the SEA-GENES program. As part of the program, she collaboratively conducts in-depth gene function investigations working toward generating a gene expression library comprising all of the genes in a mycobacteriophage genome. She utilizes fundamental techniques of molecular biology, genetics, and microbiology. In her free time, she likes hiking, line dancing, and reading. She hopes to go to medical school and become a doctor.
Kiran Daulla
Kiran is a third-year BS Biochemistry major with minors in Biology, History, and Classical Studies. She works with Alyssa to conduct research that is an extension of the SEA-GENES program. As part of the program, she collaboratively conducts in-depth gene function investigations working towards generating a gene expression library comprising all of the genes in a mycobacteriophage genome. She utilizes fundamental techniques of molecular biology, genetics, and microbiology. In her free time, she likes reading and attending basketball games with her friends. After professional school, she hopes to pursue biomedical research.
Prince Amah
Prince is currently pursuing a B.A. in Biology with a minor in Chemistry; he has also been a President's List student throughout college so far. As one who aspires to be a doctor, to broaden his approach, he receives hands-on research experience in the lab, and acts as an advocate for underrepresented communities especially those in Africa. One of his goals and current projects is working to start a VOOM Ambassador's program at UNT as an offshoot of the main body, VOOM Foundation, a nonprofit cardiothoracic organization. Prince's interests include playing soccer, and listening to podcasts and music.