Graduate Students

Furyal Ahmed is currently a doctoral student in the Biophysics program at the University of Michigan. She got her B.S. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from Agnes Scott College. Her research interests focus on the structure and function of proteins implicated in disease. She is currently working on designing new methods to screen for inhibitors of cancer causing targets. When not researching, Furyal enjoys cooking new dishes, knitting, and working on her painting skills.

Maxim Balitskiy is predicting protein catalysis using hybrid models, like the Boltz-2 framework with accelerated DFT. He earned a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering from the University of Utah in 2025, where he did research on calibrating electrochemical-based formaldehyde sensors for air-quality research, and a minor project on miRNA-MOS hybridized miRNA sensors. During this time, he had several internships at Micron, where he explored contamination and hydroplaning in CMP. In his free time, he enjoys running, basketball, making music, and cooking! Email: maximb <at> umich.edu

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I'm your friendly neighborhood pH whisperer and protein fortune-teller. By day, I'm busy cooking up some seriously spicy Multisite Lambda Dynamics for Constant pH Molecular Dynamics simulations. My simulations are a maze of threading simulations, It's a total mystery how to run them to get the answers - a secret sauce recipe known only to yours truly. Even my AI buddies are left scratching their virtual heads! When the digital world gets too much, I vanish faster than a quantum fluctuation to kayak, hike, or just commune with nature. It's all in search of inspiration... or maybe I'm just hiding from my unfinished simulations and lab mates. Who knows? Just don't ask when my simulations will finish or predict the pH of my coffee - that's one mystery even I can't solve!

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Hi I'm Azam, a 4th year PhD student in Charlie's lab. My research focuses on combining machine learning, molecular modeling, and experiments to enable new discoveries in protein engineering. My favorite Michigan activities include apple picking, kayaking, and visiting Cherry Republic.

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I obtained my BS degrees in Chemistry, Mathematics, and Biochemistry from the University of North Texas. My passion in life has always been scientific discovery, research and teaching. During my undergrad, the formative years of my research, I contributed significant research in the areas of asymmetric catalysis in organic chemistry, analytical chemistry involving solvent coefficient models, and structural biophysics of cytoskeletal proteins. My current research in the Brooks lab involves establishing a method development that utilizes an enhanced sampling technique known as Umbrella Sampling and a relative binding free energy technique known as Multisite Lambda Dynamics (MSLD) to create a high throughput method of deriving ligand binding free energy profiles as they pass through aquaporin channels. In my free time, I love fencing (Foil), practicing the violin with my church's quartet, learning new languages, exploring new cities, and I never turn down an opportunity to hang out with friends. As an extrovert, building relationships along with research prowess is something I always look forward to. If you have anymore questions, feel free to email me at boloyede@umich.edu or contact me through LinkedIn

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My research focuses on machine learning method on exploring chemical space with generative model. I also create a project named crimm, which help prepare structures for dynamic simulations, docking, and machine learning. Link to crimm: https://github.com/BrooksResearchGroup-UM/crimm