Vinnie Widjaja

Address: 5500 Campanile Dr, San Diego, CA, 92182 (Department of Chemistry/Biochemistry)
Email: [email protected]
Phone: 619-861-0788
Website: https://vinniewidjaja.weebly.com/

EDUCATION
San Diego State University 2017 – present
Bachelor of Science, Chemistry - Emphasis in Biochemistry Expected May 2021

RESEARCH EXPERIENCE
Stanford University, Department of Chemical and Systems Biology Summer 2020 – present
Advisor : Dr. Daniel Jarosz Stanford, CA
Project: Characterizing the function of a multi-enzyme complex: the purinosome
- Computationally modelling the function of the purinosome in yeast cells using a reaction-
diffusion model to better understand how spatiotemporal relationships influence cellular
phenotype.
San Diego State University, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry Summer 2019 – present
Advisor: Dr. Christal Sohl San Diego, CA
Project: The effects of acetylation mimics on the catalytic efficiency of isocitrate dehydrogenase 1 (IDH1)
- Engineered and developed acetylation mimics through point mutations
- Developed procedures and performed assays to test for catalytic efficiency for mutants K224Q,
K81Q, K321Q and WT IDH1.
Project: Examining the role of catalysis and inhibitor binding through engineering of α10 helix mutants
- Investigating the rates of conformational change of IDH1 through mutations to α10 helix
- Performing mutagenesis to mutants D273P, D279P to destabilize the α10 helix and running
steady-state kinetics to determine the effect on IDH1 enzymatic activity.
AWARDS, AND SCHOLARSHIPS
Maximizing Access to Research Careers 2019 - present
SACNAS Outstanding Presentation Award 2020
SACNAS Registration Award 2020
Stanford Summer Research Program Fellowship 2020
Sally Cassanova Pre-Doctoral Scholar (honorable mention) 2020
Sharp Auxiliary Scholarship 2018
Dean’s List 2018
PUBLICATIONS
Weeks, J., Strom, A., Widjaja, V., Alexander, S., Pucher, D., Sohl, C. D. (2020). Evaluating IDH1
Regulation through Site Specific Acetylation Mimics. FEBS Letters. (In preparation).

PRESENTATIONS
• Vinnie Widjaja, Christal D. Sohl,…PI. The effects of acetylation mimics on the catalytic
efficiency of isocitrate dehydrogenase 1 (IDH1).
o Student Research Symposium, Poster (2020) San Diego, CA
o ABRCMS Conference, Poster (2019) Anaheim, CA
o Undergraduate Research Symposium, Oral (2019) San Diego, CA
• Vinnie Widjaja, Christal D. Sohl,…PI. Examining the role of catalysis and inhibitor binding
through engineering of α10 helix mutants
• Vinnie Widjaja, Daniel Jarosz,…PI. Characterizing the function of a multi-enzyme complex: the
purinosome.
o SACNAS Conference, Poster (2020) Virtual Conference
o Undergraduate Research Symposium, Oral (2020) Virtual Presentation
o Stanford Summer Research Symposium, Oral (2020) Virtual Conference

TEACHING, MENTORING, AND OUTREACH EXPERIENCE

• San Diego Tutoring Tree 2020 – present
o Organized lesson plans and paired students with respective tutors.
• College of Sciences Peer Mentor 2018 – present
o Mentored freshman and sophomore year students to promote their academic and
professional success in college.
o Presentations:
Virtual Volunteer/ Research Experience 2020 – present
Sweet Releaf: Mental Health Campaign 2020 – present
Summer Research Information Session 2019 – present
Donut-Plan-a-Thon 2019 – present
Freshman Student Campaign 2019 – present
Transfer Student Ice Cream Social 2019
• MESA Chapter at SDSU 2017 – present
o Organized outreach to middle school and high school students to teach them about STEM.
 MESA Orientation Panelist. 2019 – present
Pre-MARC Presenter 2019
MESA Junior Academy Research Presenter 2019
• Volunteer and Auxiliary Services at Sharp Chula Vista 2015 – 2019
o Emergency Department (2016-2019) and Gift Shop (2015-2016)
o Worked collaboratively with other volunteers to assist patients, acted as a liaison between
patients and staff.

PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIPS
Society for Advancing Chicanos/ Hispanics and Native Americans in Science 2020 – present
American Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology 2019 - present
College of Sciences Student Success Center Organization 2018 – present
Compact Scholars Program 2017 – present
Mathematics Engineering Science Acheivement 2017 – present

RELEVANT SKILLS
Site-directed mutagenesis, Enzyme Kinetics, Spectrophotometry, PCR, Protein Purification, Pymol,
GraphPad Prism, MatLab, Oral Science Communication, Maple

REFERENCES
Christal D. Sohl, PhD. SDSU Assistant Professor, Chemistry/ Biochemistry
(619) 594 -2053 / [email protected]

Catherine Atkins, Ph.D SDSU Assistant Dean, College of Sciences

(619) 594-5412 / [email protected]

Emilio Ulloa, PhD. SDSU Associate Dean of Students and Campus Climate
[email protected]

Daniel Jarosz, PhD. Stanford Associate Professor, Chemical and Systems Biology
[email protected]

Christopher Jakobson, Ph.D Stanford Post-Doctoral Scholar, Jarosz Lab

[email protected]

Miranda Stratton, PhD. Stanford Summer Research Program Coordinator

[email protected]