Liam Hallada’s enthusiasm for research has been the driving force of his education. He wants to use his experience in biomedical research to become a professor with a focus on improving accessibility to biomedical technology.
Hallada earned bachelor’s degrees in biology and chemistry and a master’s degree in biology from the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology in Socorro. He was also accepted into the National Symposium for Undergraduate Research held at St. Jude in 2017, which encouraged him to apply to the graduate school. Hallada’s interests include interdisciplinary approaches to research and developing new technologies to investigate the biophysical characteristics of cellular processes in the context of neural development and the immune system. He earned his master's degree from the St. Jude Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences in April 2020.
Hallada currently works in the lab of David Solecki, PhD, Developmental Neurobiology, where he focuses on how neurons migrate in the developing brain using super-resolution microscopy and live cell imaging.
“Because science is always changing, being able to learn and grow in a place like St. Jude, where we have world-class faculty and amazing resources, is the ideal environment for innovation,” he says.
Hometown: Albuquerque, New Mexico
Publications
Niroula D, Hallada LP, Le Chapelain C, Ganegamage SK, Dotson D, Rogelj S, Groll M, Tello-Aburto R. Design, synthesis, and evaluation of cystargolide-based β-lactones as potent proteasome inhibitors. Eur J Med Chem 157:962-977, 2018.
Niroula D, Hallada LP, Rogelj S, Tello-Aburto R. A total synthesis of (−)-Hortonone C. Tetrahedron 73(4):359-364, 2017.
Tello-Aburto R, Hallada LP, Niroula D, Rogelj S. Total synthesis and absolute stereochemistry of the proteasome inhibitors cystargolides A and B. Org Biomol Chem 13(40):10127-10130, 2015.