People

Principal Investigator

Racheff Faculty Scholar
Materials Science and Engineering
Carle Illinois College of Medicine
Materials Research Laboratory
Beckman Institute
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

E-mail: cecilial@illinois.edu
Phone: 217-300-1955 | Fax: 217-333-2736
Office: 204 MSEB

twitter: Follow @leal_prof

Administrative Support

Karyn Traum

Coordinator of Research Programs

E-mail: traum@illinois.edu

Postdoctoral Researchers

Teshani Kumarage, E-mail: teshanik@illinois.edu

Endosomal escape of lipid-based nanoparticles comprising Gaussian curvature lipids

Ph.D. Virginia Tech

B.S. University of Peradeniya

Graduate Students

Kyungwon Ko, E-mail: ko25@illinois.edu

Investigating lipid droplet dynamics in obesity

M.S. Seoul National University

Max Baliga, E-mail: mbaliga2@illinois.edu

Investigating mechanisms of and barriers to lipid nanoparticle-mediated drug delivery

B.S. Northwestern University

Bengü Süeda Şengül, E-mail: bsengl2@illinois.edu

Investigating the mechanical, structural, and functional properties of synthetic and cell-derived membranes. From Hybrid Shells to Artificial Cells

B.S. Sabancı University

Satyajit Panda, E-mail: sp96@illinois.edu

Investigating hyperuniformity in Cellulophaga lytica biofilms and exploring their structural coloration through mesoscale supracellular characterization

M.S. University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

B.Tech. National Institute of Technology Rourkela

Ellery Schlorff, E-mail: ellerys2@illinois.edu

Studying the mechanisms of structural color in Cellulophaga lytica to understand bio-derived photonic materials

B.S. Pennsylvania State University

Debashrita Kundu, E-mail: kundu6@illinois.edu

Fabrication of polymer-lipid hybrid membranes for mimicking synaptic plasticity and ion transport

M.Tech. Indian Institute of Science

B.Tech. University of Calcutta

Undergraduate Students


Shane Spatol	Sophia Weeks	Lily Kluge	Perla Bran

Leallies (Leal Group Alumni)


Nurila Kambar – Sr. Research Chemist in Material Science and Analytical Techniques at PPG	Lining Zheng – Postdoc at UC Berkeley	Lily Li	Yookyung Go – Postdoc at Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Jacob Rueben – Scientist at ReCode Therapeutics	Zhengzhong (Kevin) Tan – Investigator I at CSL Seqirus	Marilyn Porras Gomez – Sr. Research Specialist at Dow Chemical	Sarith Bandara – Engineer at Epic Systems


Emily Chen – Research Scientist at Eli Lilly and Company	Dylan Steer – Product Development Scientist at Oterra	Mijung Kim – ECE Graduate Student at UIUC	Sherry Leung – Research Fellow at CityU, Hong Kong

Hojun Kim – Postdoc at KIST, South Korea	Minjee Kang – Postdoc at MSE, Cornell

Undergrad Leallies


Priya Bharath	Prana Ghatraju	Harpreet Auby	Hannah Meiselman


Tom Molley	Ibukun Ajifolokun – PhD student at MSE, Stanford University	Julia Dreher-Threlkeld – PhD student at MSE, Northwestern University	Nathaniel Anderson


Zoe Mihevc	Michelle Ru	Alice Gao – PhD student at MSE, Stanford University