Zachary Rich

At Columbia, and during his penultimate academic year studying abroad at the University of Oxford, Zachary pursued studies in physics and mathematics. From his first year, however, he worked as a part of a structural biology group, The Hunt Lab Group, under the mentorship of Dr. John Hunt. There, he contributed to research using cryogenic electron microscopy to image the human cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) protein with all known curative drug compounds bound, aiming to elucidate and characterize the mechanisms of pharmacological correction behind these breakthrough therapies.

In addition, Zachary worked at Merck & Co., Inc., where he evaluated how different cryogenic electron microscopy data processing algorithms and computational methods could reveal low-occupancy conformational states in a protein’s conformational landscape. This improvement to a protein’s global conformational ensemble reconstruction was intended to improve understanding of the mechanisms underpinning pharmacological activity.

Zachary is a dual U.S./U.K. citizen and is excited to return to Great Britain to see his family.