Arvind Pillai, Ph.D.
Assistant Investigator
Jenny Duong
Ph.D. Student
Joined: 2025
Profile
My main interest in research is to understand how proteins with a common ancestry diverge in structure or function. I am utilizing an orphan protein in mammals as a model to understand this process. Outside of the lab, I enjoy learning various historical topics and cuddling with my cats.
Matthew Gilley
Ph.D. Student
Joined: 2025
Profile
My broad focus in the lab is how evolution produces functional proteins from scratch. I study this in viruses, whose high mutation rates and compact genomes make them excellent models for watching new genes emerge—cases where a stretch of noncoding sequence starts getting translated into a working protein. When I'm not in the lab, you can find me doing something outside—usually running or playing tennis!
Arvind Pillai
Assistant Investigator
Evolutionary Biology, Molecular and Cell Biology, Biochemistry, Synthetic Biology
Profile
Arvind Pillai, Ph.D., is a biochemist and evolutionary biologist who will join the Stowers Institute in Fall 2025 as an Assistant Investigator. His research explores how new protein structures originate during evolution and how those principles can be harnessed to design future therapeutics.Pillai earned his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago and most recently completed postdoctoral research in the lab of 2024 Nobel Laureate David Baker, Ph.D., at the University of Washington and the Institute for Protein Design. His work combines deep evolutionary biology with advanced protein biochemistry and artificial intelligence to investigate how complex protein folds arise—and how to design new ones for molecular sensing, disease diagnostics, or targeted drug delivery.During his doctoral work, Pillai focused on reconstructing the evolutionary history of hemoglobin, the oxygen-carrying protein in red blood cells, using ancestral sequence reconstruction. This research revealed a step-by-step path by which complex molecular machines can evolve from simpler ancestors. His broader focus now includes understanding how nature builds order from the chaos of trillions of possible amino acid combinations.
Carrie Scott
Administrative Coordinator II
Pillai Lab
Nino Zhuzhunadze
Ph.D. Student
Joined: 2025
Profile
I am interested in where distinct protein folds come from, and how the first folded structures evolved. To explore this, I'm scanning proteins across the animal kingdom, looking for cryptic relationships between folds. By systematically surveying this space, I hope to determine what evolutionary mechanisms shaped the modern protein universe. When I'm not looking at protein structures, I like to solve Sudokus.