Bailey Plaman

SHe/They

Graduate Student - Chemical Biology, G4

Email: bplaman@g.harvard.edu

Twitter: @PlamanBailey

Bailey graduated from Amherst College in 2018. She first started laboratory work in Professor Elizabeth Young’s lab there, where she used electrochemistry and spectroscopy to characterize putative proton-coupled electron transfer donor molecules with potential implications in renewable solar energy research. When Professor Young started at Lehigh University in 2017, Bailey shifted to biochemical research in Professor Anthony Bishop’s lab. She wrote her senior undergraduate thesis on engineered activation of protein tyrosine phosphatases, finishing up this work in addition to a couple of other projects involving allosteric inhibition of Src-homology-2 containing protein tyrosine phosphatase (Shp2) during two years of post-undergraduate work as a research assistant in Professor Bishop’s lab. 

Bailey’s interest in microbiology was born out of an on-campus job during undergrad; she worked in the equipment room of the athletics department, where many precautions were taken to avoid the spread of methicillin-resistant Staph aureus (MRSA). She is excited to use biochemical and biophysical techniques to better understand how Gram-negative bacteria build their outer membrane and hopes this work will inform rational design of novel antibiotics in the future. 

Bailey grew up playing soccer, golf, softball, cross country, and ice hockey in Bloomington, MN. She continued with softball and ice hockey at Amherst College, and has picked up ultimate frisbee in her post-undergraduate years. Bailey loves to be outdoors hiking, camping, running, or even just laying in the sun. She also loves contemporary art, live music, beer, and exploring new places. Bailey is involved in Harvard Women in Chemistry and is a steward for the Harvard Graduate Student Union.