Meet Our Staff

Joe Barycki, Director

Education: B.S. University of Rochester (New York);  Ph.D. University of Delaware, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry ; Post-Doctoral Researcher University of Minnesota, Department of Biochemistry, Biophysics, and Molecular Biology.
Areas of expertise:  enzyme assay development, protein production, macromolecular crystallography, biophysical methods of measuring protein-ligand and protein-protein interactions.
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Leonard Collins, Research Assistant, Mass Spectrometry

Leonard earned a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1993. He began his career as an analytical chemist in RTP by working in pharmaceutical QA testing and then agrichemical environmental fate testing. While working at the Mississippi State Chemical Lab from 1999 to 2005, he earned an MBA in 2004. Leonard became a Research Specialist at UNC-Chapel Hill in 2006 and worked in the Biomarker Mass Spectrometry facility until arriving at NC State in 2020. Leonard has experience developing mass spectrometry methods for DNA and RNA oligos, DNA damage products, single nucleotides, intact proteins and peptides, natural molecules and metabolites, drugs and metabolites, and environmental contaminants such as PAHs and PFAS.

Jeff Enders, Senior Research Scholar, Mass Spectrometry

Jeff earned his B.S. in chemistry and M.S. in analytical chemistry, concurrently, from Drexel University in Philadelphia in 2007. Following this, he attended Vanderbilt University in Nashville, earning his Ph.D. in 2012. His thesis work focused on combining microfluidics with ion mobility-mass spectrometry techniques to probe in vitro toxicological stimuli under the guidance of Dr. John McLean. Following graduation, Jeff worked for six years in industry developing small molecule quantitative mass spectrometric assays using triple quadrupole and quadrupole time-of-flight instrumentation. Since starting at NC State in 2017, Jeff has managed projects in the areas of proteomics, metabolomics, glycomics, environmental contaminants, and elemental analysis.

Mallory Korth, Operations Coordinator

Education: Mallory earned a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration for the University of Nebraska – Lincoln. She has a broad administrative background both in commercial and academic settings. Mallory oversee the day-to-day operations within METRIC, focusing on business functions, customer service, and other critical needs.  

Dániel Krakkó, Research Scholar, Mass Spectrometry

Dániel received his B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Chemistry with a focus on Analytical Chemistry at the Eötvös Loránd University, Hungary. After finishing his Ph.D., he joined Dr. Andras Perl’s group at SUNY Upstate Medical University in Syracuse, NY, where he was conducting metabolomic studies in mouse models and cell lines. Overall, he has over six years of experience in small molecule mass spectrometry.

Richard Ortega, Senior X-ray Specialist

Richard received his Ph.D. in Chemistry at the University of New Mexico in the lab of Dr. Charles Campana, and performed postdoctoral work with Dr. Philip Coppens at the State University of New York (SUNY) – Buffalo. During his career, he has been a team member at Nicolet/Siemens (currently Bruker AXS) and Rigaku/MSC, and has been involved in a number of entrepreneurial endeavors centered on X-ray methods and analysis. Richard has broad experience in x-ray scattering and diffraction methods, including single molecule diffraction.

Qingbo Shu, Research Scholar, Mass Spectrometry

Qingbo received his Ph.D. in Biophysics at the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences with Prof. Fuquan Yang, focusing on comparative proteomics studies in prostate cancer samples. He continued his formal training with Dr. Tony Ye Hu at Tulane University where he focused on developing mass spectrometry-based blood tests for infectious diseases diagnosis. He has over ten years of experience in the mass spectrometry field working on various projects in metabolomics, proteomics, and lipidomics.

Senior Research Scholar, Mass Spectrometry

We are currently accepting applications for this position.

For more details, please see the job posting here.

Senior Research Scholar, MR Spectroscopy

We are currently accepting applications for this position.

For more details, please see the job posting here.

Paul Swartz, Research Assistant Professor, X-ray Crystallography

Paul received his undergraduate degree in Biochemistry, in 1985, from Oklahoma State University working on mammalian NAD Kinase characterization and niacin production in plants.  He received his MS degree in Biochemistry, in 1987, from the same institution studying insect pheromones using GC/MS techniques. Paul received his Ph.D. from Washington State University, in 1996, in Biochemistry working with Dr. Toshiko Ichiye and studying redox proteins using molecular dynamics simulations and semi-empirical QM methods. Following were a post-doctoral position at University of Washington, Texas A&M University, University of North Carolina and North Carolina State University.  Paul was then employed by North Carolina State University Department of Molecular and Structural Biochemistry to manage and operate the macromolecular x-ray crystallography laboratory and access to the beamlines available at Southeast Regional Collaborative Access Team (SERCAT).  He has been in that position since 2004 and has assisted researchers in collecting data for, modelling, and depositing about 180 crystal structures to the PDB and preparing about 75 publications.

Peter Thompson, Principal Research Scholar, MR Spectroscopy

Peter received his B.S. in Biochemistry at North Carolina State University and his Ph.D. in Biochemistry at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in the lab of Dr. Sharon Campbell. He used NMR and other biophysical and biochemical techniques in his doctoral work to study the function of the vinculin tail domain in cellular adhesion. He then did his postdoctoral work with Dr. Bob London and Dr. Geoffrey Mueller at NIEHS, where he studied allergen:lipid interactions. Peter has used NMR spectroscopy to study biomolecular systems since 2009. His areas of expertise include protein structure, protein dynamics, protein:ligand interactions, and metabolomics, including the use of Chenomx software.

Rebecca Weed, Research Scholar, Mass Spectrometry

Rebecca received her B.S. in Biology from Middle Georgia State University in 2008 and her Ph.D. in Molecular Plant Sciences from Washington State University in 2019. Using a metabolomic approach, her doctoral work focused on understanding allelopathic interactions in invasive plants and how fungal pathogens can modulate the plant host’s metabolome to escape detection. She has over six years of mass spectrometry and metabolomics experience focused on analyzing small molecules from various plant species. During her time at METRIC, Rebecca has worked on developing methods to quantify per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) from either water and biological matrices.

Taufika Islam Williams, Senior Research Scholar, Mass Spectrometry

Taufika received her B.A. degree, double majoring in Chemistry and Mathematics, from Transylvania University in Lexington, KY. She received her M.S. degree in Analytical Chemistry from Purdue University in West Lafayette, IN, under the guidance of Dr. R. Graham Cooks. Her Ph.D. in Analytical Chemistry was from the University of Kentucky in Lexington, KY, in the laboratory of Dr. Bert C. Lynn. She completed a post-doctoral fellowship under the guidance of Dr. David C. Muddiman at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, NC. Following a six month tenure as Research Assistant Professor in the Muddiman Laboratory, Taufika spent ten years as the Director of the North Carolina State University Mass Spectrometry Facility. She is an expert in modern proteomics and small molecule mass spectrometry, with 20 years of relevant experience.