The Wayment-Steele lab

Accessing the dynamical foundations of biology

About us


Our research seeks a predictive understanding of biomolecular dynamics and mechanisms that underlie biological function and shape evolution.

We are bringing together data science, deep learning, and NMR spectroscopy.
Deep learning: a 10,000-ft view of all known data and patterns.
NMR: an intimate view of biomolecules' motions, interactions, and timing.

We are based at UW-Madison Biochemistry
and affiliated with Biostatistics and Medical Informatics.

Lab Members


Hannah Wayment-Steele

Hannah Wayment-Steele

Data junkie in chief

hannah.waymentsteele (at) wisc.edu

Postdoc: Brandeis
PhD: Chemistry, Stanford
BA: Chemistry / Math, Pomona College

Chris Macdonald

Chris Macdonald

Scientist and Lab Operations Coordinator

cbmacdonald (at) wisc.edu

Postdoc: UC San Francisco
PhD: Biophysics, University of Michigan
BS: Biochemistry / Math, Arizona State

Ben Harding

Ben Harding

Postdoctoral fellow

bdharding (at) wisc.edu

PhD: Biophysics, University of Wisconsin–Madison
BS: Biochemistry, Miami University (Ohio)

Andres Lira

Andres Lira

PhD student, Biophysics

alira3 (at) wisc.edu

BS: Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, UC Davis

Cizhang Zhao (JOJO)

Cizhang Zhao (JOJO)

PhD student, Biophysics

czhao276 (at) wisc.edu

Bachelors: Biosciences, University of Science and Technology of China

Gina El Nesr

Gina El Nesr

Visiting researcher

gelnesr (at) stanford.edu

BA: Biophysics / Computer Science / Applied Math & Statistics, Johns Hopkins

Nevin Pai

Nevin Pai

Undergraduate researcher

nnpai (at) wisc.edu

Nisha Ekanathan

Nisha Ekanathan

Undergraduate researcher

ekanathan (at) wisc.edu

Recent Papers


  • Chen Y, Lu T, Zhao C, Wayment-Steele HK, Huang P. SLAE: Strictly Local All-atom Environment for Protein Representation. BioRXiv 2025

  • Wayment-Steele HK, Ovchinnikov S, Colwell L, Kern D. Does sequence clustering confound AlphaFold2? JMB 2025

  • Wayment-Steele HK#, El Nesr G#, Hettiarachchi R, Kariyawasam H, Ovchinnikov S & Kern D. Learning millisecond protein dynamics from what is missing in NMR spectra. BioRXiv 2025

See More Papers




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Contact


We welcome applicants with backgrounds in computation, experiment, and any mix of the two!

Interested PhD applicants are encouraged to apply to the Biophysics, the Integrated Program in Biochemistry, and/or the Biomedical Data Science PhD programs.

2204 Biochemical Sciences Building, 440 Henry Mall, Madison, WI 53706-1544