Victor Dokukin

Graduate Student in Chemistry
(November 2009-July 2014)

B.S. Chemistry, University of Utah, 2008
Ph.D. Chemistry, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2014

Current position: Senior Scientist, Guardant Health, San Diego, CA

Email: victor.dokukin@gmail.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/victordokukin/

Brief Biography

Victor Dokukin grew up in Bishkek, the capital of the former Soviet republic of Kyrgyzstan, and moved to the US at age 16. He earned his B.S. degree in chemistry (with emphasis in biochemistry) from the University of Utah in 2008. After working for a year as a laboratory technician at Myriad Genetics, Inc., in Salt Lake City, in Fall 2009 he moved to Champaign-Urbana to attend the University of Illinois for graduate studies in chemistry. He joined the research group of Prof. Scott K. Silverman, where his passion for DNA-related science continued. Outside of the lab, you may find him traveling to see historic and beautiful places, hiking, swimming, cooking, and occasionally catching up on sleep. He earned his Ph.D. degree in July 2014.

Research Interests

In the Silverman lab I worked towards the identification as well as functional and structural characterization of deoxyribozymes by studying their metal ion dependence. I was especially interested in deoxyribozymes that require lanthanide ions for catalysis. I also integrated aptamers with deoxyribozymes as a strategy for DNA-catalyzed reactions of small-molecule substrates.