MAC Lab staff

Elizabeth R. Gaillard, Ph.D.
Lab Director and Professor, Chemistry and Biochemistry 
gaillard@niu.edu 

Elizabeth Gaillard has directed the Molecular Analysis Core Laboratory since it was founded in 2019. A professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Gaillard is working to advance understanding of eye diseases, particularly age-related macular degeneration, which is the leading cause of blindness in older adults. Her team uses a wide variety of experimental methods to study the mechanisms involved in photooxidative damage to the retina, including optical spectroscopy and mass spectrometry.

Gaillard earned her B.S. at Florida State University and Ph.D. at the University of Texas at Austin. She worked as a post-doctoral research fellow at the Center for Fast Kinetics Research (UT Austin) and the Center for Photoinduced Charge Transfer (University of Rochester, NY) before coming to NIU in 1998.

Arsen Gaisin, Ph.D.
Lab Manager
agaisin@niu.edu 

Arsen Gaisin has been with the MAC since 2025, bringing deep expertise in analytical and medicinal chemistry. His expertise spans qualitative and quantitative analysis of small molecules, macromolecules, and complex biopolymeric samples. He has contributed to multiple medicinal chemistry programs through DMPK characterization of lead candidates and has developed advanced mass spectrometry methods, including a quantitative workflow for identifying traces of organic contaminants, including PFAS, in municipal wastewater.  

Gaisin earned his Ph.D. from Bashkir State University and has held several research scientist and lab manager roles at Northwestern University and the University of Illinois at Chicago.  

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