My research is focused on bacterial host engineering for biosynthesis of secondary metabolites, biomaterials and protein scaffolds. I have a background of metabolic engineering of bacterial species. I have also worked on fine tuning the regulatory pathways for improving the titer of secondary metabolites and post-biosynthetic modification of small molecules.
I’m a 3rd-year PhD candidate studying the proteins responsible for packaging DNA into adeno-associated virus (AAV), a gene therapy vector. When I’m not in the lab, I am either running outside, making kombucha, or exploring new foods/restaurants in the city.
I am currently a postdoctoral scholar under the supervision of Professor Zhenan Bao in the Department of Chemical Engineering at Stanford University. I received my Ph.D. degree under the supervision of Professor Charles M. Lieber in the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Harvard University in 2020, and B.S. degree in Materials Chemistry from Fudan University in 2014. My research interests include development of flexible and stretchable nano-/micro-bioelectronic tools and their applications in neural interfaces. I have published 17 peer-reviewed papers and the book “Nanowires: Building Blocks for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology”.
I am a Ph.D. student in chemical engineering at Stanford University, with a focus in microbiology. I am researching protein electrochemistry for production of chemicals of interest. I received my B.S. in chemical engineering from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County and my M.S. in chemical engineering from Stanford University.
I graduated from UCLA with a bachelors degree in chemical engineering in June 2020. I am starting a PhD program in Chemical Engineering at Stanford in Fall 2020. I previously have studied natural product biosynthesis, strain engineering, and hydrogels. I am currently doing rotations through different groups at Stanford and I hope to join a group that works on the interface of chemistry, biology, and engineering.
I am an engineer with a love for chemistry and biology. I wish to use my engineering background to manipulate biological systems for a medical application. When I am not conducting research, I enjoy drinking coffee, reading, and playing jazz piano.
I am a third year graduate student in the lab of Dr. Aditya Kunjapur in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the University of Delaware. In the Kunjapur Lab, my research is focused on metabolic engineering, protein engineering, and non-standard amino acid technology. Prior to my graduate studies, I completed my undergraduate degree in Chemical Engineering at Penn State University, primarily researching ultrafiltration-based membrane purification.
I am a first year Master’s student at the University of California, San Diego. I am interested in the problem of aging and the age-related diseases that plague society during the later years of life. This research consortium has provided a wonderful holistic view of the field and I am obtaining a better understanding of where the we are headed in the future.
Metabolic Engineering of non-model species
I am an MD/PhD student in the UCLA-Caltech Medical Scientist Training Program, currently completing my PhD at Caltech, where my research focuses on studying human pathogens to develop diagnostic technologies. I received my Bachelors of Science in Biochemistry with a Minor in Mathematics from UMass Boston, and my research has focused on developing prophylaxis, therapeutics, and diagnostics for infectious agents. My grounding goal is to eliminate health disparities, particularly as they relate to the burden of infectious diseases in lower resource settings and populations, as a direct caregiver, and through laboratory research.
Sean graduated from Colby College in 2011 with a BA in Biology and a minor in Mathematics. At Colby, he investigated possible mechanisms for the transfer of antibiotic resistance between environmental and fish pathogens in aquaculture settings under his advisor, Frank Fekete.
After graduating, Sean worked at Quanterix Corporation developing the ability for their ultra-sensitive immunoassay instrument to run and detect the output of multiple assays simultaneously.
Sean joined the lab of Nikhil Nair at Tufts in fall 2017 and is working to co-opt the native regulatory systems of the model industrial organism Saccharomyces cerevisiae to improve the ability of this yeast to grown on and utilize non-native substrates derived from renewable sources such as biomass.
Given the recent advances in engineering human gut commensals, I’m excited to be part of this first wave of synthetic biology applied to our microbial inhabitants. I spent my undergrad at NC State University studying Chemical Engineering, and found myself more inclined towards cell factories as opposed to, you know, real factories.
I’m in my 3rd year here at Berkeley; living in the Bay I’m constantly reminded that synthetic biology is a small world, made smaller by how interesting, inquisitive, and collaborative our field tends to be.
~Jess
3rd Year
Keasling Lab
UC Berkeley Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering
She/Her
I am a postdoc working in the field of microbial engineering. I explore microbial adaptability and stress response pathways to understand the diversity in their physiology.
During internship in the lab of Prof. Adam Godzik (godzik_lab@sbpdiscovery.org), I studied >100 newly sequenced genomes of new isolates of Vibrio parahaemolyticus (a pathogenic bacteria found in individuals eating raw oysters). My research included sorting out DNA samples of these isolates and performing their bioinformatics analysis (genome assembly, annotation and multilocus taxonomy analysis). The results of this research were published in Genomic Announcements journal (Jan 18, 2018, doi: 10.1128/genomeA.01387-17.)