My name is Myint Toe and I am originally from Myanmar. I am pursuing the Master in Systems and Synthetic Biology program at the University of Paris-Saclay in Évry, France. Currently, I am carrying out my master internship thesis in Professor Vitor Bernardes Pinheiro’s research group at the Rega Institute for Medical Research | KU Leuven, Belgium.
Justin Peruzzi is a Ph.D. student in the Kamat lab at Northwestern University. Broadly, Justin is interested in cellular membrane biophysical phenomena and how these interactions can be utilized to create new biomaterials. Currently, Justin is working to understand how physiochemical properties of membranes and proteins may be leveraged to construct cell-mimetic structures in vitro.
I studied biology and public health at Washington University in St. Louis and worked on murine norovirus infection. Afterwards, I received a Master of Public Health and an MEng in Energy, Environment, and Chemical Engineering. I am now at Princeton University where my doctoral thesis centers around discovering, characterizing, and eventually engineering novel, bioactive peptides secreted by the human gut microbiome.
I am a Faculty Researcher at Centre of Biological Engineering and an Invited Assistant Professor at University of Minho. I hold a PhD in Bioengineering Systems (MIT-Portugal Program- 2014). During my PhD, I was a visiting student for one year at the Prather Lab at MIT, where I worked on curcuminoids heterologous production. My research interests include the use of different chassis to construct biosynthetic pathways for the production of therapeutic and industrially relevant compounds using synthetic biology tools. To date, I published 12 papers in international peer-reviewed journals, 4 book chapters and participated in several international conferences.
Mikael Elias received a B.S. (2004) and a M.S. (2006) degree from the Universite de Lorraine (France) and a Ph.D. degree (2009) from the Universite Aix–Marseille (France). Mikael joined the Weizmann Institute of Science (Rehovot, Israel) as a FEBS postdoctoral fellow (2009) and later (2011) as a Marie Curie Fellow. In 2014, Mikael joined the University of Minnesota (USA) and is now associate professor in the Biochemistry, Molecular Biology and Biophysics Dpt, as well as the BioTechnology Institute . The Elias lab research lies at the interfaces of biology, chemistry and microbiology. It focuses on the atomic-level understanding of the molecular determinants underlining molecular recognition, engineering enzymes and using molecular tools to control microbial behaviors.
I currently work as a Research Associate at Agilent Technologies in Carpinteria, California. I am currently applying to graduate programs to receive a M.S. in Bioengineering online. I am interested in joining the EBRC so that I can become involved in the Bioengineering community.
PhD student
I am interested in developing technology to improve personalized medicine. Currently, my PhD work is focusing on two distinct projects. The first is to interrogate the mutational landscape of the liver enzyme cytochrome P450 2C family (2C9 and 2C19) using Deep Mutational Scanning. The second is to continue to develop a technique called Visual Cell Sorting to allow mass spectrometry proteomics on visually distinct cell populations.
Apply now to the Summer 2021 Industry Internship Program. Application deadline is December 4, 2020.
Engineering biology draws on advances in biology, chemistry, computer science, and engineering to understand, design, and construct biological systems and organisms. As with other science and engineering disciplines, engineering biology can impact society in powerful ways; therefore, the ethical, environmental, social, political, security, and safety-related issues arising from associated technologies require thoughtful and ongoing consideration. The Engineering Biology Research Consortium (EBRC) asserts that understanding such issues is a necessary part of research and must be considered from the outset of any project design, continuing through deployment and management of new technologies and/or products.
The EBRC further asserts that practitioners of engineering biology shall
i) seek to create products or processes that benefit people, society, or the environment;
ii) consider and weigh the benefits of research against potential harms;
iii) incorporate equity and justice in the selection and implementation
of engineering biology education, research, development, policy, and commercialization;
iv) seek to openly distribute the results of early-stage research and development;
v) protect the rights of individuals associated with engineering biology, including the freedom of
inquiry of researchers and the free and informed consent of research participants; and
vi) support open communication between engineering biology researchers and the stakeholders who might be
affected by research, development, and the deployment of new technologies.
Scientists and engineers in the engineering biology community must conduct research in a manner that is consistent with these principles in order to remain in good-standing in the community. They must also be cognizant of and communicate possible negative consequences and misuses of engineering biology research. Appropriate safeguards, informed by safety and security best practices, shall be implemented to prevent undesirable outcomes such as the development of biological or chemical weapons, environmental damage resulting from the inadvertent release of certain engineered organisms into the environment, and the use of engineering biology to perpetuate social inequalities.
The EBRC resolves to bring these principles and issues to the awareness of our community along with governmental and non-governmental organizations in the United States and around the world. We support bioethics education and training for researchers and encourage collaboration among scientists, humanists, and engineers to proactively address equity, justice, and environmental risks and benefits. We will advance the principles described here through transparent, democratic self-governance, support for appropriate public and State oversight and review, and the development, publication, and adoption of research best practices.