Amanda Ruiz

Amanda Elyssa Ruiz is a postdoctoral fellow in biological engineering whose research interests are in immunology, vaccine development, and global health. Specifically, Amanda’s work concentrates on the development of novel vaccine candidates against flaviviruses, a family of RNA viruses – including Dengue, Zika, and West Nile viruses – that lead to significant morbidity and mortality on a global scale. By leveraging protein engineering strategies alongside platforms to elucidate evolutionary antibody dynamics in humans and natural animal reservoirs, Amanda hopes to shed light on how these viruses have evaded the mammalian immune system for centuries. In her doctoral research, Amanda studied protective immune responses to the neglected tropical disease schistosomiasis. A postdoctoral fellowship will support her on-going work to develop platforms and techniques to manipulate immune recognition, enhance immune responses using nanotechnologies, and perturb the host-pathogen interface. The broader goals of Amanda’s research are to contribute to the understanding of adaptive immune responses implicated in neglected tropical diseases and to develop preventative and therapeutic solutions for infectious diseases. Her work holds great promise to advance affordable vaccine design, thus improving global health.

Advancing Science & Technology Policy for the Next-Generation Bioeconomy

In collaboration with the Journal of Science Policy & Governance, EBRC is excited to announce a call for policy papers and competition in a special issue on “Advancing Science & Technology Policy for the Next-Generation Bioeconomy”. We invite students, postdocs, policy fellows, and early-career researchers from around the world to submit articles that address how engineering biology and biotechnology can provide sustainable solutions across all societal sectors in the bioeconomy. Topics can include bioeconomy policy ideas and challenges around artificial intelligence and machine learning, biomanufacturing, food and agriculture, and workforce development.

Submission deadline: January 13, 2025

Learn More!

Workshops and Webinars: Dates coming soon!

Writing workshop on Science, Technology, and Bioeconomy Policy

Expert Panel 1: Policy and Governance for a Sustainable Bioeconomy – This webinar will provide a deeper look at how biotechnologies provide advantages and opportunities to build a more sustainable world economy, including through cleaner practices for agriculture, manufacturing, and energy production, environmental stewardship and protecting biodiversity, and enhancing human health and well-being.

Expert Panel 2: How Technological Advances in Engineering Biology Are Pushing Policy Boundaries – This webinar will explore how novel and emerging engineering biology approaches and technologies are poised to challenge existing governance frameworks, including research funding programs, public and private advancement initiatives, and regulatory pathways, and lead to necessary changes in policy or governance to align with advancements.

The top 3 submissions will get the opportunity to present their work at the 2025 EBRC Annual Meeting!

Erin Garza

Dr. Garza received her master’s and PhD in microbiology from Northern Illinois University. Her graduate work involved genetically engineering biofuel pathways, like homoethanol and butanol, into Escherichia coli. Dr. Garza completed a postdoc at the J. Craig Venter Institute (JCVI) where she is currently a staff scientist in the synthetic biology department. Her research involves genetically engineering bacteria and diatoms to produce compounds of interest, elucidating plastic degradation pathways in marine organisms, domesticating and characterizing genetic parts for DNA cloning libraries, and developing and optimizing cloning techniques for non-model organisms.

Dr. Garza has worked on numerous research projects, but her main interest involves studying the microbiome of deep-sea plastics in an attempt to locate and engineer new plastic degrading organisms and to determine the effects of plastic pollution on the ocean and its ecology. She is currently working towards attaining an assistant professor position at JCVI.

Anchita Sharma

Robert Spicer

I grew up in Southern New Jersey and received a B.S. in Biological Sciences from the small public University, Rowan University. I then attended the University of Minnesota where I received a M.S. in plant breeding focusing on molecular genetics. Currently I am a 2nd year PhD student preparing for qualifying exams at the University of Florida where I research the plant cell wall using synthetic biology approaches. When I am not conducting research, I like to go for runs, build terrariums, and go to antique stores.

Jie Lu

Kathryn Hoyt

Katie’s research focuses on using 13C isotopic tracers to elucidate the metabolism of Eubacterium limosum growing on methanol. Prior to starting her PhD at Northeastern, she worked as an environmental consultant, providing air quality and process safety management compliance services to industrial clients. Outside the lab, Katie enjoys gardening, movies and spending time outdoors.

Olaf Corning

Currently a masters student in the Kwon lab at the University of Washington, Olaf is studying the development of osteoblasts in Zebrafish. He has previously worked in science policy as a Science Assistant at the National Science Foundation and as an intern in the U.S. House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology. Olaf graduated from George Washington University while working in Martin lab on the wing patterning of butterflies.

Rachel Mizenko

I am a scientist focused on understanding the role of extracellular vesicles (including exosomes) in cell communication and learning how to exploit this to inform biomimetic drug delivery. My work has largely focused on understanding the intersection of extracellular vesicle heterogeneity with their use as both therapeutics and diagnostics.

Christian Cuba Samaniego

I received my BS degree in Mechatronic Eng. from National University of Engineering (UNI-Peru). I obtained my PhD in Mechanical Engineering from the University of California Riverside (UCR) under the supervision of Elisa Franco in 2017. I held a postdoctoral scholar with Ron Weiss at MIT (2017), Elisa Franco at UCLA (2019), Ming-Ru Wu at Harvard/DFCI (2023). In Fall 2024, I will join the Computational Biology Department at Carnegie Mellon University. I work at the intersection among Control Theory, Systems Biology and Synthetic Biology. I am specially interested in the design, analysis and applications of biomolecular feedback control systems and molecular neural networks for decision-making in living cells. To create a community that connects mathematical theories, models, and biomolecular experiments, I co-organize a Seminar on Biological Control Systems. it focuses on applications of mathematical modeling and control systems to biology. We host monthly talks featuring our members and invited guests.

Mia Giallorenzi

Hi! My name is Mia, and I’m from Salt Lake City, UT originally! I went to Dartmouth College for undergrad where I studied Biomedical Engineering, and now I’m excited to be starting this year in the Molecular Engineering PhD program at University of Washington. I’m excited about studying Synthetic Biology, specifically biological circuits, but I am currently rotating in various labs for my first year, so we’ll see what application of bio circuits I end up working on!

Tianxiang Yao

As an engineering and biotechnology enthusiast, I am passionate about innovation in life sciences. My experience spans from conducting preclinical research on neurobiology to biopharmaceutical production, and so on. My goal is to leverage these experiences to contribute to advancing biotechnology and engineering developments.

Johnathan O’Neil

Johnathan is a postdoctoral scholar at the Engineering Biology Research Consortium (EBRC). He earned his Ph.D. in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering from Georgia Tech, where his research centered on the biomechanics and fluid dynamics of semiaquatic insects’ locomotion with potential applications in robotics. His fieldwork included studying these insects in Georgia and the Peruvian Amazon. During graduate school, he actively engaged in outreach events in both Atlanta and Peru. Outside of research, Johnathan enjoys writing poetry and collecting vinyl records.

Elizabeth Allen

Elizabeth is a U.S. Coast Guard Veteran who spent 12 years as a Food Service Officer. She joined EBRC as a Senior Administrator in August 2024. She has most recently been a contract Executive Assistant with First Republic Bank and FEMA. She has a B.S. in Hospitality Management from Johnson & Wales University. She is an avid book reader and crossfitter. You can find her hiking the Bay Area on the weekends with her husband and three kids.

Garrett Dunlap

Dr. Garrett Dunlap joined EBRC as Associate Director of Policy & International Engagement in September 2024. Before this, he was Head of Science and Innovation at the British Consulate-General in New York, fostering UK-US science and tech collaborations. He previously worked as a Graduate Fellow at the Wilson Center, focusing on biosecurity risks from converging technologies, and as a Science Diplomacy Fellow with the Netherlands Innovation Network, exploring deep tech innovation ecosystems. In addition to his current role, Garrett is a Fellow for Ending Bioweapons with the Council on Strategic Risks, and he also participates in working groups for the World Economic Forum and All Tech is Human. He holds a Ph.D. in Biological and Biomedical Sciences from Harvard University and undergraduate degrees in Biology and Political Science from Case Western Reserve University.

NextGen Omics & Spatial Biology US 2025

Advancing therapeutic Innovation through Multi-Omic Analysis – Celebrating its 11th Year.
Join us at NextGen Omics & Spatial Biology US 2025, a premier event celebrating its 11th year of advancing therapeutic innovation through multi-omic analysis. This gathering brings together over 1,000 senior experts in multi-omics and spatial analysis from leading pharmaceutical, biotech, and life sciences companies, creating a vibrant platform for collaboration and innovation.

Jaya Joshi

Jaya Joshi is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Wood Science, Bioproducts, and Bioengineering at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. Her research walks through enzyme design space: exploring fitness landscapes for radical metabolic engineering design ideas, with the goal of achieving successful carbon farming by 2050. The overarching aim of her research program is to transform inefficient designer biocatalysts into highly active enzymes by applying novel enzyme improvement strategies, such as continuous directed evolution and machine learning. Jaya earned her PhD in Cell and Molecular Biology from Western University and Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada in 2017. She completed her postdoctoral fellowship with Dr. Andrew Hanson at the University of Florida in 2020 before joining Dr. Vincent Martin’s lab at the Centre for Structural and Functional Genomics in Montreal, where she explored the immense potential of biofoundries in synthetic biology. Exploring automation and synthetic biology tool development remains central to Jaya’s research at the University of British Columbia.

Gloria Zhou

Gloria is a Ph.D. candidate in Dr. Fuzhong Zhang’s lab at Washington University in St. Louis. She obtained her B.S. in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering from Cornell University in 2021. Her current research is focused on using single-cell strategies to better understand and regulate cell-to-cell heterogeneities in microbial bioproduction. Outside of the lab, Gloria enjoys skiing, watching TV shows, and playing games with friends.

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