Profiles

  • Jacob Martin

    I develop computational models of metabolism to aid and accelerate metabolic engineering. I use large-scale ODE models, along with machine learning and bioinformatics tools, to capture data in dynamic cell-free systems and use this understanding to guide experimental design and understanding.

  • Alexandria Palaferri Schieber

    I performed my undergraduate studies at UC Berkeley, majoring in Cognitive Science with a minor in Education. During this time, I became fascinated with infectious disease by work I did in the Vance lab. For my thesis work, I am studying the effect of social interaction during infection. I am inspired by the findings of Dr. Ayres’ of the cooperative defenses and host- environment interactions during infection, including diet, temperature and social interaction.

  • Jorge Marchand

    Dr. Jorge Marchand is an Assistant Professor at the University of Washington in the Department of Chemical Engineering. He did his PhD work at the University of California, Berkeley in the research group of Michelle Chang, where he worked on the discovery of biosynthetic pathways for making terminal alkyne amino acids. His postdoctoral work was done at Harvard Medical School with the George Church group. Here, he focused on engineering translation and developing new sequencing technologies to study tRNA. He now runs an independent research group that aims to utilize fundamental approaches in synthetic biology, chemical biology, biosynthesis, and biomolecular engineering for reprogramming life at the nucleic acid level.

  • Daniel Haller

    I graduated with a BS in Chemical Engineering from North Carolina State University, where I worked in yeast metabolic engineering in Dr. Nathan Crook’s lab. I am now a graduate student in Dr. Jeff Tabor’s lab as part of the Systems, Synthetic, and Physical Biology graduate program at Rice University. I am interested in integrating systems and synthetic biology approaches to understand and engineer complex multicellular behavior in bacteria.

  • Dalton George

    Dalton George is a postdoctoral researcher at Arizona State University with a joint appointment in the School for the Future of Innovation in Society (SFIS) and the School of Biological and Health Systems Engineering (SBHSE). His background is in science, technology, and society studies and he primarily utilizes sociological methods in his research work. Research topics primarily focus on governance challenges associated with emerging biotechnologies and synthetic biology.

  • Mitchell Syberg-Olsen

    I am a graduate student in the Systems, Synthetic & Physical Biology program at Rice University. My focus is on advancing foundational technologies to increase the pace and scale of synthetic biology projects. I am working towards this goal under the supervision of Dr. Jeff Tabor where we are developing a novel method for enzymatic DNA synthesis.

  • Timothy Vu

    I am currently a PhD student from Northwestern University studying Biomedical Engineering. I received my BS in Biomedical Engineering from UC Irvine and my MS in Bioengineering from Rice University. My research interest encompasses utilizing synthetic biology tools to create better therapeutic nanoparticles for immunotherapy. I’m also broadly interested in microfluidics for organ-on-chips and point-of-care diagnostics, aging, autoimmune disease, gastrointestinal diseases, and psychedelic medicine.

  • Ania-Ariadna Baetica

    Dr. Ania-Ariadna Baetica is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Mechanics at Drexel University. She received her BA degree from Princeton University in 2012 and her PhD from California Institute of Technology in 2018. Following her degrees, she was a postdoctoral scholar at the University of California San Francisco.

    Dr. Baetica’s group leverages control theory along with systems biology, synthetic biology, and computational science to solve biotechnological and medical challenges. Her group designs robust and modular synthetic biological circuits by incorporating layered feedback mechanisms.

  • Samuel Gowland

    I grew up just outside of Atlanta, GA and have spent the past ten years pursuing my research interests in synthetic biology, culminating in earning my PhD at Northwestern University. I am now focused on bringing on continuing to pursue impactful research while also bringing what I’ve learned back home. Ultimately, I hope to contribute to building up Atlanta as a regional bioeconomy hub with world-class opportunities for synthetic biology education and biomanufacturing.

  • Ian Ehrenreich

    My lab studies how genomes encode organisms’ phenotypes. To do this, we use techniques from genetics, molecular systems biology, and synthetic biology. In the area of synthetic biology, we have developed new approaches for building synthetic chromosomes from natural DNA.

  • Seokmu Kwon

    Kwon is from South Korea and graduated with a BS in Chemical Engineering from POSTECH (Pohang University of Science and Technology) in South Korea. He trained in cellular engineering while doing research related to metabolic engineering during his undergraduate. He is also the recipient of the Korean government scholarship for study overseas (KGSPSO). Kwon is broadly interested in synthetic biology, protein engineering, and their application in biomedical fields such as developing novel living therapeutics.

  • Chelsea Hu

    I’m a new faculty at Texas A&M studying synthetic biology and control theory. Before moving to Texas, I completed four years of postdoctoral training in the Richard Murray Group at Caltech. I received my Ph.D. in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering from Cornell University in 2018, advised by Julius B. Lucks.

  • Ava Karanjia

    Ava Karanjia is a current PhD student and NSF Graduate Research Fellow in Chemical Engineering at the University of Washington, where her research focuses on building transcriptional programs in bacteria. Ava is working on expanding CRISPRa technologies to improve methods of transcriptional signal conversion and transduction. She is also pursuing data science and astrobiology graduate certificates. Ava has undergraduate degrees in chemical engineering and microbiology from Arizona State University, where she worked on quorum sensing regulatory systems and other transcriptional activators. She has also worked at NASA Ames Research Center, where she screened and engineered non-traditional yeast candidates for in-situ microbial space technologies. Ava is a big proponent of science communication and has been actively involved in DEI outreach efforts at the University of Washington and EBRC.

  • Seung Hwan “Allen” Lee

    Seung Hwan “Allen” Lee received Ph.D. in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering from Rice University and is currently a postdoctoral scholar at Ramon Gonzalez’s lab at the University of South Florida. Allen has a strong passion in leveraging the capabilities of engineering biology to convert waste molecules into value-added products in a sustainable way. He has a special interest in engineering one-carbon (C1) metabolism for efficient utilization of C1 feedstock in biomanufacturing. In his free time, he loves to listen to classical music and play squash.

  • Jacob Barnett

    I am an evolutionary biologist and science educator currently pursuing a PhD at UMass Amherst, where I am studying the evolutionary genetics of tomato flavor. A former middle and high school science teacher with an M.Ed., I find great joy in cultivating curiosity and connecting people to the natural world. I am particularly excited about engineering biology’s potential to solve urgent problems such as climate change, food security, sustainability, and health.

  • Matt Demelo

    I am interested in developing novel molecular tools for manipulating genomes for medicine and synthetic biology, namely using CRISPR-based gene editing tools. Currently, I am working on using a prime editing-based DNA recorder to understand the causes of cisplatin resistance in cancer cells. I obtained my BS in Microbiology from UC San Diego, where I worked in Professor Rachel J. Dutton’s lab studying molecular interactions between various species in microbial consortia (in cheese!). After graduating, I worked in the biotechnology and biopharmaceutical industries, spending time at Illumina, Ambrx, and Omniome (now acquired by PacBio). Outside of the lab, I enjoy hiking, camping, cooking, and having long conversations with my opinionated husky, Kayuh.

  • Jetendra Roy

  • Elise Zimmerman

    In 2022, I graduated Magna Cum Laude from William & Mary with a B.S. in Biology and a minor in Chemistry. I conducted undergraduate honors research which cumulated in a thesis on the plasticity of the H. pylori methylome in response to acid. Currently, I’m a first-year Ph.D. student in the Systems, Synthetic, and Physical Biology Program at Rice University working in the Chappell Lab on creating a new class of programmable, synthetic RNA-based therapeutics to address global health infectious disease challenges.

  • Ha Eun Lim

    I’m a first year PhD student in Rice University co-advised by Dr. James Chappell and Dr. Laura Segatori. I am working on a project installing RNA sensors in mammalian cells in order to sense inflammation signals and respond with proteins of interest. I graduated from Cornell University with honors in Biomedical Engineering and minor in Computer science in May 2022.

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