Applicants

  • Vaughn Cooper

    Vaughn Cooper, Ph.D. is an evolutionary biologist and microbiologist. He is currently Professor of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, and Computational and Systems Biology, at the University of Pittsburgh, School of Medicine. He co-founded and until recently was Director of the Center for Evolutionary Biology and Medicine (CEBaM), which works to catalyze research and education at the interface of these disciplines. He’s also a Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology, an elected Board member of the American Society of Microbiology (ASM), and is President-Elect of ASM in 2025-6. The Cooper laboratory studies how potential pathogens evolve to adapt to new hosts and environments, including by forming biofilm or gaining antimicrobial resistance. Recently, Dr. Cooper joined a team of scientists considering the potential risks of mirror life and is a board member of the Mirror Biology Dialogue Fund. We are proud to have founded EvolvingSTEM (http://evolvingstem.org), a comprehensive educational program that provides authentic classroom research experiences for thousands of middle and high school students in which they conduct a microbiology experiment that demonstrates evolution in action. The major goal of EvolvingSTEM is to help students see themselves as scientists and join the STEM workforce.

    Dr. Cooper is also a co-founder and scientific advisor of SeqCoast Genomics, LLC and Middle Author Bioinformatics, LLC.

  • Aditya Sarnaik

    I am currently an Associate Research Professional in the School for Sustainable Engineering and the Built Environment (SSEBE) at Arizona State University, based on the Polytechnic campus. I work at the Arizona Center for Algae Technology and Innovation (AzCATI), where I contribute to applied research in algal biotechnology and sustainable biomanufacturing.

    With a background in Biotechnology and formal training in biochemical engineering, I specialize in bacterial metabolic and protein engineering, focusing on both photosynthetic and non-photosynthetic bacterial systems. Currently, I am collaborating with HelioBioSys Inc. (CA, USA) on the development of bioprocesses for the production of bio-based sunscreen components derived from cyanobacteria. This work spans the entire value chain—from scale-up cultivation to downstream process optimization—at a pilot scale of over 1,000 liters. We are now progressing toward industrial-scale trials at volumes of 12,000–15,000 liters, with the goal of enabling continuous production and biomass harvesting.

    Beyond research and teaching, I enjoy creative and outdoor pursuits including music (particularly singing), hiking, and wildlife photography.

  • Neda Bagheri

    Neda Bagheri earned her doctorate in Electrical Engineering from the University of California in Santa Barbara. Her focus on control theory and dynamics piqued her interest in biology. After completing a postdoc in Biological Engineering at MIT, she joined the Chemical & Biological Engineering faculty at Northwestern University where she founded the Modeling Dynamic Life Systems (MoDyLS) Lab. In 2019, she was recruited to both the University of Washington (where she holds a joint position in Biology and Chemical Engineering) and the Allen Institute for Cell Science. In recognition for her research accomplishments and vision, Bagheri was awarded a National Science Foundation CAREER Award (2017), a Distinguished Investigator by the Washington Research Foundation (2019), and a Senior Moulton Medal (2020). She has also been honored as a keynote speaker for both national and international conferences. She serves on multiple scientific advisory and editorial boards, guiding the frontier of multidisciplinary research.

  • Erica Hartmann

  • Margaret Kosal

    Margaret E. Kosal is Professor (as of August 2025) of International Affairs at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Her research uses theories and concepts from the social sciences, primarily international relations, to explore relationships among science, technology, and security and to explain how these phenomena impact geopolitics and how geopolitics affects innovation. She focuses on two, often intersecting, areas: understanding the politics of emerging technologies and reducing the threat of weapons of mass destruction (WMD). She holds appointments as affiliated faculty in the Parker H. Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience and the Georgia Tech Institute for Matter and Systems (IMS). Formally trained as an experimental scientist, Kosal earned a doctoral degree in Chemistry from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) working on biomimetic and nano-structured functional materials.
    Kosal has served as a Senior Advisor to the Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army, as Science and Technology Advisor within the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD), and as an Associate to the National Intelligence Council (NIC). She earned a Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) and a B.S. in chemistry from the University of Southern California. She is also the co-founder of a sensor company, where she led research and development of medical, biological, chemical sensors and explosives detection. In January 2017, Kosal was appointed the Editor-in-Chief of the Cambridge University Press journal, “Politics and the Life Sciences.’ Her honors include being elected an Honorary Lifetime Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). She is a champion of students as young scholars at the intersection of science, technology, and international affairs, and she is committed to bridging the academic-policy gap, as seen by her leadership on national and international advisory boards and committees.

  • Edward Kalkreuter

    Edward Kalkreuter started as an Assistant Professor in Chemistry & Biochemistry at Florida State University in 2024. He received his BS in Chemistry at Emory University and his PhD in Chemistry from North Carolina State University under Gavin Williams (engineering polyketide synthases and genetic biosensors). He then conducted his NIH postdoctoral fellowship under Ben Shen at Scripps Research, where he studied microbial natural product discovery, biosynthesis, and synthetic biology. His research group currently is focused on leveraging and developing synthetic biology techniques and strategies for the discovery of novel natural products and their chemistries.

  • Taylor Nichols

    Taylor is an accomplished scientist and engineer with over a decade of experience across academia and industry developing strategic research initiatives, managing collaborative projects, and driving technical project management. As the Director of Research for Northwestern University’s Center for Synthetic Biology (CSB), her responsibilities include working with CSB leadership, faculty, and staff to help grow the research capacity of the Center and provide strategic direction for new research endeavors and partnerships. She also contributes to long-term planning in support of the Center’s education, research, and outreach missions. Taylor holds a PhD in Chemical and Biological Engineering from Northwestern University where she worked in the lab of Danielle Tullman-Ercek. Her dissertation research focused on engineering bacterial microcompartments (MCPs) for the encapsulation of non-native metabolic pathways, notably developing a genomic integration platform to control cargo encapsulation in MCPs. She earned her Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering with a minor in Biochemical Engineering at Northeastern University.

  • Lauren Rajakovich

    Lauren received her B.S. in Chemistry from Wake Forest University in 2011, working in the laboratory of Patricia Dos Santos. Lauren earned her Ph.D. in Biochemistry, Microbiology, and Molecular Biology from the Pennsylvania State University in 2017. She trained in the joint laboratory of Marty Bollinger, Jr. and Carsten Krebs, studying the mechanistic and functional diversity of non-heme diiron oxidases and oxygenases. Lauren did her postdoctoral training with Emily Balskus at Harvard University as a Merck fellow of the Helen Hay Whitney Foundation. Her research focused on dietary nutrient metabolism by the human gut microbiota linked to cardiovascular disease. She started her independent research group in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Washington in January 2022. The goal of her research program is to uncover the biochemical and molecular basis for host-microbe interactions, microbial community dynamics, and microbial environmental adaptation. We use protein biochemistry, microbiology, and bioinformatics to discover, characterize, and engineer microbial pathways and enzymes for applications in biocatalysis, bioremediation, and biomedical applications.

  • Daniela Matias de Carvalho Bittencourt

    Dr. Daniela Matias de C. Bittencourt is a researcher at Embrapa Genetic Resources and Biotechnology and an adjunct researcher at the J. Craig Venter Institute. With over 17 years of experience at Embrapa, including four years in research and innovation management, she has led strategic projects in synthetic biology and advanced biotechnology for sustainable agriculture. Daniela has coordinated national R&D networks, managed research initiatives, and currently serves as a member of high-level advisory and portfolio management committees at Embrapa. Her work bridges cutting-edge science and public policy, with a strong focus on innovation, biosecurity, and the future of agriculture in the context of global challenges.

  • Ashty Karim

    Ashty Karim is an assistant professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering at Northwestern University. With a foundation in chemical engineering and synthetic biology, he has worked in cell-free systems for >10 years at the intersection of biology and chemistry developing technologies to efficiently harness biological systems to convert waste to value. His research group develops biological molecules, systems, and processes to enable global sustainability, with a particular focus on increasing our ability to biorecover resources from waste, biorecycle waste materials, and biocapture waste carbon. He earned his B.S. degrees in Chemical Engineering and in Biology from the University of Texas at Austin and received his Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from Northwestern University. Embracing the academic mission of developing both knowledge and people, Ashty has also spent the last several years co-developing new educational frameworks, courses, and workshops for learning and teaching synthetic biology.

  • Pavel Dvořák

    Pavel Dvořák, Ph.D.
    He is currently an associate professor at Masaryk University (MUNI), Brno, Czech Republic, and group leader at the Microbial Bioengineering Laboratory (MBL).

    Pavel Dvořák is a molecular biologist by training. During his Ph.D. studies (completed in 2014), he worked in the protein engineering group of Jiri Damborsky (Loschmidt Laboratories) on the design of synthetic enzyme cascades for the degradation of halogenated anthropogenic pollutants in vitro and in heterologous bacterial hosts.

    Pavel conducted his postdoctoral research (2015 – 2018) as a Marie S. Curie fellow in the laboratory of Víctor de Lorenzo at CNB-CSIC, Madrid, where he focused on microbial metabolic engineering and synthetic biology, working on the refactoring of Pseudomonas putida for the biotechnological processing of carbohydrates from lignocellulosic residues.

    In 2019, Pavel established the MBL at MUNI, and since then, he has continued to push the boundaries of mesophilic and thermophilic environmental bacteria for biotechnology using tools of synthetic biology and metabolic engineering.

    Pavel is involved in teaching, mentoring, science popularization, and local SynBio community building. He is one of the PIs of the successful Brno iGEM team, a member of the Bioengineering and Bioprocessing Division of the European Federation of Biotechnology, a member of the Early Career Committee of the International Metabolic Engineering Society (IMES), and an EUSynBioS Advisory Board member. He promotes engineering biology in the Czech Republic. He recently founded the web platform Czech SynBio Node, which aims to unite laboratories, companies, and other local partners interested in engineering biology.

  • James Coker

    James Coker is the Director of the Center for Biotechnology Education, which is a part of the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences at Johns Hopkins University.
    As a Professor and Scientist, James studies life in Earth’s extreme environments and harnesses the unique adaptations of the microorganisms living there for use in biotechnology applications. Using biochemical and genomics approaches, he has been able to reset the activity thermostat of several enzymes and discovered a novel genome-wide system of gene regulation. His research also has helped catalog the limits of life and thereby where it is possible for it to exist in the Universe.
    As an Academic Administrator, James has worked to improve STEM education by working with the Center for the Integration of Research, Teaching, and Learning as well as UTeach to train the university faculty and secondary education teachers of tomorrow. He has also long been an advocate of democratizing education and a strong advocate for adult and military students as well as career changers and underserved populations.
    James earned two Bachelor of Science degrees in Zoology and Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, as well as a Minor in Philosophy, from Oklahoma State University and received his Ph.D. in Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, and Microbiology from The Pennsylvania State University.
    He currently resides in Washington D.C. and is an ardent supporter of Chelsea F.C. When not working, is either planning his next dive trip or playing with his retired racing greyhound.

  • Kyle Lauersen

    Dr. Kyle J. Lauersen is an Associate Professor (effective July 1, 2025) at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) in Thuwal, Saudi Arabia. His group is named Sustainable & Synthetic Biotechnology and has been at KAUST since August 2019. Their main research is focussed on engineering algae through the technologies collectively known as synthetic biology to be green cell factories for waste revalorization. Kyle did his Doctorate of Natural Sciences at Bielefeld University in Germany, and his master’s as well as undergrad at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, Canada.

  • Lin Su

    Dr. Lin Su is a Lecturer in Engineering Biology at the School of Biological and Behavioural Sciences, Queen Mary University of London. Prior to this role, he served as a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow at the University of Cambridge, where he was a member of the Reisner Lab in the Department of Chemistry (2021–2025). During this time, he spearheaded research on bio-hybrid systems for sustainable solar energy conversion. Dr. Su earned his PhD in Biomedical Engineering from Southeast University in 2021, where he focused on optimizing electron transfer between microorganisms and synthetic materials. As part of his doctoral training, he undertook a joint PhD research program with Prof. Caroline Ajo-Franklin’s group (2016–2020), conducting synthetic biology research split between Berkeley, CA and Houston, TX.

    Dr. Su’s research bridges biology and materials science to address pressing environmental and energy challenges. His group specializes in engineering microbial-material interfaces, with two key focuses: developing biohybrid platforms for semi-artificial photosynthesis to harness solar energy, and creating bioelectronic sensors that enable seamless communication between biological and electronic systems. This work has gained recognition for its potential to advance sustainable technologies, offering novel solutions for clean energy production and next-generation biocompatible devices.

  • Sonja Billerbeck

    Sonja Billerbeck studied Biochemistry and Microbiology at the University of Tübingen, Germany, completing her Master’s thesis at the Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology (Protein Evolution Department, Lab of Andrei Lupas), where she investigated protein folding mechanisms in archaeal chaperonins. Her participation in the iGEM competition sparked her interest in applied research, leading her to pursue a PhD at ETH Zurich, Switzerland (Biosystems Science and Engineering Department, Lab of Sven Panke). There, she developed enabling technologies for cell-free metabolic engineering, completing her doctorate in 2013.

    With funding from a Swiss Mobility Grant and a Simons Junior Fellow Award, Sonja conducted postdoctoral research at Columbia University, New York, in the Chemistry Department (Lab of Virginia Cornish). Her work focused on synthetic biology applications in baker’s yeast.

    In 2019, Sonja start her independent career as a tenure-track Assistant Professor in Molecular Microbiology at the University of Groningen, Netherlands, where she was promoted to Associate Professor with tenure in 2024. In 2025, she joined the Department of Bioengineering at Imperial College London, UK, as a Senior Lecturer. Her research program leverages microbial synthetic biology to combat fungal pathogens in medicine and agriculture and develops genetic tools for non-conventional microbes to innovate alternative food production systems.

    Beyond her research, Sonja is committed to mentoring and community engagement. She has served as Chair of the Microbial Biotechnology section of the Dutch Biotechnology Association (NBV) and the Royal Dutch Association for Microbiology (KNVM). She co-founded SynBioNL, serves on the iGEM Engineering Committee’s steering group, and is Editor-in-Chief of the Journal OUP Synthetic Biology.

  • Rixin Zhang

    Tackle resource competition problems in synthetic biology, aiming to restore gene circuits’ modularity and build robust gene circuits.

  • sadikshya rijal

    Sadikshya Rijal is pursuing her PhD in biological design from Arizona State University. She is affiliated with Dr. Xiaojun Tian’s lab, which focuses on resource allocation of gene circuits and phase separation in bacterial systems.

  • Bojing Jiang

    Bojing Jiang is a Ph.D. candidate in Biomedical Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis, with a focus on developing protein-based materials for biomedical and environmental applications. Her research integrates synthetic biology, materials science, and tissue engineering to create innovative biomaterials for regenerative medicine, drug delivery, and micro-nanofabrication. Bojing’s work emphasizes sustainability and biocompatibility, leveraging fully protein-based materials to design eco-friendly alternatives with enhanced functionality.

    She has contributed to groundbreaking projects funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), including materials for neuron regeneration, vascular repair, and wound healing. Bojing has published in high-impact journals such as Science Advances and Advanced Functional Materials, with her research recognized for its role in advancing green and scalable nanofabrication techniques using protein-based resists.

    In addition to her technical expertise, Bojing excels in protein design, gene editing, fermentation, and biomaterials characterization, with a commitment to developing solutions that bridge scientific innovation and real-world impact. She is passionate about contributing to the next generation of healthcare technologies while advancing sustainability in the field of biomedical engineering.

  • Sana Zakaria

    Sana Zakaria is a Research Leader, and a Global RAND Scholar working emerging technologies and their intersection. Her work focusses on assessing the societal and biosecurity implications of technological advancement, and unpacking the factors affecting technology demand and supply, assessing oversight mechanisms for technology, and building resilience and preparedness in society.
    She is currently leading on evaluating the PATH-SAFE programme, a pilot programme on interconnectivity of the UK-wide genomic
    biosurveillance ecosystem. She is working with UK MoD on bioattribution workflows and capacity building. Her other key project involves assessing oversight mechanisms in embryology, brain computer interfaces, engineering biology and organoids. She is also leading on a project developing a global risk index to manage dual use risks from AI powered biological tools. She currently sits on an expert scientific group to the BWC to provide expert advice on science and technology mechanism, compliance and verification and international cooperation and assistance.

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