EMUMS Mentor

  • Michaela Jones

    I am a 4th year graduate student in the Kunjapur Lab at the University of Delaware. I have worked in synthetic biology for the past 7 years as an undergraduate in the DeLisa Lab at Cornell University. I am really excited about biosynthesizing non-standard amino acids and introducing new chemistries to biology and ensuring appropriate biocontainment for the cool synthetic biology innovations.

  • Sanjeeva K Murali

    Sanjeeva is a PhD student in Mansell lab at Iowa state university. His research work focuses on developing novel prebiotic-probiotic pairs for gut microbiome engineer. Prior to this, he completed his masters from IIT Guwahati, where he focused on constructing metabolic pathway to convert dairy waste to D-Lactic acid. Currently, he serves as a member of the EBRC SPA Board and works as the liaison to the Policy and International Engagement group. In addition, he also worked as a downstream process engineer for monoclonal antibody purification at Dr. Reddy Laboratories in India. Outside research, he enjoys watching cricket, playing badminton, running etc. 

  • Edward Kalkreuter

    Edward is a postdoctoral fellow in the Ben Shen lab at UF Scripps. His research focuses on developing and utilizing synthetic biology approaches for natural product discovery and biosynthetic engineering, with an emphasis on biosynthetic gene cluster regulation. Prior to his postdoctoral position, he obtained his Ph.D. in the Gavin Williams lab at North Carolina State University where he engineered polyketide synthases and constructed transcription factor-based biosensors.

  • Yue Han

    Yue is a Ph.D. candidate at the Styczynski lab at Georgia Institute of Technology. Her research is focused on developing computational models for metabolic pathways toward effective strain design. Yue completed her undergraduate studies at Carnegie Mellon University in Chemical Engineering. In her free time, she enjoys watching movies and exploring the city.

  • Megan McSweeney

    I am a 4th year PhD Candidate at Georgia Tech working in Mark Styczynski’s lab. My research focuses on using cell-free synthetic biology to engineer low-cost point-of-care biosensors for disease diagnostic applications. After earning my PhD, I hope to gain more research experience as a post-doctoral fellow and eventually seek a faculty position at a research university.

  • Yan Zhang

    Yan is a postdoctoral fellow at the California Institute of Technology. Her research focuses on engineering synthetic cells as the next-generation chassis to implement synthetic biology operations. Outside of research and EBRC, Yan is involved in the iGEM and science outreach efforts at Caltech to promote underrepresented groups’ engagement in synthetic biology.

  • Rana Said

    Rana Said did her undergraduate degree in Biotechnology Cairo University in 2013. Rana was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to study Master’s in Biotechnology from American University, Washington DC. Rana is now doing her PhD in Biotechnology Engineering, developing tools to enhance the engineering of enzymes, as well as engineering Lactic Acid Bacteria.

  • Sebastian Castillo-Hair

    I am a postdoc in the Seelig Lab at UW. I’m using massively parallel reporter assays and deep learning methods to engineer synthetic biological systems in human cells. I obtained my PhD in Bioengineering at Rice University, where I worked in optogenetics and B. subtilis synthetic biology. As an undergrad, I studied Mechatronics Engineering at Universidad Nacional de Ingenieria in Lima, Peru, where I am from.

  • Xinran Lian

    Xinran is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of working under the supervision of Rama Ranganathan and Andrew Ferguson. She works on integrating deep-learning generative models and high-throughput assays to design novel proteins. Outside of research, she is an amateur artist and birder.

  • Ying Wang

    I am a postdoctoral scholar working in the Northen Group at Berkeley Lab. I received my Ph.D. from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 2019. I am broadly interested in addressing soil health and sustainable agriculture under global change.

  • Tetsuhiro Harimoto

    I received my BS in pharmacology and toxicology from the University of Toronto. Prior to graduate school, I worked at Morgan Stanley as an equity research associate. I joined my current lab in 2016 with the support from the Honjo fellowship (2016-2020) and NIH NCI F99/K00 award (2020-).

  • Nathan Johns

    I am originally from Michigan where I earned a B.S. in Microbiology from Michigan State University. Shortly after I worked with Harris Wang and George Church at Harvard University’s Wyss Institute. I did my PhD research in Systems Biology at Columbia University with Harris Wang. My research was focused on developing high-throughput methods for characterizing regulatory sequences in diverse bacterial species. In 2019 I began postdoctoral research with Michael Fischbach at Stanford University where I am developing genetic tools for human commensal bacterial species.

  • Back to top ⇑