I am a class of 2026 PhD student in the chemical engineering department at Northwestern University. My research primarily focuses on cell-free synthetic biology with applications in biosensing. Prior to joining Northwestern University, I worked for three years as a chemical process engineer.
Wilson Sinclair is a Postdoctoral Scholar at EBRC working in the Security focus area. His primary interests are synthetic biology investment, biosecurity policy, building a robust bioeconomy, and microbiome engineering. He is passionate about breaking down barriers between research disciplines and building bridges between experts in engineering biology and social sciences across academia, industry, government, and advocacy to solve complex global problems.
Prior to joining EBRC, Wilson was a Science Policy Intern at the NIH Office of Science Policy where he supported short- and long-term development of programs relating to bioethics, data science, and clinical research policy. His graduate research utilized bioorthogonal chemistry to study host-pathogen interactions in tuberculosis for therapeutic discovery. Over nearly a decade at the bench, he has applied his broad skills as a chemical biologist to several projects across the fields of glycobiology, synthetic chemistry, cancer immunology, and epitranscriptomics.
Wilson holds a Ph.D. in Chemistry from Stanford University. He also has a B.A. from Haverford College majoring in Chemistry with a Biochemistry concentration and Spanish minor. He is a Chicago native and enjoys spending his free time trying new restaurants, solving puzzles, and exploring museums.
I grew up in Hangzhou, China and went on to pursue my B.Sc. degree in Chemistry at University of Michigan, Ann Arbor where I developed chemical tools for neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s Disease under the guidance of Professor Mi Hee Lim. In 2013, I started graduate school at UC Berkeley and joined Professor Omar Yaghi’s group where my research interest focused on the design and synthesis of crystalline woven covalent organic frameworks with exceptional mechanical properties. Since 2018, I have been a postdoctoral researcher in Professor Jay Keasling’s lab working on biosynthesis of terpene-derived molecules in yeast.
I am in my fifth year of PhD research under the advisory of Dr. Sirius Li at North Carolina State University in the Department of Plant Biology. The focus of my research is understanding the genetic mechanisms that lead to detrimental growth effects in lignin bioengineered plants. While my main project is largely focused on basic science, I am very interested in the industrial applications, regulation, and deployment of bioengineered energy and bioproduct producing crops.
Ph.D. candidate working on receptor design for metabolic engineering. Instructor at the Canadian Synthetic Biology Education and Research Group (CSBERG) where we teach engineering biology principles to highschoolers and undergraduate students. My project focuses on opioid production and detection in yeast.
I am a third year BME PhD candidate at Northwestern University at Neha Kamat’s Lab.
I am a fourth year Ph.D. student interested in making smarter medicines. My passion for research began as an undergraduate at Boston University in Dr. Xue Han’s neuroengineering lab, and shortly thereafter I learned my affinity for translational spaces while I worked in industry supporting preclinical pharmaceutic science research. After spending several years as a leader and officer in the United States Air Force, it has been my privilege to return to the lab as a graduate student working under my advisors, Dr. Josh Leonard and Dr. Neha Kamat. I’m currently passionate about therapeutic applications of mammalian synthetic biology and extracellular vesicles.
Caroline Ajo-Franklin earned a B.S. in chemistry from Emory University in Atlanta, GA in 1997 and a Ph.D. in chemistry from Stanford University in Palo Alto, CA in 2004. She trained as Postdoctoral Fellow with Prof. Pam Silver in the Department of Systems Biology at Harvard Medical School in Cambridge, MA from 2005-2007. From 2007-2019, she was a Staff Scientist within the Molecular Foundry at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley, CA. In 2019, she joined the faculty of Rice University in Houston, TX as a Professor of BioSciences with joint appointments in Bioengineering and Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. Her strongly interdisciplinary, highly collaborative research program focuses on exploring the interface between living organisms and non-living materials and engineering this interface for applications in energy, environment, and biomedicine. Prof. Ajo-Franklin was named as a recipient of the Women@ the Lab award in 2018 and as Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT) Scholar in 2019. She is on the Editorial Board of ACS Synthetic Biology and is an Editor at mSystems.
I am a PhD student with an engineering background, and I am fascinated by biology and how we can engineer it with synthetic biology tools. I am specifically interested in intercellular communication and how novel mechanisms can emerge using protein engineering techniques.
MSc in Plant Sciences at Wageningen University. Visiting student at the Rhee Lab at Carnegie Institution for Science on Stanford University.
Born and raised 30 minutes south of Minneapolis, I migrated into the city to attend the University of Minnesota and study synthetic organic chemistry with Prof. Tom Hoye. It was there that I recognized the power of biological systems to perform difficult chemical reactions in remarkably sustainable and efficient ways. Inspired, I moved to Scripps Research in Florida to start my current projects investigating the biosynthetic enzymes that perform these transformations with Prof. Ben Shen. I am also privileged to be involved with multiple science outreach and communication initiatives.
Graduated from the University of Utah with triple majors in Chemistry, Physics and Applied mathematics, and currently a First Year Ph.D Student at the University of Washington pursuing Synthetic biology and as well as Tissue engineering
I’m a PhD student working plant pigment protein complexes
I am a Masters of Biotechnology student at Northwestern University with a bachelors degree in biology from University of Chicago. Before attending Northwestern I worked as a bioformulation scientist at Ortho Clinical Diagnostics and a clincal lab associate at Tempus. I worked in a gut microbiome lab studying hsp25 expression during my undergraduate years.
Cynthia is a fan of microbes and their potential to help humans live sustainably. She completed a PhD in Chemical Engineering at MIT in 2022, in which she genetically engineered E. coli to utilize mixed feed streams for biosynthesis – a project motivated by the desire to convert food waste into useful products. Outside of research, she participated in departmental DEI initiatives and peer counseling, and was dedicated to improving the graduate student experience across the institute. In her free time, she enjoys playing ultimate frisbee, being in nature, and consuming delicious foods and beverages. Cynthia is excited to work in the Policy & International Engagement focus area and continue to explore the use of waste in the bioeconomy.
I am a Scientist and Head of the Laboratory of Antibody Discovery & Accelerated Protein Therapeutics (ADAPT) at the Houston Methodist Research Institute (HMRI). My work encompasses a broad range of engineering biology, from the design of simple genetic “parts” and circuits to protein engineering and industrial biomanufacturing. I use a foundation in synthetic biology to domesticate non-model organisms and then use these tools and chasses to engineer proteins or biosynthetic pathways with therapeutic and industrial potential. I use a holistic approach to protein engineering by employing concepts in directed evolution, rational design, and artificial intelligence to create biological countermeasures, diagnostics, and vaccine candidates. Over the last few years, my group has been involved in the genomic surveillance and characterization of SARS-COV-2, B-cell repertoire mining for neutralization and protection assays, and the engineering of enzymes for use in mRNA vaccine manufacturing.
I also spent the last four years as a DoD scientist. In that time, I designed and built the Army’s Biological Foundry co-located at the University of Texas at Austin. This work increased DoD capability in the field of synthetic biology for early-stage research efforts. From 2019 to 2021, I also served as the government CTO of the Bioindustrial Manufacturing Innovation Institute– BioMADE. As the technical architect of the institute, I led the creation of a public-private partnership to develop innovations at scale for biological production of non-medical products. Prior to that, I led an in-house R&D effort in the private sector.
Aaron Schaller is a molecular biologist and entrepreneur with 10 years of experience in microbiology, molecular and cell biology, and immunology/virology. In May 2020 he co-founded MeliBio, Inc., a food company harnessing synthetic biology and medicinal plant science to produce the world’s first real honey without bees. Before starting MeliBio, Aaron completed his PhD at the University of California, Berkeley studying innate immunity in response to viral infection as an NSF graduate fellow. A combined passion for food, environmentalism, microbiology, and entrepreneurship led Aaron to co-found MeliBio, where he currently serves as CTO. Aaron believes that the future of planetary and human health lies in our ability to move away from animal-based food supplies towards more sustainable and logical options, and that microbiology can take us there.
I am interested in the biosafety measure for the safer use of genetically modified bacteria. By controlling bacterial growth and survival using the engineered metabolic pathway for phosphorus, we developed novel biocontainment strategy which is robust, economical, and easy to apply.
I have done my Ph.D. in Biological Sciences with specialization in Microbial Biochemistry.
My research interest includes protein/enzyme engineering through combinatorial approach or directed evolution for industrial applications