Neil Dalvie did his PhD in Chemical Engineering at MIT, studying therapeutic protein manufacturing. Now, he is a Schmidt Science Fellow in the Synthetic Biology Hive at Harvard Medical School. Neil researches large-scale bioprocessing for mineral processing and is interested in the ethics and regulation of environmental bioengineering.
Cameron is a recent graduate and postdoctoral fellow in the Barrick Lab at the University of Texas at Austin. He completed his B.S. in biochemistry and in molecular, cellular, and developmental biology at the University of Washington. Afterwards, he completed a postbactorial study at the National Institutes of Health as an IRTA fellow. His current research is at the intersection of synthetic and evolutionary biology, exploring how engineered systems are prone to mutation and developing tools to help researchers keep theirs stable. His prior policy activities include institutional policy initiatives within the UT Austin Interdisciplinary Life Sciences programs; independent study and programming as a Graduate Archer Fellow; and as an intern on biomanufacturing, biosecurity, and AIxBio federal policy.
Efrain Rodriguez Ocasio is originally from Puerto Rico and graduated from the University of Puerto Rico-Mayagüez with a B.S. in Industrial Biotechnology. During his undergraduate studies, Efrain served as a trustee on the Governing Board of the University of Puerto Rico, which oversees the 11 campuses of Puerto Rico’s public University. He earned his Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering at Iowa State University, where he developed microbial platforms for plastic waste upcycling and earned the ISU Research Excellence Award. Efrain is currently a postdoctoral fellow at the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His research integrates metabolic and process modeling to identify new production targets for the decarbonization of the chemical industry and synthetic biology for industrial strain development.
Ross Klauer is a PhD candidate in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the University of Delaware. He received his Bachelor of Science Degree in Chemical Engineering from Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology. Ross is co-advised by Dr. Mark Blenner and Dr. Kevin Solomon. Ross’ research focuses on elucidating the polyethylene deconstruction pathway in the digestive system of plastic-eating yellow mealworms. He is working to identify and engineer enzymes for polyethylene deconstruction. Outside of lab, Ross enjoys playing soccer and is a competitive cornhole player.
Aditya Pandharinath Sarnaik is an Associate Research Professional in the School for Sustainable Engineering and Built Environment (SSEBE) at Arizona State University (Polytechnic campus). He works at Arizona Centre for Algal Technology and Innovation (AzCATI). He is a Biotechnology graduate and a trained biochemical engineer, with expertise in bacterial (photosynthetic and non-photosynthetic) metabolic and protein engineering. He has experience with upstream as well as downstream processing/ process optimization of (engineered and wild-type) cyanobacteria at pilot scale.
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 outreach efforts at the University of Washington and EBRC.
Meagan is a PhD candidate in the Jewett and Tullman-Ercek Labs at Northwestern University. Her research focuses on improving cell-free protein synthesis systems in order to rapidly develop and manufacture medical therapeutics. She completed her B.S. in chemical engineering at the University of Arkansas. Outside of the lab, Meagan enjoys cooking, reading, and hiking.
Michaela is a postdoctoral researcher in Otto Cordero’s Lab at MIT working to expand the metabolic function of non-model ocean microbes. Prior to starting her postdoc, she completed her graduate work with Aditya Kunjapur at University of Delaware where she developed a new pathway for biosynthesis of non-standard amino acids and engineered a bacterial strain that was dependent on a non-standard amino acid for growth that can persist in soil microenvironments to build towards safely deployable synthetic microbes. As an EBRC board member, she serves as EMUMS chair to help provide academic mentorship to undergraduate and Master’s students interested in engineering biology.
Andrea is a postdoctoral research associate at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Dr. Carrie Eckert’s lab, working to domesticate non-model bacteria. As part of that, she is developing high-throughput methods to test genetic tools with robotic automation systems. Prior to this, Andrea earned her Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Cell Biology at Rice University, where she developed a bacterial transcriptional activation system in the lab of Dr. James Chappell.
Megan is a postdoctoral scholar in the Jewett Lab at Stanford University. She earned her BS in chemical engineering from the University of Rhode Island—with minors in chemistry, mathematics, and music performance—and her PhD in chemical and biomolecular engineering from Georgia Tech. Her PhD work focused on using cell-free expression systems to engineer diagnostic platforms for point-of-care biosensing applications. As an EBRC SPA member, Megan serves as a liaison to the education working group and co-chair for EMUMS.
Yan is a postdoctoral fellow co-advised by William (Bil) Clemons and Richard Murray at Caltech, where she applies cell-free synthetic biology to engineer bacterial viruses for therapeutic applications and precision microbial control. Yan received her bachelor’s degree from Cornell University (2017) and her Ph.D. from Georgia Institute of Technology (2022). As a board member of the SPA and the co-liaison for the Policy and International Engagement (P&IE) working group, she is committed to helping to build connections between researchers, policymakers, and industry leaders to advance the application and reach of engineering biology research.
Ross is a postdoctoral fellow in Peter Zandstra’s Lab at the University of British Columbia, where he works on manufacturing CAR-T cell production from pluripotent stem cells. He earned his PhD in Biological Engineering from MIT, where he worked under Ron Weiss and Domitilla Del Vecchio to study and mitigate context dependence in mammalian synthetic gene networks. Ross earned his BS in Bioengineering at the University of Washington, where he worked with Hannele Ruohola-Baker and Narendra Singh. As a SPA board member for the last few years, Ross has been leading many outreach efforts targeting undergraduate students and has developed workshops and panels to support the professional development of current and future SPA members.
Andrew Hunt is a Postdoc in the Baker Lab at the University of Washington. Andrew works on designing new proteins and developing technologies to measure biological function. Andrew is the Chair of the EBRC In Translation Podcast.
Ice is an Engineering Excellence Postdoctoral Fellow at MIT working with Prof. James J. Collins. Before that, Ice graduated from the University of Washington with a Ph.D. in Molecular Engineering and Sciences under the supervision of Prof. James Carothers and Prof. Jesse Zalatan. He worked on various projects surrounding bacterial engineering, genetic circuits, and biocatalysis, particularly the development of CRISPR tools in non-canonical microbes for various applications, such as Metabolic Engineering and Signaling. Ice is highly engaged with the EBRC and SPA community since 2019, serving in various roles.
Originally from Thailand, Ice graduated with B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in Organic Chemistry from Mahidol University before shifting to the world of Engineering Biology, starting as a Research Assistant at the School of Biomolecular Sciences and Engineering, VISTEC, Thailand. Whenever the weather permits, Ice enjoys outdoor activities including hiking, surfing, and climbing. If forced to stay indoors, he will sneak into Thai boxing practice or enjoy cooking Thai cuisine with friends.
See further info about Ice at his personal website: https://theicechol.github.io/
Arren Liu is a postdoctoral research fellow at Johns Hopkins University working with Dr. Jonathan Lynch on unravelling host-microbiota interactions and engineering microbiota for health applications. Arren received his B.S. in Genetics at Purdue University, where he completed an honors research thesis under the guidance of Dr. Kevin Solomon. Arren received his Ph.D. in Biological Design at Arizona State University, where he worked with Dr. David Nielsen and Dr. Arul Varman on metabolic engineering of microbes for the biomanufacturing of petrochemical alternatives from lignocellulosic biomass. Arren is the current EBRC SPA Membership chair and is also a part of the DEI committee for SIMB.
Kok Zhi is a postdoctoral fellow in Fuzhong Zhang’s lab at Washington University in St. Louis. He repurposes/engineers proteins in nature for biotechnology applications, tackling material synthesis and sustainability challenges. He completed his Ph.D. in Bioengineering under Kevin Solomon at Purdue University, where he characterized prokaryotic argonautes for novel gene-editing tool development without sequence-motif restrictions. Outside of research, Kok Zhi serves as a Social Chair in EBRC SPA, dedicated to creating diverse and inclusive environments for networking and career developments in the synthetic biology community.