z.w.wei@berkeley.edu Education Ph.D. in Chemistry, University of British Columbia (Advisor: Katherine S. Ryan) B.Eng. in Biological Engineering, Hubei University Research Ziwang is fascinated by the discovery of novel biochemistries and biosynthetic enzymes in natural product pathways. In the Keasling Lab, he aims to apply enzymology and bioengineering tools to deepen our understanding of these systems […]
Cholapat (Turbo) Varongchayakul
cholapatv@berkeley.edu Education Ph.D. student in Chemistry, UC Berkeley B.S. in Chemical-Biological Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology B.S. in Chemistry and Biology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Research I’m excited to be exploring how polyketide synthases make rare functional groups and complex molecular scaffolds.
Lucas Grobon
lpgrobon@lbl.gov Education M.Sc. student in Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) B.Eng. in Bioengineering, McGill University Research Lucas Grobon is an Alfred Werner Scholar pursuing his M.Sc. in Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology at EPFL. Under the supervision of Dr. Peter Winegar in the Keasling laboratory, his master thesis focuses on achieving […]
Janik Ludwig
janikl@lbl.gov Education M.S. student in Molecular and Cellular Biology, Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich B.S. in Biology, Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich Research My research project focuses on advancing the biosynthesis of fuelimycins—polycyclopropanated fatty acids with high energy density—by optimizing the cyclopropanase enzyme (Pop2) in Streptomyces venezuelae, using protein language models and directed evolution to enhance production yields. This work aims […]
Hannah Dorn
hannah.dorn@berkeley.edu Education M.Sc. student in Molecular and Applied Biotechnology, RWTH Aachen University B.Sc. in Molecular and Applied Biotechnology, RWTH Aachen University Research I am deeply passionate about the potential of synthetic biology and metabolic engineering to drive the development of more sustainable products. As part of my Master’s program, I have joined the Keasling Lab […]
Falcon Iverson Soedarsono
soedarsono@berkeley.edu Education Ph.D. student in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, UC Berkeley B.S. in Chemical Engineering and Chemistry, University of Wisconsin, Madison Research My research experience was in photocatalysts synthesis in undergrad and in upstream and downstream manufacturing technology R&D in industry. Going back for my PhD, I was interested in getting to know more about […]
Sidharth Jayachandran
sjayachandran@lbl.gov Education Ph.D. student in Synthetic Biology and Bioengineering, Technical University of Denmark M.Tech. in Biotechnology and Biochemical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur B.Tech. in Biotechnology, Anna University Research I am interested in synthetic biology and metabolic engineering, for the biosynthesis of natural and novel molecules. My current Ph.D. research focuses on the heterologous […]
Allegra Messinese
amessinese@berkeley.edu Education M.Eng. student in Bioengineering, University of California, Berkeley B.S. in Nanobiology, University of Technology Delft Research My primary research goal in the Keasling lab is to engineer polyketide synthases for the biosynthesis of valuable compounds in Bacillus subtilis. Previously, I worked at the University of Technology Delft under the supervision of Prof. Greg Bokinsky, […]
Sara Falkenberg Holm
sholm@lbl.gov Education M.Sc. student in Engineering, Biotechnology, Technical University of Denmark, DTU B.Sc. in Engineering, Chemistry and Technology, DTU Research I am very fascinated by the ability of synthetic biology and metabolic engineering to unlock the potential of natural products as well as the potential of producing molecules that are new to nature. My research […]
Nathan Lanclos
lanclosn@berkeley.edu Education Ph.D. student in Bioengineering, UC Berkeley and UC San Francisco B.S. in Cell and Molecular Biology & B.A. Economics, University of South Florida Research I am interested in using genetic tools and computational biology to engineer complex living systems.
Devan Horn
dhorn@lbl.gov Education M. Sc. in Organic and Biological Chemistry at the Technical University of Munich (since 2021) B. Sc. in Chemistry at the Technical University of Munich (2018-2021) Research With my background in organic and biological chemistry, I am especially interested in biosynthesizing commodity chemicals to move towards a bio-based economy. In the Keasling lab, […]
Soonkyu Hwang
SoonkyuHwang@lbl.gov Education Post-doctoral researcher, KAIST M.S. and Ph.D. in Bioengineering, KAIST B.S. in Biological Sciences, KAIST Research My research is in artificial metalloenzyme engineering and PKS modular engineering to construct new pathways for valuable products, using bioinformatics and synthetic biology skills.
Ofer Prinz Setter
ofer.ps@berkeley.edu Education Ph.D. in Biotechnology and Food Engineering, Technion, Israel Institute of Technology B.S. in Biotechnology and Food Engineering, Technion, Israel Institute of Technology Research I am studying the efficient valorization of bio-waste into transgenic food proteins produced by filamentous fungi. As natural primary decomposers, these robust microorganisms demonstrate impressive enzyme secretion mechanisms for breaking down complex […]
Marie Dielentheis-Frenken
mdielentheisfrenken@lbl.gov Education PhD student in Applied Microbiology in the Blank Lab at RWTH Aachen University, Germany B.S., M.S. in Biology at RWTH Aachen University, Germany Research I am interested in engineering the yeast-like fungus Aureobasidium pullulans for production of a polyol lipid biosurfactant.
Ezechinyere Ukabiala
eze_ukabiala@berkeley.edu Education Ph.D. student in Bioengineering, UC Berkeley and UC San Francisco B.S. in Bioengineering, UC San Diego Research I’m interested in engineering microbes to produce fuels and commodity chemicals.
BJ Cawthon
cawthon_bridgie@berkeley.edu Education Ph.D. student and GEM Fellow in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, UC Berkeley B.S. in Chemical Engineering from University of Tennessee, Knoxville Research My research background has primarily been in protein extraction and performing metabolic flux analysis. This has sparked my interest in metabolic engineering work. I was specifically interested in Jay because of his […]
Ning Qin
NingQin@lbl.gov Education Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering, Beijing University of Chemical Technology M.S. in Bioengineering, Tianjin University of Science and Technology B.S. in Bioengineering, Liaocheng University Research I am looking forward to working on combinatorial PKS design with high throughput technology. I hope to find more unnatural polyketones.
Han Min Woo
hmwoo@lbl.gov Education B.S. Korea University, South Korea, 2004 M.S., Korea Advanced Science and Technology (KAIST), South Korea, 2006 Ph.D. Forschunszentrum Juelich, Germany, 2010 Postdoc, JBEI, 2011 Research Metabolic engineering and Synthetic Biology of industrial microorganisms, Microbial genetics, Lab automation, and high-throughput experiments
Justin Baerwald
jbaerwald@berkeley.edu Education Ph.D. student in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, UC Berkeley B.S. in Chemical Engineering, University Wisconsin Madison Research My research interests include synthetic biology, metabolic engineering, and fermentative engineering.
Xixi Zhao
xzhao2@lbl.gov Education Ph.D. in Genetics, Sun Yat-sen University Research My current research focuses on triterpene saponins biosynthesis in yeast. In addition, I am interested in transcription factor-based biosensor development and engineering, and CRISPR-transposon used for metabolic engineering.
Radhakrishnan Mahadevan
rmahadevan@lbl.gov Education Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering, University of Delaware Research Genome-scale modeling, Pathway Prediction, Strain Design, Machine learning for protein and strain engineering
Peter Winegar
peterwinegar@berkeley.edu Education Ph.D. in Chemistry, Northwestern University (Advisor: Prof. Chad Mirkin) B.S. in Chemistry, Michigan Technological University Research Peter is an NIH NRSA F32 Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of California, Berkeley with Prof. Jay Keasling. He completed a B.S. in Chemistry from Michigan Technological University and a Ph.D. in Chemistry from Northwestern University with […]
Casper van der Luijt
CasperVDL@lbl.gov Education PhD student at University of Copenhagen and Technical University of Denmark MSc in Life Science & Technology, Delft University of Technology BSc in Life Science & Technology, Leiden University and Delft University of Technology Research I’m working on recombinant protein production in filamentous fungi to develop sustainable microbial foods. My PhD project is […]
Maria Astolfi
mastolfi@lbl.gov Education Ph.D. student in Bioengineering, University of California-Berkeley & UCSF, USA B.Tech in Biotechnology, Federal University of Amazonas, Brazil Research I am passionate about synthetic biology to grow colorful, flavorful, and meaningful natural products from our vast biodiversity. In the Keasling Lab, I am excited to work at the intersection of multi-omics, machine learning, […]