peterwinegar@berkeley.edu
Education
Research
Peter is an NIH NRSA F32 Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of California, Berkeley with Prof. Jay Keasling. He previously completed a Ph.D. in Chemistry from Northwestern University with Prof. Chad Mirkin, where he programmed the organization of proteins into oligomeric, hydrogel, and crystalline architectures using DNA. In the Keasling Laboratory, Peter builds yeast strains that biosynthesize plant-derived steroidal alkaloids from simple sugars and repurposes enzymes as biocatalysts to produce sets of their new-to-nature analogs. Peter’s research has been recognized by several awards, including the 2024 JGI CSP New Investigator Award, the 2025 Michigan Tech Outstanding Alumnus Award, the 2025 Berkeley Postdoctoral Association Professional Development Award, and the 2025 UC Berkeley VSPA NPAW Postdoc Achievement Award.