Category: Uncategorized

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 […]

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 […]

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, […]

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 […]

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, […]

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.

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

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

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 […]

CWhitford@lbl.gov Education Ph.D. student at Technical University of Denmark Bachelors and Masters in Molecular Biotechnology, Bielefeld University, Germany Research My research focuses on the development of CRISPR tools for streptomycetes with the goal of decreasing DTBL cycle times. In particular, I focus on multiplexed base editing, and novel genome engineering systems utilizing non-standard Cas effectors.

NamilLee@lbl.gov Education Ph.D. in Bioengineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology M.S. in Bioengineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology B.S. in Biological Sciences, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology Research My primary research goal is designing and engineering retrobiosynthesis machinery for novel compound production. Also, I’m interested in systematic approaches for […]

Education PhD Chemistry, University of Chicago BS Chemistry, Peking University Research Guangxu’s work focuses on engineering bacterium to convert polyolefin waste into value-added chemicals. Present estimates suggest that of the 359 million tons of plastics produced annually worldwide, 150-200 million tons accumulate in landfill or in the natural environment. To recover this plastic waste, particularly […]

Miller Institute Postdoctoral Fellow vayu.mr@gmail.com Education Ph.D. in Biochemistry, Harvard University B.A. in Biology and Chemistry summa cum laude, Carleton College Research Vayu’s first experiments were done in the kitchen of his multicultural home in Stockholm, Sweden. He initially moved to the U.S. to work in restaurants, but the flavors, textures, and sensations of the […]

alfear@lbl.gov Education Massachusetts Institute of Technology – B.Sc. Life Science 1987 – B.Sc. Humanities and Science – Creative Writing, Theater, and Biology 1986 Research Strain and Enzyme Engineering Linkedin

chunjunzhan@lbl.gov Jiangnan University, China Education Ph.D. Light Industry Technology, Jiangnan University， China MS Light Industry Technology, Jiangnan University, China Research My background is metabolic engineering, especially engineer different pathways in yeast. One of my focuses is the engineering of Pichia pastoris for protein expression and high-valued chemical production. I also investigate one-carbon source (methanol) utilization in […]

Postdoc ceiben@lbl.gov Research As the world population grows and the standard of living increases, we need sustainable, scalable and environmentally friendly ways to produce the everyday materials we often take for granted. To address this problem I am interested in engineering microbes to make useful chemicals from sugars. Currently I am working on novel pathways […]

mschmidt@lbl.gov Education Ph.D. in Synthetic Biology at RWTH Aachen University, Germany M.S. in Molecular and Applied Biotechnology from RWTH Aachen University, Germany B.S. in Chemistry and Biotechnology from Hochschule Niederrhein, Germany Research I am a postdoctoral researcher at the Keasling Lab focusing on engineering type I polyketide synthases for the production of specialty chemicals. Furthermore, […]

scheong@lbl.gov Education PhD in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Rice University B.S. in Chemical Engineering and Industrial Biological Engineering, Tsinghua University Research I am a postdoctoral research with metabolic engineering background, and my current research goal in Keasling Lab is to produce commodity chemicals through engineered polyketide synthases (PKSs) in microbes like E. coli and Streptomyces. […]

zilongwang@lbl.gov Education PhD Biotechnology, National University of Singapore, Singapore MS Biology, Sun Yat-sen University (Zhongshan University), China Research My background is on the structural & functional study of polyketide synthase (PKS) and its engineering. One of my focus is on the biosynthesis with chimeric PKS to produce valuable compounds. We use synthetic biology to effectively […]

RobertBertrand@lbl.gov Education BSc in Biochemistry at the University of Winnipeg PhD in Natural Products Chemistry at the University of Manitoba Research Developing high-energy polyketide biofuels.

BLuckie@lbl.gov Education PhD student in the Molecular and Cellular Biology Program at UC Berkeley B.S in Biochemistry and B.S. in Genetics from Clemson University Research I am interested in exploring, harnessing, and expanding the metabolic repertoire of the human microbiota. LinkedIn

incha@lbl.gov Education Graduate student in Plant and Microbiology at UC-Berkeley B.S. in Molecular Biology from University of Wisconsin – Madison Research I’m interested in developing high-throughput screens for biosynthetic pathways and creating methods of interrogating intracellular metabolic fluxes. Using functional genomics I would also like to identify new enzymes and proteins that can be applied […]

scrowe@lbl.gov Education PhD Student in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, UC Berkeley BS/MS in Chemical Engineering, Northwestern University Research I’m a PhD student in UC Berkeley’s Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Department. I’m interested in the concerted effort of current experimental methods, high throughput robotics, and machine learning for smarter modular enzyme engineering for production of novel […]

aanava@lbl.gov Education PhD student in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, UC Berkeley BS of Mathematics and Chemical Engineering at the University of Nevada, Reno Research I’m interested in developing high-throughput computational and experimental techniques for the de novo design of enzymes.

jessicamahinthakumar@berkeley.edu Education  B.S. Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, North Carolina State University Research Synthetic biology and yeast engineering for the production of drugs, specifically engineering of the meroterpenoid biosynthetic pathway.

 lyuzhong@berkeley.edu Education PhD Chemistry, University of California, Berkeley BS Chemistry, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor Research Coming from a chemistry background, I would like to synthesize biomolecules that are difficult to make by means of traditional chemical synthesis, as well as to understand the enzymatic pathways at a molecular level. I am also interested in […]

Postdoc feigan@lbl.gov Education Ph.D. Biochemistry, Microbiology and Molecular Biology, Penn State University B.S. Biology, Wuhan University Research My research focuses on engineering yeast to produce pharmaceuticals and other products for human needs. Google Scholar

Education: BS in Botany with a focus in genetics and molecular biology and Summa Cum Laude honors; Oregon State University Background & Research Interests I am a graduate student in the Plant and Microbial Biology Department at UC Berkeley, pursuing my PhD in Plant Biology. My main interests are in the field of synthetic biology, and […]

luisvalencia@berkeley.edu Education Ph.D. student in Bioengineering, UC Berkeley/ UC San Francisco B.S. in Biochemistry, University of Texas at Austin Research Summary I am a PhD student in the UCSF/UC Berkeley Bioengineering graduate program. I am fascinated by the chemistry observed in nature’s enzymes. My research aims to better understand how we can engineer enzymes to […]

JingHuang@lbl.gov Education Ph.D. in Biology, Tsinghua University B.S. in Biotechnology, Beijing University of Chemical Technology Research My primary goal is to express and assemble engineered biocatalysts inside cells and use them to synthesize unnatural products. In addition, I am also interested in the development of transcription factor based biosensors.

Postdoc azargar@berkeley.edu Education PhD Bioengineering, University of Maryland College Park MS Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of Maryland College Park BS Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology Research Amin is a chemical and biomedical engineer working as a postdoctoral fellow at UC Berkeley for Dr. Jay Keasling. First introduced to research as an […]