Research Interests

Evolution serves as a powerful inspiration for synthetic biology. We develop synthetic biology approaches for answering fundamental biological questions and for developing novel translational platforms for human health.

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  Our lab uses evolution as an inspiration for designing synthetic biology platforms. Particularly, we are fascinated by synergistic interactions in evolution: at a cell-cell level (symbiosis), at protein-RNA level (RNA modifications), at a protein-protein level (antibodies/epitopes) and at a protein-small molecule level (coenzyme containing enzymes). We use these observations to design synthetic biology approaches for answering fundamental biological questions or for developing novel translational platforms for human health. Key areas in the lab include: (i) directed evolution to combat emerging zoonotic pathogens, (ii) directed endosymbiosis (an engineered, symbiotic cell within a host cell) for evolutionary studies and photosynthetic biosynthesis, and (iii) engineering selectivity in targeting cancers.