(2kb) Cell-free Engineering of Photosynthesis for Chemical and Energy Production

Climate change presents massive challenges to human and environmental health through increasing temperatures and severe weather events that limit agriculture and alter ecosystems. Mitigating these threats necessitates not only a reduction in anthropogenic carbon emissions, but scalable methods to decrease atmospheric greenhouse gases. Natural systems using solar energy to convert carbon dioxide into biomass present vast opportunities for engineering toward this goal. Studying and applying photosynthesis through cell-free synthetic biology approaches will provide avenues for biological carbon capture, energy conversion, and sustainable chemical synthesis. Over the course of my career, I hope to elucidate fundamental principles leading to the development of biotechnological and bio-inspired solutions for sustainable chemical and energy generation from carbon dioxide and sunlight. This research will incorporate high-throughput enzyme engineering, evolutionary analysis, and cell-free biocatalysis to study 2 overarching themes beyond the confines of established model organisms:

1. Carbon fixation through natural and synthetic metabolic pathways
2. Biological electron transfer through intra- and extracellular mechanisms

My doctoral research with Michael Jewett at Northwestern University has focused on studying and engineering the metabolism of cell-free systems derived from E. coli and yeast, which facilitate biochemical processes in the absence of growth or viability constraints. The three prongs of my thesis include: (1) studying the composition and behavior of cell extracts, (2) rapidly prototyping enzymes in vitro to inform cellular design, and (3) scaling cell-free systems for biomanufacturing. As I transition to postdoctoral research with Tobias Erb at the Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology, I will apply my expertise in cell-free biology for high-throughput biochemical characterization of photosynthetic machinery from cyanobacteria and algae to catalog the functional diversity of components that convert sunlight and CO₂ to energy and sugar. Integrating these methods and insights will form the basis for my independent research laboratory.

Teaching Interests:

I aim to bridge chemical and biological engineering concepts with applications and problem solving by integrating laboratory and classroom learning to ensure experiments incorporate fundamental concepts and lectures are readily applicable to the laboratory. As a molecular biologist and chemical engineer, I could happily teach most courses in departments of chemical and/or biological engineering. I am particularly well-equipped to teach courses involving kinetics, reactor design, biochemical engineering, and the intersection of engineering with molecular biology and metabolism. I also hope to develop courses around biotechnology, such as an applied fermentation course integrating concepts relevant to the biochemical, pharmaceutical, and food industries. Throughout my research career I have mentored 3 undergraduates, 2 masters students, and 2 doctoral students while training and advising several others. I also gained classroom experience as a teaching assistant for 3 courses (molecular biology and biochemical engineering with 2 different professors) and participated in the Teaching Apprenticeship Program to co-teach a graduate bioprocess engineering course on kinetics, energetics, and reactor design.