Tae Seok Moon has 25 years of research experience in chemistry, metabolic engineering, systems biology, and synthetic biology, including 5.5 years of industry experience. During his academic training at MIT and UCSF (Kris Prather and Chris Voigt labs), he has built expertise in metabolic engineering and synthetic biology. His research focus (2012-2022 with 21 external grants; $10.3M external funding to Moon; $35.1M to the entire team) is understanding gene regulation, evolution, and metabolism and building RNA regulators, biosensors, and genetic circuits. His current projects include 12 funded projects from 10 government or non-government funding agencies.
He has published over 60 peer-reviewed papers, has filed 10 patents, has given over 110 invited and over 130 contributed presentations (as of Sep. 2022). He has advised 32 permanent PhD/Postdoctoral and 29 undergrad researchers. He is a Founder and Head of the Scientific Advisory Board of Moonshot Bio. Several awards include a Langer Prize for Innovation and Entrepreneurial Excellence (AIChE), a B&B Daniel I.C. Wang Award, an NSF CAREER award, an ONR Young Investigator Award, a John C. Sluder Fellowship (MIT), an ILJU Foundation Award, an LG Chemical Fellowship, and the SNU President Prize.
He currently serves or has served as an MIT Educational Counselor, an external evaluator of Seoul National University, an Editorial Board Member or Editor of six journals, a Conference Organizing Committee Member of Biochemical & Molecular Engineering XXII, SEED2022, and ME15 (co-chair), and a Council Member of Engineering Biology Research Consortium. He is the Founding Chair and organizer of SynBYSS (Synthetic Biology Young Speaker Series), a weekly multi-year seminar series, in which a global thought leader, a synthetic biology pioneer, and a young rising star discuss synthetic biology, systems biology, and metabolic engineering with more than 1000 global audiences.