(2ke) Designer Polymers for Intracellular Organelle Engineering

My research program will bridge synthetic polymer chemistry with intracellular organelle biology. My postdoctoral work focuses on designing de novo proteins that enrich the surface of transcriptionally-active cellular membraneless organelles such as nucleoli and nuclear speckles. The proteins are designed using the principles of multiphasic polymer phase separation. These surface-enriched proteins can control the output of defective RNA synthesized in the nucleoli of diseased cells with cancer and neurodegenerative diseases. My doctoral work focused on synthesizing bioinspired novel polymers for biomaterials development. These polymers resulted in the creation of strong underwater adhesives, tissue sealants, toxic opiate sensors, and underwater biofilm removers.

With my highly interdisciplinary research team, we will create high-throughput designer polymers for (A) identifying the physical chemistry of polymer phase separation, (B) targeting and engineering the material properties of cells with disease-related aberrant phase separation, and (C) developing novel methods imaging cellular organelles and optogenetics.

Polymer Science: High-throughput Polymer Synthesis, Biomaterials, Phase Separation, Interfacial Phenomenon, Soft Materials, Adhesives

Bioengineering: Organelle Engineering, Microscopy, Optogenetics, Molecular Biology, Metabolic engineering, Biomolecular Condensates, Ageing

Teaching Interests

Information is everywhere. I believe that a teacher’s responsibility is to assist the students to advance a piece of information into scientific principles.

I was trained as a chemist, gained my Ph.D. in Polymer Science, and worked in a Bioengineering laboratory. Along this way, I was fortunate to interact with researchers from incredibly diverse backgrounds and training. From this experience, I learned multiple scientific languages. I think I will be a perfect fit to teach the courses listed below with students from different levels of subject knowledge.

Courses: Physical Chemistry, Polymer Science, Biochemistry, Microscopy & Spectroscopy, Molecular Biology, Biomaterials, and Organic Materials Chemistry