Dr. Lauren Junker is the North American lead Industrial Biotechnology Innovation Scout at BASF. Her focus is on innovative and sustainable solutions that can advance the BASF research pipeline in the areas of enzyme and protein technologies and biobased chemical fermentation.
Previously at BASF, she led a research group where her team focused on microbiome research for personal care, microbial control solutions for personal care and animal nutrition and fermentation process optimization. She held several roles as a microbiologist and clinical research scientist within Johnson & Johnson’s Consumer Products Division. She earned her Ph.D. in Microbiology from Cornell University and was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Harvard Medical School where she identified inhibitors of microbial biofilms.
She is interested in technologies and partners to accelerate Bioscience research at BASF. Research areas of interest include industrial enzyme, biocatalyst and insecticidal toxin engineering, strain engineering for bio-based chemical production and fermentation process optimization.