Mid-Atlantic SynBio Network Members – Academia

Sara Molinari
Assistant Professor
Faculty/Lab Director
University of Maryland College Park
8278 Paint Branch Drive
AJC Hall 3222
College Park, MD 20742
Email
(301) 405-5268
Website
General Area(s) of Research or Interest: Engineered living materials, living therapeutics

Akos Nyerges
Research Associate in Genetics
Staff Scientist
Post-Doctoral Associate
Study Harvard Medical School
77 Louis Pasteur Av
Department of Genetics
Boston, MA 02115
Email
Website 
General Area(s) of Research or Interest: Synthetic genomics, biosecurity, genome engineering, drug development

Catherine Odhiambo
Student-Graduate
North Carolina State University
2620 Yarbrough Drive 45 Dabney Hall
Raleigh, NC 27695
Email
Phone Number (678) 522-1347
Website
General Area(s) of Research or Interest: Bio-sensor, bio-engineering, bio-chemical processes
Resources/Services Available: molecular design, directed evolution, high throughput screening

Abhilansh Pandey
Student-Graduate
Georgia Tech
North Ave NW
Atlanta, GA 30332
Email
(470) 860-5994
General Area(s) of Research or Interest: Synthetic biology, epigenetics, genetics

Mrugesh Parasa
Student-Graduate
University of Delaware
150 Academy Street
Department of Chemical Engineering
Newark, Delaware 19716
Email
Website
General Area(s) of Research or Interest: protein engineering

Sai Patkar
Student-Graduate
University of Delaware
590 Avenue 1743
Room 242
Newark, Delaware 19713
Email
General Area(s) of Research or Interest: Bio-manufacturing, biofabrication, tissue engineering

Alexandra Patterson
Graduate Student
921 Myrtle St NE
Atlanta, GA 30309
Email
(770) 313-3778
General Area(s) of Research or Interest: Biosensors and cell-free expression systems

Bob Rose
Associate Professor
Faculty/Lab Director
North Carolina State University
Department of Biochemistry, NCSU
128 Polk Hall
Raleigh, NC 27695-7622
Email 
(919) 513-4191
Website
General Area(s) of Research or Interest: optimizing a synthetic carbon fixation cycle for application in plants, applications of thermophilic enzymes
Resources/Services Available: protein crystallography, Golden Gate mutagenesis, protein purification

Sebsatian Rudden
Student-Graduate
Georgia Tech
313 Ferst Dr NW
Atlanta, GA 30332
Email
(470) 830-8939
General Area(s) of Research or Interest: drug delivery with nanoparticles

Michelle Sabaoun
Faculty/Lab Director
Alamance Community College
1247 Jimmie Kerr Road
PO box 8000
Graham, NC 27253
Email
Website
General Area(s) of Research or Interest: Biomanufacturing
Resources/Services: Available 32000 sq ft Biitech Center of Excellence with extensive bench scale equipment, new equipment to be purchased in 2024 includes pilot scale biomanufacturing line. 50 acre farm and greenhouses also on/near campus.

Margaret Saha
Professor
Faculty/Lab Director
William and Mary
540 Landrum Dr.
Integrated Science Center
Williamsburg, VA 23185
Email
(757) 221-2407
Website
General Area(s) of Research or Interest: Bio-sensors, sustainability; Phage biology; Developmental Biology

Gavin Sandall
Student-Undergraduate
College of William & Mary
200 Stadium Dr
CSU 2993
Williamsburg, VA 23187
Email
Phone Number (571) 352-4532
General Area(s) of Research or Interest: Bioengineering, biomedical engineering, immunology, epidemiology

Caden Sanko
Position Student-Undergraduate
The College of William and Mary
1338 S Mt Vernon Ave
Williamsburg, VA 23185
Email
(305) 926-7672
General Area(s) of Research or Interest: Phage Biology, RNA, Mathematical Modeling

Lisa Scheifele
Associate Professor and Executive Director
Executive/Administrator
Faculty/Lab Director
Loyola University Maryland and Baltimore Underground Science Space (BUGSS)
4501 N Charles St
Baltimore, MD 21210
Email
Website
General Area(s) of Research or Interest: synthetic biology education, genome engineering

Raja Selvakumar
Student-Graduate
Georgia Tech
950 Atlantic Drive
Atlanta,GA 30332
Email Email
General Area(s) of Research or Interest: genetic circuits, microbiome

Sara Siegel
Senior Scientist
Staff Scientist
North Carolina State University Biomanufacturing Training and Education Center
850 Oval Drive
Raleigh, NC 27606
Email
Website
General Area(s) of Research or Interest: Biomanufacturing

Fnu Sivachandiran
Post-Doctoral Associate
University of Delaware
AP building, 590 Avenue 1743
Newark, DE 19713
Email
(864) 986-5865
General Area(s) of Research or Interest: Synthetic biology, Non-model host engineering, Oleochemicals, bio-manufacturing, CRISPR

Sarah Smaga
Executive/Administrator
NSF Center for Genetically Encoded Materials
491 Tan Hall
Berkeley, CA 94720
Email
Website
General Area(s) of Research or Interest: genetic code expansion, next-gen therapeutics, bioremediation, workforce development

Kevin Solomon
Assistant Professor
Faculty/Lab Director
University of Delaware
150 Academy St
Newark, DE 19716-3196
Email
(302) 831-8960
Website
General Area(s) of Research or Interest: sustainability, plastic degradation

Leah Spangler
Assistant Professor
Faculty/Lab Director
Virginia Commonwealth University
College of Engineering, Dept. of Chemical and Life Science Engineering
601 W. Main Street
Richmond, VA 23284
Email
(717) 855-7384
Website
General Area(s) of Research or Interest: bio-manufacturing, biomaterials, green chemistry, nano materials, de novo proteins, protein engineering, energy
Resources/Services Available: spectroscopic characterization, absorbance spectroscopy, fluorescence spectroscopy, time resolved spectroscopy, de novo protein synthesis and design

Erin Sparks
Faculty/Lab Director
University of Delaware
590 Avenue 1743
Newark, DE 19713
Email
Website
General Area(s) of Research or Interest: plant synthetic biology

Mary Staehle
Interim Department Head & Associate Professor
Faculty/Lab Director
Rowan University
201 Mullica Hill Road
Glassboro, NJ 08028
Email
General Area(s) of Research or Interest: biological/biomedical control systems

Janet Standeven
Program Director
Staff
Frugal Science Academy ChBE Georgia Institute of Technology
311 Ferst Dr, Ford Environmental Bldg
Ford ES&T 2320
Atlanta, GA 30332
Email
(678) 231-0021
Website
General Area(s) of Research or Interest: Synthetic Biology Education, CRISPRi in Cellfree systems, Frugal Device development
Resources/Services Available: Frugal Lab Devices to enable synbio education in K-12 and low resource labs

Anna Stepanova
Associate Professor
Faculty/Lab Director
North Carolina State University
112 Derieux Place
Campus Box 7614
Raleigh, NC 27695-7614
Email
Phone Number (919) 515-5729
Website
General Area(s) of Research or Interest: Plant molecular genetics and synthetic biology, plant hormones, gene regulation, synthetic promoters, transcriptional biosensors, logic gates
Resources/Services Available: Walk-in growth chambers, greenhouse space, molecular biology expertise

Mark Styczynski
Professor
Faculty/Lab Director
Georgia Institute of Technology
311 Ferst Dr NW
Atlanta, GA 30332-0100
Email
(404) 894-2825
Website
General Area(s) of Research or Interest: Biosensors, cell-free synthetic biology, bioinformatics, computational biology, metabolism, systems biology, metabolomics

Esin Temel
Resident doctor in Infectious Diseases and Clinical Microbiology
Baskent University, Ankara
Baskent University Hospital
Yukarı Bahçelievler, Mareşal Fevzi Çakmak Cd. No:45
Çankaya / Ankara 06490
Email
(543) 594-2863
Website
General Area(s) of Research or Interest: Synthetic Biology, quorum sensing, recombinant DNA technology.

Michael Timko
Lewis and Clark Professor of Biology
Director
University of Virginia
Department of Biology
485 McCormick Road, Gilmer Hall Room 280
Charlottesville, VA 22904
Email
(434) 982-5817
General Area(s) of Research or Interest: plant genetic engineering, metabolic redirection, secondary metabolites, therapeutics
Resources/Services Available: Greenhouse, growth rooms, cell culture rooms, GCMS

Denis Tsygankov
Associate Professor
Faculty/Lab Director
Georgia Tech / Emory BME
313 Ferst Dr, Room 1212
Atlanta, GA 30332
Email
Website
General Area(s) of Research or Interest: modeling, simulations, computer vision, biomechanics, systems biology, GTPases.

Corey Wilson
Professor
Faculty/Lab Director
Georgia Tech
950 Atlantic Drive
EBB 5014
Atlanta, GA 30332
Email
Website
General Area(s) of Research or Interest: synthetic biology and protein engineering

Mekhi Williams
Student-Undergraduate
University of Delaware
37 Karens Way
Bear, DE 19701
Email
(302) 229-7994
General Area(s) of Research or Interest: Metabolic engineering, synthetic biology, protein engineering

Clay Wright
Assistant Professor
Faculty/Lab Director
Virginia Tech
1230 Washington ST SW, Biological Systems Engineering
Blacksburg, Virginia 24061
Email
(540) 231-4546
Website
General Area(s) of Research or Interest: plant synthetic biology, bio-sensors, bio-manufacturing, yeast, fungi, plant-microbe interactions
Resources/Services Available: meeting facilities, directed evolution, deep mutational scanning, high throughput cloning, robotic liquid handling, software development

Tong Yu
Student-Graduate
Georgia Tech
315 Ferst Dr NW
Sulchek Lab
Atlanta, GA 30332
Email
Phone Number (404) 324-7120
Website
General Area(s) of Research or Interest: genetic engineering

Yongjoon Yu
Student-Graduate
Georgia Tech
50 Atlantic Dr. NW, Krone Engineered Biosystems Building
Atlanta, GA 30332
Email
(206) 693-8262
General Area(s) of Research or Interest: Synthetic biology, Developing circuits with transcriptional regulation

Zhenzi Yu
PhD Candidate
Student-Graduate
Georgia Tech
311 Ferst Drive NW
Atlanta, GA 30332
Email
General Area(s) of Research or Interest: Biomolecule, simulation, process