Research Interest
Life as we know it, along with its extensive capabilities, is templated by a genomic blueprint and assembled through a network of chemical reactions. By attaining the ability to compose the genome blueprint and recreating the chemical reaction environment, we can develop synthetic biosystems from scratch with pre-defined purposes dictating their dynamic interactions with their environment. These synthetic biosystems have the potential to transcend the biochemical limitations set by living cells, opening the door for breakthrough advancements in human health and planet health that may be difficult to achieve with conventional cell-based methods.
This vision is the foundation of my research program. My lab will establish an integrated framework focused on:
- Assembling synthetic biosystems from the ground up using genome templates.
- Composing adaptive genomes to enable plug-and-play engineering.
- Implementing proteome and structure-guided characterization pipelines to assess these systems.
This integrative approach will allow us to rapidly design and deploy synthetic biosystems to tackle pressing grand challenges, starting with antibiotic resistance.
