(2fb) Harnessing Membrane Engineering for the Robust Bio-Production of Chemicals and Efficacious Therapeutics

I have expertise in the realm of membrane engineering and characterization of responsive structures such as the membrane lipids. I applied these strategies in the field of metabolic engineering for building robust cell factories. I am currently expanding my experience in the field of gene therapy by designing approaches for making efficacious and targeted gene therapies in-vivo.

Teaching interests

I have developed my mentoring skills by training several undergraduate students during graduate school, and I have participated as mentor of REU summer programs in the last three years. Additionally I have served as reviewer of research projects from high-school students, TA of chemical engineering courses such as transport phenomena and biomedical engineering. My participation in outreach activities have strengthen my passion for teaching science.

Abstract

The development of efficient genetic tools has exploded the capabilities of living organisms as cell factories for chemicals and therapeutics. Once the desired molecule has been produced in the cell factory, intrinsic limitations of living cells impact clinically and economically relevant aspects towards commercialization such as the production scale and batch-to-batch consistency. A holistic vision of the biological systems and their dynamic behavior is essential to address the limitations of engineered cell factories and improve their performance. High quality data collection is then necessary to capture processes contributing positively or negatively the desired outcome for bio-production. The cell membrane constantly re-arranges its components to maintain homeostasis. Engineering and characterization of this cell structure in living cell factories will provide required high-quality data for improving systems biology strategies and strain performance.