Mid-Atlantic SynBio Network Members – Academia

Amirali Aghazadeh
Doctor
Faculty/Lab Director
Georgia Institute of Technology
756 W Peachtree St NW
Atlanta, GA 30308
Email
(713) 257-5758
Website
General Area(s) of Research or Interest: Bioinformatics, machine learning

Bahareh Behkam
Associate Professor
Director
Virginia Tech
325 Stanger St
Blacksburg, VA 24061
Email
Phone Number (540) 231-7491
Website
General Area(s) of Research or Interest: living materials, living systems, biosensors, biofactories

William Bentley
Professor
Faculty/Lab Director
University of Maryland
5102 Clark Hall
Dept Bioengineering
College Park, MD 20742
Email
(410) 405-4321
Website
General Area(s) of Research or Interest: bioelectronics, electrogenetics, biofabrication, biomanufacturing

Bryan Berger
Director
University of Virginia
102 Engineers Way
Chem. Eng. 214
Charlottesville, VA 22904
Email
Website
General Area(s) of Research or Interest: protein engineering, biomanufacturing, biosecurity, biofilm, antimicrobials, biosurfactants

Allison Berke
Executive/Administrator
Staff Scientist
Stanford University
609 Brookview Drive
Chapel Hill, NC 27514
Email
650-276-9287
General Area(s) of Research or Interest: Biosecurity, biosensors, protein engineering, binding and docking studies and automation
Resources/Services: Available I’m working remotely in Chapel Hill and am interested in connecting with other SynBio researchers around the area.

Andre Berry
Student-Graduate
Georgia Tech
North Ave NW
Atlanta, GA 30332
Email
(404) 643-0562
General Area(s) of Research or Interest: Genetic Circuits, T-Cell Engineering, Cell Transport Devices, Microfluidic Reactors, DNA Computing, DNA Data Storage

Joan Bienvenue
Executive Director and Vice Provost
Executive/Administrator
University of Tennessee – Oak Ridge Innovation Institute
1 Bethel Valley Rd
Oak Ridge, TN 37830
Email
(434) 326-2184
General Area(s) of Research or Interest: Biosecurity, decarbonization, medical isotopes

Johnny Blazeck
Assistant Professor
Faculty/Lab Director
Georgia Tech
311 Ferst St. NW
Atlanta, GA 30332
Email
(412) 728-4022
Website
General Area(s) of Research or Interest: Synthetic immunology, protein engineering, synthetic biology, immunoengineering, metabolism
Resources/Services Available Molecular biology laboratory for protein engineering, directed evolution, mammalian cell engineering, microbial engineering

Kindra Bradley
Grants Manager
Executive/Administrator
Alamance Community College
1247 Jimmie Kerr Rd
Graham, NC 27253
Email
(336) 506-4415
General Area(s) of Research or Interest: Biomanufacturing (from a grants, administrative, general interest point of view).
Resources/Services Available: Alamance Community College has small meeting spaces available in our Biotechnology Center of Excellence and plans to have a small-scale test-run size biomanufacturing line in that building within the next year (funds and plans are part of the Build Back Better grant: BioBetter which is entering is second year of the period of performance.

Enrico Calore
Student-Graduate
Duke University
701 W Main St,
Durham, NC 27701
Email
General Area(s) of Research or Interest: therapeutics, immunology, directed evolution

Andrew Cazier
Student-Graduate
Georgia Institute of Technology
311 Ferst Dr.
Atlanta, GA 30318
Email
General Area(s) of Research or Interest: Directed evolution, yeast surface display, CRISPR

Diptee Chaulagain
Post-Doctoral Associate
Clemson University
118 Engineering Service Dr,
Rhodes Rm 520
Clemson, SC 29631
Email
(864) 624-3090
General Area(s) of Research or Interest: bio-manufacturing, bioremediation

John Cheadle
Student-Graduate
North Carolina State University
840 Main Campus Dr
Rm 2109
Raleigh, NC 27606
Email
Website
General Area(s) of Research or Interest: Microbiome, synthetic microbial communities, sustainability

Carolina Colon
Graduate Student
Georgia Institute of Technology
315 Ferst Dr. NW
Atlanta. GA 30332
Email
(407) 460-1019
Website
General Area(s) of Research or Interest: Naive T-cells transduction with microfluidic devices, cell manufacturing

Amy Cooke
Director of Undergraudate Education
Faculty/Lab Director
North Carolina – Chapel Hill
3301 Venable Hall
University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill
Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3275
Email
(919) 962-0622
Website
General Area(s) of Research or Interest: agriculture, textiles, sustainability

Nathan Crook
Assistant Professor
Faculty/Lab Director
North Carolina State University
911 Partners Way
Box 7905
Raleigh, NC 27695
Email
General Area(s) of Research or Interest: Probiotics, microbiome, directed evolution

Carl Creutz
Professor of Pharmacology
Faculty/Lab Director
University of Virginia
300 Jefferson Park Ave
City: Charlottesville, VA 22903
Email
(434) 973-5386
Website
General Area(s) of Research or Interest: Synthetic organisms for biotechnology

Leah Davis
Research Specialist and Graduate Student
4605 Chester Ave
Apt. B104
Philadelphia, PA 19143
Email
(717) 676-1263
General Area(s) of Research or Interest: Immunoengineering, synthetic biology education, mammalian cell-based biosensors
Resources/Services Available University of Pennsylvania contact, Rowan University Contact, Engineering Research Biology Consortium (EBRC) Student & Postdoc Association (SPA) contact, solid cancer adoptive cell therapy

Brian Dobosh
Post-Doctoral Associate
Emory University
2015 Uppergate Dr., Room 360
Atlanta, GA 30322
Email
(516) 382-4000
General Area(s) of Research or Interest: Immune cell engineering

Ana De Pereda
Student-Graduate
Georgia Tech
790 Huff Road NW, Apt 7034
Atlanta, GA 30318
Email
(951) 514-7009
General Area(s) of Research or Interest: Bioengineering, genetic engineering, systems biology, living therapeutics, gut microbiome, genetic circuits

Corinne Drabenstott
Undergraduate Researcher
Student-Undergraduate
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
206 Painted Fall Way
Cary, NC 27513
Email
General Area(s) of Research or Interest: biosensors

Katherine Duncker
Student-Graduate
Duke University
101 Science Dr
Durham, NC 27705
Email
Phone Number (224) 659-0631
General Area(s) of Research or Interest: biosensors, machine learning, bioremediation, biomanufacturing

Anna Duraj-Thatte
Assistant Professor
Faculty/Lab Director
Virginia Tech
1230 Washington Street, SW
Blacksburg, VA 24061
Email
(404) 435-1542
Website
General Area(s) of Research or Interest: Engineered Living Materials

Ed Eisenstein
Professor
Faculty/Lab Director
University of Maryland
IBBR-Shady Grove
9600 Gudelsky Drive
Rockville, MD 20850
Email
(240) 314-6244
General Area(s) of Research or Interest: Plant synthetic biology; biofuel and bioproducts; iGEM

Stephen Fong
Professor
Executive/Administrator
Faculty/Lab Director
Virginia Commonwealth University
601 W. Main St
Richmond, VA 23284
Email
(804) 827-7038
Website
General Area(s) of Research or Interest: Bio-manufacturing

Kathryne Ford
Post-Doctoral Associate
North Carolina State University
840 Main Campus Dr, 3309 Partners II
Raleigh, NC  27606-5215
Email
Website
General Area(s) of Research or Interest: thermophile bioengineering, bioproduction, fermentation, lignin degradation, biomass conversion

Kierra Franklin
Student-Graduate
Emory University
1760 Haygood Dr NE
HSRB E-154
Atlanta, GA 30322
Email 
General Area(s) of Research or Interest: Biomolecular engineering, DNA editing, gene therapy

Rana Ganguly
Executive/Administrator
University of Virginia, College of Arts & Sciences
PO Box 400772
1605 Jefferson Park Avenue, University of Virginia, College of Arts & Sciences
Charlottesville, VA 22904-4772
Email
(434) 284-0251
General Area(s) of Research or Interest: Entire field of Synthetic Biology; As an administrator, I act as a facilitator and catalyst of research collaboration and sponsored development of research projects

Linna Han
Research Scholar
Staff Scientist
NCSU
840 Main Campus Dr.
Partners II, Room 3700
Raleigh, NC 27519
Email
Phone Number (919) 337-2204
General Area(s) of Research or Interest: Synthetic biology, molecular biology and biochemistry, protein engineering, enzyme replacement therapy

Alex Harris
Graduate Research Assistant
Student-Graduate
Virginia Tech School of Plant and Environmental Sciences
220 Ag Quad Lane, 513 Latham Hall
Blacksburg, VA 24061
Email
Website
General Area(s) of Research or Interest: Plant Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, Synthetic Biology, & Biotechnology.

Jennifer Hennigan
Post-Doctoral Associate
Duke University
701 W Main St
Suite 410
Durham, NC 27701
Email
General Area(s) of Research or Interest: Bio-manufacturing

Zachary Herde
Student-Graduate
Georgia Institute of Technology
950 Atlantic Avenue NW
Atlanta, GA 30332
Email
General Area(s) of Research or Interest: Synthetic Biology, Protein Engineering, Energy and Environment, Agriculture

Kendreze Holland
Student-Graduate
Georgia Tech
242 Cityline Avenue
Atlanta, GA 30308
Email
(770) 895-6458
General Area(s) of Research or Interest: cellular engineering, yeast engineering, recombinant DNA, CRISPR-(d)cas9, transcriptional regulation

Brian Huang
Student-Graduate
Georgia Tech
950 Atlantic Drive
Atlanta, GA 30332
Email
(850) 766-2812
General Area(s) of Research or Interest: Microbiome, Protein engineering, Genetic circuits, Biosecurity

Irene Ikiriko
Student-Graduate
University of Delaware
Delaware Biotechnology Institute, 590 Avenue 1743
City: Newark, DE 19713
Email
General Area(s) of Research or Interest: Biomechanics

Samyukta Iyer
Student-Undergraduate
Georgia Institute of Technology
1107 Promontory Drive
Marietta, GA 30062
Email
(678) 650-0311
General Area(s) of Research or Interest: Bioremediation, biomanufacturing, bioinformatics, drug delivery, systems modeling

Maria Jennings
PhD Student
Student-Graduate
Georgia Institute of Technology
311 Ferst Drive
Atlanta, GA 30318
Email
(862) 324-6142
General Area(s) of Research or Interest: protein engineering, immunotherapeutics

Eric Josephs
Assistant Professor
Faculty/Lab Director
University of North Carolina at Greensboro
2907 E. Gate City Blvd
Greensboro, NC 27401
Email
(336) 285-2890
Website
General Area(s) of Research or Interest: Personal medicine, molecular biotechnologies, plant synthetic biology

David Karig
Faculty/Lab Director
Clemson University
301 Rhodes Hall
Department of Bioengineering
Clemson, SC 29634-0905
Email
Website
General Area(s) of Research or Interest: microbiome engineering, cell-free protein expression, cell-cell communication, pattern formation

Jessica Keffer
Associate scientist
Staff Scientist
University of Delaware
590 Avenue 1743
Newark, DE 19713
Email
General Area(s) of Research or Interest: Microbiology

Melissa Kemp
Professor
Faculty/Lab Director
Georgia Tech & Emory University
950 Atlantic Ave NW
Atlanta, GA 30332-0001
Email
(404) 385-6341
Website
General Area(s) of Research or Interest: computational modeling

Dowan Kim
Student-Graduate
Georgia Institute of Technology
3212 Lakeshore Xing NE
Atlanta, GA 30324
Email
Website
General Area(s) of Research or Interest: Biosecurity, Genetic Circuit, Cellular Memory

Seong Hu Kim
Student-Graduate
Emory University
1760 Haygood Dr NE
Atlanta, GA 30322
Email
General Area(s) of Research or Interest: Reprogramming

Keith Kozminski
Associate Professor
Faculty/Lab Director
University of Virginia
PO Box 400328
Department of Biology
Charlottesville, VA 22904
Email
(434) 243-5336
Website
General Area(s) of Research or Interest: Metabolic engineering, bioremediation, bio-assays, polarized cell growth, secretion, lipid transfer proteins, iGEM

Aditya Kunjapur
Assistant Professor
Faculty/Lab Director
University of Delaware
150 Academy Street
CLB215
Newark, DE 19716
Email
Website
General Area(s) of Research or Interest: non-standard chemistry, intrinsic biological containment, biomanufacturing, biosecurity

Nathalie Lavoine
Faculty/Lab Director
North Carolina State University
2820 Faucette Drive, CB 8005
Raleigh, NC 27695
Email
Website
General Area(s) of Research or Interest: biomimicry, renewable materials, biodegradability, packaging, structural colors, colloidal systems, nanoparticles

Zidan Li
Student-Graduate
North Carolina State University
840 Main Campus Drive
Partners II, Rm 2109
Raleigh, NC  27606
Email
Website
General Area(s) of Research or Interest: Biotechnology
Resources/Services Available directed evolution

Arren Liu
Post-Doctoral Associate
Johns Hopkins University
725 N Wolfe St
Baltimore, MD 21205
Email
(805) 304-0644
General Area(s) of Research or Interest: Microbiome, bio-manufacturing, genome engineering

Jia Lu
Student-Graduate
Synthetic biology
101 Science drive
Durham, NC 27708
Email
General Area(s) of Research or Interest: Bio-sensors, bio-security, synthetic biology for therapeutics, computational biology

Collin Marino
Student-Undergraduate
Community Member
iGEM Alumnus
UVA
409 McCormick Rd
Charlottesville. Virginia 22903
Email
General Area(s) of Research or Interest: Molecular Logic, Genetic Circuits, Deoxyribozymes, Bio-Manufacturing.

Mariam Misabishvili
Student-Undergraduate
Georgia institute of Technology
930 Spring St. NW
Apt 1810B
Atlanta, GA 30309
Email
Phone Number (470) 920-3829
General Area(s) of Research or Interest bio-sensors