People

Principal Investigator

Prof. Michelle A. O’Malley
Cliff R. Scholle Professor, Department of Chemical Engineering, UCSB
Professor, Department of Bioengineering, UCSB
Director, NSF ExFAB Biofoundry

USDA-NIFA Postdoctoral Fellow, MIT/Broad Institute (2009-2012)
Ph.D. Chemical Engineering, University of Delaware (2009)
B.S. Chemical Engineering; B.S. Biomedical Engineering,
Carnegie Mellon University (2004)
Email
omalley_cv_2024.pdf

Project scientists

Dr. Elaine Kirschke
Project Scientist
Ph.D. Biophysics, University of California San Francisco (2014)
Email
CV

Dr. Oliver Vining
Project Scientist
Ph.D. Pharmaceutical Sciences, Oregon State University (2015)
Secondary metabolism of complex microbial consortia
Email

Dr. Nathalie Elisabeth
Project Scientist
Ph.D. Physiology and Biology of Organisms, Populations, and Interactions, University des Antilles/France (2011)
Email

Lab Manager

Jackie Richardson, MSc
Lab Manager
M.S. Biochemistry, University of Saint Joseph (2023)
B.S. Biochemistry, University of California, Santa Barbara (2004)
Mensa member since 2023
Email

Postdoctoral researchers

Dr. Hugh M. Purdy
Ph.D. Chemical Engineering, University of Wisconsin-Madison (2021)
Characterizing genetic mechanisms of diatom cell-wall silicification
Email
CV

Dr. Bo Zhang
Ph.D. Animal Biology, UC Davis (2022)
Microbial consortia and metabolism of anaerobic microbes
Email
CV

Graduate students

Ramya Ragunathan
B.S. Chemical Engineering,
Institute of Chemical Technology, Mumbai, India (2021)
Understanding the formation of biogenic silica in diatoms and characterizing it
Email
Co-advised by Prof. Brad Chmelka and Prof. Mark Brzezinski

Vikram Mubayi
B.S. Chemical Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (2022)
Microbial Degradation of Plastics
Email

Janelle Arnold
B.S. Chemical and Biological Engineering, Princeton University (2023)
Developing anaerobic cell-free systems to study non-model microbes
Email
Co-advised by Prof. Carolyn Mills

Chaoming Xu
B.S. Biological Science, UC Santa Barbara (2023)
Characterization and Engineering of Fungal Carbohydrate-Binding Module
Email

Colleen Ahern
B.S. Chemical Engineering University of Massachusetts Lowell (2020)
Microbial degradation of plastics
Email

Shiyan (Shirley) Jin
B.S. Chemical Engineering, University of Delaware (2021)
Characterizing lignin-active enzymes in anaerobic fungi
Email

Sarah Seagrave
B.S. Microbiology, UC Santa Barbara.
M.S. Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Georgetown University.
Engineering novel genetic engineering tools for directed evolution in non-model microbes
Email

Vikram Shanbhag
B.S. Chemical Engineering, Institute of Chemical Technology, Mumbai, India (2023)
Engineering self-remodeling protein complexes for synthetic biology
Email
Co-advised by Prof. Scott Shell

Artury Ramirez
B.S. Bioengineering, UC Merced (2023)
Developing Oligonucleotide Uptake Tools for Non-Model Organisms
Email

Current Undergraduate Students

Jessy Gonzalez
UCSB Microbiology, 2024

Wenni Zhang
UCSB Chemical Engineering, 2027

John Sepe
UCSB Microbiology, 2026

Isabella Farrand
UCSB Chemical Engineering, 2026

Hector Cardenas
UCSB Chemistry, 2026

Chandraki Chatterjee
UCSB Chemical Engineering, 2025

Keith Chiu
UCSB Biochemistry, 2025

Lab Alumni

Former International Visitors

Dr. Mike Theodorou, Professor Emeritus of Anaerobic Digestion & Fermentation Technology, Harper Adams University, UK
Dr. Magdalena Calusinska, Senior Researcher, Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology

Former Postdoctoral Scholars

Dr. Tejas Navaratna (2023), currently University of Michigan
Dr. Amy Eisenberg (2023), currently Alga Biosciences
Professor Chris Lawson (2020), currently Assistant Professor, University of Toronto
Professor Xuefeng (Nick) Peng (2015-2020), currently Assistant Professor, University of South Carolina
Dr. Doriv Knop (2016-2018)
Dr. Susanna Seppala (2014-2022)
Dr. Monica Reith (2014-2016), currently Assistant Professor, Southern Illinois University (Edwardsville)
Dr. Jessica Sexton (2014-2016), currently Apeel Sciences
Dr. Charles Haitjema (2012-2016), currently ProteinSimple
Professor Kevin Solomon (2012-2015), currently Associate Professor, University of Delaware

Former PhD Students

Dr. Lazarina Butkovich
Dr. Elaina Blair
Dr. Kellie Heom, currently Amgen
Dr. Katharine Dickson, currently postdoctoral scholar, UC-Davis (Hess Lab)
Dr. Patrick Leggieri, currently BP
Dr. Stephen Lillington, currently Genentech
Dr. Tom Lankiewicz, currently Allonnia
Dr. Jennifer Brown, currently the DOE Joint Genome Institute (JGI)
Kerri Luttrell, former post-baccalaureate researcher, currently at University of Hawaii
Dr. Michael Vigers, currently postdoctoral scholar, Northwestern University
Dr. Kendrick D. Nguyen, currently Quantum-Si
Emily Sun, MS, currently 10x Genomics
Dr. Candice Swift, currently USPTO
Dr. St. Elmo Wilken, currently postdoctoral scholar, Heinrich-Heine University, Germany (Ebenhöh lab)
Dr. Justin Yoo, currently Notch Therapeutics
Dr. Sean Gilmore, currently Native Microbials
Dr. John Henske, currently Inscripta
Dr. Nicole Schonenbach, currently Pfizer
Dr. Jennifer Guerrero, currently Amgen

Former Undergraduates

Noa Margolith (2023-2024), currently University of California, Berkeley
Johanna Blackmore (2022-2023)
Nabil Alansari (2022-2023), Meissner
Thea Zalunardo (2021-2023)
Taylor Gierke (2020-2023), PhD Student Biological and Biomedical Sciences, Yale University
Michael Dong (2021-2022), Sutro Biopharma
Natasha Aji (2022-2023)
Scott Tam (2021-2022), ACCO Engineered Systems
Miguel Castaneda-Renteria (2020-2021), Cargill
Nikola Malinov (2019-2021), currently PhD Student Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, Univ. of Delaware
Corey Kerdman-Andrade (2019-2020), currently FM Global
Derek Tang (2019-2020), Currently Sana Biotechnology
Freda Lababidi (2019), Quality Assurance Engineering, Ridgeline
Jenna Hoover (2018-2019), Amgen
Mason Gatz (2019), undergraduate UCSD Chemical Engineering
Alex Smith (2018-2019), undergraduate UCSB Microbiology
Patrick Kolence (2017-2019)
Mohan Saxena (2017-2019), Clorox
Teagan Pado (2018-2019)
Samantha Lee (2015-2018)
Julia Bryne (2016-2018)
Zach Cogan (2015-2017), UCSF
Winston Hsu (2016-2017), OSIsoft
Randall DeGroot (2015-2017), Zymergen
Jessica Hauk (2015-2017), Chemetry
Francis Cunningham (2016-2017), PhD Student Chemical & Bimolecular Engineering, UC-Berkeley
R. Andres Parra Sperberg (2014-2016), PhD Student Bioengineering, Stanford University
Herman Ching (2015-2016), PhD Student Chemical Engineering, UC-Irvine
Daniel Yur (2014-2016), PhD Student Chemical & Biomolecular Eng, University of Delaware
Wen-Kang Chou, ICB URAP (2014-2015), PhD student ChE, Princeton
Sarah Maxel (2013-2015), PhD Student Chemical Engineering, UC-Irvine
Natalie Banakis (2012-2015), Patagonia
Charlotte Abrahamson (2013-2015), PhD Student Chemical & Biomolecular Eng, Northwestern
Erich Brodbeck, Amgen Fellow, ICB URAP (2013-2014), Amryis
Chris Euchus (UC-Irvine), INSET (2014)
Marla Nyamdori (2013-2014)
David Chau (2013-2014), Eurofins Advantar Labs
Kane Nania (UCLA) (2013), PhD student UCLA
Jiehao (CJ) Chen (UC-Berkeley), INSET (2013), Genentech
Jessica O'Day (2012-2013), Kite Pharma
Brian Owens (2012-2013), Energy Transfer
Briane Kiliman, McNair Scholar (2012-2013), Intel
Meredith Green (2012-2013), Merck
Elisa Ovadia (2012-2013), PhD Student Chemical & Biomolecular Eng, University of Delaware
Josie Tressl (2012-2013), Boehrigner Ingelheim