People

Principal Investigator

Prof. Michelle A. O’Malley
Professor, Department of Chemical Engineering, UCSB

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)
[CV]
Email

Postdoctoral researchers and project scientists

Dr. Susanna Seppala
Project Scientist
Ph.D. Biochemistry, Stockholm University, Sweden (2012)
M.Sc. Molecular Biology, Stockholm University, Sweden (2005)
Membrane Protein Biogenesis
Email
CV

Dr. Chris Lawson
Ph.D. Environmental Engineering (Minor: Microbiology), University of Wisconsin-Madison (2019)
Engineering anaerobic microbiomes for biofuels and bioproducts
Email
CV

Dr. Tejas Navaratna
Ph.D. Chemical Engineering , University of Michigan (2020)
Directed evolution and development of genetic tools for anaerobic gut microbes
Email
CV

Dr. Amy R. Eisenberg
Ph.D. Molecular and Cell Biology, UC Berkeley (2020)
Engineering rapid evolution in non-model microbes
Email
CV

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

Graduate students

Jennifer Brown
B.S. Chemical Engineering, University of Toledo (2015)
Engineering stable anaerobic consortia
Email

Khanh (Kendrick) D. Nguyen
B. S. Chemistry, University of New Orleans (2016)
Biophysical study of G protein-coupled receptor
Email
CV
Co-advised by Songi Han

Patrick Leggieri
B. S. Chemical Engineering, Lafayette College (2018)
Metabolic and systems modeling of anaerobic consortia
Email

Stephen Lillington
B. S. Chemical Engineering, Northwestern University (2018)
Characterization and engineering of cellulosomes from anaerobic fungi
Email
Co-advised by Scott Shell

Elaina Blair
B.S. Chemical Engineering, Brigham Young University (2019)
Email

Lazarina Butkovich
B.S. Chemical Engineering, California Institute of Technology (2019)
Email

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

Ramya Ragunathan
B.S. in Chemical Engineering,
Institute of chemical technology, Mumbai, India (2021)
Understanding the formation of biogenic silica in diatoms and characterizing it
Email

Igor Podolsky
B.S. Chemical Engineering, North Carolina State University (2015)
Email

Michael Vigers
B.S. Chemical and Biological Engineering, Montana State University - Bozeman (2016)
Email
Co-advised by Songi Han

Tom Lankiewicz
B.A. Biology, Grinnell College (2012)
M.S. Marine Studies, University of Delaware (2014)
Characterizing lignin-active enzymes in anaerobic fungi
Email
CV

Kellie Heom
B. S. Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology (2018)
Developing single-cell RNA sequencing techniques for
bacteria
Email
Co-advised by Siddarth Dey

Emily Sun
B. S. Chemical Engineering, UC Berkeley (2017)
Email
Co-advised by Arnab Mukherjee

Katharine Dickson
B.S. Biology, George Mason University (2014)
Anaerobic fungi and native consortia in nonhuman primate digestive systems
Email

Elizabeth Schauer
B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Northwestern University (2020)
Identify and engineer anaerobic fungi membrane sugar transporters 
Email

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

Post baccalaureate reseachers

Kerri Luttrell
B.S. Aquatic Biology, Minor: Professional Writing focused on Science Communication
University of California Santa Barbara (2021)
Investigating the bioengineering potential of diversity generating retroelements
Email

International Visitor

Dr. Mike Theodorou
Professor of Anaerobic Digestion & Fermentation Technology
Harper Adams University, UK

Ph.D. Biochemical Plant Pathology, Imperial College London
Email

Current Undergraduate Students

Nikola Malinov
UCSB Chemical Engineering, 2021

Taylor Gierke
UCSB Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, 2023

Miguel Castaneda-Renteria
UCSB Chemical Engineering, 2023

Lab Alumni

Former Postdoctoral Scholars

Dr. Xuefeng (Nick) Peng (2015-2020), currently Assistant Professor, University of South Carolina
Dr. Doriv Knop (2016-2018)
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
Dr. Kevin Solomon (2012-2015), currently Assistant Professor, University of Delaware

Former PhD Students

Dr. Candice Swift, currently Nephron Pharmaceuticals
Dr. St. Elmo Wilken, currently TBD
Dr. Justin Yoo, currently Bluebird Bio
Dr. Sean Gimore, currently Ascus Biosciences
Dr. John Henske, currently Finch Therapeutics
Dr. Nicole Schonenbach, currently Pfizer
Dr. Jennifer Guerrero, currently Amgen

Former Undergraduates

Corey Kerdman-Andrade (2019-2020), currently UCSB Chemical Engineering
Derek Tang (2019-2020)
Freda Lababidi (2019), currently UCSB Chemical Engineering
Jenna Hoover (2018-2019), currently Amgen
Mason Gatz (2019), undergraduate UCSD Chemical Engineering
Alex Smith (2018-2019), undergraduate UCSB Microbiology
Patrick Kolence (2017-2019)
Mohan Saxena (2017-2019), currently Clorox
Teagan Pado (2018-2019)
Samantha Lee (2015-2018)
Julia Bryne (2016-2018)
Zach Cogan (2015-2017), currently UCSF
Winston Hsu (2016-2017), currently OSIsoft
Randall DeGroot (2015-2017), currently Zymergen
Jessica Hauk (2015-2017), currently Chemetry
Francis Cunningham (2016-2017), currently PhD Student Chemical & Bimolecular Engineering, UC-Berkeley
R. Andres Parra Sperberg (2014-2016), currently PhD Student Bioengineering, Stanford University
Herman Ching (2015-2016), currently PhD Student Chemical Engineering, UC-Irvine
Daniel Yur (2014-2016), currently PhD Student Chemical & Biomolecular Eng, University of Delaware
Wen-Kang Chou, ICB URAP (2014-2015), currently PhD student ChE, Princeton
Sarah Maxel (2013-2015), currently PhD Student Chemical Engineering, UC-Irvine
Natalie Banakis (2012-2015), currently Patagonia
Charlotte Abrahamson (2013-2015), currently PhD Student Chemical & Biomolecular Eng, Northwestern
Erich Brodbeck, Amgen Fellow, ICB URAP (2013-2014), currently Amryis
Chris Euchus (UC-Irvine), INSET (2014)
Marla Nyamdori (2013-2014)
David Chau (2013-2014), currently Eurofins Advantar Labs
Kane Nania (UCLA) (2013), currently PhD student UCLA
Jiehao (CJ) Chen (UC-Berkeley), INSET (2013), currently Genentech
Jessica O'Day (2012-2013), currently Kite Pharma
Brian Owens (2012-2013), currently Energy Transfer
Briane Kiliman, McNair Scholar (2012-2013), currently Intel
Meredith Green (2012-2013), currently Merck
Elisa Ovadia (2012-2013), currently PhD Student Chemical & Biomolecular Eng, University of Delaware
Josie Tressl (2012-2013), currently Boehrigner Ingelheim