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

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Dr. Susanna Seppala
Project Scientist
Ph.D. Biochemistry, Stockholm University, Sweden (2012)
M.Sc. Molecular Biology, Stockholm University, Sweden (2005)
Membrane Protein Biogenesis
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CV
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Dr. Chris Lawson
Ph.D. Environmental Engineering (Minor: Microbiology), University of Wisconsin-Madison (2019)
Engineering anaerobic microbiomes for biofuels and bioproducts
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CV

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Dr. Tejas Navaratna
Ph.D. Chemical Engineering , University of Michigan (2020) 
Directed evolution and development of genetic tools for anaerobic gut microbes 
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CV
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Dr. Amy R. Eisenberg
Ph.D. Molecular and Cell Biology, UC Berkeley (2020) 
Engineering rapid evolution in non-model microbes
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CV
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Graduate Students

Jennifer Brown
B.S. Chemical Engineering, University of Toledo (2015) 
Engineering stable anaerobic consortia
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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
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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
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Lazarina Butkovich
B.S. Chemical Engineering, California Institute of Technology (2019)
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Igor Podolsky
B.S. Chemical Engineering, North Carolina State University (2015)
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Michael Vigers
B.S. Chemical and Biological Engineering, Montana State University - Bozeman (2016)
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​Co-advised by Songi Han
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Tom Lankiewicz
B.A. Biology, Grinnell College (2012)
M.S. Marine Studies, University of Delaware (2014)
Characterizing lignin-active enzymes in anaerobic fungi​
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Kellie Heom
B. S. Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology (2018)
​Developing single-cell RNA sequencing techniques for
​bacteria  
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​​Co-advised by Siddarth Dey
Emily Sun
B. S. Chemical Engineering, UC Berkeley (2017)
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Co-advised by Arnab Mukherjee
Katharine Dickson
B.S. Biology, George Mason University (2014)
Anaerobic fungi and native consortia in nonhuman primate digestive systems
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International Visitor



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

Ph.D. Biochemical Plant Pathology, Imperial College London
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Current Undergraduate Students

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Nikola Malinov 
UCSB Chemical Engineering, 2021
​Taylor Gierke
​UCSB Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, 2023
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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
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